BOZICH | Wisconsin, Kentucky, Pinocchio the talk of Big Ten Media Day – WDRB
CHICAGO (WDRB) — The best and the boldest representatives of Big Ten basketball gathered for the league’s Media Day Thursday at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare — and Kentucky was certainly on their minds.

Most of the love went directly to formidable Wisconsin, the team Kentucky beat (74-73) in the 2014 NCAA Final Four. The Badgers return four starters. That explains why they were the unanimous pick to win the title and why center Frank Kaminsky was a unanimous pick as the Big Ten’s best player.

There were questions for Michigan State coach Tom Izzo and Thad Matta of Ohio State about why the league hasn’t won the NCAA title since 2000. There were questions for Tom Crean of Indiana and Matt Painter of Purdue about whether those two coaches can direct their programs back into the upper half of the demanding league.

And there was talk about one other thing — Kentucky, the team that starts the season ranked Number One in the coaches’ poll as well as the team that celebrated a two-hour nationally televised practice in front of more than 90 NBA scouts last Friday.

I asked several Big Ten coaches if they watched John Calipari’s NBA combine.

“No, I did not see that,” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. “I was trying to get our guys to run a fast break drill while he was working with 10 all-Americans. We were passing and catching.”

These guys are basketball junkies. Surely somebody tuned in. Matta said he missed it, too. I kept searching until I found somebody who tuned in.

“You mean the two-hour Kentucky commercial?” asked Nebraska coach Tim Miles.

Yep, that’s the one. Anybody else?

“It was an infomercial, wasn’t it?” Izzo asked.

Izzo and Calipari are friends. Their programs have renewed their original three-year agreement to stage an annual season-opening event with Duke and Kansas. Izzo said he listened to Calipari say that the NBA practice event was not a recruiting advantage for Kentucky’s program.

“Cal’s a friend of mine,” Izzo said. “But when he says it really has nothing to do with recruiting, you know if he was Pinocchio, we could have hung 10,000 shirts on that schnobber of his … if it didn’t have nothing to do with recruiting.

“I’m sure it helped recruiting. If … he’d like to do it at our place next year, I’d be fine with it.”

Is the Big Ten watching what Calipari is doing at Kentucky? You bet.

Have Big Ten programs been able to do anything to stop Calipari from collecting top recruiting priorities out of the Midwest? Not much.

Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky’s top freshman, grew up in New Jersey about a half-hour from Rutgers, which just joined the league. Trey Lyles is Kentucky’s second best freshman. He grew up in Indianapolis. He committed to Indiana and then de-committed to sign with Calipari.

Izzo and his Michigan State coaching staff were convinced they were the school for Tyler Ulis, the tiny but dynamic point guard from suburban Chicago. Then Calipari decided that he wanted Ulis at Kentucky.

Ball game.

I asked Izzo if there were any teams that could beat Kentucky this season. The Sporting News picked Arizona Number One. Others believe that Wisconsin, Duke and North Carolina are primed for monstrous years.

“There are,” Izzo said. “The Spurs. Cleveland.”

Here are numbers marinating about the gap between Kentucky’s talent and the talent in the entire Big Ten: DraftExpress.com is one of the top websites in the nation for projecting the NBA Draft.

It currently projects that five Kentucky players – Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Dakari Johnson, Andrew Harrison and Aaron Harrison – will be picked in the first round.

The entire Big Ten is projected to have three guys selected in the first 30 picks – Wisconsin forward Sam Dekker, Michigan wing Caris LeVert and Kaminsky.

Kentucky actually has six of the top 33 prospects. The Big Ten has six of the top 43.

“I hope we can play them,” said Kaminsky, who is ranked 23rd. “That’s all I can say about that. I want that rematch from last year. They were the last team to beat us. It’s on such a big stage any competitor would like to play them again.”

I asked Kaminsky if he watched Calipari’s combine.

“Nope,” he said. “I honestly didn’t even know it was on.”

The rest of the basketball world knew that it was on, Frank.

As I said earlier, Izzo and Calipari are friends. Izzo can throw darts at Calipari in ways that other coaches cannot. Izzo understands that having nine McDonald’s all-Americans is a wonderful blessing. He also knows that it does not guarantee a season without turbulence.

Izzo thought he had one of his most talented teams last season. The Spartans beat Kentucky in November. Then they lost nine games, six in the Big Ten.

“It’s going to be interesting to see,” Izzo said. “I’ve got guys that aren’t 5-star players that want to play 38 minutes at Michigan State. How he does (Calipari handle) that?

“Give the guy credit. I think that’s one thing he’s done a masterful job with is coaching egos and coaching situations like that. I think this year it will be challenged to a new level and I’ll be checking it out. It will probably make a difference on whether I take those other nine McDonald’s all-Americans on my recruiting list or not, depending on how it turns out for him.”

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