John Calipari says defense, size will be team’s strengths

While John Calipari may be losing a large number of players to the NBA this year, he is bringing in another class of talented prospects for the 2016-17 season. Because of this, Calipari is setting the bar pretty high for his Kentucky Wildcats.

The Wildcats’ current group of top recruits includes players like Bam Adebayo, De’Aaron Fox, Wenyen Gabriel, and Sacha Killeya-Jones. Calipari talked about his 2016 recruiting class and lauded them by comparing the group to his 2012 national championship team.

I think we’re going to be a pretty good team again,” Calipari said during a news conference Wednesday. “You have a big backcourt, our returning vets have had good experience. You have a beast and we missed a beast for a year, and then you’ve got those long athletes we always have.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re going to be ugly early, we should be great defensively and be a great shot-blocking and rebounding team. We’ll have to figure out how we’ll play.”

The Wildcats return Derek Willis, Dominique Hawkins and Isaac Humphries for the 2016-17 season, so John Calipari could be right in comparing them to the team that last won the NCAA Tournament.

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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports

UNC Asheville transfer PG Dylan Smith commits to Arizona
UNC Asheville transfer PG Dylan Smith commits to Arizona