Q&A: UK's John Calipari at the NBA Draft

It's a big night for Kentucky coach John Calipari with likely the No. 1 pick, possibly four lottery picks and as many as seven total guys going in the NBA Draft. That would be a new record. He also had a big day yesterday, signing five-star Canadian guard Jamal Murray. Calipari talked about both Thursday night here in Brooklyn:

JOHN CALIPARI

On what he makes of another chance for draft history: "Well, I'm really nervous right now. Guys are moving a little bit. It's a little more fluid. We've had this before, and I can tell you I'm excited but I'm nervous. I haven't eaten, so I'm kind of like -- I'm ready for it to be over so I can get in the car and just go."

On Towns likely being his fourth No. 1 pick in eight years: "There's a lot of stuff that I'll struggle now if I try to think of it. Having kids in the lottery, having guys like Willie (Cauley-Stein) who there was no talk of him when he came being a NBA player, or Devin Booker. You see some of the stuff that's going on. I'm anxious to see where Dakari (Johnson) and Andrew and Aaron (Harrison) go just as much as these four. And it is fluid. I'm telling you, there's no -- I don't know. I know Karl. I feel really comfortable about that, but other than that I just don't know."

On his message to the players tonight: "I've been in touch with their agents and talked to the guys: 'Hey, have fun with this. Enjoy, be excited.' You don't want them to be disappointed because, 'I didn't go six, I went 12.' You're good, you're in."

On how anxious he is for Aaron Harrison: "Yeah. He'll be fine. I think he'll have teams busting his door down if he didn't get drafted to get him to camp, but I think at the end of the day he will be drafted. The same with Andrew. They're going to have a chance. Dakari, you'll have you're opportunity. You're going to be drafted. Now you just got to go do your thing."

On how significant adding Jamal Murray was: "I think we're going to have a ball. I think we're going to have fun coaching them. Again, I sad this, 'We'll have five or six guys in the same position these kids are in.' The question is we had the summer to come together last year. How quickly can we come together? Part of it is, how are we going to play? It's going to be a different kind of team. How are we going to defend? What are we going to do? And we don't have that summer trip to figure it out. We're going to have to do it on the fly. But again, I'm really excited because you're talking great kids. All can play. Jamal is the real deal. I mean, he can really play. But you still have Tyler (Ulis). You have Alex (Poythress). Alex has got to get healthy. If he's 100 percent. Marcus Lee."

On if he will play a lot of three-guard lineups: "We could. I don't know. I mean, it could. Yeah, we have three guys who can play point, but we had (Eric) Bledsoe -- I've had this before. So, again, they're all different because of their size: 6-5, 6-2, very physical and then a 5-8 guy. So they're all different."

On how much his "positionless basketball" talk was directed at Murray: "No, it was about this draft. Like, as you look at these players, understand how they've been coached and what they've been trained as. There's not, 'This is who you are; you do these things.' We were teaching them how to play basketball."

On what he likes about Murray: "He's a playmaking guard who can score. He's got great size, he's tough, he's driven, he's wired right. Great teammate. He and Skal play great together; watched them in the summer play. Skal, he's the real deal, too. But again, we've got so much work. The schedule is ridiculous. We're throwing these kids at UCLA. We're throwing them at Kansas. You're playing Duke early in the season. You gotta play, who do we play? Ohio State. So it's going to be a hard deal. None of it is easy."

On Murray, then, gives them some wiggle room depth-wise and talent-wise: "We would've been fine. We would've been fine, but this makes us like, 'OK, it's on again.' That one guy can have that kind of impact on your team, especially if he's as good as Jamal is. Now it doesn't change anything for any of the other players. It just says, 'Wow, OK, now let's throw it up.' "

On if there's anything about the maturation process of a guy who reclassifies, comes to college early: "Um, no. You know, Karl (did). They're the same. They're of age, so it's not like they're ... Dakari was younger. Dakari took a little more time; he was younger."

On Cauley-Stein having to answer if he loves the game in NBA interviews: "I just worry because I wasn't in there listening to the interviews. You don't know how they went, and that's a big part of this. It's a big part of it."

On if WCS can be a franchise player in the NBA: "He's got the ability. He has the hands and feet. He has the size. I think he'll have the skill set. And then that mentality, he's going to have to prove that. He's going to have to prove it to himself, prove it to his teammates. I think he has it. I do."

On if the Cats get seven drafted, this becomes the biggest night in UK history (as he said about 2010 draft night): (Grins) "I would say it changes things again. Now all the sudden it's like, 'Holy cow, just being on the team you can be drafted.' Marcus Lee's in a position. Tyler's in a position. Alex. And then if you're afraid to come, you shouldn't. Then I'll go get players from Canada, New Zealand. We go where we gotta go, but it's interesting and exciting and I'm just happy for these kids and their families."

* For instant updates on the Wildcats, follow me on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ. Email me at ktucker@courier-journal.com.