John Calipari talks chasing UCLA, Retiring at Kentucky and more in Monday 'Kaboom'

The big Blue Nation had its interest raised quite a bit for what's typically a dreadful Monday as John Calipari hinted at a rather large 'kaboom' coming on the first day of the workweek.

Whatever could it be?

Perhaps something on Karl-Anthony Towns being named NBA Rookie of the Year? Maybe an NBA draft declared Wildcat announcing his return to UK? Cal getting an endorsement deal with Orange Leaf?

As it turned out, Cal talked about a host of topics and his high standards being set for UK, including some of the new renovations going on at Rupp Arena during his latest 'Vision of the Program' series.

Since I’ve gotten here, little has changed in the game-day atmosphere of that historical gym. We have the best fans in the country and they give us an incredible advantage each game, but like anything else, we constantly need to be thinking about what’s next and how can we continue to be the best.

Going forward for next season, we’re going to have a new center-hung video board that will be a great addition, new lighting and an improved sound system, but we need to use it all to its full potential. For example, our intro video for the Florida game just won video of the year, but now we need to take it to yet another level. I want younger and older people to leave our arena feeling great about another victory and the EVENT that they watched.

I want them to not only enjoy the game, but everything around the game. Conversations the next day shouldn’t only be about how we played and how the season is shaping up. I want people lining up to get tickets because of how much fun they had at our arena and the atmosphere.

Another goal of Cal's is to take over the NBA and NBA All-Star Game by continuing to recruit the best players who dominate on and off the court.

I want to one day go to the NBA All-Star game and have half the players in the game be from Kentucky. If we continue on the pace we’re on we can do this. John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis are becoming perennial all-stars. Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight, Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, Willie Cauley-Stein, Trey Lyles, Julius Randle and Enes Kanter are on the cusp. There’s also Nerlens Noel, Terrence Jones, Patrick Patterson and I probably left off one or two. We could have three guys taken in the lottery this year and they’ll each have a shot at the All-Star game down the road.

Cal also talked about he and UK's next challenge being to chase UCLA’s 11 titles., a feat he said he wanted to accomplish when he arrived at UK, but now seems more feasible since Cal plans on coaching at UK for the rest of his career before retiring.

My plan is to coach here for the rest of my career. I want this to be my final coaching position.

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