Kentucky Basketball: John Calipari talks about the hard SEC schedule

When the conference schedule was released, Kentucky wasn’t given an easy path. Once again, the Wildcats will have to play the toughest teams in the conference twice and everyone else just once.

Not only is the conference schedule a very tough one, the non-conference schedule is also a brutal road.

In the non-conference (which is always one of the toughest in the country) Kentucky will face Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Louisville, Seaton Hall, and Utah. All of those games have a chance to be a battle.

Then when conference play rolls around the Cats will have to face Auburn, Mississippi State, Florida, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt twice, all the top teams in the conference and for sure the hardest road for Kentucky.

Out of the teams we play twice, Tennessee will more than likely be the toughest as they will have a top 10 team when the season starts. They also returned Admiral Schofield who always gives us a hard time.

Vanderbilt took a page from what Cal does and was able to bring in McDonalds All-Americans Darius Garland and Simisola Shittu. Vanderbilt is on the rise in the SEC and a year when they will be very good we get them twice.

Florida as usual will have a good team and brought in some good recruits. Kentucky always has a hard time winning on the road at Florida and the Gators have also pulled off wins in Rupp. So, as expected the Cats will get to see the newest Gator squad twice this season.

Auburn who won the SEC regular season title last year will no doubt have a lot of momentum when the season rolls around, but they have lost some talent to transfers making then a question mark going into the year. However, they have the potential to be a solid group.

Luckily, the Cats returned PJ Washington and other key players and brought in a very good recruiting class. In my opinion, Cal will have this team ready for the tough schedule and for me I wouldn’t want anyone else to coach these kids and get them prepared.

In a video on twitter posted by KSTV, Coach Cal talked about tough the schedule is.

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