Perhaps a trip to Drake’s mansion will be what John Calipari and Kentucky basketball need to reverse the program’s recent trajectory.
The Wildcats practiced on the court inside the rapper’s luxurious Toronto home Friday as part of a preseason trip to Canada, and Calipari even posted a video on Twitter that detailed the team relaxing poolside while the 64-year-old coach donned sunglasses — joking that “I ain’t going in.”
“Alright, we’re at Drake’s,” Calipari said in the video. “Relaxing. Really wish you were with us.”
Then, the longtime Kentucky coach — the architect of a program currently in “complete disarray,” according to a Kentucky Sports Radio host last month — panned his camera around the property, saying, “But as I walk around … what is that, is that a hotel?”
It was, instead, Drake’s mansion, where players practiced flips and jumps into the pool before posing for a team photo.
And inside the 50,000-square foot property, which, according to CNN, was designed by Ferris Rafauli, sits a basketball court that mirrors the NBA’s regulation size.
Another video captured the Wildcats bouncing basketballs on the court with the owl logo from Drake’s October’s Very Own brand at the center, even though Drake wasn’t at the mansion and was touring, according to Kentucky Sports Radio.
Kentucky’s trip to Canada centered around the GLOBL Jam tournament, where the Wildcats represented Team USA in the tournament that also included Canada, Germany and Africa.
“This isn’t me taking a team to the Bahamas, putting the other teams together, knowing we’re winning by 30, we’re team building,” Calipari told the university’s website ahead of the event. “These are 23-year-old teams. Which, in Europe, means they are professionals. And they’re teams that have been together. Last year (in this event), Baylor went 1-4.”
But the Wildcats defeated Germany by eight points Wednesday.
The next day, they cruised past Canada with a 24-point victory.
They’ll play their final game before the medal round Saturday, which will be followed by another game — and likely the gold medal game, at this rate — the next day.
