John Calipari sets up meetings

ByAndy Katz ESPN logo
Monday, April 21, 2014

Kentucky coach John Calipari has meetings lined up this week with each of his remaining possible early entrants before Sunday's deadline to declare for the NBA draft.



Calipari said by phone Monday he will meet with freshman forward Julius Randle. Kentucky put out a news release Monday announcing a 1:30 p.m. ET news conference Tuesday on Randle's decision. Calipari said he didn't know what Randle would do yet.



Calipari said he was surprised when sophomore forward Willie Cauley-Stein announced he was returning to school.



Calipari said he will meet with freshman forward Dakari Johnson and sophomore forward Alex Poythress Monday afternoon and with freshmen guard twins Andrew and Aaron Harrison on Tuesday.



"Dakari and Alex ... don't have to make the decision yet,'' said Calipari.



Freshman guard James Young already announced he would declare for the draft.



Calipari said he wants to work on getting rid of the arbitrary NCAA early-entry deadline of a week after the Final Four since the only real binding deadline is the official NBA deadline at the end of April. Under a recently adopted NCAA rule, players are no longer allowed to return to school if they officially declare and send in their paperwork to the NBA.



Meanwhile, Calipari wouldn't confirm the hiring of Pitt assistant coach Barry Rohrssen to replace Orlando Antigua, who left to be the head coach at South Florida. He said they are going through the process with Rohrssen. A decision could be made later this week.



Kentucky lost in the national title game to UConn on April 7 in Arlington, Texas. Calipari has been to three Final Fours in his five-year tenure at Kentucky, two national title games and won the championship in 2012.



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