HOOVER, Ala. – For the third consecutive year John Calipari was the main attraction at SEC Basketball Media Day, offering his blunt opinion on a variety of topics around the game.

Calipari talked three-point shooting, side effects of conference expansion and the NBA lockout, amongst other things, during his hour with print media. Here are some of his thoughts:

On how conference expansion affects student-athletes?
“Here is what we’re doing, we’re doing all this academic reform, and we had a 3.14 grade point average last year, our APR was a 974, which is the highest in the SEC. if someone suffers academically in the APR whose picture is in the paper? If they have 893, whose picture is in the paper? My picture is in there. Jim Calhoun’s picture is in there. We’re going to put a league together where you’re going from Boise to South Florida? That’s what we’re doing? Let me ask you, how is your golf team going to get there? They usually van it from Boise? Are they going to take a month off? I just need to know. This is about academics. My point being, let’s not say this and then go and say we’re having a Texas team, a New England team and a Washington team and all be in the conference tournament. What?

“Here’s what I’ve said, if everyone decision we make is based on these young people we’re fine. There won’t be bad decisions, but they don’t make them because of (the kids). Why aren’t they sitting at the table? No disrespect for the Division III school that says, ‘I don’t want to have any texting.’ No one is texting you my man, what are you talking about? I’m talking about the athletes at this level needing a seat at the table. We’re representing these kids.”

On Eloy Vargas
“If he would have made three two-footers (in the Blue-White Game)…and what he does is show the ball to the defender too much. I got a call the other day that said (Vargas) was in the basketball facility working on his game at 10:30 (p.m.). You have to understand, Terrence was the last guy in (to practice) and a step before him was Eloy. If Terrence didn’t finish last in running, it was Eloy. You start changing that part of you and changing that self-esteem. If I have to build that self-esteem the minute I get on them it goes away. If they build their own...Eloy made a play in practice and I blew the whistle and was like, “Who was that?’ Eloy said, ‘That was me.’ Now he’s building his own self-esteem.”

On how he coaches three-point shooting
“You shoot a lot of threes, you space the court. The one advantage I have (previously) being in the NBA, college basketball’s always been about motion, movements, and the NBA is solely about spacing. So you learn that, and now when you watch my teams play, we don’t play on the wings; we play on the deep corners. You want to get to the wing? We’ll get you to the wing, but we’re not starting there, because we want good court spacing. So I think the more spacing you have, the more you try to get penetration or post-ups, the more opportunities you’re going to get for threes.”

On whether the NBA lockout can help gain fans for college basketball
“I don’t (think so) because it’s just different. The true NBA fans barely watch college basketball. And the true college fans barely watch the NBA. The college fans look at it and say, ‘Ah, they don’t play until the fourth quarter!’ And the pro fans would say, ‘They can’t even make lay-ups! Got no skills!’ That’s how it is.”

On whether NBA players actually play four quarters
“They play. And the coaching decisions, sitting there, you have about 35 percent more coaching decisions to make as a pro coach, because there’s more time, 48 minutes. … There’s way more decisions. I’m not saying it’s better or worse. There’s just a lot more decisions you have to make.”