Kentucky is already hard to beat on the court, and now they’re going to be even tougher to top off of it.
A video was posted to John Calipari’s website last week of the coach giving a tour of the school’s newly constructed athlete-housing dorm. The Wildcat Coal Lodge is housing the basketball team starting this year, and it provides living quarters so plush there’s no way a recruit could take a look at them and turn it down.
As The Dagger pointed out, the dorm has multiple luxurious features.
Let’s take a look at some of them.
Calipari says you won’t find any couches in the dorm. Why is that? The players only use recliners now.
Full view of the lounge, which includes the recliners, and a pool table made of Kentucky blue felt.
That’s a pretty nice looking dorm room, huh? I sure as heck didn’t have a single, much less that kind of space in my triple freshman year.
The bathrooms are specially designed with a 7-footer in mind. The bathroom sink, you may notice, comes up higher than your average sink so that the players don’t have to bend over as far.
With flat screen TVs on every floor displaying the players’ practice/meeting schedule, they’ll have no excuse for missing events.
Yes, those living in the Coal Lodge get a private chef. Grilled cheese? Burger? Cheesesteak? He’s got you covered.
And of course there are plenty of reminders of Kentucky’s winning tradition. All the national championships are displayed on the first floor, and they also have a wall that shows all the players in the NBA to come from the program.
Walk into that building, and you know you’re at a winning program that puts its players into the pros.
The Wildcat Coal Lodge is also located across the street from the basketball team’s practice facility, which makes it extremely convenient. Because, after a full day of running at practice, who really wants to walk a mile or two across campus to get home?
Another feature Calipari mentioned is that there are extra storage areas downstairs, as well as washers and dryers.
You’re probably wondering if this is legal based on the NCAA’s standards, and it is. As The Dagger states, student-athlete living quarters must be populated with at least 50% of non-athletes in order to be permissible. That means there are some extremely lucky students who get to live that privileged baller life.
Also see: Inside Oregon’s nightclub-looking football locker room
Also see: SMU’s strip club-looking locker room
