John Calipari wants to make SEC tournament a preseason event

John Calipari wants to make the SEC tournament a preseason event.

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Kentucky head coach John Calipari wants to make the SEC tournament a preseason event, reports ESPN’s Jeff Goodman.

Ideally for Calipari, the tournament would take place in November and eliminate the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament the winner receives, which would instead be granted to the regular-season champion.

“I’m not a big proponent of the league tournament,” Calipari said at the SEC spring meetings on Wednesday.

“Let’s not have a postseason tournament,” he continued. “Let’s have a preseason tournament where you’re guaranteed three games. We go somewhere and all the fans come in and we celebrate our league. We’ll have great games to start the year, and we’ll do it prior to the year.”

Calipari’s Wildcats have collected four SEC regular-season and tournament titles during his tenure with Kentucky.

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“If you win the conference tournament, it doesn’t mean anything,” Calipari added. “It doesn’t move the needle.”