OT- Kentucky bball recruiting class
Rivals reported that John Wall, their #1 recruit, decided on Kentucky. That makes 4 five stars and 2 four stars in this class with the 1st, 2nd, 22nd, and 23rd ranked players as well as two four stars. How in the hell does Calipari do it? This class might be better than the fab five (1st, 4th, 12th, 23rd and 60th ranked players or something close to that)
I just saw on the ESPN bottom line that they now have 16 scholarship players next year not including Jodie Meeks who could pull himself out of the draft. So Calipari is going to have to "ask" at least 3 and maybe 4 players to give up their scholarships because NCAA only allows 13 scholarshiped players.
That really is not good enough. Perhaps Coach Calipari needs to re-think his recruiting philosophy. What he may think he could do in the past at Memphis and be successful surely cannot work at Kentucky. He's obviously just depending upon his "system" in order to coach these guys up.
I'm concerned he doesn't understand that being at Kentucky means he can recruit a wholly different kind of athlete than if he were still at that backwater basketball school Memphis. He needs to stop handing out so many scholarships to middling four-star recruits and only go after the best players.
He obviously doesn't know what conference he's in.
(and RR), although to be fair to those I disagree with, it's really apples and oranges when you talk about the ratings of our players. Good message but not the best example
and is losing all of the good in-state players to Louisville. He also doen't recruit Western Kentucky hard enough. There is a lot of talent there.
Why are you attempting to make this comparison? The Rodriguez / Calipari situations aren't even remotely similar, and they aren't even in the same sport.
...there is something wrong with your sarcasm radar.
Three of them haven't qualified yet. I believe it is all five-stars who haven't qualified yet, but I don't remember.
If they all qualify, this could be a class of (Gasp) Fab Five proportions.
Calipari has the perfect style for the contemporary recruit. His system allows players to freelance a lot more than most do. His critics say that his system causes him to fall short of championships, but I have a feeling he will do fine at Kentucky.
...wake me up for basketball season on April 5th, 2010, at about 10pm EST. Kentucky will win the national title.
I would be shocked if Kentucky lost more than one game this season, including the tournament.
Wow, that's a stretch. They missed the tourney this year, and almost all of their talent will be true frosh. Really good freshman, but still freshman, and guys who've never played with each other before. Playing in the SEC will help, but only 1 loss is pretty bold.
Let's wait and see how these kids mesh as a team. Maurice Taylor talked of National Titles before he ever reached campus, based on a 2nd Fab Five class, he never came close.
The original Fav Five was in a reality a Fab Three, which helped the team play as a team. Juwan Howard deferred to Chris Weber while Weber was on the team,(rightfully so), and everybody seemed to know their role.
Recall LSU with Chris Jackson, Shaq, and Stanley Roberts were not very successful in college. In a one and done format I will take the field everytime in today's NCAA Tournament.
for the scrutiny to their recruiting practices that a class like this and the name Calipari should eventually bring. I remember the last 10 years of Michigan basketball, and I don't think that Lexington could take that.
It seems pretty clear that WWW is a huge factor behind Calipari's pull with top recruits. (http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-29-100/William-Wesley--John-Calip…)
The open question for me is: to what extent is this dirty? Where do nebulous relationships between mystical basketball royalty and top high school talent fit into NCAA rules?
I don't think it's an open question. The AAU process and proliferation of "advisors" is disgusting. Unfortunately the advisor thing is starting to move into football as well.
Agree about the "advisor" process in general, but William Wesley is not some slimy guy in an Adidas track suit trying to squeeze a few G out of a blue chipper who happened to fall in his lap. There are people who say with a straight face that the guy has more pull in the basketball world than David Stern. This is probably a bit hyperbolic, but still.
The thing with Wesley is that he apparently has an incredibly vast network of influence, and it appears really unlikely that he would have any direct monetary relationship with high school kids. I don't think there would even be any sort of quid pro quo involved except for something along the lines of "play under John Calipari --> get to hang out with Jay-Z more often and be in a better longterm position to reap the rewards of your own awesomeness".
I think the question of where World Wide Wes fits and if anything is happening that is truly against the rules is a great one to ask. He seems to always have the in with many top recruits, and there seems to be no question that he steers them to certain programs/coaches (see: Chris Douglas-Roberts). That being said, those programs/coaches deserve to be monitored closely. Just an opinion from me. I haven't seen any fire, but doesn't the air smell a little smokey? What's in it for Wes and the other advisors?