I realize Calipari is a great recruiter and all.....
- Thread starter Hanmudog
- Start date
and players pick the school for the coach. He leaves. They follow him. They didn't care about playing for Memphis. They're playing for John Calipari.
Because 2 of the recruits came with him from Memphis, and Wall was by his own admission going to go to Memphis due to Cal already recruiting him.
And 2 other elite recruits were already committed to UK and stayed with em.
It was a great job by Calipari, but its not like he started from scratch here.
Just goes to show how friggin dumb LOIs are for the player, as LOIs give the school all the power. Players almost always now commit to the coaching staff, not the school...yet the school gets to hold em hostage if they sign the LOI.
Just another part of the broken system that is College Basketball recruiting.
And 2 other elite recruits were already committed to UK and stayed with em.
It was a great job by Calipari, but its not like he started from scratch here.
Just goes to show how friggin dumb LOIs are for the player, as LOIs give the school all the power. Players almost always now commit to the coaching staff, not the school...yet the school gets to hold em hostage if they sign the LOI.
Just another part of the broken system that is College Basketball recruiting.
He is an excellent recruiter, but I want to see how it all works out for that team. I mean you can easily dominate with all the talent, but I also think you need some gel guys. Players like a Varnado who grow into the system and keep the others in a team-like mentality. Don't get me wrong, I would take Kentucky's recruits in a heartbeat, but I also think there is a place for those lesser talented guys. If nothing else the 3*s could help keep the all-americans focused on a national title rather than always looking for bryan hot dogs.
Bar none. Just ask the folks in the know here in Memphis. And he's done a perfect job of having complete plausible deniability. Masterful.
I think LOI protect players that dont hold offers from half the country. It ensures them a spot if they qualify and allows them to begin to meet and adjust to the returning players.
Did you miss his run to the national championship game a couple of years ago.
I'm sure he will do just fine without the "gel" guys.
I'm sure he will do just fine without the "gel" guys.
MSUCostanza said:
That much is also true. He's got very questionable connections. The problem is, you can't really get him on any of it. He works the system well, and as I said before, he's seen as one of the most NBA friendly coaches in the country. If you're a handler and you want your prospect to spend a year with someone who will then turn around and stump for your player to be a higher draft pick than he deserves, you go to Calipari. He doesn't hold his players back from going pro, and he goes to the draft camps and raves about his players to the NBA scouts. That tends to help you out with recruiting when you've got players and AAU coaches that only care about getting their players to the NBA as a high draft pick.
Wasn't the assistant coach hired at Memphis to try and keep some of the recruits from jumping ship? If so then that was a colossal failure. I know players sometimes form a bond with coaches and all that but dayum. Calipari does not live in a bubble. There are still the Dukes, North Carolinas, and Michigan States to contend with for these guys. The fact that he switched schools and still kept them all is simply amazing.
No, he wasnt. He was hired at Memphis after about a half dozen other coaches said NO. He said early on after being hired that he realized he wouldnt be able to keep the players that Cal had signed. Heck he was the assistant that landed them(along with Xavier Henry) and part of how he got them to sign on was to allow all of em to have a seperate letter allowing them out of the LOI if Cal left.Hanmudog said:
So basically, he gave the players the out they used to not ultimately play for him.