John Calipari reveals blunt expectation for college players now with NIL: 'You need to perform'

John Calipari has long-since gained the reputation as one of the top recruiters in college basketball. That hasn’t changed in the NIL era, as the Arkansas head coach has dealt with some of the most highly-touted recruits each season.

These big-time names now come with big-time paychecks. In this regard, Calipari and his staff have to tread even more lightly when evaluating talent.

“Did you see the interview with the Kansas State player (Coleman Hawkins) after the season last year, where he cried? Cried. ‘They paid me $2 million and I couldn’t live up to it.’ There’s one thing about being the star on any team,” Calipari said during an appearance on Golic & Golic on FanDuel Sports Network on Wednesday. “You guys did it, that star makes the most and, wow, but the most is expected from them. So, there’s some guys in college basketball this year making between three, four and $5 million dollars. Well, everybody knows now they’re making three, four and five. There’s teams spending 20 million on rosters. You know what? Now there’s an expectation. You better win a national title, or you better be a guy.

“If one of you paid a college player four million, would you expect that $4 million player to drag us to the Final Four? So, what’s happening is I’m dealing with 17- and 18- and 19-year-olds.”

In the instance of Kansas State’s Coleman Hawkins, he signed a highly-publicized $2 million deal to play for the Wildcats. He finished the year averaging 10.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists — and revealed that he believes he hadn’t lived up to his expectations during his season with the program.

Now that millions of dollars are being thrown at highly-touted prospects and transfer portalers, being able to live up to the expectation becomes that much more necessary. The risk may not be greater than the reward and it may cost some programs, literally. In some cases so far, it already has.

“That’s totally different than a seasoned professional dealing with it. So trying to keep that away from what we do, but social media brings it right back,” Calipari said. “This guy’s making $3 million and this is the best he is. So, you know, it’s — I think we gotta really protect our kids, but some of it, you can’t. You want to be paid a lot. You’re now professional. You need to perform.”