UK Will Have Consensus Top 5 (Maybe #1) Class In 2009

by FortyYearCatFan on May 3, 2009 9:57 AM EDT Comment 6 comments

Cousins, Orton, Hood, Dodson, and Wall or Bledsoe is certainly Top 5 and probably close to the #1 class in 2009 recruiting circles. Calipari will be 1 for 1.

Gillispie never landed a Top 5 class at UK. That's 0 of 2.

Tubby landed Top 5 classes in 1998, 1999, and 2004. That's 3 of 9.

Pitino landed Top 5 classes in 1992, 1994, and 1995. That's 3 of 8.

Sutton landed Top 5 classes in 1987 and 1988. That's 2 of 4.

Hall landed Top 5 classes in 1974, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, and 1984. That's 8 of 14.

Rupp landed Top 5 classes in 1966, 1968, and 1971. That's 3 of 6 (since I first started following UK recruiting in 1966).

UK landed Top 5 classes in 19 of 43 years (1966 thru 2008) before Calipari arrived.

I think we will see Calipari approach or possibly exceed the Hall level of recruiting.

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Interesting tidbits

I didn’t think that they even kept track of recruiting rankings that far back…Also on a Derby note did anyone else notice the freakishly large payout for the superfecta yesterday?…$557K is a large chunk of change.

by Catucky10 on May 3, 2009 10:43 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Street & Smith Magazine, Others

There was no Rivals or Scout back then.

by FortyYearCatFan on May 3, 2009 10:50 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Roanoke Times (Newspaper)

Student Sports magazine, too.

You had to dig back then.

UK had the #1 class in 1971, 1979, 1984, 1988, 1992, and 2004.

by FortyYearCatFan on May 3, 2009 10:52 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Somewhat...

I believe that you are right that he will possibly surpass Hall; however it is a different era. Joe B. did not have to deal with 1 and done’s or 2 and done’s. The only coaches that UK has had during this era were Tubby, Billy and Cal (and it was just starting under Tubby)

Cal will probably predictably be always in the hunt because he’s going to have a lot of these players and that requires a focus on recruit this year for this year. The days of 4-year starters is mostly finished. There will be some late bloomers and players who have to deal with injury concerns.

So as per usual, you can have lies, damn lies and statistics.

by whyareunvs on May 4, 2009 7:45 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs