FanPost

The Angst

All of us are on the outside of Calipari's mind. For those who seem to have forgotten that, his "farm system" recruiting (so called) has been rich grist.

Wooden and Coack K are both mentioned by Cal's supporters as examples of coaches who put their players first, as all of us agree Calipari does. Fine, I accept that comparison, but only so far. One must remember that Wooden couldn't even put a true freshman on the floor in his day, and that players at Duke tend to stay around for awhile as did players in general in Wooden's day. That made for Wooden, and makes for Duke, a situation in which the coach can develop the talent over at least two years in pursuit of a title. Not so for a model such as the one UK had last season under Cal.

But is that the model that Cal truly has in mind for the future of UK while he is coach? None of us knows. The Angst comes from the perception that freshman talent is to be our fare as UK fans for the long term, and that the chances of hanging banners decrease during any given season because of a lack of seasoning, if you'll pardon the pun.

My view is to wait for a few seasons and see how it all shakes out. Calipari is a magnet for super talent, so let's all just live with the fact that one-and-dones will look to Lexington as their launch pad into the NBA for some time to come. How that situation is to be handled is something that Coach Cal is undoubtedly learning just as we fans are. Memphis and UMass are not Kentucky, so the situation is also new to him. I say calm down Big Blue Nation, and let's see if Cal is the rare Royal Flush we all hope he is, or whether he'll be an ace short of taking the pot.

There are worse things to have happened to us, right? We send them to Texas when we they arise.