John Calipari: Recruiting Without Prejudice

Is priceless. And I also remember Coach Cal sayin when first hired “I recruit the best of the best” UK fans wouldn’t want it any other way…

So, does your crystal ball say when we may win that championship? Just askin’. :-)

but you are a great example of a raving lunatic who needs to go back to school and take reading comprehension. Because if you in any way take away from my piece that we (UK fans) don’t care if our coach cheats … hell, I even wrote the exact opposite in the article.

Good luck with life, you’re gonna need it.

Yada, yada, yada……

… you will stop the baiting. Please read our community guidelines and observe them.

This is your one warning.

There are NO violations at play here. He will either be declared an amatuer and play, or declared a pro and not play. Simple as that. UK is in no danger here. No recruiting violations or payments to worry about.

huskylenz………Man I told you yesterday to “get a life.” You didn’t listen and look where it has led
you. To the brink of insanity.

certainly reasonable people may disagree, but I have to ask you one question regarding one of your sentences: You seem to blame Calipari’s “reckless approach to recruting” for the two vacated FF’s. In what way was Cal’s recruiting to blame?

I don’t doubt that Cal had to work the limits of propriety at UMass and Memphis in order to recruit high-quality talent. There is also no doubt that as a diehard UK fan I am biased, but I really can’t see why Cal would have to cheat at this point. He’s the coach at one of the all-time great programs, virtually every game is on national TV, our style of play is like candy to any top prospect, he’s filing up the NBA with his ex-players and he doesn’t seem to be a jerk like some coaches we may have had recently. That ought to be enough to entice any elite prospect. I suspect that the vast majority of these athletes are willing to play by the rules for a year or two in order to get to the promised land. I just can’t see any incentive for him to break the rules at this point.

recruiting had nothing to do with it. In the Camby case, the NCAA even went so far as to say Cal was a victum of Camby’s rogue behavior!

Was it reckless when Pitino brought in guys like Tony Delk, Ron Mercer, Antoine Walker etc?

You need to do some research about “10 Loss Tubby”, Yes, he does have a National Championship, won with players who were recruited & trained by Rick Pitino. After that season his record was OK but not what was expected of him. Not made public, but when he was asked to make changes in his staff, he also asked for things that could not and would not be given to him. As of that he went looking for another job, in Feb. of the year before he left, he made a deal with UM behind the back of UK and made one last request of UK which they declined and he quit. As of now look at the mess he has gotten into at Mn. Players leaving, gone to court because he lied to a coach and it has cost the school a nice sum of money. I’m just glad he is gone from KY and now the true Smith has come out and it isn’t at UK

Because Al and Adolph had personalities like the two opposite poles of magnets. They repelled each other.

You go to Turkey, play as a 14 yr old, and then come back and talk about what should be and what should not. The NCAA changed the rule, not Kentucky. They realized as most rational individuals do, that the structure of play over there is such that if a young man like enes has a God-given ability and wants to use that ability to further his life, then he has to use their system.

The rules of their system are such that Enes could not be a professional until he turned 18 years of age. He had to be an adult in order to come under contract. Again, their rules, not Kentucky’s. If the young man is ruled ineligible, then fine, no harm no foul, and all of you detractors can sit back on your hoisted petards and claim victory, and pat yourselves on the back for saving the integrity of NCAA basketball. But until the NCAA says, “I am sorry young man, you do not qualify to play” then your sentiments, while possibly being rooted in the sincerest of intentions, serve no purpose other than to enflame the members of this hallowed fraternity.

And by the way, according to the NCAA rule, wrist bands are allowed.

But I never really thought of him as quiet. Thoughtful, yes, but full of enthusiasm for the game and the players.

Hell of a coach, too.

I couldn’t stand Al McGuire until I met him at the Holiday Inn East at the Fairgrounds one Sun.
around 9:30 AM. There was a stamp show there that day. Marquette was playing Louisville later and Al said he had some time to kill and did I know of anything of interest he could do.

I told him about the stamp show, and he became very excited because he was a philatelist too. I walked with him to the showroom and he thanked me and began to browse. After he left,
one of the dealers ask me if I knew who that man was that had bought some of his stamps.
I replyed yes, that was Al McGuire. And the dealer said we were the only two who knew who Al was. Unbelieveable!

As I left the show Al was sitting in a chair by the window reading the Lou. rag. I ask him if he would mind autographing a blank envelope I happened to have. He was more than gracious enough to do so. One of my prized possessions! How things can change when one realizes that the person he scorned is not a monster at all.

was the most hated coach in all of college basketball for decades. Seems as though his peers in the world of coaching thought he was a “cheater”. You see he used players he wasn’t supposed to. He didn’t use players he should. Sound familiar?? His players got paid for playing…..things like that. It was all his fault.

same scenario……different time.

ParisGuy…………Why? Why in the name of heaven do you have to keep bringing that up? The man was not accused of committing a single violation.

Sound anything like Marcus Camby to you?

Difference being in those days they didnt take away champs or final fours……vacating wins is a fairly new concept.

I dont think Cal should hold his breath waiting for apologies to come rolling in

Calipari quote

"We had done everything prior. We put together a group of people to interview the agents before they could talk to our players," he said. "I was stunned. Here was a kid who lived in the dorm the whole time, never had a car, wore sweat suits the whole time and never had clothes that way. His mother lived in the same house in the projects in Hartford that she lived in the entire time he was in school. They never asked for one thing. He knew he made a mistake and he paid for it. But this was not our program issue or our university issue. This is an agent issue. This kid was preyed upon."

Definitely an insightful look into the situation.

I really like your “fishing” analogy, and pretty much agree with your breakdown of each UK coach. But, no Sutton or Gillispie?

I’m shocked.

Mmm, I’m hungry and don’t know why:)

a like button like Facebook has :). Very well put! I don’ t think Rupp was anymore racist then any of the other coaches in the NCAA. Our times were very different back then. Stupidly, people thought a color of skin determined intelligence or worth as a human being. Somehow whites got the upper end of that. LIstening to people that are much much much older then me, those feelings have lessened but are still there. We have come a long way and I am proud to say that my own children and their friends don’t see the difference the way their grandparents did. That older generation racist ways were taught to them. Then the government walks in and tells them what to do. They resented it. Was it wrong to resent it….yes. It still happened though. To say that Rupp was racist because he didn’t go against the grain and allow african americans is pretty unfair. Luckily we don’ t have to deal with that any longer.

Like you, I give Tubby full credit for the 98 Championship. Many say he did it with Pitino’s recruits, and that’s true, but few care to note that Pitino had a more talented squad the prior year that did not make it over the final hurdle. I don’t think Ricky could have taken the 98 squad as far as Tubby did.

Question—when Tubby was an assistant to Pitino in the early 90s, did he participate in recruiting? I just can’t remember.

no matter what the circumstances ….