Out of the two options listed in the title, I immediately wanted to choose "University of Kentucky" as I'm quite the sucker for tradition and I respect it immensely and more than I can articulate here, but then I thought about it some more and the fact that I now live in a place where Kentucky basketball really isn't all that big of a deal (yes, I know, the horror, right?) but, it is a reality, people. Outside the state of Kentucky the world does not revolve around UK's great tradition (or college basketball, for that matter) and so, taking that into account, the little voice in the back of my head unfortunately said, "no", it's probably not the name on the University that is drawing the players right now. By countless potential recruits' own admissions, Coach Cal as well as the offense he chooses to use is ridiculously popular with the high school players of today (not to mention it's all the rage with us and the topic of our discussions these days, too) and it certainly doesn't hurt our chances of enticing the nation's top talent and as evidenced by one of Patrick Patterson's recent comments that he also finds the DDMO fascinating and it's one of the reasons he's excited about returning, it appears that the DDMO is quite appealing to our current roster members as well.
Even though I am a very proud UK fan, I would have to say that the perception among the young recruits is probably not that UK is the beginning and the end-all of college basketball at this moment in time, but rather that Coach Cal and his DDMO is actually the main force pulling the recruits in, and to be honest, that possible perception, if it is in fact reality for today's top recruits, well, it really doesn't bother me all that much, because quite frankly, until UK regains some of its luster, it would seem that we need the top rated players more than they need the University of Kentucky, and if the DDMO is what they want, and it will eventually lead to a change on how we are perceived by some, such as the Henry's, well, I'm OK with that.
So, after abandoning my UK homer mindset for a few moments so I could think rationally -- at this moment in time my choice on how we are most likely perceived by college basketball recruits today is Calipari/DDMO U. As time marches on, hopefully it's just a matter of us winning some games, winning some conference championships, making some deep runs into the NCAA tourney and then getting some kids into the NBA, and once again the Kentucky brand will be back and we will have that "oomph" the kids are looking for and the answer to the title question of "University of Kentucky or Calipari/DDMO U?" will without a doubt be the University of Kentucky -- because after all, that's the answer that the UK homer in me wants and the answer my heart prefers.
Just for fun, I will pose the question in poll format: