John Calipari is not one to take crap from anyone, whether it be media or coaches alike.
The latest example of this came in the form of a story from Gary Parrish on his daily radio show. It involved a college head coach who accused Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats of cheating in order to win the recruitment of a big-time prospect said coach was after hard, but watched as Cal swooped in late to land the kid.
Once Cal got wind of it, he confronted the coach in Las Vegas, and the rest is classic Calipari.
"This one coach, a prominet coach, head been recruiting this kid hard. He'd been recruiting this kid and watcing every game he'd played in for two years, every minute of the summer. Been to like 30 games. John Calipari came in late in this subsequent summer and recruited him for like two weeks and watched him in like one game, and the kid committed to Kentucky.
"The coach started yapping in coaching cirlces about Calipari saying, 'They must have cheated. There's no way they got this kid. I've been on this kid for two years. Cal just came in and got him.'
"100% true, John confronts this guy in Vegas, because he heard the guy was yapping. He confronts him. Cal approaches the coach and says something like ‘Listen, I know what you’ve been saying. I know you did, I know you said what you said. I’ve heard it from enough people, but I want you to understand one thing.
'Yes, I am the type of guy who can come in at the last minute and take any player I want from you. You can spend your whole life recruiting a kid and at the end of the day. If I want him, I’ll get him. If we want him, we’ll get him.
'Don’t ever get that confused. Be appreciative every time I don’t come in and get your guy. Don’t accuse me of cheating when I do.'
Parrish said it was within the last three years, which makes me think the involved recruit was either Tyler Ulis, Marquis Teague, Anthony Davis, or maybe an under-the-radar guy like Derek Willis or Dominique Hawkins. All of those guys saw Cal and Kentucky come in late (differing degrees in each one) in the recruiting process of each.
Whoever it and the coach in question was, this story is just gold, really because everything reportedly said is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect Cal to say in that kind of situation. That's just how he rolls.
Be sure to listen to the whole segment that starts around the 37:00 mark.