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A Closer Look at How Different Calipari Was At Memphis (And Really UMass too) than he was at Kentucky

How do you predict it will go for Cal in Fayetteville?

  • He will pickup where he left off here and basically be a non-factor come March.

    Votes: 77 52.4%

  • He will have a couple of years as a contender and then fade away like he did at UK.

    Votes: 56 38.1%

  • He will have a stellar run at Arky with at least 1 title.

    Votes: 11 7.5%

  • He will have to cheat to be relevant there and end will end his career in disgrace.

    Votes: 3 2.0%
  • Total voters
    147
  • Poll closed .
D

dlh331

All-SEC
Gold Member
Jan 4, 2003
7,375
13,493
113

​

Several things were vastly different (that had he remained he same MAY have won multiple national titles at UK).

Recruiting was very different (and remember, Cal had WWW as a close ally and the Memphis Fed-Ex program was a massive NIL BEFORE that was ever legal). Recruiting classes at Memphis:

2002 Not top 40
2003 Not top 40
2004 #10 with one x 5* (#15), rest of class #34 and 3 others outside the top 100
2005 #6 with no 5* but players ranked #27, #41, #66
2006 Not top 40
2007 #7 with players ranked #5 (Rose), #55, #65, #93
2008 #3 with players ranked #3, #38, #54, #78

Summary, in 9 classes at Memphis Calipari signed 4 x 5*

The roster management was incredibly different, every team had multiple upper classmen getting most of the minutes.

Minutes/points returned for each team:

2003 65%/62%
2004 61%/56%
2005 71%/71%
2006 47%/54%
2007 56%/44%
2008 82%/76% and made the title game
2009 53%/46%

Not one team had massive departures. There was none of that BS about "players first", "NBA draft picks", etc. At both UMass and Memphis, Cal SEEMED much more focused on winning games, not building "generational wealth" for his draft picks.

In Cal's 9 seasons at Memphis he had 5 1st rounders and 4 2nd rounders.

At UK from 2010-20 (arguably) Cal had a terrific run, but he MISSED an all-time historic run had he combined his "Memphis MO" with some of the elite players at Kentucky.

Sad really.....
Click to expand...
 
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