It sickens me when I look back at the recruiting travesties that were caused by the ineptitude of Joel Justus and Tony Barbee.
I truly believe that if we had our current staff in place in that crucial period from 2017-2020, we would have landed most of these guys.
Young, Edwards, Reddish, Green, and Cunningham all had UK in their final two. Edwards and Cunningham both basically wanted to commit after their visits to Kentucky. The UK staff convinced Cal to move away from Trae Young if Quade Green committed first. Jalen Green was either going pro or to Kentucky, and a better staff could have persuaded him UK was the better move long term (same for Jaden Hardy). Calipari freaking coached Reddish at the FIBA games and still couldn't close that recruitment because of the sluggishness of his assistant coaches.
Kentucky could have had a monopoly in the NBA on good elite guards. Think about it:
We already have Fox, SGA, Murray, Booker, Herro, and Maxey. Those six guys represent about 40% of the best young guards in the NBA.
What if we also had Trae Young, Anthony Edwards, and Cade? We would have absolutely monopolized the young guard market, and dominated recruiting even more.
I'm a greedy SOB, ladies and gentlemen. I want all the nice things. I'm hoping the next 5 years under Calipari can provide an absolute monopolization of elite recruiting. VJ Edgecombe is the first step because we need to put Scheyer in his place.
I truly believe that if we had our current staff in place in that crucial period from 2017-2020, we would have landed most of these guys.
Young, Edwards, Reddish, Green, and Cunningham all had UK in their final two. Edwards and Cunningham both basically wanted to commit after their visits to Kentucky. The UK staff convinced Cal to move away from Trae Young if Quade Green committed first. Jalen Green was either going pro or to Kentucky, and a better staff could have persuaded him UK was the better move long term (same for Jaden Hardy). Calipari freaking coached Reddish at the FIBA games and still couldn't close that recruitment because of the sluggishness of his assistant coaches.
Kentucky could have had a monopoly in the NBA on good elite guards. Think about it:
We already have Fox, SGA, Murray, Booker, Herro, and Maxey. Those six guys represent about 40% of the best young guards in the NBA.
What if we also had Trae Young, Anthony Edwards, and Cade? We would have absolutely monopolized the young guard market, and dominated recruiting even more.
I'm a greedy SOB, ladies and gentlemen. I want all the nice things. I'm hoping the next 5 years under Calipari can provide an absolute monopolization of elite recruiting. VJ Edgecombe is the first step because we need to put Scheyer in his place.