WCS says Cal drew recruits not UK.

[BlueSince92]

Calipari had that pull at Memphis: most of his big haul his first year here were players who followed him to Kentucky after signing with Memphis.

WCS is 30.

“Most of”

Har

At Memphis he had signed only Boogie and Xavier Henry. To a class where no one would have challenged either of them for all the minutes they could possibly have wanted.

The monster classes for Cal were exclusively a Kentucky thing.

WCS was 15, 16, and 17 during the time period he would have had to cast the nets of his attention very far and very wide to have come up with a proper understanding of these issues in their proper context. Word is he was playing wide receiver with an outdated glasses prescription instead.

 

[Butters' Dad]

Cauley-Stein Explains Why It's Calipari, Not Kentucky That Drew Recruits

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A one-on-one interview with former Kentucky star Willie Cauley-Stein shows exactly why Wildcats fans were wrong when...

www.si.com

So weird that I've been saying that exact same thing ever since I started posting! I mean the coincidence factor is enormous, right? Just bizarre.

 

[DreadLox]

“Most of”

Har

At Memphis he had signed only Boogie and Xavier Henry. To a class where no one would have challenged either of them for all the minutes they could possibly have wanted.

The monster classes for Cal were exclusively a Kentucky thing.

WCS was 15, 16, and 17 during the time period he would have had to cast the nets of his attention very far and very wide to have come up with a proper understanding of these issues in their proper context. Word is he was playing wide receiver with an outdated glasses prescription instead.

Don't get as old as me. I "remembered" that Bledsoe and Wall had both been bound for Memphis before they came.

 

[true blue1]

I don’t disagree at all with WCS. It was obvious Cal was a great recruiter and having the UK Brand was a great match.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

 

[ukcatz12]

Don't get as old as me. I "remembered" that Bledsoe and Wall had both been bound for Memphis before they came.

You remembered mostly correctly. Wall was 100% going to Memphis if Cal stayed. All of this talk about anyone in that first class except for Orton coming here for any reason other than Cal is revisionist history.

Wall Says Memphis is His Leader | Zagsblog

John Wall told his local newspaper that […]

www.zagsblog.com

And Bledsoe didn't even have Kentucky on his radar before Cal came here. Once Cal took the job he immediately put Kentucky as the leader and kept Memphis in his top 2 as basically a courtesy. Before Cal left Memphis it was thought Bledsoe was going to Florida, Memphis, or potentially Duke if he could make the grades work. I don't believe he even had an offer from Kentucky before Cal.

 

[Wildcat-in-STL]

Was John Wall coming here before Cal? Cousins? Bledsoe? Davis? KAT? MKG?

Having a gig at UK certainly helps, but let’s not kid ourselves and pretend 99.9% of athletes care about UK history or tradition.

Can a coach recruit at UK and fill a team with decent players? Sure. Can they recruit like Cal?

There isn’t a better recruiter in all of college basketball and I doubt we see much of a slowdown at Arky.

Everyone that came to UK under Cal came because of Cal and his G league system. it worked great for about 10 years then fell off into the abyss. It is what it is, players dont care about the UK brand going in but as you can see they love the UK brand by the time they leave... well most anyways

What WCS said not only doesn't fit what the headline says, it paints a completely different picture of Calipari than is cast in stone on Rupp's Rafters. The man WCS talks about is not the lying, narcissistic monster that RR wants him to be.

If you couldnt tell Cal was acting towards us fans and UK Admin like a massive Narcissist then you have your head in the sand. Narcissists do have the ability to treat people they feel they can use really well ....

He's in position to land a monster class. He already has a commitment from Acuff. He's in a great position with Dybantsa, Peterson, Thomas, Wilson, and Sealy. It's why I was hoping Cal wouldn't crap the bed until after next season when a bunch of those guys would have joined a sophomore Quaintance in Lexington.

Cal screwed it all up. It's 100% on him.

Peterson is the face of adidas.. but thanks for the nostalgia of 15 years of staff gas lighting people into thinking Cal is really in it with the top adidas player only for Adidas to say nope, he's going to an Adidas school.

As far as AJD , seems like he's BYU's to lose, as they are the ones willing to go over 3 million $ to get him right now and everyone else is cringing at paying that much to anyone.

 

[susan2361]

View embedded media

Props to Kriisa for asking the question

I'm sorry, but I take anything that WCS with a grain of salt. His opinion about anything is not important to me.
After he gave up on Kentucky in the Wisconsin game DURING the game and was still allowed on the court, I could care less about him or his opinions.

 

[Butters' Dad]

I'm sorry, but I take anything that WCS with a grain of salt. His opinion about anything is not important to me.
After he gave up on Kentucky in the Wisconsin game DURING the game and was still allowed on the court, I could care less about him or his opinions.

Must be nice to have the ability to only believe things that confirm your preconceived biases.

 

[Pmalone6719]

These guys all came here for cal. Let’s be honest we weren’t getting these kids before 2010 (Orton, and pat not withstanding). But these guys coming here year after year helped re-shape the image and culture of Kentucky to a point that now a lot of studs will come here for the program. Cal had his faults and fell flat at the end for sure. But he does deserve credit for re-building the brand. No one can deny that it was on life support when he came here

Solid post!

 

[chevyman 50]

What about before Cal came to Ky they had great players yes Cal had an influence but Ky is still Ky but if Cal had been at No name college I wonder if the players would have came. Nope

 

[bigblueinsanity]

Of course cal was a huge draw but combined with Kentucky it was a force. A force much greater than him at Arkansas.

So if op thought this was going to show that now they are uk, theyre dead wrong. Just look at the class he had here that didn't follow and they were coming here for much less nil.

Such a weird self own. But congrats on getting a guy who, without robic, cant win anything barely even a single ncaa tournament game despite having elite talent.

 

[NoDef]

Cal is a great recruiter. Kids want paid and when you have so many great NBA players that you have coached, it helps. The problem is the game has changed. Cal has admitted that. I think you have to have a nice mixture of veterans and elite talent. We are not off to the best start on the elite talent side of things. We are still UK, but NIL has brought a lot of other teams into recruiting battles. If we don't figure it out, we may drop back to 10-20 range in recruiting, which is not good when you need a few dogs.

 

[BigRedMachineBigBlueNation]

Read the article, it is a lot less controversial than OP’s title paints it

 

[BigBlueManSouthCentralKY]

Now Cal telling AR players he wants them acting like Kings. Not looking good for us now.

 

[ukcatz12]

What about before Cal came to Ky they had great players yes Cal had an influence but Ky is still Ky but if Cal had been at No name college I wonder if the players would have came. Nope

Yes they would have. The thing people forget is Cal's one and done snowball was just starting to roll down the hill at the end of his Memphis tenure. It worked with Rose and Evans and he went all on with it. Bledsoe, Wall, and Cousins would have gone to Memphis if Cal stayed there. Cousins was committed, Wall had Memphis as his #1 choice, and Bledsoe was choosing between Memphis, Florida, and some Alabama schools and hadn't even gotten an offer from UK. If Cal stays then that class is Memphis bound.

And at that point Memphis is now the cool one and done school. Guys like Knight, Lamb, and Jones weren't coming here to UK the following year without Cal. MKG, Davis, and Teague wouldn't have either.

Fact is that 2009 class would have gone to Memphis with Cal and if that happened 90% of Cal's star UK freshmen would have gone where ever he was coaching from that point forward.

 

[Creed Bratton]

Was John Wall coming here before Cal? Cousins? Bledsoe? Davis? KAT? MKG?

Having a gig at UK certainly helps, but let’s not kid ourselves and pretend 99.9% of athletes care about UK history or tradition.

Can a coach recruit at UK and fill a team with decent players? Sure. Can they recruit like Cal?

There isn’t a better recruiter in all of college basketball and I doubt we see much of a slowdown at Arky.

Maybe not and that is why Cal said draft night was the greatest night in UK history despite winning 7 titles before then. So congrats on being declared winners on draft night when your freshmen are going pro.

 

[crestcat]

Yes they would have. The thing people forget is Cal's one and done snowball was just starting to roll down the hill at the end of his Memphis tenure. It worked with Wall and Evans and he went all on with it. Bledsoe, Wall, and Cousins would have gone to Memphis if Cal stayed there. Cousins was committed, Wall had Memphis as his #1 choice, and Bledsoe was choosing between Memphis, Florida, and some Alabama schools and hadn't even gotten an offer from UK. If Cal stays then that class is Memphis bound.

And at that point Memphis is now the cool one and done school. Guys like Knight, Lamb, and Jones weren't coming here to UK the following year without Cal. MKG, Davis, and Teague wouldn't have either.

Fact is that 2009 class would have gone to Memphis with Cal and if that happened 90% of Cal's star UK freshmen would have gone where ever he was coaching from that point forward.

So why did Cal come to UK instead of just continuing building Memphis into a powerhouse?

 

[NoDef]

So why did Cal come to UK instead of just continuing building Memphis into a powerhouse?

Because it is a top 3 job in college basketball. The system failed to work when kids could transfer without penalty and players were playing college basketball five or six years. Instead of playing against 22 years olds freshman are now playing grown men. I still think we need to land a few top 10 recruits to be successful. No reason to coach at Kentucky and not pull in at least one every year. Tubby couldn't win with his best recruit being a top 30 kid.

 

[ralphdaltonfan]

I have 0 problem with what WCS said. When he committed to play for UK, they were coming off a Final Four and about to embark on a National Championship season. So a recruit who signed in '12 absolutely should've signed with Kentucky for Cal. That's 100% correct because Cal's approach was successful for both the University and the individual player.

It's fine to be glad Cal's gone, upset with the last 4 seasons, etc...but to get upset about a player who signed at the height of the Calipari era and was part of 2 Final Four teams (realize he didn't play in '14) is just being mad because of some personal thing that has someone angry just at the mention of the guy. He's gone. He'll recruit well at Arkansas and win games. HIs problem is will he win/contend for championships? Their issue now.

 

[ukcatz12]

So why did Cal come to UK instead of just continuing building Memphis into a powerhouse?

Cal wanting to coach a blue blood because of the prestige and the vast majority of kids coming here to play for specifically for Cal aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[ukcatz12]

He'll recruit well at Arkansas and win games. HIs problem is will he win/contend for championships? Their issue now.

I think there's a good chance he contends for titles at Arkansas. Sometimes people just need a change of scenery to reinvigorate them a bit. He himself said UK was a ten year job, and almost like clockwork things fell off after year 10.

I think it'll be similar to Andy Reid leaving Philadelphia. Reid wore out his welcome but he just needed a fresh start somewhere else. Not saying Cal will see close to Reid in KC levels of success, but I think the situation is similar.

 

[kingdom come cat]

Until Mark Pope starts to win and win big his name will not be enough to bring in very many big time recruits, until than you need a big time national know name on staff that young recruits can relate to and would love to be tutored by and theres only one name that fits the bill Rojon Rondo.

 

[Skyguyb27]

It didn’t read nearly like your headline. Good bait though.

Read more like a player that respected his former coach for life lessons and rules that were in place.

So repeating the headline is bait? Drama much?

 

[Skyguyb27]

Must be nice to have the ability to only believe things that confirm your preconceived biases.

That’s funny you say that.

 

[crestcat]

Cal wanting to coach a blue blood because of the prestige and the vast majority of kids coming here to play for specifically for Cal aren't mutually exclusive.

The NCAA routinely allowed players to be released from commitments because of coaches changing jobs, it was recognized players signed because of coaches. UK offers coaches advantages in support that few others can match so for a while it was mutually beneficial. K moving into OAD and Adidas paying players loosened Cal’s grip on the stud recruits and exposed Cal. NIL and the portal have completely muddied the waters of college basketball.

 

[TopCatCal]

Cauley-Stein Explains Why It's Calipari, Not Kentucky That Drew Recruits

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A one-on-one interview with former Kentucky star Willie Cauley-Stein shows exactly why Wildcats fans were wrong when...

www.si.com

Then if that's the case, Calipari shouldn't have any trouble signing 5-Star recruit after 5-Star recruit at Arkansas. Let's just see how good he recruits at Arkansas. I've got a strong feeling that he won't recruit at the same level that he did at Kentucky.

 

[ukcatz12]

Then if that's the case, Calipari shouldn't have any trouble signing 5-Star recruit after 5-Star recruit at Arkansas. Let's just see how good he recruits at Arkansas. I've got a strong feeling that he won't recruit at the same level that he did at Kentucky.

Well so far he's having no trouble. He just got a commitment from the #1 PG in next year's class, so I don't think his recruiting is really going to drop off much. He's at Arkansas, an SEC school with major resources, it's not like he's trying to get kids to commit to High Point.

 

[ralphdaltonfan]

I think there's a good chance he contends for titles at Arkansas. Sometimes people just need a change of scenery to reinvigorate them a bit. He himself said UK was a ten year job, and almost like clockwork things fell off after year 10.

I think it'll be similar to Andy Reid leaving Philadelphia. Reid wore out his welcome but he just needed a fresh start somewhere else. Not saying Cal will see close to Reid in KC levels of success, but I think the situation is similar.

I don't. Just think he's lost his fastball. He loves the offseason because he doesn't have to work. Cal has talked a great game and recruited at a high level for 2 straight years. Then the work comes--having to fly to do in-homes/visit kids and coach the team in the Fall. He starts to wear out and then the talking down of expectations begins as he often hasn't any clue who he signed/recruited because his pitch does the work for him and he's got ADD big time during a viewing period.

Give you an example--Braylon Mullins is seen by most elite programs as a top 10-15 prospect. Calipari was so late to see him/offer he didn't even make a cut of 10 teams. Others had done their work-Cal sent his kid out. This is the type of thing that was happening at UK/still is happening at Arkansas.

 

[ArcadiaFan]

Hate to agree with him, but that was true. Its what did Tubby Smith in sadly enough, he thought the tradition and name would and should recruit itself.

 

[NoDef]

Then if that's the case, Calipari shouldn't have any trouble signing 5-Star recruit after 5-Star recruit at Arkansas. Let's just see how good he recruits at Arkansas. I've got a strong feeling that he won't recruit at the same level that he did at Kentucky.

He was #3 with the 2024 class at Arkansas. We were #44 in that class. To say he can't recruit at Arkansas is silly. He's recruited good at every stop.. like it or not Pope is going to have to pull in a few elite kids from high school. I'm all about the name on the front of the jersey, but this is a different era with the NIL..

 

[Ron Mehico]

I think there's a good chance he contends for titles at Arkansas. Sometimes people just need a change of scenery to reinvigorate them a bit. He himself said UK was a ten year job, and almost like clockwork things fell off after year 10.

I think it'll be similar to Andy Reid leaving Philadelphia. Reid wore out his welcome but he just needed a fresh start somewhere else. Not saying Cal will see close to Reid in KC levels of success, but I think the situation is similar.

I’m not seeing it. Over the last 3 years we have had a generational rebounder and the first returning NPOY in 20 some years (that was paired with a lottery pick at guard) and then followed that up with THREE top ten recruits and 2 ADDITIONAL lottery picks at guard and and we won ONE total tournament game. I just don’t really see the comparison to Andy Reid who upgraded talent at KC with the top QB in the game and a very modern offense. Just don’t really see the comparison.

 

[BarefootBeach]

Who gives a crap how Cal recruits at Arkansas? I assume Cal will bring in top shelf players. I also assume Cal will continue to coach the way he has for many years. Ugly in Arkansas is not nearly the same as at UK so Cal will actually feel relief. If Cal loses 10-15 games per year at Arky then the fans will simply sing their pig-suey chants and be fine.

 

[wardlow]

Don't get as old as me. I "remembered" that Bledsoe and Wall had both been bound for Memphis before they came.

I thought so as well, but have been corrected.

 

[bbncal02]

I mean let’s be fair. Cal draw players. Anyone denying that is well….an idiot. People follow Cal. Hell we’ve had someone of our “fans” do it.

Cal and UK were the perfect combo for a while. Problem is as we’ve said the man is stubborn and just doesn’t want to change his philosophy. Which is fair. He’s coached long enough he has that right. Problem is, it’s not working anymore.

 

[Butters' Dad]

I mean let’s be fair. Cal draw players. Anyone denying that is well….an idiot. People follow Cal. Hell we’ve had someone of our “fans” do it.

Cal and UK were the perfect combo for a while. Problem is as we’ve said the man is stubborn and just doesn’t want to change his philosophy. Which is fair. He’s coached long enough he has that right. Problem is, it’s not working anymore.

No true Kentucky fan is switching allegiances to Arkansas because of Cal. You guys are just making up reasons some fans are less optimistic about the future now that he's gone to convince yourself, not others, that they are the ones being unreasonable.

 

[catsfan325]

He was #3 with the 2024 class at Arkansas. We were #44 in that class. To say he can't recruit at Arkansas is silly. He's recruited good at every stop.. like it or not Pope is going to have to pull in a few elite kids from high school. I'm all about the name on the front of the jersey, but this is a different era with the NIL..

To be fair our #44 class doesn't include our #1 commit Collin Chandler who still gets counted with 2022 even though he's joining 2024. Add a fringe 5* like him and they're top 15. Not bad considering Pope's late start/hadn't recruited vast majority of kids in the class at BYU. I'll be surprised if Pope doesn't get at least 2 5 stars and 4-5 top 50 kids total for this 2025 class.

 

[Soupbean]

Was John Wall coming here before Cal? Cousins? Bledsoe? Davis? KAT? MKG?

Having a gig at UK certainly helps, but let’s not kid ourselves and pretend 99.9% of athletes care about UK history or tradition.

Can a coach recruit at UK and fill a team with decent players? Sure. Can they recruit like Cal?

There isn’t a better recruiter in all of college basketball and I doubt we see much of a slowdown at Arky.

No but Jamaal Mashburn did, and Tony Delk did, and Antwan Walker did, and Walter McCarty, Derek Anderson, Ron Mercer, Jeff Shepherd, Tayshaun Prince, Keith Bogans, Jodie Meeks, Patrick Patterson,

You can go back through the last 5 coaches (except for Billy Clyde) and they all brought in the nations best recruiting classes each year. Joe Hall was known for his big time classes, Tubby has a couple of number one classes. Cal didnt invent big time recruiting at UK. He did it at a high level for sure but it wastn a new concept at UK. The brand always brought those guys in.

 

[Slowwalker]

No but Jamaal Mashburn did, and Tony Delk did, and Antwan Walker did, and Walter McCarty, Derek Anderson, Ron Mercer, Jeff Shepherd, Tayshaun Prince, Keith Bogans, Jodie Meeks, Patrick Patterson,

You can go back through the last 5 coaches (except for Billy Clyde) and they all brought in the nations best recruiting classes each year. Joe Hall was known for his big time classes, Tubby has a couple of number one classes. Cal didnt invent big time recruiting at UK. He did it at a high level for sure but it wastn a new concept at UK. The brand always brought those guys in.

Different times my friend. Different times. None of those people, besides maybe Mash, were as highly prized as recruits as John Wall, Davis, KAT, etc. Not really a good comparison.

 

[Slowwalker]

Pitino certainly could recruit like Cal. But he and Cal never got the amount of recruits they did till they were at Kentucky.

How many #1 classes has Pitino had in his career? How many did Cal have at UK?

Again, a coach can fill a team at UK with good players but nobody has proven to recruit like Cal. I’m not saying Cal killed it in other areas, but you cannot argue the fact the man can recruit.