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 Word is he was playing wide receiver with an outdated glasses prescription instead.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 Word is he was playing wide receiver with an outdated glasses prescription instead.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]

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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 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.

 

[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?