Calipari, Cats changing way game is played

Calipari, Cats changing way game is played

By DAVID JONES/Florida Today

Published: March 16, 2010



For years, the attitudes of most college basketball coaches were that anyone who recruited superstar high school talents, knowing that they would probably be one-and-done players heading off to the NBA after their freshmen seasons, were borderline renegades.

Then the NBA adopted an age limit two years ago — forcing even the top high school stars to attend college at least one season. At the same time, John Calipari recruited and signed Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans at Memphis. This year, in his first season at Kentucky, Calipari went one step further.

He signed John Wall, Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins. And Kentucky went from being an NIT team a year ago to a national title contender as NCAA Tournament play opens this week. UK is the No. 1 seed in the East. Cousins and Wall are projected NBA lottery picks. Everyone who bought a ticket to last week's SEC tournament knew they were watching the duo's first — and final — appearance in the event.

Wall was just the second freshman to be named the SEC's Player of the Year in coaches' voting last week. Cousins was SEC Freshman of the Year.

Was it worth it? Will others try the same path to instant success if they can get future star freshmen for just one season?

"My wife likes to shop," said LSU coach Trent Johnson.

Translation? Coaches who want to keep a job better think about it.

"We would love to be in a position to be able to have guys come and play for you, do great, and then leave your university even though it's after a year," Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said. "I think that Ohio State would look back at the time that Greg Oden and Michael Conley were there and say they made a pretty good run in the Final Four."

The Buckeyes faced Florida in the 2007 national title game. Conley and Oden were gone soon after.

Philosophy, especially after the NBA rule change, is radically different nationwide. But Calipari may be opening others' eyes faster than anyone.

Especially in the SEC.

"The key has to be, are they guys that can come in and do what Kentucky's guys have done?" South Carolina coach Darrin Horn said.

Adds Johnson, "Make no mistake about it, it's about winning games. Those guys that are one and done usually help you win a lot of games."

In this day and age, despite a push by the NCAA to focus more on graduating players, it's about instant success. Coaches are fired quicker than ever. They also can get rich — and build an entire institution's public image faster — by making it to the Final Four.

Building a program is now expected to happen within months, not years.

Look at what Calipari did at Memphis. And Kentucky.

A year ago, Wildcats' fans were miserable in a mass exodus out of the SEC Tournament. At this year's tournament, several downtown Nashville stores were full of Kentucky souvenirs and thousands of Big Blue followers flooded the Music City — a major reason Nashville leaders estimated the event would pump close to $10 million into the economy.

For all the discussion, Calipari actually offers a very different idea for why coaches should go after potential one-and-done players like never before.

"You don't know," he said. "You recruit the best players you can recruit. I don't know if you've heard of a kid named Darius Rice. Absolutely a one-and-done player, McDonald's All-American, 6-foot-9, he was going to be one and done. Well he ended up staying four years at Miami.

"Now maybe it was the wrong program, I don't know, but everyone said he was a one and done. And then you have the kid at Maryland, Chris Wilcox, he was a nice high school player. He went in and didn't start his freshman year and six games into his sophomore year, he starts and they win the national title and he's the eighth pick of the draft. They thought they had a four-year player. You don't know."

So Calipari's attitude is simple. Try to get the best — no matter what — and see what happens.

"You kind of look and try to plan a little bit, as much as you can plan — you can't plan much," he said. "But midway through that year, you have a pretty good idea and you just go from there. I don't know that you can do it any other way. If you are trying to recruit the best players, kids are going to leave."

They will flood out of Kentucky in a few weeks. And they will be millionaires. And Big Blue just might have another national title.

Is it appropriate? Maybe not in the eyes of those who are concerned with academic excellence.

But the NBA rule change, especially, has altered the way coaches must now think. At least if they want their wives to have nice things.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/mar/16/calipari-cats-changing-way-game-played/sports-colleges-gators/