Calipari a Failure According To Arizona Recruit's Father

Roundball Recruiting Roundup & the Rest

by Javier Morales, The Tucson Citizen

Apr.17, 2010

High-paid Calipari failure to this point according to UA recruit’s father

Darryel Mayes, a former college basketball player at UNLV and El Camino (Calif.) Junior College and the father of UA recruit Jordin Mayes, believes the recruiting practice of John Calipari will do the Kentucky coach more harm than good.

He views Calipari as the opposite of UA coach Sean Miller, who paid no attention to the 3-Star rating given to the younger Mayes by Rivals.com and Scout.com. Miller gladly signed the underrated Los Angeles Westchester point guard Wednesday.

Calipari recruited one-and-done 5-star players John Wall, Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins last year and he now must replace them and fill six other scholarship spots. The nation’s No. 1 prospect according to Rivals.com, point guard Brandon Knight of Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Pine Crest, signed with Kentucky. Former UA target Doron Lamb of Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy is expected to announce today that he is headed to Kentucky.

Calipari is also hot after 5-star prospects Terrence Jones of Portland (Ore.) Jefferson and C.J. Leslie of Raleigh (N.C.) Word of God Christian Academy, among others.

“You have to ask yourself, ‘Why did Kentucky hire Calipari?’” the elder Mayes told me. “They hired him to win national championships. That’s why they are paying him all that money ($31.65 million over eight years). So knowing that, what good did it do him to recruit all these guys who left after one year? How far did it get him this year? It didn’t get him a national championship. I think knowing that, I’d say his first year there was a failure, wouldn’t you?”

Darryel Mayes also offered insight into why recruiting services often swing and miss when it comes to evaluating prospects (Derrick Williams anyone?), which he thinks is the case with his son.

“What I’d like to see is these beat reporters who work for these recruiting sites judge a player aside from how high a player can jump or how fast a player can run,” the elder Mayes said. “They are too caught up in how a kid is spectacular or is like a highlight-reel player. They need to look at the whole picture. I’m talking about pure basketball skills and basketball knowledge … you know, how the game is played below the rim. Evaluate a player how he plays between the bottom of the net and the floor and you’ll find the true basketball talent.”

SOOOOOOO, this guy is pissed UK didn't recruit his son???

Why does any reporter care what the hell any Dad says about a coach all the way across the country?

Oh yeah, because they can obliquely bash UK. Duh.

Fossten wrote:Why does any reporter care what the hell any Dad says about a coach all the way across the country?

Oh yeah, because they can obliquely bash UK. Duh.

I went to the site and commented on this also, All this reporter is doing is trying to start POOP, Why in the hell a guy from tuscon give a POOP about UK? Get so tired of guys putting Cal down over and over and there is no proof,