Calipari lands two No. 1's on same day







HawkeyeMike23 said:
World Wide Wes, the man has connections.
Click to expand...

yet, year after year he gets the top kids...Rose,Evans- both one and done players who won Rookie of Year in the NBA,and Wall- another likely one and doner who will probably be ROY,and now Knight and Gilchrist.
Could he actually have 5 straight one and one players who then become NBA ROY?...

I think the Worldwide Wes thing might be overblown by now...these kids now just want to be NBA ROY so they go play for Cal.
 


JHHawk said:
yet, year after year he gets the top kids...Rose,Evans- both one and done players who won Rookie of Year in the NBA,and Wall- another likely one and doner who will probably be ROY,and now Knight and Gilchrist.
Could he actually have 5 straight one and one players who then become NBA ROY?...

I think the Worldwide Wes thing might be overblown by now...these kids now just want to be NBA ROY so they go play for Cal.
Click to expand...

How is it overblown? He delivered both Rose and Evans right to Calipari, Rose's SAT test was taken in Wes' hometown of Detroit, he's involved with these kids from early in ther high school careers, he started Calipari's Memphis run by getting Dejaun Wagner to go there. Who do you see sitting with Drake and Ashley Judd at Kentucky games? It's Wes and Cal owes a ton of his success to him.
 


So you are saying that Wes controlled Knight? And Gilchrist? He could steer them?
Does he pay them cash? Does Cal pay Wes cash?
How exactly does it work...just curious.
 






Ok, so Gilchrist evidently grew up in the same neighborhood as Wes...not sure if that means that much. Obviously Wes is a Nike guy, so Nike money probably flows around him. As for Selby,they indicated he was not a Wes recruit.

Did Knight get steered by him?
 


JHHawk said:
Ok, so Gilchrist evidently grew up in the same neighborhood as Wes...not sure if that means that much. Obviously Wes is a Nike guy, so Nike money probably flows around him. As for Selby,they indicated he was not a Wes recruit.

Did Knight get steered by him?
Click to expand...

I think you are underestimating Wes's pull. He isn't involved with a lot of recruits, but he has a huge influence on a select few of the top recruits. It is also pretty apparent when Wes is involved. Ever wonder why no mid-west school was ever a player for Derrick Rose? Because the Big 10 doesn't do business with him. Izzo, Coach K, Roy Williams none of those guys recruit Wes's kids real hard nor does Wes help them. But when teams like Memphis, Kansas, Oregon, and Kentucky start popping up they all have connections to some extent with him.

What Wes does only effects a handful of players, but as the linked article suggests his influence is strong with a certain group of elite players.
 




About 2/3 of the way into a very long podcast with Bill Simmons, Jim Nantz just savages Calipari and Kentucky basketball. I'm not quoting directly, but the gist of his argument went like this: where is the satisfaction in the season the Wildcats just had? What sort of connection did John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, etc. have with the fans, and who will remember them in 5, 10, 25 years? Nantz basically argued that if you assemble these one-and-done teams and don't make the final four, it's a failure. Simmons compared to an AAU team, and I completely agree. At that point, I would rather watch a professional team.

Neither of them directly accused Cal of cheating, but I think it's a pretty open secret. Aside from that, it was a good podcast of you have 75 minutes to kill.
 


drew003 said:
I think you are underestimating Wes's pull. He isn't involved with a lot of recruits, but he has a huge influence on a select few of the top recruits. It is also pretty apparent when Wes is involved. Ever wonder why no mid-west school was ever a player for Derrick Rose? Because the Big 10 doesn't do business with him. Izzo, Coach K, Roy Williams none of those guys recruit Wes's kids real hard nor does Wes help them. But when teams like Memphis, Kansas, Oregon, and Kentucky start popping up they all have connections to some extent with him.

What Wes does only effects a handful of players, but as the linked article suggests his influence is strong with a certain group of elite players.
Click to expand...

Plus 1-and-done kids know that Cal knows how to coach 1-and-done kids. I think they will always be good but always come up short unless they catch a break and keep a couple for two years for some reason.
 


I would think the NCAA is gonna have some issues with these kids coming in and being a 1 and done player. I would personally like to see schools that continue to have these type of players be punished some way.

Other schools are getting punished for their Academic Report or whatever it is and losing scholarships. Why doesn't the NCAA step in and say a player must attend said university for at least 2 years. Otherwise the school gets docked points and possibly could lose scholarships.

I don't get what gives, Kentucky made it to the elite 8 and then they got beat. Who cares, they play in the weak SEC, and year in and year out they are going to get beat by veteran teams. I just think the NCAA needs to step in and do something about this.
 


Cydkar said:
Plus 1-and-done kids know that Cal knows how to coach 1-and-done kids. I think they will always be good but always come up short unless they catch a break and keep a couple for two years for some reason.
Click to expand...

That will not happen because most of them don't go to class at all after winter break.
 


theboat said:
That will not happen because most of them don't go to class at all after winter break.
Click to expand...

They don't go to class because they know they're on their way out already. If they have to be there for 2 years, then odds are they'll go to class.
 


Most people didn't think Orton and Bledsoe would be one and dones this season. He's not going to have four freshman leave early each season. He'll eventually build up some solid upperclassmen like he had at Memphis (CDR, Dozier, Dorsey, Anderson) and then just be able to plug in the stud one and done freshmen around them. I think he gets a title within three years.
 


I saw Knight play in an AAU tourney in Arkansas two years ago. It was the same tourney Barnes blew up in. Barnes destroyed Knight's team (Team Breakdown), but Knight is the real deal too.
 


tm3308 said:
They don't go to class because they know they're on their way out already. If they have to be there for 2 years, then odds are they'll go to class.
Click to expand...

That is my point. I think they sign their LOI with the intention that they are going to be there only one year. And obviously Calipari does not do anything to fight that mentallity.
 


There are rules and then there are rules. There is only one rule for Kentucky, win. You can lump some other colleges under that one rule requirement, but no where is it more obvious. Is this good for college basketball over the long term, probably not. Calipari's Memphis experiment has now been replicated at Kentucky. It is only a matter of time where this model of "success" has to be instituted elsewhere, most likely in the SEC.

Should anything be done about it? or will the NCAA simply ignore the problems surrounding men's basketball? The graduation rate among men b-ball players is poor. The growth of "AAU agents" that represent ballers want a cut of the action is known. The character issues are numerous. Point shaving has been a problem in the past. So far the NCAA has chosen to tolerate what is going on behind the scenes.

I say "Go Kentucky". Win big, win often, and when you have destroyed any integrity college basketball might have had don't ask for any adulation from those of us who still remember when the ballers were still honest to goodness students.
 


You must log in or register to reply here.


Latest posts

Share this page






Top