Kentucky Wildcats are Dominating Recruiting and a Rick Pitino redo?

Mar 31, 2012; New Orleans, LA, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari (right) greets Louisville Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino before the semifinals of the 2012 NCAA men

Despite football being front and center during the hardcourt offseason, Kentucky Wildcats basketball is still king and occasionally Louisville HC Rick Pitino takes a little dip back into the springs of Camelot.  At a recent speaking engagement, Coach Pitino managed to rile the Big Blue Nation by going back on earlier statements he made regarding whether his decision to leave UK was a good one.  Now context is key here because though he referenced a basketball decision, it was to illustrate some life lessons.  I think.  You decide.  Aaron Smith is giving him a pass.

"“Failure was the greatest thing in the world to me,” Pitino said in the speech. “People ask me, do you regret leaving Kentucky, if you didn’t leave, you’d have 1000 wins today? I say, no. The greatest move I ever made was leaving Kentucky. The second-greatest move I ever made was failing in Boston. Because if I didn’t go through those two experiences, I wouldn’t have gained humility. Humility is the greatest key to greatness and living a happy life.” As recently as four months ago, Pitino viewed his decision to leave Lexington in the opposite light. “I think I do regret leaving Kentucky because I took over a team with 15 wins banking everything on the Tim Duncan lottery,” Pitino told 790 the Ticket in Miami, “and once we didn’t get Tim Duncan I realized that leaving Kentucky was not a good move.”"

Looking ahead to the 2014 recruiting class, yet?  No?  Well you should because John Calipari is and he’s looking at 5-Star PG Josh Perkins.  Well he’s trying but hasn’t managed to get his AAU Summer Schedule yet.  Randy Perkins, Josh’s father and AAU coach as talked extensively with Coach Calipari and he sat down with the Lexington Herald-Leader to expound on that.  Ben Roberts has this.  Here are some highlights.

"The player’s father — Randy Perkins — has been in regular contact with UK over the past few weeks, including a 40-45 phone conversation with Calipari on Sunday. Perkins’ father spoke with the Herald-Leader on Tuesday about a wide range of topics related to his son’s recruitment. Randy Perkins, who is also Josh’s AAU coach with the Colorado Miners, said Calipari requested a schedule of their games for the rest of the summer. The UK coach has yet to see Perkins play in person and hasn’t officially made an offer yet. “He was kind of going down that avenue,” Randy Perkins said. “He wants to see him with his own eyes, although he said he has enough information to make an offer. I didn’t push it. I was just kind of waiting to see what he said.” More on the possibility of an offer sometime soon: “I think it’s coming. I think it’s probably already there, but I haven’t even asked him. We talked about so many different things and I just enjoy the conversation. Me being a coach myself, I turn into a sponge and I try to get as much out of this as I can to better myself as a coach.” Randy Perkins said Calipari spent a good deal of time Sunday addressing what he said were misconceptions of the UK basketball program as it relates to one-and-done players and academics. Perkins said he already shared Calipari’s point of view before their conversation. “We talked about how there’s some stuff out there about the Kentucky program that’s not accurate,” Perkins said. “He spent a lot of time on academics, because he knows how important that is to me. He didn’t have to explain or justify anything to me, because I know what Kentucky is about. If a kid gets offered an option to go play ball (in the NBA) early, they’re going to do that. Then they’ll come back to get their degree.” Randy Perkins also discussed what Calipari likes about his son’s game: “He talked about how the game is missing what everybody says Josh offers,” he said. “(The game) doesn’t have that true point guard who gives up himself to make everybody better. And he was excited about that.” Perkins specifically mentioned the praise that UK commitment Karl Towns had for his son over the weekend, and Calipari said he’d heard similar things on the recruiting trail. “He said the most intriguing thing about Josh is that he makes everybody better and everybody wants to play with him. That’s all he keeps hearing. … He just talked about the intelligence and the fact that everybody wants to play with him.” Before deciding to attend Huntington Prep, Perkins almost joined fellow point guard and UK target Emmanuel Mudiay at Prime Prep in Texas. Mudiay told reporters earlier this spring that he wouldn’t want to go to the same school as a player like Tyus Jones, because he wanted to be the primary point guard in college. Perkins has a style similar to Jones’, but he and Mudiay have played together in the past and are becoming fast friends. Randy Perkins said he could envision his son and Mudiay teaming up. “They’re just such a good match,” he said. “First off, they’re good friends. They’ve developed a really strong relationship over the past few months. In fact, they call each other to see what camps they’re going to and what they’re doing each weekend.” “They just complement each other very well. Because Emmanuel Mudiay is definitely your combo guard. More on the scoring side. Not necessarily perimeter shooting, but the kid can really get buckets. And he loved playing with Josh because he had a chance to take some possessions off and not have to work every single possession.” If the Cats want Perkins, they might want to come through with an offer sooner rather than later. His father said Josh’s current plan is to make a college decision before the start of his senior season. “He wants to get it done (in the fall),” he said. “He wants to focus on (Huntington Prep) and he’s super excited about it. He wants to get the decision made so he can just focus on playing. And focus on whoever he’s going to play for next year.”"

Coach Cal recently offered Top 2015 PG, Malik Newman, according to 24/7 Sports Chris Fisher via Jay Hochestetler of KSRCollege.com.  And yes, he has offers from some other major programs as well.  The kid is a beast.

"According to Chris Fisher of 247sports.com, Malik Newman, the top ranked point guard in 2015 by 24/7 Sports, has received an offer from the University of Kentucky. Newman is a 6’4″ point guard out of Jackson, Mississippi. He also has offers from Kansas, Mississippi State, Duke, NC State, and Ole Miss. Newman was one of the leaders for the USA U16 team that won a gold medal in Uruguay last week. He joins Skal Labissiere, Stephen Zimmerman, and Charles Matthews as the only players with an offer from Kentucky in the 2015 class."

 As a little bonus, Archie Goodwin, unfortunately, still isn’t projected as a First Rounder in the upcoming NBA Draft but I won’t be surprised if he ends up there.  Daniel Orton being a First Rounder is the gift that keeps on giving.  Here is the DraftExpress.com’s must recent mock draft.