Calipari and Calhoun will battle both on and off the court this year
By Staff
As the saying goes, it’s not about who wins the battle, but who wins the war. This fall, UK Coach Calipari and the University of Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun will have not one, but four very public and critical battles which can help to decide the landscape of college basketball for the next few years. Let’s take a look at how and where the battles will be waged:
BRANDON KNIGHT
Both John Calipari and Jim Calhoun are in an epic battle of landing the number one ranked college point guard for the 2010 recruiting class. One report said that Knight had a “top three” three of Kentucky, UConn and Miami. I don’t know how reliable that report as two days later, ZAGSBLOG there was no hierarchy, and that Brandon was very interested in meeting with Bill Self and visiting Kansas. Regardless, Knight has already visited UConn and his mother made headlines when she visited UK and met with Calipari and his staff and UK President Lee Todd. No matter how many teams are currently involved, it is evident that Calhoun and Calipari and key players.
JOSH SELBY
While none seems to know where Brandon Knight will end up, Kentucky is believed to be the leader in the battle for the number two point guard, Josh Selby. Selby, who made waves earlier when he de-committed from Tennessee is being heavily recruited by UK, UConn, and Louisville. At one point, Tennessee was still an option but that buzz seems to have died down. Jim Calhoun will be taking the offensive in this battle as Selby will be visiting UConn tomorrow.
CJ LESLIE
Since the Cats and Huskies are in a heated battle for John Wall’s “replacement” at UK, why not go after John Wall’s former Word of God team mate? CJ is one of the top big man prospects and while I think that UK has a slight edge due to the John Wall influence, Jim Calhoun is going ahead and ignore my predictions and recruit CJ anyway. Leslie said that UK, UConn, North Carolina, Florida, and Maryland are showing him the most attention and that he will cut his list in August probably. CJ plans to visit UConn soon.
THE SEC/BIG EAST INVITATIONAL
The biggest battle will be in New York City at 9:30PM on December 9th as the two teams will battle in the showcase. UK has only played UConn once in hoops, and that was a 87-83 second round loss to the #1 seeded Huskies in 2006. Both teams are expected to be ranked in the top 12 , so it should be an epic battle. It will be a reunion of sorts for Calipari and Calhoun. The last time they faced off, Memphis defeated UConn 81-70 in the 2007 2K Sports College Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden. Interesting note is that UK would have joined that party as well but a funny thing happened on the way to MSG. (You can look it up, I am NOT re-living that). UK will be there this time however and you can bet that all of the sets of eyes of the above listed recruits will be watching closely.
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