Well, John Calipari has done it again. The Wiltjer commitment is huge. It guarantees UK another #1 recruiting class, which makes it three in a row and he is already starting on #4. The man never stops recruiting. Even when he is not recruiting, he is recruiting. Last night Paul and some others I was texting with before and after the Wiltjer commitment pointed out that this signing may put Tony Wroten, Chane Behanan, and Quincy Miller/Deuce Bello firmly in Rick Pitino’s hands. Which begs the question, is John Calipari going to put Rick Pitino and UL back into the thick of things by default in college basketball?
Now, don’t get me wrong here, I am not insinuating that Pitino is going to make a living off of Calipari’s table scraps. Pitino does not need Calipari to recruit top talent. But he ha
s seen a slight drop off the last couple of years, and nailing down a class like the one listed above could vault Pitino right back into the top 5 in recruiting next year. Are top flight players going to bypass other schools to come play in the state of Kentucky as they used to in days of old, making Kentucky and Louisville the premier locations to showcase their talent? Could the annual game between UK and UL become the single biggest game in college basketball every year excluding the tournament? Usually in the past, one team would surge as one team dropped off or vice versa. Now, as of yet, none of these kids have committed to anyone, but Louisville is now the leader for at least two of those recruits services. Is this going to become a regular occurrence?
For all of you UL fans out there, I do not want you thinking that this is a knock on Louisville. I personally think that this is a great thing for both schools. For UK and UL to be at the top of the food chain that is NCAA basketball at the same time is something that both schools should want. Calipari has been accused of being a Pitino clone. Calipari claims that he does not do things the way Pitino did in his heyday. No sleeping at the school, no 3-4 am film sessions with assistants and breakfast meetings at 7 after a game that was played until 11 pm the night before. Calipari says he works hard when he works, and plays when it is time to play, and that has to be good enough.
And there is nothing wrong with doing things Pitino’s way either, as long as you can stand the grind. But having seen both coaches’ styles in action, I have to say that they both get results. But Calipari seems to be at the peak of his game right now, whereas Pitino may be less than 5 years from calling it a career. Could Calipari and his recruiting juggernaut make Pitino’s last years some of his best? That remains to be seen. But John Calipari has brought UK basketball back to prominence, and taking Pitino and Louisville along for the ride may be an unintended result of that success. Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program. Calipari knows this, Pitino knows this. The fans know this. And soon, if things keep going the way they are, the entire world is going to know that UK is back, and that UL may be along for the ride. Question is, how is the Commonwealth of Kentucky going to handle two premier programs so close together? Well, ask the State of North Carolina. They seemed to have had the monopoly on that for a few years. Kentucky deserves it’s time in the sun too. The only drawback to this rivalry is that it is not played out 2-3 times a year like Duke – N.Carolina. That makes for some really heady Saturday afternoons and Tuesday nights.
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