After a weekend full of speculation about who would replace Billy Gillispie as the next head coach at Kentucky it looks like we finally have our answer in the form of John Calipari. Our sources had been mentioning Calipari as a potential replacement for Gillispie as early as a week ago, but that was obviously delayed by the fact that his Memphis team was still playing in the NCAA tournament. Fortunately, for the administration at Kentucky, even after last year’s title game collapse against Kansas, Calipari still didn’t think it was worthwhile having his team work on free throws and as a result they were bounced by Missouri in the Sweet 16 (their lack of defense against Missouri didn’t help their cause either).
Although the details of the deal have not been released yet, it would be safe to assume that Calipari is at around the $3 million/year figure that our source was saying it would take to lure him away from Memphis (9pm update: ESPN is now reporting the offer is 8 yrs/$35M). In addition, Kentucky will have also have to come up with the money to compensate for the $5 million bonus Calipari would have collected had he finished his contract at Memphis, which ran through the 2012-13 season at $2.5 million/year. (Break open those checkbooks Wildcat boosters!).
What might be even bigger than the physical switch of Calipari for Gillispie on the sidelines is the potential chain reaction this could have on the Memphis/Kentucky recruiting classes and Tyreke Evans. Going into today, Kentucky only had one 5-star (Daniel Orton) and one 4-star (Jon Hood) recruit who had signed a letter of intent to play in Lexington. With the addition of Calipari, the Wildcats would almost certainly get DeMarcus Cousins (the #2 overall recruit) who has committed to Memphis, but did not sign a letter of intent, and potentially Xavier Henry (the #3 overall recruit) who signed a letter of intent at Memphis, but could petition the NCAA for a release (4-star recruit Nolan Dennis has stated that he has an agreement with Memphis that he will be released from his letter of intent if Calipari leaves). In addition, they would suddenly be in the running for John Wall (the #1 overall recruit) who has not committed to a school yet, but is said to be very high on Memphis Calipari. Adding 2 of those 3 to a Kentucky lineup that leaned heavily on Patrick Patterson and Jodie Meeks this year would almost certainly make the Wildcats go from a NIT participant to Final 4 favorites. If Calipari were able to pull off a miracle and get Henry released from his letter and bring all three with him to Kentucky to go with Patterson, Meeks, and Orton, the Wildcats would suddenly emerge as the prohibitive favorites and the fans in Lexington might start having visions of the 1996 Kentucky team running through their heads for the next six months.
What would happen to Memphis? Disaster. Tyreke Evans, who has seen his NBA draft stock rebound after slipping during his difficult adjustment to the college game, would most likely head to the NBA leaving the Tigers without a true star for the first time in years (Robert Dozier and Antonio Anderson are both seniors). Losing such a great recruiting class (one of the best since the Chris Webber-led “Fab 5”) would be a crushing blow to a program that has risen up from playing in Conference USA to become one of the premier programs in the nation in the past 5-10 years. The next question for Memphis is who will replace Calipari on the sideline. Current reports indicate that Calpari is pushing for his long-time assistant Tony Barbee to be named as his successor, but it’s likely that the Memphis AD will look to lure big-names such as Mike Anderson or Tim Floyd to what has become one fo the premier coaching destinations in the country.
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Talk about total destruction to a team if this happens....Memphis and CUSA will literally fade away into nothingness. Meanwhile, Calipari will have one year of greatness...followed by everyone leaving most likely. All or nothing. If they don't make the F4 next year if Calipari and the guys go to UK, then UK fans will FREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!
THat'd be hilarious.
I believe cbs is reporting Henry also has that clause in his LoI that would allow him to leave if Calipari does. The amusing thing is that if everyone of these guys leaves and joins him at Kentucky they'd have too many scholarships and Calipari would have to not renew some older wildcats.
Here's a pair of questions for you guys:
First: Are all of these guys that impressed with Calipari that they'll follow him without thought to UK or will they at least take their new freedom to see what opportunities are elsewhere?
Second, and more importantly: This seems really sketchy to me. Essentially a team is going out and not only hiring another team's coach but grabbing all the recruits that signed up to play at that school for an amount of money. I know the NCAA can't do anything about this, but for example, say WVU had paid Bob Huggins and he brought over Michael Beasley rather than Beasley staying in Manhattan on his own. Wouldn't there be an uproar? Granted its a situation that can only happen when the recruits have a relationship only with the coach of the program they're going to and don't really care about the school itself, but its just really really not in the spirit of things I'd think.
I mean, does anyone not realize that this will basically devastate Memphis, and in essence the ENTIRE CONFERENCE that it was supporting (demoting it to a mid-major..and not even one of the top mid major conferences) just because one school is offering money and resources the other can't afford.
Josh - I have to admit I don't know the answer of whether those recruits are so impressed with Calipari that they'll follow him to UK, but I'd bet at least one of the two will do so (assuming the LOI clause is true). For whatever reason, Calipari is the "hot" coach right now in terms of getting players to the NBA, so that's where guys want to be.
Your second question addressed the issue of why a LOI exists in the first place (which, incidentally, a star recruit should never sign under any conditions whatsoever). I really don't have much problem with it b/c the coaches have the freedom to move around at will, so why shouldn't HS recruits be afforded the same opportunity?
This situation doesn't bother me nearly as much as the NCAA-legal rule that allows coaches to hire AAU and HS coaches of star players. Those star players show up for a couple of yrs, and then the coaches are released. Total garbage.