What next?
Save a gaggle of children about to hurtle off a cliff?
Disarm a bomb in Madison Square Garden during a sold-out U2 concert?
Run into a burning house to save the family cats and dogs?
Win a National Championship?
Re-building arguably the most prestigious basketball program in history comes with high expectations.
As of right now, John Calipari can do no wrong.
He has sweet talked his way to becoming the head coach at one of the premier college basketball programs, Kentucky, and now he has the best class possibly to ever signed by one coach.
There is a trend beginning at Kentucky, as Calipari attempts to bring the school back to the heights it maintained during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
The result? Kentucky basketball fans and college basketball fans in general are borderline losing their minds over their newest recruit John Wall, a 6-foot-1-inch point guard, and the new Wildcats.
John Clay, a hearald-leader sports columnist, wrote on KentuckySports.com, that “this Kentucky basketball team should win every game. By double digits. It should win many more by much more than that. It should win division championships and conference championships and NCAA regional championships and, yes, NCAA championships.”
He also called this year’s recruiting class the best in Kentucky basketball history.
He calls Kentucky’s 2009 class possibly, “the best collection of first-year talent college basketball has ever seen.”
A blogger for A Sea of Blue, a Kentucky-based self-described “sports blog for fans, by fans” wrote in reaction to the recruiting class that “Cal has given UK fans something to dream about tonight, something to fall back on this summer and something to look forward to in the fall.”
FOX Sports commented that Wall’s recruitment, “undoubtedly has been one of the single most chronicled sagas this decade.”
The Sporting News’ blog “The Sporting Blog“ is considering Kentucky the number one team to beat going into next season and half of the team has not even stopped onto a Division I basketball court.
ESPN and Scouts, Inc.’s, Paul Biancardi called Calipari “the best recruiter in college hoops.”
He also compared John Wall to Allen Iverson and Derrick Rose.
Not bad for a player who is not yet out of his teens and has never played a minute of college basketball. And not bad for a coach who was just hired.
Watching Wall’s video below will give fans a good example of his immense talent.
How did one player create such enormous expectations?
He is only one of six players that Coach Calipari signed, including four on ESPN’s Top 100.
The class includes: Daniel Orton, the number four ranked center in the 2009 class, Junior College transfer Darnell Dodson, a six-foot-seven-inch small forward, Eric Bledsoe, the 12th-ranked point guard, Jon Hood, the 19th-ranked small forward, and DeMarcus Cousins, the number one ranked center.
The class has now leap-frogged North Carolina for the highest ranked recruiting class in the country, with Wall playing a huge part in the rankings change.
Speaking of Wall, he averaged 22.1 points, 5.5 assists and 5.2 rebounds a game this past season at Word of God Christian Academy. He also played for the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Select Team that included all the top recruits of the next year.
Wall #11 wearing arm sleeve
According to the Nike Summit website, which is who sponsored the select team, Wall describes himself as a leader in the transition game.
“I like to get up and down the court. I can finish at the basket and score whenever I want to. I get my teammates involved, and I can play defense and run the team.”
Typical confidence from a player so highly touted.
Back to Calipari and his incredible class.
These players are a perfect example of Calipari’s reach when it comes to recruiting. This Google map is another way to describe his trail of destruction. Web of Influence
On top of this year’s class, Calipari is inheriting a team that includes 6-foot-9-inch forward Patrick Patterson and because he has not hired an agent for the NBA draft yet, Jodie Meeks could also be a member of this juggernaut.
Patterson decided to remain at school, taking the opportunity to provide leadership and a polished physical presence in the post while the youngsters develop. Knowing that Calipari would be his coach this year could not have hurt his decision either, seeing the success that his new coach has garnered in the past couple years at Memphis. Calipari’s teams have a 104-10 record in the last three years.
The 6-foot-4-inch Meeks is a shooting guard and a scoring machine, pouring in 54 points in one game against Tennesee this past season. For the season he averaged 23 points a game and his addition would place Kentucky as front-runners for the National Championship in 2010.
Will he come back?
However, all of this could be proved moot come fall. The team still has to play the games, and live up to their expectations. But, if there wasn’t hype, there wouldn’t be columnists or this site for that matter. Therefore, keep the players coming Mr. Calipari.
College basketball needs and deserves the attention it is getting because of you and your Wildcats.
