After coming up with the 22nd-ranked recruiting class for 2009, Smith has already gotten two verbal commitments from ESPN’s recruiting list for 2010 and has four more considering wearing Gopher maroon and gold. The biggest possibility comes from Las Vegas, Nevada, and has at least one pretty good reason to come to the U, his brother and current Gopher shooting guard, Devoe Joseph.

Cory Joseph is a six-foot-three-inch point guard (Don’t mind the video title, he’s grown an inch) from Findlay Prep, ranked 30th overall for the class of 2010 and number six among all point guards. (After Rajon Rondo ended up being a pretty impressive NBA point guard, is it any wonder Tubby brings in so many good PG’s?)

The younger Joseph is a vast array of talents. He is big enough to guard shooting guards at the Division I level, but he’s also quick enough to guard point guards. On the offensive end, he scores in multiple ways, and though he is right-handed, he creates off his left-hand just as frequently as his dominant hand. He hits the pull-up jumper with ease and he has no trouble throwing it down to prove a point.

If Smith can find a way to bring in Joseph, he’ll have created a team with enough talent to bring the Gopher’s back to the prominence of the Clem Haskins’ days, you know, without the cheating on tests and being dumb as a stump. Plenty more to come in the future…

Take a look at this video to see his talents on display. More info at Myron Medcalf’s blog for the Star Tribune.

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.

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Williams Jr. (#24) getting air

The latest Rivals.com rankings for the 2009 recruiting class has the Minnesota Gophers sitting at 22. However, ESPN’s has the Gophs at 11. I’m not sure that the recruiting class is quite that high, but I certainly don’t think it is as low as 22. Even Forward Royce White is the number two ranked player at his position, and Rodney Williams Jr., is a 6-6 wing player with incredible athleticism make the class better than 22.  Just watch this video and you’ll see Williams at work.

Another big player for the Gophers coming in will be Trevor Mbakwe. He is a former Minnesota high school star who went to Marquette. After playing a year of Junior College at Miami Dade, Mbakwe is coming back home. He’s a 6-8 forward with above average athleticism and the ESPN rankings consider him a perfect fit for Tubby Smith because of his hustle and rebounding.

The biggest recruit to sign might be West Coast point guard, Justin Cobbs. Rivals says that “Cobbs gives the program a heady point guard that knows how to put the ball in the basket.” With the sluggish play of point guard Al Nolen down the stretch this year, scoring over ten points just once in the last 14 games and having over 5 assists once as well, Cobbs could help get the Gophers offense going.

It is still early to know whether this class will truly lift the program from middling to consistent contender, but it is certainly exciting to have hope with head coach Tubby Smith recruiting for Minnesota.

With senior of high school not being that long ago for me, it is intriguing to hear that there is now a basketball player who will be skipping his senior year, not of college folks, of high school, to go play basketball in Europe. The first I heard of the story was in Chris Ballard’s article in Sports Illustrated.

The idea of players leaving college early has been a topic of heated discussion for years now, but high school? When the NBA implemented a rule forcing players to play at least one year of college basketball before being drafted, I figured that some players would find a way around it, but going overseas may not be the easiest way to go about it. Doug Gottlieb, a former collegiate point guard, and former coach Fran Frascilla weighed both sides of the issue on ESPN.

In Ballard’s article, he talks to Josh Childress, who turned down a $33 million deal from the Atlanta Hawks to sign a three-year, $20 million contract to play in Greece. Childress says that he can’t imaginne having trying to make the jump at that age let alone for grown men.

Another example that Tyler has to take into account is Brendan Jennings. Jennings was signed to go to Arizona to play for Lute Olson and the Wildcats, but when he couldn’t get good enough test scores, he decided to play in Italy. He now keeps a blog, journaling his life and it is clear reading his work that things aren’t easy. ESPN the magazine wrote an article once he made his decision and went to Italy. If you think a dorm room is a problem, try staying in a hostel or a European hotel.

On the court, Jennings hasn’t found it all that easy either. He is only averaging 7.6 points a game and 1.6 assists. However, having his mother and brother there with him certainly creates more opportunity for feeling at home off the court.

As of now, Tyler won’t have that luxury. His dad appears happy to throw him into the fray, saying in Ballard’s piece, “He’s going to get thrown under the bus over there, its the same as him saying, ‘Dad, I want to join the Army,’ and I say, ‘O.K. but once you make the commitment, you can’t turn around.’”

While it may help make Tyler mature quickly, there is also a chance for complete disaster. Recently, ESPN reported John Wall, a 2009 recruit was found guilty of breaking and entering. This is a senior in high school who wasn’t smart enough to stay off of private property.

The maturity level of top athletes in high school is often lower than the average student. Look at movies like Varsity Blues, Friday Night Lights, Coach Carter, Basketball Diaries, and the list goes on. While these are Hollywood stories, there is obvious truth to each. High Schoolers are not ready for the responsibility that comes with mass quantities of money and living on their own. That’s what college is for.

While I’m not sure I could pass up the money, I’m sure I would not have been mature enough as a 17-year-old to live in Europe by myself. I wish Jeremy Tyler the best of luck and hope that he succeeds. He’s been the top his whole life and hasn’t struggled before, however, the odds are now stacked against him.

Here’s a highlight video of Henry at his high school in Oklahoma City.

Henry is wearing jersey #1

On April 6, 2009, their goal was accomplished with a 89-72 win over the Michigan State Spartans. The victory was not simply efficient, it was a dismantling. The Tar Heels did everything right, and the Spartans floundered. The Heels forced the Spartans into 21 turnovers, with Lawson having a NCAA-record eight steals. The score was 34-11 with over nine minutes left in the first half. The 21-point lead at halftime was the largest ever in a National Championship. It was never a game, a testament to one of the greatest teams ever in college basketball history.

Those players who came back did not let their opportunity slip away. Hansbrough had 18 points, Ellington had 19 and was named Final Four Most Outstanding Player, and Lawson led all scorers with 21. Ellington could not be stopped and Travis Walton, the Spartan player asked to do the impossible, said that the game “was a blur.”

“He’s a great player,” Walton said, “it’s tough to guard a player like that. Today was his night.”

Afterward, Ellington displayed the emotional evidence of their season. He could be seen crying directly behind head coach Roy Williams, as they received the National Championship trophy.

“This is the best decision that I ever made in my life,” Ellington said. “To experience this with my teammates and to be here, national champions, it is all worth it.”

It took 293 days, but their decisions were finally vindicated. (You can take a look at the ups-and-few-downs over at Carolina’s athletics website) It is a beautiful sight today, as college athletes spend their token one or two years at a school, never having the slightest thought about a degree, to witness what this team did. Those players passed up ridiculous amounts of money to spend another year together, searching after a single goal and spending a couple semesters more in school.

Those couple semesters allowed Tyler Hansbrough to get his degree. How often do you see a National Player of the Year get their degree? Not very often. Blake Griffin won the award this year and has already declared for the draft. Kevin Durant won the award and declared immediately as well. Of the past eight winners, Hansbrough is the only player to win the award and come back the next year.

He has been ridiculed and hated, but he is everything that student-athletics should be about. He hustles, he doesn’t taunt, he is self-effacing and he actually fulfilled that part that comes before athlete. He took his classes seriously. Whether you like him or not, he should be applauded for getting to class and getting a degree. He hasn’t set his life solely on one gift. Speaking to ESPN after the game, Hansbrough let his critics know just how much he cared about their comments.

“You can say what you want. I’m a national champion,” he said, reveling in victory, “How many of you can say you’re a national champion? I can.”

It was a display of the emotion critics have said he didn’t possess. Anyone who watched the ending of the game would see another person entirely. They would see a man jumping and hopping around the court like an energetic boy, expending all that pent-up emotion that had been waiting for this day to be released.

Here’s to hoping that a cohesive team,  not a team of individuals, a group that suspended millions, a team that put their heart and soul into the game, will never be forgotten nor have time diminish what they have accomplished.

John Calipari has been following in Rick Patino’s footsteps ever since he showed up to the Five Star Basketball camp in Pittsburgh in 1977. Dubbed the “next Patino,” Calipari soon found himself forever linked to the infamous coach.

When the University of Massachusetts was struggling as a basketball program and searching for a new coach, Patino, then Kentucky’s head coach, was asked by his Alma mater to help name the next coach. After interviewing Calipari, Patino made it clear who UMass officials should select.

“If we don’t hire Calipari,” Patino said, “we’re afraid to win.”

Soon after, Calipari was made head coach at UMass. Forever indebted to Patino, Calipari made quick work building the Minutemen into a respectable program. He took over the dire situation in 1988, and by 1992, he had the team back in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 30 years. That year, the Minutemen lost in the Sweet 16 to Patino’s Wildcats, but laid the groundwork for a successful program.

Two years later, the two coaches were buddy-buddy as they played in a regular season game, talking about how much respect there was between them. However, after UMass beat Kentucky during the 1995-96 season, things went a little sour.

The two teams met again in Final Four that season, and the media had a hay day. Each coach was under too much pressure to succeed and the loyalty that had marked their relationship soon disipated in an attempt to win. Kentucky would win a close game and go on to win the National Championship that year, but a division had taken place. No longer was Calipari playing “little ricky”, he had his own success to build on.

Calipari would leave UMass for a short stint in the NBA, just as Patino would leave Kentucky, only to come back to Memphis bigger and better than ever. Both coaches built impressive programs and their competitive nature sustained their squabbling.

Now, John Calipari is attempting to take over Patino’s domain. By taking the Kentucky job, Calipari is walking into a program that Patino built back up brick by brick. It seems like a great hire to Kentucky fans and the program, but “Big Rick” cannot be very pleased. There has not been a coach quite as successful since he left and by selecting Calipari, the Patino kingdom in Kentucky is being threatened. It’ll be interesting to see if there will be reconciliation or whether this latest test of loyalty leads to a rivalry burning for years to come. It all hinges on Calipari and his almost $32 million contract. He may just be a “regular guy” but that kind of money demands production. Success breeds contempt and that’s something that Patino could be learning the hard way.