Shortly after John Calipari went to Kentucky, former Memphis assistant John Robic went on the radio in Memphis and talked about how Calipari had "more help" at his new school and "everything you need to win a national title."
Those comments, of course, upset a number of people in Memphis since they came just days after some of the most influential people in this city had offered Calipari $5 million a year, practically unlimited private plane time, stock options, a seat on the board of directors of a major company and essentially whatever else he might have wanted to get him to stay.
More help? Seriously? To the people who had poured significant money into the Memphis program over the years and were prepared to do even more, the "more help" comment seemed like revisionist history at best.
Now, Robic has seemingly done it again. He told Jody Demling of the Courier-Journal that Kentucky's No. 1-ranked recruiting class is a tribute to the allure of Kentucky.
"What we have seen here already is that it's a different deal; its Kentucky," Robic said. "It's a match between a talented coach and a place like this. Coach (Rick) Pitino was that and coach (Tubby) Smith was that; it's what Kentucky should be.
"At UMass we had to offer 50 guys and hope a few of them took it. We even had to do some of that early on at Memphis. But here if you offer 20 then 21 will accept because you might offer one by mistake. We have to be careful and now we know better what style fits the system best."
Let's be very, very clear. The recruiting class John Calipari got to Kentucky this year is essentially the same recruiting class that would have been at Memphis had he stayed. In fact, Memphis' recruiting class would have actually been better because it would have included Xavier Henry, who is now at Kansas.
If Calipari had gone to Arizona, that recruiting class would have gone to Arizona. If Calipari had gone to Virginia Commonwealth, that recruiting class would have gone to Virginia Commonwealth.
Kentucky just happened to be the school that got it. There was nothing inherent about Kentucky - besides the fact that it hired John Calipari - to make it happen.
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I'm I the only one who thinks that it is a violation of morals, principles, ethics and integrity to recruit any of the committed and recruited players from your former school to a new one? This type of situation is a first and one of a kind since I have never seen a former coach (i.e. Roy Williams) recruit any of the same players from a former school (Kansas) to a new school (North Carolina). If this is the way of the future, then lets just have the recruits sign with the coach and forget the school. This would be much more honest but then stand back and watch the $$$ fly around from school to school to steal coaches and their recruits.....oh but that's what happened! How sick college basketball is becoming and what a pathetic individual John Calipari is to be the first to open these flood gates to college ethics disaster.
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