Last night’s win by Kentucky in the National Championship all but proved that resistance is futile to their SkyNet-like dribble-drive, draft system. While the rest of America was out buying lottery tickets on Friday night, Kentucky fans were focused on a few future lottery picks of their own. The Fab Five was a one-time deal for Michigan. Kentucky has become a lottery factory.
Some franchises…I mean programs are content with reaching the Final Four. Mid-majors aim for the Sweet 16. After winning the national championship, this Kentucky franchise should have loftier goals—like a top four seed in the Eastern Conference. At the very least Kentucky should consider scheduling the Euroleague Champs for a preseason matchup.
During the summer of Lebron, there was speculation that he’d join James and/or John Wall in the NBA. Call him Captain All-American or CEO but John Calipari doesn’t need to return to the pros. He’s built the best small market franchise besides the Spurs and Thunder. After 25 years of coaching college basketball, his next stop in the pros has been more successful than anyone imagined. Calipari’s Kentucky is a NBA lottery monopoly. Until other programs figure out how to replicate his recruiting prowess, Kentucky will become the Microsoft of the 1990’s or the U.S. Steel of the early 20th century. Soon they’ll be a Kentucky lottery pick in every NBA arena.
If he could force his freshman to sign four-year max contracts they may be the best team in the Eastern Conference by their senior seasons. In a few seasons, a starting lineup consisting of grad students John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Jodie Meeks, Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist would be the Oklahoma City Thunder-lite.
Kentucky hiring Calipari as its CEO in 2010 was akin to the day, Apple re-hired Steve Jobs or when the Queen of Spain decided to give Columbus the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. It’s hard to believe this is the same program that struggled to recruit free agents…I mean freshman since Tubby Smith took over for Rick Pitino. Smith may be a better X’s & O’s coach than Calipari but in the current collegiate landscape, recruiting is king and Kentucky is basketball’s Buckingham Palace.
Amazingly, Calipari hasn’t slipped up on the recruiting trail in his career. His efficiency as arecruiter is more impressive than his winning percentage. Sure, he’s had some Final Fours vacated but on the court he hasn’t had any letdowns like Andre Drummond at UConn or Mississippi State’s Renardo Sidney. From Marcus Camby, Dajuan Wagner and Sean Carney to Anthony Davis they’ve all been successes on the collegiate level.
Demarcus Cousins could have easily been the program wrecker that Reeves Nelson became at UCLA. It would have been even more devastating because Cousin’s freshman year was Calipari’s first season as head coach of the Big Blue. Yet, he was reasonably measured as a Wildcat.
Mississippi State head coach Rick Stanbury’s handling of Sidney indirectly led to his firing. He couldn’t even keep Sidney, considered a basketball phenom since ninth grade from bludgeoning his own teammate in the stands at a tournament in Hawaii. It’s a testament to CEO Calipari’s Jedi-like management abilities.
As Kansas chipped at the lead in the final minutes of last night’s championship game, the fear was that Calipari was about to become the Lebron James of coaching. Now the fear is that eventually, history, the SEC(the Securities & Exchange Commission not the one with Alabama) and Jerry Tarkanian will catch up to Kentucky and Calipari. Tarkanian’s connection to a Mafia insider ultimately led to the NCAA disavowing his entire career much like Two and a Half Men erased Charlie Sheen.
I’s a little bit of an exaggeration but you get the point. In 2008, Calipari’s Final Four was vacated after it was revealed that Derrick Rose didn’t take his own SAT exam. Calipari openly joked at his 53rd birthday that he was actually 51 because the NCAA vacated his Final Four seasons at Kentucky and UMass. As upset as that joke may have secretly made the NCAA, nothing may have had them seething more than watching him win a national championship as manager of Kentucky Wildcat Inc., the world’s leading draft pick producer. A repeat may be in the works if the top recruits in the class of 2012, Shabazz Muhammad and Nerlens Noel decide to don Kentucky blue next season.
Business has just picked up.
