But that's why I'm saying, I didn't read what he said as a complaint about things changing. The point was specifically that he was NOT going to be a guy who quits because of guys being paid like they did because he can still affect his players' lives positively
I’ve read a few of these comments and am truly baffled much like a few others here.
If you have been paying attention to college basketball and recruiting specifically, since the late 90s, you will know exactly why this coach, saying this now, is hugely hypocritical and a last minute attempt to save face.
When Kentucky recruited Calipari that had a found a guy who had a great record with recruiting. At Umass and Memphis he has brought in big players, but more importantly, brought those teams to success not found prior to him. In those days players went to teams either based on the schools prestige or as the result of fervent recruiting by the head coach. Landing a top 15 recruit could change any program and building a team around that player could put your team in competition with anyone. Getting more than 1 of those caliber players was reserved for only the biggest programs. But the core tenets of college basketball remained in place. Development, personal growth, team oriented play. The purity of college basketball wasn’t disrupted.
THEN came the one and done. The Calipari inspired process of noticing players who would go pro anyways and providing them a hop skip and a jump into the pros. “You only need a year, I’ll give you the starting job and all the minutes”. Let’s do that for 5 different guys. What was lost? Team success. Team basketball. Team building. It took Kentucky 10 years before they realized that this process didn’t ensure success, for the team. For the jersey. Just for Calipari and the players, who in the most transactional experience at that time, got the attention they needed to grow their careers.
Sure, maybe somewhere in Calipari mind he believes that he helped these kids. In a way, he did. He gave them what they wanted, and he got what he wanted. But what didn’t happen? He didn’t change these kids lives. He just let them go pro as they would have if Calipari didn’t exist. Did he make an impact off the court? Maybe. But what was more apparent to all of college basketball fans, UConn or otherwise, is he poached all of these players from potentially life changing situations at other programs for a scenario that ALL of college basketball despised.
The creator of purely transactional recruiting, John Calipari. Now at the end of his career, with his 2nd money loaded SEC team, and with nearly the same recruiting style, he is saying that if it gets too transactional he will leave. He is repeating, in the same vein, what these other NON TRANSACTIONAL coaches said at the end of their careers. He wants his name along theirs. Nobody, outside maybe yourself and Calipari, buys this BS.
