The Collection
John Calipari is doing a thing he's never done before and I have no idea if it will actually work
John Calipari has made a career out of many things, but one of the things he’ll always be known for is saying the quiet part aloud. Like this:
"We're a players-first program,'' Calipari said. "And we might have just had the biggest day in Kentucky basketball history with a No. 1 pick and five first-round picks.''
Now.
How much of anything John Calipari ever said as head coach of Kentucky men’s basketball was something he actually believed versus how much he said because recruiting never sleeps, one will never totally know. John Calipari could sell ice to eskimos and time shares to guys doing life without parole; he is charming first and basketball savvy second1. So for him to utter such nonsense during the 2010 draft was both not off-brand and not, to his mind, a particularly controversial thing to say. His job is to win, sure; it’s also to secure the talent that kept winning, and the best way to do so in his mind was to prove his way got talented players a hefty payday at the next level.
And then… well, I don’t think the details are particularly important except that Calipari traded Kentucky basketball for Arkansas basketball at the behest of a chicken tycoon, which… the only analogy that keeps working for me is if Les Miles had seen the writing on the wall at LSU and fled the premises for Tennessee because the Haslam’s backed up an oil tanker full of money to his house2. But Cal is now calling the Hogs and it’s going to be fascinating to see the fall-out because he’s doing some fairly Un-Calipari stuff right now.