Did anybody here the big news yesterday? Justin Coleman, Louisville's top recruit, might not be eligible this upcoming season! Just kidding! No, seriously he might not be eligible, I was just kidding about that being the big news of the day.
The real story is that Kentucky landed two #1 prospects in the same day. You read that correctly: Two #1's in the same day. Brandon Knight is Rivals.com #1 player in the 2010 class and Michael Gilchrist is their #1 player in the 2011 class.
What does that mean for the Big Blue Nation? Calipari has made good on the promise that UK will be in the mix every year for the top recruits in the nation, a promise he made about a year ago in his first press conference as Kentucky's head coach. The BBN can take comfort in the fact that Kentucky is going to be a factor in recruiting for years to come.
What does this mean for future recruiting? Landing Brandon Knight and Michael Gilchrist shows other top-notch high school players that Kentucky is a premier program that demands premier talent. Kentucky has become an exciting place to play and a school in the national spotlight for all the right reasons under coach Cal. Kentucky is viewed as a place where players can come and elevate their game in order to excel at the next level. The media was all over the Cats this year. The team boasted 2 Sports Illustrated covers, a Slam magazine cover, celebrities at games, ESPN cover stories, a cover story during the tournament focused solely on their Freshmen and 4 Freshmen that are likely to be drafted in the first round of the NBA. If I am an 18 year old kid looking at where I would want to go to school, UK would be in my top 3.
What does this mean for Kentucky's rival school? Nothing good. The Cats have dominated the recruiting battle the past two seasons. The 2011 class might rival the stellar class that was put together for 2009. The 2010 class is still taking shape but it is looking to be a beast as well with Enes "The Istan-Bull" Kanter, Brandon Knight and Stacy Poole already on board. The additions of Doron Lamb, CJ Leslie, Terrence Jones or Marcus Thornton may be upcoming. Louisville has a small recruiting class coming in this year without a big name in that class. To be fair, Louisville is only losing three players from last year's team and is relatively young in all of their positions, so the need for a big class was not there.
As for 2011 the talk for over a year has been that Louisville's class is going to be one of the greatest of all time. With the addition of Glichrist to the Cats and the whispers of the Cats also landing Marquis Teague, once thought to be a Louisville definite, the 2011 class is also looking to go in favor of the Cats. Qunicy Miller, Rivals #3 player, is also favoring Lexington. There is a chance Kentucky takes #1, #2 and #3 in 2011, leaving Louisville asking the question, what went wrong.
All this good news, what's the bad news? One and dones. There are two sides to this recruiting battle: the good side is getting optimal talent and great PR; the bad side is that the optimal talent may only stay for one year and then vault for the NBA. It is hard to win it all with an almost all freshman group, as we learned last year. It makes for exciting basketball and awesome recruiting but leaves people asking themselves, how far could we have gone if they would have stayed one more year?
Calipari wants to coach the best talent in the country, as does any coach, but what comes with that is the possibility that he only gets to coach them for a year. Does that mean that Kentucky shouldn't take a John Wall or a Brandon Knight? Of course not. John Wall and Brandon Knight gives Kentucky a better chance to win with their talent than say a lower 4 star player or a three star player. The trick is to maximize the player's ability while you have him.
What does this mean for Calipari? The heat is on (enter Kenny Loggins). The inevitable accusations and questions will arise due to the big name recruits. The program needs to be clean and the spotlight is more intense now than it ever was at UMass or Memphis. He needs to be hyper-aware of what is going on with his recruits and he needs to make sure there are no questions left to be asked.
As for the fan base that he leads the expectations are sky-high at the moment. He has fulfilled the promise of being at the top of the recruiting game, now comes fulfilling the promise of being a contender every year and the promise of hanging that 8th banner in the rafters at Rupp. Cal is well on his way to making good on his promises.
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