Quote:
Originally Posted by RainMaker
Cal has a bad reputation, but I also think he can walk into a recruits home with a list of NBA players over the last few years and tell them this is where he will get them.
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I think that's only been true the last season or two. Yes, he won a title last year with his all blue chip team but until then, I don't think it was nearly that easy. He didn't get to Kentucky until 3 years ago in 2009. And 2009 was the same year he had to vacate his previous title at Memphis. You think recruits were jumping all over themselves to go to Memphis? Without a little SAT help, maybe? And that first year at Kentucky, with the cloud of penalties hanging over him? Never mind that he then choked in the tourney in 2009 and then in the regular season in 2010 (#4 seed).
I'm not saying that this year he can't go in there now and recruit whoever he wants after winning a national title and putting a truckload of players into the NBA in the process. But let's not get too revisionist and paint him as John Wooden the last 10 years. If you had to make a bet as to which major college coach did the most illegal and immoral stuff to get players the last 10 years to build their success, it isn't Coach K, Tom Izzo, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, or Bill Self.
SI