Is Kentucky’s John Calipari A Better Coach Or Recruiter?

I’ll be honest. I can’t stand the University of Kentucky and John Calipari, but I do have respect for them. They are the defending national champion, which says it all. There really isn’t much not to like about their tradition, but what about John Calipari?

Coach Calipari has made waves through recruiting, which has been well documented, but what about his coaching? Last season, John Calipari lead the Kentucky Wildcats to the promise land, by giving Kentucky their eighth National Championship. It wasn’t just the players that gave Kentucky success. John Calipari brought in four freshman and helped them develop impressive abilities.

Above all else, John Calipari made his team play unselfishly. During almost every game, Kentucky left someone impressed. He completed an amazing task, by getting the freshman to bond together and play a team game. My hat goes off to him for that.

He also preached about defense to his team. At the end of the season, he had possibly the best defender ever to play college basketball, in Anthony Davis. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was also a lock-down defender as well. Every team he has had, has been fantastic defensively. He always seems to get his team to buy into his system, and it worked with perfection last season.

As far as recruiting goes, Calipari has done an amazing job on that circuit as well. He has had numerous number one classes. Not to mention, he has a top two class this year, which features Nerlens Noel, Alex Poythress, Archie Goodwin, and Willie Cauley. He also has Julius Mays and Ryan Harrow coming in as transfers. John Calipari’s recruiting pitch is virtually unbreakable. National Championship, easy path to the pros, and plenty of publicity. There really isn’t much to be upset about if you’re a Kentucky fan.

He also is in position for a stellar recruiting class for 2013. Calipari is involved with seven of the top ten players in the Class of 2013. Kentucky is also the perceived favorite to land the Harrison twins and James Young. There is also speculation that he’s heavily involved with Julius Randle and Jabari Parker.

That isn’t it, John Calipari also made an impact in his previous years at Kentucky. Many coaches could not have an elite eight, final four, and national championship under their belt, in only three years. Kentucky is now the major source for talent coming into the NBA. Since he’s been at Kentucky, John Calipari has had 15 players go to the NBA. Even with those circumstances, he always seems to reload, due to his recruiting ability.

Like I said earlier, I can’t stand John Calipari, mostly because of the one and dones, but I do have respect for him. He is a fantastic coach and recruiter, and maybe even the best coach in all of college basketball. Many may not like his ways, but he gets the job done, which is almost seemingly unfair to the rest of the college basketball world.

Sure, he is not going to win the title every year, which is a good thing, but his team will be in title contention every year, which is rather impressive. I can’t say enough things that describes how impressive Coach Calipari has been at Kentucky.

Any way you put it, John Calipari is a person that we love to root against, but he proves why he is more than just a recruiter. You can expect more National Championships and number one classes at the University of Kentucky.