John Calipari has had some incredible talent over the past 30 seasons as a head coach. Who are the greatest players that he’s recruited and coached?
In today’s game of college basketball, there might not be a more controversial coach than John Calipari. It’s dated back nearly 30 years to his beginning days at Massachusetts, where he went to the Final Four with the Minutemen in 1996.
After a brief stop in the NBA, Calipari went back to college to the Memphis Tigers a few years later. He had another trip to the Final Four in 2008, led by a star freshman.
But just like what happened at UMass, the NCAA doesn’t recognize those Final Fours, due to violations that happened at each stop. The coach himself hasn’t been implicated or punished for it, but it hasn’t stopped his detractors for criticizing him.
At his third and current stop with Kentucky, Calipari and the program has been completely clean and dominating on the basketball court. The Wildcats have been the class of the SEC, with multiple Final Four appearances, and even a national title in 2012. He’s sent multiple players each season to the NBA and has had either the first or second ranked recruiting class each season for nearly a decade.
From an earlier piece that I wrote concerning the top active head coaches in college basketball, I had Calipari ranked No. 7, right up there with the very best. Like with the coaches before him, I’m going to list the very best and rank them from 20-1.
This was by far the hardest list to do since many of these players played just one season in college. What these players have done in the NBA is irrelevant to this discussion, making things even harder. So I based this list on both the achievements of the players as well as their success in March Madness.
Here are the very best that Calipari has brought in. Have any idea who might be No. 1?