NCAA Basketball/Karl Towns I know Oregon and OSU have had some down years recently, but is anyone over here in the Blazer's forum still as obsessed with college ball as I am? I just posted a bit of a diatribe about Coach Cal in the NBA forum, and honestly, we all know that no one ever visits the general forum. So... I wanted to repost it here and see if anyone else had an opinion on Coach Cal and college recruiting. It's not exactly my most eloquent rant, and I could go on and on about Calipari, but I've been starving for some college bball talk, and truth be told, I've got years of dirt on Coach Cal, and having Towns on the DR team just takes it to the next level. I'm just fishing for conversations, opinions, and disagreements here, because I figured I'd get more of them here than in the General Discussion forum. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***Rant not about Team USA, but about Calipari... Read on if you don't know about Karl Towns, the #1 recruit from the 2015 class How the hell is "Coach Cal" allowed to take Karl Towns and bring him to the Dominican national team, and no one in the NCAA bats an eye? It's the ultimate loophole. Essentially, what happened was that Karl Towns, who is a 6'11" high school freshman (going on sophomore status), who is considered by ESPN to be the #1 player in his class, was invited by Calipari to play Olympic level basketball for the Dominican Republic. It just so happens that his mother was Dominican, and that made him eligible to play for the national team. Even though he had no real place playing with the rest of the roster, Calipari booted guys like Charlie Villanueva in order to make a place for his potential recruit, who probably didn't deserve the place on the team based on his current abilities. At his age, Towns is just starting to be exposed to serious college recruiting. This creates a huge recruiting advantage for Kentucky. Not only does Towns spend months with Calipari, but the team also practiced for over two weeks on the University of Kentucky's campus, at a time that happened to fall between their NCAA title and their NBA Draft where there were six Wildcats being drafted... aka the perfect bring a recruit in for a a weekend visit, and Calipari had the loophole of having Towns on campus for a very extended period of time. You don't think all of "Big Blue Nation" was all over Towns, showing him the best time of his life when he was "practicing" in Lexington? This inclusion on the Dominican Repubic team was essentially Calipari's legal loophole to bring the best prospect in the 2015 class around Kentucky all summer, coach him, and create a relationship with him. Those sort of recruiting practices just get to me after I watch legitimate coaches like Mark Few, Bo Ryan, Jamie Dixon, and Tom Izzo, who do everything the right way and can never pull in big time recruits. They try to recruit the top players, and when they don't get them, it's not a big deal, because all of those coaches will still find diamonds in the rough and find their way into better postseason success in March than the flashy sleaze-balls. In particular, I think of Tom Izzo, who makes a point of playing by the rules, even if it means he never gets the top recruits. He's never recruited a four-year player who didn't play in the Final Four, yet the highest rated recruit he's ever had was Shannon Brown. In short, the man makes gold out of clay. With that said, there was a situation where Izzo was doing everything by the book, and yet he ultimately received a suspension out of the blue because one of his assistants was in the same place as a potential recruit during the offseason. However, at the same time, "Coach Cal" is actively coaching a rising high school sophomore, brings him around his campus for two weeks, and making his dreams come true by playing against the best players in the NBA. How many times has Coach Cal been suspended for anything? I could write a book on all of the sketchy things he has done, yet Calipari is given full clearance to hang out with a rising high school sophomore all summer. Karl Towns' dad even said that his involvement on the Domincan Republic team could give Calipari an edge in recruiting, and the announcers tonight also insinuated that his inclusion meant that'd he'd be playing for Kentucky in three years. How does the NCAA allow this? John Calipari is ruining the collegiate game. I hear so many people say that he's an "great recruiter," but the fact of the matter is that the guy has the sleaziest recruiting tactics known to man. I've seen it for years at Memphis, and I'm sick of it. To quote one of the greatest coaches of all-time, Bobby Knight, "Why does this guy still have a job?" I could go on and on about Calipari, but I'll stop here.
MickZagger is your dude. I'd say he watches the most NCAA basketball out of the regular posters here. I watch a good amount of it, mostly just Oregon State and Tennessee. I'm proud of Oregon State right now cause they got a player drafted in the first year of the NBA draft this year (Jared Cunningham), but they haven't gotten much better in terms of record even though they have the President's brother-in-law as coach! Tennessee is also going through a down time after they were on the rise because of the Bruce Pearl recruiting dilemma. I like their new coach and It was cool that last year they played a 17 year old kid (Jarnell Stokes) who graduated high school early in December and committed to Tennessee the next day, and was playing on the team the next week, even though it was almost mid season. He was fantastic for a 17 year old, and has already committed to staying all 4 years no matter what.
Re: NCAA Basketball/Karl Towns Oh, and I hate Calipari and Kentucky with a passion. Outside of the Beavers and Vols, Michigan State is probably my favorite school, I love Izzo and the type of players he gets there.
I'm a huge College fan. I'm a huge Zags fan, but watch all, I'd say I enjoy the game more than pro as a whole. Yeah, Calipari is a snake-oil salesman slimeball. Always has been, always will be. There's a reason why he's widely hated by his coaching brethren. Bobby Knight publicly bashes him all the time and its hilarious. The way he last second swooped local guys like Wiltjer and T. Jones is fishy, too. The NCAA takes notice too. He had a Final 4 lifted just a couple years ago. Wiltjer verballed with Kentucky without ever stepping foot on campus. AAU is what made Calipari millions and got him notoriety. Now 17 year old kids think he's the bee's knee's and word has spread. He will be getting #1 recruiting classes year after year until the NCAA hammers him with major sanctions. Hate on Coach K all you want, but he does things the right way. Even with all the Burger Boys that Calipari racks up, nothing is a certainty. Butler's, VCU's and George Mason's have proven that. Butler was within a shot of winning it all.
