If I'm Kentucky...

D. Frank wrote:
>
> At UMass, he was working with elite talent --
> certainly what was at the time considered elite
> talent. Bright and Dingle were recruited by all
> the eastern power conference teams, including
> Georgetown. In fact Bright was recruited as
> heavily as anyone on that 96 UK team. Camby was a
> POY candidate. So Calipari didn't exactly take
> your local pick-up unit to the Final Four.

yes, and Calipari deserves a bunch of credit for getting those players
to commit to Umass.

mianderson RemoveThis @students.mcg.edu wrote:
[snip]

>
> Caliperi, otoh, has taken Umass to the final four. It's more
> impressive to take a program like umass to the final four than one
> like gtown. And it's not like that was the only good year he had at
> umass.....he had them in the elite8 they year before. In fact if not
> for having to play an insanely good ky team(that 96 team was one of
> the best ever) they may have won it all. Then he takes over at
> memphis(another non-BCS program) and gets their program rejuvinated.
> Last year he took them to the final four(again more impressive at
> Memphis than at a perrenial bigeast power school) and then this year
> gets them to the elite8. Between Umass and Memphis, two non-elite
> programs, he's achieved two final four appearances, two elite eight
> appearances, two #1 seeds, and two #2 seeds.


Eh, the cupboard wasn't exactly bare at Memphis
when Calipari got there. The Memphis name has
carried cachet since at least the mid-80s, and
Memphis is furtile recruiting ground. And a
basketball town. So this is hardly a difficult
place to succeed.

At UMass, he was working with elite talent --
certainly what was at the time considered elite
talent. Bright and Dingle were recruited by all
the eastern power conference teams, including
Georgetown. In fact Bright was recruited as
heavily as anyone on that 96 UK team. Camby was a
POY candidate. So Calipari didn't exactly take
your local pick-up unit to the Final Four.


> Their resumes(to this point) really aren't comparable. As for the
> ncaa violation problems, it should be noted that since taking over at
> memphis calipari has done *a lot* better in terms of getting his
> students to graduate. Before he took over their graduation rate was
> ZERO. Now it's still pretty low, but it's a lot better than what it
> was. In fact numerous players have said what a positive influence
> calipari is.
>
> Calipari is an elite coach.....if he can get to final fours at schools
> that play in conference USA and the A-10, imagine what he could do at
> a traditional power.