I feel like how Cal really recruits as been buried here. When it’s said that Cal’s pitch is just “the NBA thing” what he’s saying is that he’s marketing himself. GMs trust his judgement because he’s been so close to a lot of elite talent, his prior relationships means GMs trust him to be honest about a prospect, and his relationship with current day favors allows him to call in favors with FO’s for his players.

As a student and fan of a big passionate basketball school who struggles to lure in the blue chip prospects, that Cal’s(plus K’s, Self’s, and Izzo’s) tactics work for the true top 3-5 recruits every year is insanely frustrating because everything those coaches have in their favor works against the best players.

Those powerhouse programs like UK are perfect for prospects that are usually ranked in the 6–15 range because Cal’s word can propel draft prospects up the board because it means something when he vouches for a prospects potential. Playing in the super young squads that Cal offers, where every player behind the prospect is also a freshmen, gives these players the latitude they need to adjust while the very elite prospects ranked ahead might not need.

So at Kentucky, these elite prospects are playing in younger line ups where other’s inexperience can lose them games. It’s not like they need the young line up because they are an elite talent so no one at a nonpowerhouse is going to take their spot. They don’t need Cal to vouch for their talent because scouts have already identified it. And finally, if a prospect does massively strike out, the prospect will want someone to share some of the load of a failed season. We saw Cal try to take some blame with Skal this year, saying he should not of been coaching him like he was KAT. This doesn’t work, Cal has coached brilliance before and made it work. If a player wants a coach to be held accountable then that coach can’t have a resume bigger than the allure of the talent. Skal’s situation came off as “if he can’t work for Cal, then who can he work for?”

I guess one counter point could be that Cal gets his recruits because he’s elite at developing these kind of talents, but that just conflicts with my belief that there are better coaches at smaller schools who just don’t have the Charisma to coach and recruit at a school like Kentucky.

If you are an elite basketball prospect and this made some sense to you, I just want to add that when you win at UK, you’re in great company, the elite have come to Kentucky and won. But when you go to a school that hasn’t won, you have no company, and you’ll mean so much to that school than you’ll ever imagine. Take it from Lebron, winning means more when it’s unusual.