Imagine you are one of the top high-school basketball players in the country. You have been playing against elite competition year round for several years, and are looking forward to making your choice about where you will play for your mandatory year in college. Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, UCLA – the list goes on, each coach and each school will offer you the world, they will try to relate to you, make you feel as if you will be part of the family as said school. But in reality, how well can a fifty-something coach relate to the plight of a top recruit in today’s world? Most of these players have had people approaching them since middle school with a litany of offers to play for a given AAU team or to go to a certain high school. By no means is this the first time that they have been offered something in return for their on court services.
But then what happens if one of these coaches has someone approach you that aren’t just a runner, or a shoe rep, or a guy offering you a new Benz to drive around campus. What if it is the rising star of the hip-hop world, Drake? He is young, successful, self-made, entrepreneurial, and most of all, extremely popular amongst the demographic that these recruits fall into. This is exactly what Coach Calipari at the University of Kentucky has done, and it seems as if it is working extremely well. While it is unclear when Coach Cal first approached Drake to help with recruiting efforts, the evidence continues to mount that the much-maligned Calipari has again found a new way to bend NCAA rules for his benefit.
John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton were all five-star recruits that made their way to Lexington last year, in one of the greatest recruiting classes ever amassed, comparable in modern day to Greg Oden and the Thad Five at Ohio State. While this year’s squad of Wildcats at UK did not achieve the final goal of winning a national championship, all four of these players declared for this years NBA draft, and there is a possibility that they are all taken in the lottery. For the idealists out there, the NCAA is about developing players and winning titles, but Coach Cal has been aware for several years now, with the one-and-done rule in effect, that it is a lot more about making money for the players.
Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans and now John Wall, all of them played under the guidance of Calipari, and the first two have gone on to be NBA Rookie’s of the Year, with Wall looking like a likely candidate for a third straight. In an effort to ensure that Lexington remains stockpiled with top-end talent, it seems as if Coach Cal and Drake have joined forces to offer these kids something that they cannot find elsewhere. Every school can offer them girls, cars, apartments and playing time, but how many can offer you face time and a friendship with the biggest star in the hip-hop world today, Drake?
The Drake-effect is not only being felt by this years outgoing class of freshmen, but by incoming classes for at least the next two years. This year’s top high-school recruit, point guard Brandon Knight, signed with Calipari and the University of Kentucky and so have combo guard Doron Lamb, and big man Enes Kanter, both amongst the top twenty recruits in the nation. But Coach Cal does not stop there. Look ahead one more year, where the top two recruits in next year’s class, Mike Gilchrest and Marquis Teague, have already committed to play for Calipari and the Wildcats in 2012.
Coach John Calipari has for years been circumventing NCAA regulations in whatever way possible, and breaking them when he cannot find a way around them. He built national powerhouses at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Memphis, only to have the records wiped from the books due to a litany of recruiting violations. But you have to give the man some credit, as he has once again found a way to work his way around the rules, and keep blue chip kids coming back to him and playing for his teams. Whatever the financial arrangement is between Drake/Young Money Entertainment/Coach Calipari/University of Kentucky is, it is clear that all sides are benefiting from the relationship that is in place. If Cal/UK pay Drake in some fashion to befriend these kids, then there are no recruiting violations taking place. Ingenious if you ask me.
Editor’s Note: Lawrence Dushenski is a Toronto Raptors fan. You can follow him on twitter @LD10.
