Calipari’s recruiting success at UK was unmatched. The game changed, but that never did.
John Calipari’s time as the Kentucky basketball coach has come to an end.
On Tuesday afternoon, Calipari posted a nearly four-minute long video to social media in which he announced he was stepping down as the UK basketball coach.
Calipari coached the Wildcats for 15 seasons, amassed an overall record of 410-123 and guided Kentucky to four Final Fours and the 2012 NCAA championship.
On-court results were strong at the start of Calipari’s tenure, but faded in recent years: The Wildcats have just one NCAA Tournament win since 2019.
But something that can’t be disputed, and that will be an undeniable part of Calipari’s legacy in Lexington, is the level of recruiting success Calipari had during his 15 seasons at Kentucky.
During his run as UK basketball’s head coach — a span that stretched from March 31, 2009 until Tuesday — Calipari landed 47 McDonald’s All-Americans out of high school. The 47 Burger Boys that committed to Kentucky out of high school during this time period (including three players Calipari had in his 2024 recruiting class) were the most of any school.
Calipari’s “one-and-done” recruiting style helped him achieve his crowning on-court moment at Kentucky: Winning the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
That 2011-12 Kentucky team featured six players who were named McDonald’s All-Americans as high schoolers: Freshmen Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marquis Teague and Kyle Wiltjer, and sophomores Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb.
In 2013, Calipari brought six McDonald’s All-Americans to Lexington: Aaron Harrison, Andrew Harrison, Dakari Johnson, Marcus Lee, Julius Randle and James Young. This group of players factored into consecutive Final Four trips for Kentucky.
Whomever replaces Calipari as Kentucky’s head coach will be tasked with improving the on-court results.
But it will be next to impossible to recreate Calipari’s success in recruiting high schoolers to Lexington, although that may be a good thing given the current college basketball landscape.
All recruiting information listed below is from the 247Sports Composite.
A history of John Calipari’s top recruits at Kentucky
When Calipari brought high school talent to Lexington — starting with John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins in 2009 and continuing through a top-ranked recruiting class in 2023 — those players usually topped the recruiting rankings.
Starting with the 2009 class, 75 of 81 (92.6%) total true freshman players who came to Kentucky were four- or five-star recruits.
This group includes two players —Enes Freedom, formerly known as Enes Kanter, and Shaedon Sharpe — who never played for the Cats.
According to the 247Sports Composite, Kentucky landed the following top 20 recruits in each of the following recruiting classes:
▪ 2009: John Wall (No. 2), DeMarcus Cousins (No. 3), Daniel Orton (No. 19).
▪ 2010: Brandon Knight (No. 5), Enes Kanter (No. 7), Terrence Jones (No. 9).
▪ 2011: Anthony Davis (No. 1), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (No. 3), Marquis Teague (No. 7).
▪ 2012: Nerlens Noel (No. 1), Alex Poythress (No. 8), Archie Goodwin (No. 14).
▪ 2013: Julius Randle (No. 2), Andrew Harrison (No. 5), Aaron Harrison (No. 6), James Young (No. 10), Dakari Johnson (No. 11), Marcus Lee (No. 20).
▪ 2014: Karl-Anthony Towns (No. 4), Trey Lyles (No. 11), Tyler Ulis (No. 19).
▪ 2015: Skal Labissiere (No. 1), Jamal Murray (No. 11), Isaiah Briscoe (No. 12).
▪ 2016: De’Aaron Fox (No. 6), Bam Adebayo (No. 9), Malik Monk (No. 11), Wenyen Gabriel (No. 14).
▪ 2017: Hamidou Diallo (No. 10), Kevin Knox (No. 11), Jarred Vanderbilt (No. 12), P.J. Washington (No. 15), Nick Richards (No. 17).
▪ 2018: E.J. Montgomery (No. 9), Ashton Hagans (No. 12), Keldon Johnson (No. 13).
▪ 2019: Tyrese Maxey (No. 10), Kahlil Whitney (No. 11).
▪ 2020: Brandon Boston Jr. (No. 5), Terrence Clarke (No. 8).
▪ 2021: Shaedon Sharpe (No. 3), TyTy Washington (No. 15), Daimion Collins (No. 16).
▪ 2022: Cason Wallace (No. 10), Chris Livingston (No. 12).
▪ 2023: Justin Edwards (No. 3), Aaron Bradshaw (No. 4), D.J. Wagner (No. 6), Rob Dillingham (No. 16).
▪ 2024: Jayden Quaintance (No. 8), Boogie Fland (No. 18).
Quaintance, Karter Knox (No. 19) and Somto Cyril (No. 41) have all reopened their recruitments from Kentucky’s 2024 recruiting class following Calipari’s departure from Kentucky. Three of the six players in UK’s 2024 recruiting class have now decommitted.
Unsurprisingly given these individual player rankings, Kentucky brought in several top-ranked recruiting classes during the Calipari era.
Since 2011, UK finished with the top-ranked recruiting class (per the 247Sports team rankings) on six occasions in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2020 and 2023.
For plenty of these highly ranked recruits, Calipari made their NBA dreams come true.
From the 2010 NBA draft through the 2023 draft, 47 Wildcats (including Kanter and Sharpe) were selected. Kentucky produced 23 NBA draft lottery picks during this span.
That number will grow in a few months when members of the 2023-24 UK squad are selected in the 2024 draft.
Freshman guard Rob Dillingham, who declared for the NBA draft on Tuesday, is projected as a lottery pick.
Calipari’s first team at UK set the blueprint for all of this: Five players from UK’s 2009-10 Elite Eight team (John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton) were selected in the first round of the 2010 NBA draft.
“We’re a players-first program,’‘ Calipari told ESPN that summer. “And we might have just had the biggest day in Kentucky basketball history with a No. 1 pick (Wall) and five first-round picks.’‘
All three of the players from Kentucky who have been taken No. 1 overall in the NBA draft — John Wall (2010), Anthony Davis (2012) and Karl-Anthony Towns (2015) — played for Calipari.
Kentucky basketball needs a change in roster-building style
Of course, plenty of people have rightfully called into question Calipari’s style of roster building in modern-day college basketball.
The college basketball recruiting landscape has changed in major ways in recent years, from the prevalence of name, image and likeness to the ability to instantly add talent via the NCAA transfer portal.
The way to win in college basketball, right now, is with experience.
Kentucky’s 2023-24 season was a reminder of that, but so is a larger sample of data.
The 2023 Final Four — which featured Florida Atlantic, Miami (Fla.), San Diego State and UConn — was the first one without any former McDonald’s All-Americans since the NCAA Tournament began seeding teams in 1979.
This year’s Final Four — which featured Alabama, N.C. State, Purdue and UConn — featured only one freshman (UConn’s Stephon Castle) who was a regular starter. Even then, Castle finished the season fifth in scoring and no better than third in any major statistical category for the national champion Huskies.
Of the 100 starters in the Final Four over the last five NCAA tournaments, only nine players were freshmen.
And Calipari wasn’t going to tweak his roster building approach any time soon.
Compare Calipari’s comments from his first Big Blue Madness in 2009 with those from his final UK basketball press conference, which came after his freshman-laden team lost to Oakland in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
“If I have my choice between experience and talent, I’m taking talent every time!” Calipari yelled to a raucous Rupp Arena crowd in 2009.
“I’ve done this with young teams my whole career, and it’s going to be hard for me to change that,” Calipari said last month. “... I don’t see myself just saying, ‘OK, we’re not going to recruit freshmen.’”
Once more — during his introduction to Arkansas fans on Wednesday night at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville — Calipari reiterated his players first approach.
“I’m always going to be a players’ first coach. I’m sorry, it’s about the players,” Calipari said. “I know, for some reason, people think you can’t really be a coach that wants to win if you’re about the players. No. You can do both.”
It’s also clear that experience is necessary to put yourself in the best position to win in the NCAA Tournament by being a 1 seed in March Madness.
Calipari’s departure from Kentucky doesn’t mean top recruits will stop coming to Lexington. The following schools each currently have at least one top-10 player committed for next season: Duke, Rutgers, Baylor, Texas, Miami (Fla.), Kentucky and North Carolina.
Kansas, Maryland, Georgia and Alabama also have players committed from the top-20 rankings. There’s plenty of talent to go around.
But, the arrival of a head coach with greater designs on roster continuity and building through the transfer portal — which is basically any coach other than Calipari — might better position UK for March Madness success.
Calipari’s raw recruiting production at UK was a sight to behold. It won’t ever be seen again.
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