After mulling over Bam's decision to choose Kentucky, I had little time to think about it. It is what it is, the old adage you win some, you lose some. I know for wolfpack nation, it stings deep. Especially since it was thought for some time, even by the recruiting gurus that he would choose the pack. Being a long time pack fan, I gotten use to the ups and downs by now. We always manage to survive, whether missing out on a big time recruit or a player transferring. We will miss on recruits that we really want and need in our program here, it will happen again. College athletics has really gone off on the deep end, base on the decisions of 18 & 19 year old kids. But that's what it has come to, if you don't get good enough talent and win a reasonable amount of games it gets coaches fired. No longer are the days of when a coach has 5 years to turn a program around. Now it seems like 3 years is the norm now, if a coach hasn't show some significant progress, he is let go. The recruiting process has become even harder for coaches now with the one and done. We didn't get John Wall, Julius Randle and missed out on others but still managed to get to the tournament on regular basis. Coaches have become used car salesmen, no offense to any used car salesmen on this board! But its always been that way. Some coaches are better at it than others. Calipari is the master of it now. Also this generation of players coming along now of all the top 50 high school recruits think they are going to be lottery picks. He has done a great job in selling them that. The true fact of the matter is, if you are a great basketball player you will get noticed no matter where you are with so much social media and tv exposure now. Some may not agree with this statement I'm about to make but its just my opinion. Any coach that tells a big time recruit, that they can make player a lottery pick in just 6 months of playing college basketball is full of it, these players would have been lottery picks anyway if not for the one and done. If they could stay 2 to 3 years I would agree that they can become better. But that's part of the sales pitch these coaches make to kids now. There is so much of the seedy side of recruiting now, that coaches have to deal with, there is no way if I were a coach put up with. These so called "handlers" hangerons, and shady family members, everybody wants their part. Case and point, there is an kid my area, who is a rising sophomore, is really, really good basketball player about 6'1 or 6'2 has excellent handle and can shoot the lights out at this stage. Everyone that has seen him play says he reminds them of a young Steph Curry. Time will tell, but anyway they are already jumping on his bandwagon even at this early stage. The Pastor of the church he belongs to has taken over the recruiting process, has become his "handler" per say. He's even promoting him by selling t-shirts with the players picture on the tee shirt with the words printed above it "The Anointed One" and even has parishioners of his church selling them for him. Take what you want from that.
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