John Calipari at the barbershop’s Wednesday Morning Wakeup
John Calipari is currently working his way across the country to check in on his top prospects in the 2017 class, arguably his most important recruiting class since he’s been at UK given the total roster overhaul after this season. Over the weekend, he checked in on Mohamed Bamba, Kevin Knox, John Petty, Trae Young, and PJ Washington. On Monday, he saw Hamidoi Diallo, and yesterday, he visited Lonnie Walker and Tremont Water, with one of those visits taking place in a barbershop:
First home visit in a barbershop. Lot of arguing. Rose or Wall! Davis or Towns! MJ or James! Sounded like the movie. pic.twitter.com/MhlYtju1oc
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) September 13, 2016
Tweets like this one are one of the many reasons I love John Calipari. Despite his fancy threads and hair, Calipari is a salt of the Earth guy and loves nothing more than getting to know players in their own habitats, even if it’s a barbershop. The picture has been cropped to make sure the recruit in question isn’t shown, but that sure looks like Lonnie Walker’s hair in the mirror on the left. Regardless, what a cool move by Cal, and I can only imagine the barbershop sounded like this during the visit:
Today, Calipari is expected to return to Pennsylvania to visit Quade Green, one of four point guard targets in the class. Calipari’s main priority at the position is Trae Young, and word is his visit with Young over the weekend went extremely well. In fact, if you really want to read the tweet leaves, this one by Young yesterday is interesting:
Success is the Only Option💯
— Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) September 13, 2016
Why is that interesting? That’s also the name of John Calipari’s new book. Coincidence? Maybe so. But maybe not.
With our recruiting roundup over, let’s move on to the other news of the day…
Kentucky’s 2017 football schedule was released last night
Given the current state of the program, it’s hard to look ahead to next season, but man, traveling to Southern Miss and then hosting Eastern — a team that Kentucky was lucky to beat last year — doesn’t sound like an easy start; however, that’s probably just my recent pessimism talking.
New Mexico State star RB Larry Rose III did not practice yesterday
If you’re looking for signs of optimism heading into Saturday, New Mexico State’s star running back Larry Rose III’s status for the game is still in question. Rose, who racked up 1,651 yards last season and was named an AP All-American, hasn’t played a snap yet this season because of sports hernia surgery and did not practice yesterday. So, there’s that.
Meanwhile, the forecast for Saturday still looks pretty grim:
Mark Stoops will be on the SEC Coaches Teleconference this afternoon
I’ll be on the call to bring you his remarks around lunchtime.
Did you see Duke’s having a Pro Day?
The Blue Devils are inviting NBA scouts to practice on October 19 and 25 then barring them from practice the rest of the season. Hmm. I wonder how Coach K came up with that one.
By the way, John Calipari’s third annual UK Pro Days will take place October 9-10 at the Joe Craft Center. You know, coincidentally.
KSR in an hour
Until then, I’ll leave you with this video of a pee wee football coach busting a move in Texas:
3 Comments for John Calipari at the barbershop’s Wednesday Morning Wakeup
That barbershop scene was probably one of the funniest parts of “Coming to America”. I still laugh every time I see it.
Ali and Rocky had a lot of respect for one another. Ali candidly admitted he didn’t know how a real fight between the two would have gone. That he didn’t brag he would have beaten the unbeaten champ was quite a compliment.
So if Stoops seat isn’t hot (buyout too big), then it almost seems like maybe he should forget about winning games this year and focus on practicing the players that have the right attitude. Spend this year getting the guys that don’t quit ready to play next year. No more talk about ” we need a bowl to get more practice time”. You have practice time. You have an entire season of practice time because nobody expects you to perform this year and it is highly unlikely that UK has any option to get rid of you.