Kentucky coach John Calipari doesn’t think the one-and-done rule will end soon, but thinks it could change within the next two years. (Kentucky Today/Keith Taylor)
By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
John Calipari isn’t sure if the one-and-done rule will eventually be a thing of the past but doesn’t think a change will occur anytime soon.
The Kentucky coach offered his views on the subject while talking to reporters at the Southeastern Conference spring meetings Wednesday in Destin, Florida. Calipari reiterated the change will be up to the National Basketball Association and its Players Association, not the NCAA.
“If it stays one-and-done, which I believe it will for at least two more years … I may be wrong. It’s not our rule, it’s the NBA and the Players Association and that’s a negotiation, like the art of the deal?” he said. “No, this thing is, two guys in one room, one guy has the chips and the other doesn’t. What are you willing to give up? It’s not going to be that easy. The Players Association is going to want something (and) the NBA is going to want it this way. … I think it will be two years, maybe more. Maybe it stays.”
Whatever happens regarding college recruiting in the future, Calipari is fine with a possible change that could change the landscape of college basketball in the future and beyond.
“I may have guys for two to three years, which would be awful,” Calipari quipped. “Maybe 10 or 12 guys go (from high school to the NBA), that’s fine. They say the guys that come back may leave after one year, but If they could have left in a year, they would have left. If that happens, that’s fine. Maybe I’ll get back to my UMass days where you have guys three to four years. It’d be fun. Everybody looks at what we’re doing … it takes until February until we know our team every single year and we’re hanging by a thread. Whatever the rules are, I’m fine with it. “
Happy for Crean: Calipari also expressed his support for Tom Crean, entering his first season at Georgia. Calipari said he became acquainted with Crean while he was at Marquette and later at Indiana.
“I’m happy for him that he has an opportunity because Georgia is a great job, not a good job, it’s a great job. It’s got to be one of the top three jobs in our league. I believe so.”
Calipari said the school’s location and facilities make the job attractive.
“Where it is, the facilities that it has, the school is unbelievable,” Calipari said. “There’s a range of student-athletes you can get. You can get the best and the brightest, they have every major, the campus is one of those places where the kids are proud to be there. You have Atlanta to recruit to, and they’ve re-done the faculties except the visitor’s locker room has a piece of wood with hooks in it, and that’s our locker room for the visitors.”
Prior to taking over at Tennessee, Calipari urged Rick Barnes to take the job in Knoxville.
“Tennessee is a great job — not a good job,” he said. “What they do, the commitment they’ll make, the campus you have, the facilities, the support you’re going to have. … Rick has proven me right. He smiles at me and laughs. He and I are friends. If it was a crappy job, I would have told him not to take it.”
Keith Taylor is sports editor for Kentucky Today. Reach him at keith.taylor@kentuckytoday.com or twitter @keithtaylor21.
