Are you a college coach who has recruited a prospect since he was a zygote in his mother's room? Have you coddled and built a trusting relationship?
None of it matters, because Kentucky's John Calipari gets what John Calipari wants.
From Gary Parrish of ESPN Radio (via Jason Marcum of SeaOfBlue.com):
"This one coach, a prominet coach, head been recruiting this kid hard. He'd been recruiting this kid and watcing every game he'd played in for two years, every minute of the summer. Been to like 30 games. John Calipari came in late in this subsequent summer and recruited him for like two weeks and watched him in like one game, and the kid committed to Kentucky.
"The coach started yapping in coaching cirlces about Calipari saying, 'They must have cheated. There's no way they got this kid. I've been on this kid for two years. Cal just came in and got him.'
"100% true, John confronts this guy in Vegas, because he heard the guy was yapping. He confronts him. Cal approaches the coach and says something like ‘Listen, I know what you’ve been saying. I know you did, I know you said what you said. I’ve heard it from enough people, but I want you to understand one thing.
'Yes, I am the type of guy who can come in at the last minute and take any player I want from you. You can spend your whole life recruiting a kid and at the end of the day. If I want him, I’ll get him. If we want him, we’ll get him.
'Don’t ever get that confused. Be appreciative every time I don’t come in and get your guy. Don’t accuse me of cheating when I do.'
Credit to Calipari for confronting the problem directly, unlike the unnamed coach. With antics like that, it's not hard to see why a prospect would choose Kentucky over whatever program was the other option.
