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| Friday, May 3 Updated: May 4, 12:40 PM ET Calipari still sees winning numbers in Memphis By Andy Katz ESPN.com |
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The NBA won't declare next month's draft the "Memphis Lottery." But three players with ties to the Tigers will likely walk up among the first 13 picks to shake David Stern's hand June 26 in New York. Dajuan Wagner, Amare Stoudemire and Qyntel Woods never played together. Stoudemire and Woods never played for Memphis. Each, however, will take a piece of Memphis with them to the NBA.
Wagner, who most consider the second-best guard in this year draft behind Jason Williams, played one season for John Calipari and led the Tigers to the postseason NIT championship. Stoudemire, the lone high school senior projected to be a lottery pick, committed to play for John Calipari last summer out of Cypress Creek High (Orlando, Fla.) before putting his eligibility in jeopardy by hiring a public relations agent. Calipari backed off Stoudemire, giving him reason to say he was a free agent and opt to go straight to NBA. Stoudemire is reportedly ready to make his decision to enter the draft official on Monday. Woods, meanwhile, actually signed with his hometown Tigers in the fall out of Northeast Mississippi College, but that was before his stock soared through the season and he declared for the draft. But, when the third of this trio is selected in the first round, don't expect Stern to also announce the end of Calipari's reign in Memphis. Hardly. Calipari isn't ready to proclaim all is lost in 2002-03 just because his one-time dream lineup will be balling in the NBA, possibly going against or playing for the biggest name (Jerry West) to call Memphis home since Elvis. But, Calipari may have altered his approach to building a champion in The Pyramid. Instead of being a pipeline to the pros, Calipari seems to have shifted his recruiting ever so slightly. But that doesn't mean he's shying away from any one-year wonders like Wagner. He's still in hot pursuit of those potential gems like 6-foot-10 junior Kendrick Perkins of Beaumont, Texas. "You can't get players like Dajuan if you don't recruit them," Calipari said. "But in today's college basketball, you have to think two years ahead because you're not sure who is going to be here. As soon as we signed Woods I said, 'Who are the backups,' because I knew there was a chance he could go." Calipari says he's got his roster stocked, full of players who want to be in Memphis next season and beyond, and who might surprise those who think the program doesn't have the talent to make another run at an NCAA Tournament berth just because they don't have the all-American prep or JC credentials. In the last few weeks, Calipari added 6-6 Rodney Carney of Indianapolis Northwest High and one-time Maryland committed forward 6-6 Cortez Davis of Laurinberg (N.C.) Institute. These two players join a musical chair recruiting class that now looks set with 6-3 Jeremy Hunt of Memphis Creighton High; 6-8 Almany Thiero of Mt. Zion Christian Academy (N.C.); and 6-1 O.C. Collins of Dacula, Ga. But the biggest catch might be newcomer Billy Richmond, a shooting guard who transferred from Vanderbilt during last season. These newcomers won't exactly replace the numbers, the leadership, the overall excitement of Wagner. But as a group, it could supplant the stats earned by the departures of senior forward Kelly Wise, early-entry departure forward Chris Massie and guard Scooter McFadgon, who transferred to Tennessee. This team might mirror more the mid-90's Massachusetts teams of Calipari, which weren't full of name stars outside of Marcus Camby. But the teams played hard defensively and on the backboard, and found ways to score. "We'll be fine because we'll be more athletic than we were a year ago and quicker than we were a year ago," Calipari said. Calipari is already banking on rising sophomore Antonio Burks (5.2 apg, 2.2 tpg) being one of the top point guards in Conference USA, and classmate Anthony Rice (43 percent on 3s) and Richmond, replacing Wagner's (21.1 ppg) and McFadgon's (9.4 ppg) production at shooting guard. Hunt is also expected to step in right away and produce in the backcourt. Calipari isn't sweating losing Wise (11.2 ppg, 10.3 rpg) or Massie (9.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg) as much as he would be without returning rising 7-foot senior Earl Barron (9.2 ppg, 5.4 rpg), rising 6-9 sophomore Duane Erwin (1.1 ppg), oft-injured rising 6-8 junior Arthur Barclay (2.6 ppg in 18 games) and 6-10 junior-to-be Modibo Diarra (1.4 ppg). And then add Carney, Davis and Thiero. "These guys are so excited about playing next season," Calipari said. "Everyone thinks they're disgruntled. We don't have a player who can break someone down like Dajuan, but we'll be a better shooting team. Dajuan only shot 29.2 percent (on 3s). The only question is replacing Kelly Wise." Carney is being billed as one of the best athletes Calipari has coached, but answering the hype might be hard to handle at Memphis. Patience to get to the NCAA Tournament won't last too much longer. This is will be Year Three of the Calipari rebuilding project, a point when the Memphis faithful expect progress -- an NCAA bid -- even without the stars. "I don't care about the hype," Calipari said. "It might affect the team, but not me. We're probably still picked to win our half of the league. How bad are we then? The players are excited. We'll be better defensively and more balanced."
Certification process still dicey
Adidas basketball czar Sonny Vaccaro said he threw an olive branch at Nike and said if they were going to go through the process then he would, too. "I'm going to do it if they do it and we should be together to form one of the toughest lobbying groups," Vaccaro said. "If we stood up and didn't then the college coaches would scream all summer. If they can't go to the camps it would mess everything up for the kids." College coaches get two 10-day periods to recruit in July, the 8-17 and the 22-31. But the process to open these camps to coaches via certification isn't so simple. The NCAA requests that the certification process begin three months before the event and a call to the NCAA said they need 45 days to process the request. The rules for certification are lengthy: According to the NCAA release on its website the following 11 points have to be met: The 10th point is causing the most concern for Gary DeCesare, the St. Raymond's coach (N.Y.) who is setting up the ABCD camp for Vaccaro. DeCesare said for the AAU coaches to be certified they have to pay $60 by June 17 for a two-year membership. The deadline is July 1 and $50 for the NFHS to certify coaches. But his concern is there isn't enough time. "What if we get more kids than we anticipate and you have to hire more coaches," DeCesare said. "This could happen for camps like Five Star and Eastern Basketball -- any camp that falls during the live period of evaluation in July. You can't just pick up a few coaches if they're not certified." The toughest part for the Big Time tournament in Las Vegas is getting the financial disclosures for nearly 365 teams, as well as ensuring all the coaches are certified. Meanwhile, the results of April recruiting are mixed. Most coaches are exhausted and feel like they went through July in early spring. The new NCAA rules allowed contact with a junior after the Final Four through the end of the month. But they were allowed just one contact with that player, although they could go to the school where that player was if they talked to another prospective recruit. The only tournaments allowed were the events the respective High School Federations sanctioned and that usually meant Texas and Nevada with tournaments in Austin and Houston drawing the biggest crowds. But some coaches feel the mid-level players aren't ready to get this many visits, so soon. "They don't know the difference," Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martell said. "They're not exposed to this yet. The top 20-40 kids have already taken visits. They're ready for that. It's a good head start on July, but it's hard even if you get a commitment to hold it until November -- or maybe even the following April." "But let's give it a year and see how it works out," Ohio coach Tim O'Shea said. "What you don't get is a break at the end of the season. But you end up at our level having to wait for the dominos to fall from the high-level schools."
Weekly chatter "I've never seen anything like it," said the winner, new UWGB coach Tod Kowalczyk, who was a Marquette assistant. "But I think it really helped me because I was the local guy. But it was different. It was standing room only." Kowalczyk said the questions were the typical interview type of queries, such as looking at style of play, academics and overall philosophy. "They wanted to be thorough," Kowalcyzk said. "A big part of this job is the support from the community and the media. They all wanted to see how you responded. It was sort of a tryout."
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com. His Weekly Word on college basketball is updated Fridays throughout the offseason.
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