Roy Williams vs John Calipari: Who Has the Better Resume?
Recruiting Success
Roy Williams: Roy Williams has always been a top tier recruiter since his days at Kansas. He has proven his ability to bring in big time talent, even if the state of the program is bleak.
Just look at the last few seasons.
While at first glance, it may look like Williams has struggled, he has still gotten players into UNC that can contribute big time. In the 2016 class, he signed a consensus five-star Tony Bradley, and a couple of four stars in Seventh Woods, and Brandon Robinson, both of which have shown they can be big time players for the Heels, in the not too distant future.
In 2017, he already has five-star Jalek Felton, and is in the running for Kevin Knox, and Jarred Vandebilt, who are five-stars in their own right. Williams has pulled in at least one five-star player, in all but three years since he has been at UNC.
Williams, despite the circumstances over the last few seasons, has pulled in enough talent to keep the Heels in the top ten in the Country. If anything, something must be said about Coach Roy’s eye for good talent, not just his ability to recruit.
John Calipari: Many people in basketball circles believe John Calipari to be the best recruiter that college basketball has ever seen. Calipari’s salesman-like personality fits the recruiting trail perfectly. He is a coach that has reeled in talent no matter his location.
At UMass, he got the best player in Connecticut at the time, a household name to many basketball fans, Marcus Camby. While Camby brought much attention to UMass, and Calipari, most of which was negative, there was no disputing his playing ability.
While at Memphis, Calipari continued to recruit well. He brought in Derrick Rose, who was one of the most-highly touted players of his class, and turned him into a number one pick in the draft.
Rose also brought trouble to Memphis, but like Camby, he was hard to stop on the basketball court.
Kentucky has been Calipari’s strongest display of recruiting. While at Kentucky he has had players like Anthony Davis, Karl Anthony-Towns, Julius Randle, and John Wall.
According to 247Sports, Kentucky has had the number one recruiting class all but two seasons since Calipari has been at UK. He has also never been outside of the top two classes. His class ranking average has been 1.25!
Advantage: John Calipari takes this category, based off his success at not just Kentucky, but really every where he has been. While Memphis is no slight of a program, his last year at Memphis he had the second best recruiting class, according to 247Sports.com.
While one can question his X’s and O’s, there is no debating Calipari’s ranking among college hoops recruiters. Do not be surprised when Calipari retires to see him coming to your front porch to sell you something. He would probably thrive at that also!