Cousins to…Memphis…Kentucky (Updated 6pm)

Basketball Recruiting109

ESPN Radio just reported that Demarcus Cousins has de-committed from Memphis and will follow John Calipari to the University of Kentucky.

National Sports Review

It would actually surprise me if John Wall and eventually C. J. Leslie don’t follow.

Deadspin has more on John Calipari’s dismantling of Memphis.

DeMarcus Cousins, one of the coach’s prize commitments when he was still working for the Tigers, has changed that commitment and now says he will attend Kentucky. Well, ain’t that a kick a pants. Their other top recruit, Xavier Henry, has also “reopened” his recruiting even though—unlike Cousins—he had already signed a letter of intent to play at Memphis. Kids are so crafty these days. He may not follow Calipari to Lexington, but rumor has it that the only way Memphis holds on to him is if new coach Josh Pastner gives Henry’s dad a job in the basketball program, which believe it or not, is totally allowed under NCAA rules. I believe the word you’re looking for is “integrity.”

Calipari is making his presence felt in other ways as well. (Link)

Now that the 2008-09 season has come to an end, the focus turns to 2009-10. RJ Bell of Pregame.com has posted the odds on teams to win next season’s championship, and Kentucky has already zoomed to the top of the list after the hiring of John Calipari.

The Wildcats are listed at 14 to 1 (7%) to win the title, the same odds given to defending champion North Carolina. Then comes Duke and Louisville at 21-1 (5%), Alabama, Kansas and UCLA at 25-1 (4%) and Georgetown and Michigan State at 30-1 (3.5%)

Connecticut, Florida and Texas complete the posted odds at 37-1 (2.5%).

The odds, of course, are likely to be impacted players who leave early for a shot at NBA riches.

Related: The Calipari daughters

Basketball Recruiting

109 Responses to Cousins to…Memphis…Kentucky (Updated 6pm)

  1. Thinkpack17 04/09/2009 at 12:32 PM #

    “Not apples-to-apples. It was only after Herb did it 4-5 times without further improvement and having consistently VERY weak OOC schedules to boot.”

    First…Sendek did not get ran out of town because of OOC Schedules, that’s the LAST thing his haters cared about.

    Secondly I was not trying to draw a comparison…I was just simply making a point. If people are happy with 20-10, why didn’t we just keep the guy who was 20-10?

  2. Thinkpack17 04/09/2009 at 12:36 PM #

    I also wanted to make the point that someone is always going to bitch.

  3. bradleyb123 04/09/2009 at 12:45 PM #

    “Not apples-to-apples. It was only after Herb did it 4-5 times without further improvement and having consistently VERY weak OOC schedules to boot.”

    And how many years did it take Herb to get to that “20-7” level?

    Earlier this year, I was on the fire Sid bandwagon. But I saw improvement on his part. He changed his lineup when it wasn’t working (granted it took him too long to figure that out, but…) He stopped what I thought were crazy substitution patterns for the most part. Point being, I think he’s learning, which is what we knew we were getting into when we hired him. He also developed a few players I believe.

    Sid basically lost a year of recruiting his first year because of the timing of his hiring. Herb left with some recruits, etc. Well, those chickens have come home to roost now. And say what you want, but our “best” players this year were not made or recruited for the uptempo style of play that Sidney wants. Next year, Sid will have ZERO excuses (except maybe for that bad first year of recruiting that wasn’t entirely his fault).

    I want a winner on the court as much as anyone, but I think we need to watch Sid THIS year and just look for some improvement. NC State was already a trainwreck, so we can’t expect to be a real contender this year. But as long as there is improvement, and something to build on, I will be happy to keep Sid around a little longer.

    It’s Fowler that needs to go!

  4. Gene 04/09/2009 at 12:53 PM #

    Perhaps you don’t, but at least consider the possibility that your harsh words, written here on SFN, could actually have an adverse affect on the program – a self fulfilling prophecy if you will.

    I remember when Werner reopened his recruitment, his father was reading NCSU message boards and was disappointed with the criticism leveled at the program by the fans.

    I’ll see if the link is still out there on the internet still and post it when I get more time.

  5. old13 04/09/2009 at 12:54 PM #

    Thinkpack17, what I’m saying is that if Lowe was 20-7, and had earned an at-large bid to the NCAAT THIS YEAR, people would be happy. I think that people were happy when Herb did it THE FIRST TIME. People became unhappy with Herb primarily when it became evident that 20-7 and an NCAAT bid was essentially as good as it got with him. If the Pack had been 20-7 with an NCAAT bid this year, people would have considered it good progress and would be looking forward to moving to the next level of improvement. Hopefully the “20-7/NCAAT bid-level” will be reached next season and we can start watching for the next level of improvement. (Herb’s consistently weak OOC schedules was just one of a number of symptoms of a stagnent, leveled-off program that wasn’t improving or showing signs of trying to improve IMO.) But I think that there is nothing comparable between Herb’s situation with the fans and Sid’s.

  6. choppack1 04/09/2009 at 12:57 PM #

    bradley – In all fairness, I thought Sid had learned alot in his first year. His second year showed me otherwise. His third year I saw both signs of hope and things which made me hopeless.

    I’m still in the camp that says, “I don’t have enough evidence to make an informed decision.” And unfortunately, w/ 3 seasons under his belt and not one trip the NCAAs – he’s getting closer to “staying executions” than “proving he’s the right coach.”

    The good news though is that things can change. As I’ve stated before, if you look at the ACC coaches currently in the league, you’ll see that the majority of them who we’d consider “good” – didn’t make the tournament their first 3 years in the ACC (or in Greenberg’s and Skinner’s case – the Big East).

  7. Wulfpack 04/09/2009 at 1:36 PM #

    This year, IMHO, his team did OK.

    For me, finishing 10th place in the ACC, a weak ACC, an ACC where only two of our teams survived the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, and failing to qualify for the NIT after missing out the year before IS NOT OK. It is not even close to being ok. I apologize if that’s too harsh for some, but I expect far more from our basketball program than finishing ahead of only GT and UVA as acceptable grounds. It isn’t acceptable. And it was Sidney Lowe’s THIRD season, not his first, and not his second, his THIRD. He’s had considerable time to get his act together, to get adjusted to the college game, to bring in bodies where we need them, but he hasn’t done it. It’s the same ‘ole, same ‘ole three years running now. The first three we were complaining of bad point guard play. Next year, we will complain about poor point guard play AND weak interior play. Whose fault is it? The loss to VT did it for me. But if that didn’t do it, is was watching the team tank at the end of the season when there was still something to play for to the tune of losing 4 of its final 5 games.

    If it walks like a duck, if it flies like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, well, then, it just could be a duck.

  8. bradleyb123 04/09/2009 at 1:43 PM #

    choppack1, I think we’re both in the same boat. I can’t disagree with anything you said.

    I’m getting a little tired of all the Sid bashing, though. Why not wait until at least basketball season before complaining? He’s here now. He’s not going anywhere, not yet. All our complaining can do is hurt us. Like someone said, a recruit’s parent saw our blogs and didn’t like how we talked about “our team”.

    Basically, what’s the point in complaining about Sid at this point? It’s not going to get him fired, as much as you would like it to.

  9. VaWolf82 04/09/2009 at 1:46 PM #

    He’s had considerable time….to bring in bodies where we need them,

    The BB season was not good….but this statement is simply not true. Everyone that Sidney has brought in (except Gonzalez and Marques Johnson) was signed within the first six months of his arrival in Raleigh.

    Degand, Big Lew, and Johnny Thomas – June 06
    JJ Hickson and Julius Mays – Oct 06
    Tracy Smith and CJ Williams – Nov 06

  10. mafpack 04/09/2009 at 1:51 PM #

    Some interesting thoughts/comment posted in this thread, long ago:

    http://www.statefansnation.com/index.php/archives/2006/05/16/delongs-delights/

    Including several impassioned ones by you Wulfpack. To be fair, you did indeed maintain your status quo as a through and through skeptic, but some of these statements…:

    Wulfpack
    May 16th, 2006 at 11:44 am

    “… Let me caution you in saying that if this so called ’success’ is to happen, be prepared to allow the necessary time for it to take shape. Pointing the gun at Sendek for raising the profile of the program and establishing consitency wasn’t exactly wise. Statistically speaking, he did a hell of a job considering the shape the program was in when he came aboard. It’s only natural that the program will now take a hit with the transition. The question will be how long will it take Lowe and company to get this thing righted.

    If Lowe hasn’t made a Sweet 16 or beaten UNC and Duke 50% of the time by 2012, are you going to give up on him just as you did Sendek? I’m just asking for a little expectation management here, that’s all. It’s going to take time. Coach K’s early struggles at Duke are well documented. There are countless other examples. And for those guys that seem to transform a program overnight, beware of foul play and the greed to move on to yet another program by way of success. “Quick fixes” can often times put programs in even more of a whole in the long run.

    Lowe will work very hard to make this work, I am confident of that. What I am also confident of is that Sendek also worked very hard, and he’s made his living doing this in the college game. This just isn’t that easy. There are many more “losers” than “winners” judged by our results-based society…”

    You did go on to express your concern over the hiring of Sidney and doubts about his ability to be successful here, but in the end, you too are guilty of exactly what I mentioned earlier. You say it, but you don’t really mean it… 🙂

    So much for 2012 eh? Its not even the 2009 season…

    Thank god for spring practice… lol.

  11. choppack1 04/09/2009 at 2:07 PM #

    “Everyone that Sidney has brought in (except Gonzalez and Marques Johnson) was signed within the first six months of his arrival in Raleigh.”

    That’s true – but it doesn’t mean he hasn’t had enough time. If he brought these guys in his first 3 mos – which spans across 3 classes – why in the heck hasn’t he been able to find more contributing players.

    If we are as many seem to say, “Just one Point Guard away” from being a tournament team, how come a group of former PGs can’t find a good PG from the 4 they brought in to play the position?

    Now as we head into next year, we there w/ only 2 experienced low post players – one of whom is probably more of a 3.

    I just get concerned that we’ll always be chasing our tail, always saying “well, we’re just one player away from being a tournament team.”

  12. VaWolf82 04/09/2009 at 2:22 PM #

    why in the heck hasn’t he been able to find more contributing players.

    You’ve lost me here. My point was that essentially three recruiting classes were signed in the first few months after Sidney took the job. Since he started with six scholarship players, how in the world is that alot of time?

    Recruiting has changed such that the big push over the next few months are kids that are still juniors in high school. So those first few months, Sidney had to pick among the best available that Harris, Towe, and Strickland had contacts with. You can look back with hind sight and say that Lowe shouldn’t have signed X, Y, and Z because they aren’t ACC caliber players….but you absolutely can’t say that Lowe has had enough time to refill the depleted roster he took over.

  13. choppack1 04/09/2009 at 3:04 PM #

    I guess I would say that his roster wasn’t so depleted that we should have been as bad as we’ve been the LAST TWO YEARS.

    Lowe inherited 5 ACC quality starters when he arrived. His second year, he replaced an ACC quality PG, w/ an ACC quality center, so again we had an ACC quality line-up w/ one exception – PG. Again this year, we had several ACC level players – but we didn’t have the ball-handling an ACC team needs.

    Basically, he’s had 2 classes – the 2007 class (which yielded Hickson, Smith, Gonzalez, Thomas, Degand, and Johnson) and the 2008 class (Williams and Mays). With those classes, he didn’t find enough good ball handlers.

    I’m baffled. Basic statistics tell us that it should be harder to sign big guys than guards – yet he found 2 solid big men in his first class, yet out of the 6 guys who could play the 1,2 or 3 spot he has not been able to address the ball handling issue.

    I’m not one to argue that Lowe came into a great situation. But let’s not act like there’s no possible way he could have done better. OTOH, when you look at his relative experience – these results aren’t bad.

  14. Thinkpack17 04/09/2009 at 3:09 PM #

    “Basic statistics tell us that it should be harder to sign big guys than guards.”

    Please elaborate.

  15. VaWolf82 04/09/2009 at 3:24 PM #

    I guess I would say that his roster wasn’t so depleted that we should have been as bad as we’ve been the LAST TWO YEARS.

    That statement is nonsense considering that that we haven’t had an ACC quality PG the last two years.

    I’m not one to argue that Lowe came into a great situation. But let’s not act like there’s no possible way he could have done better.

    No one claimed that Lowe couldn’t do better…but alot of people seem to be forgetting the horrible mess he walked into. In this back and forth, let’s also not forget that my original response was to the ridiculous claim that Lowe has had “plenty of time to bring in the bodies we need”. That “plenty of time” is alot closer to six months than the three years that was implied.

    I don’t think that it is too hard to figure out how we got where we are…..Sidney brought in assistants from the low-majors and the players that Towe/Strickland had contacts with were from that level of play. The only high-major kids were ones that Harris had some contact with. So we got who we got.

    Personally, I see the 2010 class as the deciding factor in whether Lowe has any chance of being successful. Next year’s team will still have holes that desperately need to be filled with the 2010 class. I just don’t think that there is any way that Lowe survives if the 2010 class looks like Herb’s 2003 class.

  16. choppack1 04/09/2009 at 3:55 PM #

    VaWolf – We agree on the timeline – and good point on the staff – it really makes some of the personnel decisions that much more baffling. Thank God for Larry Harris – right? Like I said, I don’t think he walked into a situation poised for immediate succes – but I also think he didn’t take advantage of a window where he wouldn’t have had to totally rebuild a program from scratch like he’ll have to do now.

    I guess one of things that concerns me long term is that the recruiting lists I’ve reviewed don’t show us on the lists of a lot of Top 100 kids.

    We’ve got a potential program-chaning PG coming w/ it – but we desperately need some quality big men.

    Who was the 2003 class? Bennerman and Flatt?

    I should have looked it up before. Meja, Adam Simons, and those two were the 2002 recruiting class (2003 freshman)…which is the one that I meant.
    VaWolf82

  17. VaWolf82 04/09/2009 at 4:07 PM #

    I also think he didn’t take advantage of a window where he wouldn’t have had to totally rebuild a program from scratch like he’ll have to do now.

    The only window that I see was extremely small. In six months, Sidney was forced to sign three classes…without knowing how any of those kids were going to turn out or how long any of them would stay.

  18. bradleyb123 04/09/2009 at 4:26 PM #

    but I also think he didn’t take advantage of a window where he wouldn’t have had to totally rebuild a program from scratch like he’ll have to do now.

    I think that was the idea when we hired Lowe, that he WOULD be doing a complete rebuilding. His plan is to have an uptempo offense that replaces Herb’s old Princeton offense, which means completely different players with different skill sets.

  19. old13 04/09/2009 at 4:35 PM #

    Oops! Wrong article.

  20. Gene 04/09/2009 at 5:09 PM #

    yet out of the 6 guys who could play the 1,2 or 3 spot he has not been able to address the ball handling issue.

    Very few freshman are impact players, especially at PG. If you don’t have the connections or time to recruit a top flight PG, you try and fill it in with the best of the rest.

    The best of the rest usually take a season or two to develop.

    Javi struggling, when he was thrust into PG duties as a true freshman shouldn’t come as a shock.

    What is refreshing is the improvement Javi showed at the end of last year, when we fans had written him off. Mays kept us in the game against Maryland in the ACC tournament and hopefully it will bode well for next year.

    I just get concerned that we’ll always be chasing our tail, always saying “well, we’re just one player away from being a tournament team.”

    Every team, with a handful of exceptions, has personnel issues most every year. Very few are truly complete at every position.

    The issue for NCSU is are the positions we are strong at able to compensate for the positions we are weak at. The good teams are able to compensate weaknesses with strong play from certain positions, the bad teams are not.

    So far we’ve not had a player who could compensate for whatever shortcomings we’ve shown, whether at PG or with perimeter shooting.

    It’ll be interesting to see if anyone can step up next year, because so far no one really has answered the call, though some players – Fells and Costner – did have the talent to probably play better than they did the past two years.

  21. redfred2 04/10/2009 at 7:41 PM #

    Vawolf82, you asked me for examples earlier, well sir, just R-E-A-D this thread once more if you will.

    This stuff has been going on since LONG BEFORE Sidney ever set foot on campus, and LONG BEFORE my favorite advisary ever came right out and said, point blank, that he would rather see NC State’s BB program failing altogether, then to have Sidney Lowe as it’s coach. I had been constantly pointing out his agenda for a very looong time before he ever fessed up and spewed that particularly outrageous comment on SFN even. But WTH.

    I had a lengthy explanation concerning just this kind of stuff, but it seems I’m the ONLY one doing any “name calling” and such around here. Whatever.

  22. redfred2 04/10/2009 at 8:14 PM #

    “Noah
    April 9th, 2009 at 10:06 am
    I look at Tom O’Brien and Sidney Lowe and I see the order and I see chaos.

    How anyone can draw parallels between those two…”

    He says “chaos”. Granted there have been some questionable uses of personnel, but other than that, what in the hell constitutes the use of a word like “chaos” in regards to the BB program right now?

    This is a single statement, and one that only adds fuel to the rest of his totally unfounded statements/garbage about the academics under Sidney Lowe, the calibre of player under Lowe, and so on.

    Now, how about if JUST THIS ONCE, someone else has the b*lls to ask Mr Noah for his explanation on one this. How about it SFN? Are there any of you who might want to know where all of the utter “chaos” is within the BB program right now?

    By that I mean, beyond some of the complete horseshit that certain fans are throwing their way.

  23. VaWolf82 04/10/2009 at 8:20 PM #

    Vawolf82, you asked me for examples earlier, well sir, just R-E-A-D this thread once more if you will.

    Done…but I don’t see what you are so worked up about.

    This stuff has been going on since LONG BEFORE Sidney ever set foot on campus

    I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about or how it relates to this thread. This quote of yours is a perfect example of the vague references that you seem to use in nearly every post where you are worked up about something. Quote or link what you are talking about so that everyone can see it in the original context.

    that he would rather see NC State’s BB program failing altogether, then to have Sidney Lowe as it’s coach.

    Once again you reference something that I have never seen before with no link. And even if this was said before, what does it have to do with this thread?

  24. VaWolf82 04/10/2009 at 8:30 PM #

    Are there any of you who might want to know where all of the utter “chaos” is within the BB program right now?

    “Chaos” could be used to describe a roster that goes from no guards to one that is mostly guard and wing players. Jeff has discussed the problems with our scholarship spacing several times.

    Or “chaos” could be used to describe a program that finished in the bottom third of the conference for three straight years with no signs of improvement on the horizon.

    Or “chaos” could be used to describe the recent recruitment issues with Wall, Favors, and Leslie.

    Just because someone brings up the very real and very obvious issues with the BB program is no reason to get so worked up. If Sid can get a good recruiting class this summer/fall, then that will be two consecutive classes and reasons to hope for significant improvement in the future. Until then, there just isn’t that much to be enthused about.

  25. redfred2 04/10/2009 at 8:37 PM #

    I wish I knew where that quote is, believe me, it is on here though. Other people also commented on it that same day. That is when I challenged Noah, he could not explain his way out of it, and he said he would no longer comment on BB threads until after Sidney Lowe was gone. That lasted a short while, then I even asked him to come back on here myself.

    I can’t wrap it up neatly and just hand it to you, but there is a definite history here. Others have also noticed, and commented on it as well. Hell Vawolf, many people accuse him of being a tarheel fan on here. I don’t want name people, but there are some good minds on here who have made comments on this stuff as well.

    Don’t get me wrong, I don’t any problem with what anyone says, but if they are going to say it, they had better be able back it up. At least with something better than calling me a “Sidney Lowe’s fanboy”, or simply coming back and saying that I’m an excuse maker, and then running off. If you’re going to make accusations and continually make negative implications, at least every other time, you need to step aup and explain yourself.

    That does not happen on here.

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