A lot of coaches claim they wouldn't spend their time and effort recruiting a player they knew would only play for them for one year before jumping to the NBA.
Much of the time this is just lip service - how could you seriously tell a guy like Syracuse freshman Carmelo Anthony not to come to your school - but some coaches really practice what they preach. Judging from Thursday's win over Memphis, Rob Evans seems to be one of those genuine coaches and Memphis coach John Calipari does not.
Soon, Evans will surpass Calipari among the ranks of highly regarded college coaches. It doesn't just take one game to come to that conclusion, there's some history here.
Calipari, you might remember, gave Massachusetts fans one dynamite year, when the Minutemen went to the Final Four in 1996 after spending much of the 1995-96 season ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation. The squad was led by forward/center Marcus Camby and the Puerto Rican backcourt of Carmelo Travieso and Edgar Padilla, all three of whom were juniors.
UMass made tournament appearances in 1997 and 1998 (losing in the first round both times), but the team was essentially a one-year wonder, a theory that was cemented when Calipari and Camby both bolted to the NBA after the 1996 tournament loss.
Adding insult to injury, the Minutemen now technically "never appeared" in the 1996 Final Four because Camby accepted gifts from agents, officially negating the Minutemen's entire NCAA tournament record. According to UMasshoops.com, "the Final Four trophy, banner and 45 percent of tournament revenue were returned to the NCAA."
During Thursday's game, CBS showed a graphic that said, more or less, that Calipari brought in high school phenom DeJuan Wagner - who everybody and their brother knew was only going to be a Tiger for one year - and Amare Stoudemire, who never even suited up at Memphis.
The Tigers looked like a poorly coached team Thursday (perhaps because their two best recruits are in the NBA) while ASU looked far more disciplined. The Tigers started bombing threes when they trailed in the second half, unsuccessfully, hitting just seven of 28 attempts for the game and an abysmal 3-for-17 in the second half. The Tigers started falling apart, playing selfishly and, more importantly, played like a reflection of their coach - one who makes ASU look quite lucky.
Reach the reporter at gregory.salvatore@asu.edu.
