Love him or hate him, Coach Calipari is the perfect fit for Kentucky. The program has virtually unlimited resources. Their fan base is huge. They have history. And he's used all of that to make them cool.
He already has more followers on Twitter than all other D1 head coaches combined. He's also over social media, contstantly sending out updates which are, well, cool. It's all charities, hoops, and people young basketball players think of as celebrities.
And he's on – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As soon as the Wildcats won last year's National Title, Cal was already talking about hitting the road to recruit.
Take a look at this video. His team trailed Duke 33-31 at halftime, and he was pulled aside for the halftime interview. Here's what he had to say:
In a game everyone was watching, he jumped on Duke for "flopping," which is something fans do all the time. Nevermind that Coach K and staff prepare the kids really well and teach them great footwork in order to get in position. And if the refs call it, then it's silly not to teach it.
More importantly, there were a bunch of young, talented, basketball players watching that game. And Calipari and Coach K compete for many of the same players. In one :20 second interview Cal laid down his sales pitch: Come to Kentucky where they play basketball, or go to Duke and learn how to flop, which, by the way, will result in a fine at the level all these players want to reach.
In other words the sales pitch is this: Kentucky is cool. Duke isn't. That's more important to recruiting than the final score.
