Are Calipari, UK after Memphis JUCO signees?

Just when you thought Memphis was getting the recruiting shaft as much as possible, this comes out:

MEMPHIS EDGE – There could be more bad news for Memphis on the recruiting front this week.

While most people have just assumed that hiring Miami-Dade coach Matt Eisele onto the Memphis staff would secure the two junior college players who signed last fall, multiple sources have indicated that’s not necessarily the case. That leaves a lot of things in limbo, including the Memphis staff and just how much of the recruiting class Josh Pastner will be able to salvage.

Though neither Darnell Dodson nor Will Coleman had asked to be released from their letters-of-intent as of last night, I wouldn’t be shocked if Dodson made that move in the near future. Coleman has been harder to get a read on because he’s out of the country right now playing basketball with an all-star team. The tough thing for Pastner is that he didn’t really recruit either player last year, so he’s got more ground to make up in re-recruiting them. Those guys were brought in primarily by Orlando Antigua, who is now on the Kentucky staff. And if Eisele can’t guarantee both players would come to Memphis, it’s unlikely Memphis would hire him.

The question now is whether John Calipari would try to get involved (or if he already is). The answer is most likely yes. What Calipari has been telling people close to him is that he is worried he might win 15 or 16 games at Kentucky next year after seeing the lack of talent in that program. Whether he really believes that or not, he’s clearly laying the groundwork to grab some players because he needs them. Perhaps even if it comes at the expense of his former assistant.

Like this writer, I never really paid any attention to Memphis’ two JUCO signees, because I literally thought there was no chance they would follow him to UK. Both Will Coleman (6-9 230 lb. PF) and Darnell Dodson (6-7 215 lb. SF) are highly rated, 4 star JUCO players, and would probably contribute. However, I have no idea where the scholarships would come from, and don’t know really anything about these kids. One thing I do take away from this story is the fact that Coach Calipari is very worried about our current talent level. I think pretty much anybody who followed this year recognized UK had a talent deficit compared with where UK should be, but it might be even worse than we thought.

We’ll obviously keep you posted on this, and next time I promise to be better informed about these kids. At the moment, though, you should at least know these names in addition to the high school seniors that UK is targeting.