Jason Jordan of the USA Today has been doing an in depth weekly article on Julius Randle’s recruitment and he has written about Kentucky’s in home visit.
You can also read about the other visits Julius Randle received, but I am pretty sure John Calipari and his staff take precedence over the others.
When the conversation turned to the program that was already up – the reigning national champion Kentucky Wildcats – Randle and Kyles start to find their second wind.
“Cal is just, well, Cal,” Kyles says of Kentucky coach John Calipari, who showed up at 7:45 that evening. “He’s just got swag. I mean he had a driver. There wasn’t any presentation – it was just Cal talking off the cuff and chilling out with us.”
Randle nods and smiles.
“Most coaches sell their school,” he says. “Coach Cal carries himself like what he’s done sells itself.”
Still, Calipari takes no shortcuts.
He shows up sporting his 2012 championship ring, showed off slides of him with well-known hip hop stars like Jay-Z, then upped Kyles’ excitement with three words: “red velvet cake.”
“Most of the coaches know that’s my favorite,” Kyles says. “He said we’d have that all weekend.”
Calipari’s message was simple: Come to Kentucky for a year, compete for a national title and dress nice on NBA Draft night.
“He said they lose first-round talent every year,” Randle says. “It’s obviously working. That ring he was wearing was crazy.”
“Yeah he was leading with the right a lot when he was talking,” Kyles jokes. “He made sure we saw that championship ring. It was hard not to see.”
