Kentucky, John Calipari, Should Avoid Mark Lyons

I have bought into Calipari's system even though I have been vocal in my criticism of Calipari from time to time and I will continue to be a critic when I feel it is needed. Within Calipari's scripted responses to questions with regard to his recruiting style he always downplays the "high recruiting ranking" of each individual blue chip he brings to BBN. He cites the character of the kid first and never seems to acknowledge their ranking. He speaks of recruiting "good kids" who he feels will buy into his amazing team concept. I say amazing because nobody has ever done what Calipari has done; that is blending high-end talent and making them first play defense and then he convinces them to share the ball, simply amazing.

If Calipari pursues Mark Lyons, former Xavier Point Guard, he may instantly poison the team with a player who showed absolutely no willingness to listen to his coach. Sure, we can make excuses for the kid and say the coach sucked at his job, or we can say the kid has a Terrell Owens complex where everyone picks on him even when the incident is a small one. But at the end of the day we can only judge a player by considering his track record on and off the court. Kentucky has a decent cast in the backcourt next season. Starter Ryan Harrow is amazing, Twany Beckham is a 6-5 point guard, and even though I am critical of him I certainly hope he has a breakout season next year, and finally we have Kentucky fave Jarrod Polson.

Sure, it would be nice to have Mark Lyons' scoring ability as he has certainly proven that he can score at will but scoring isn't everything. However, we must consider the flip side of the story. Calipari has a track record of molding high risk high reward talent. Case-in-point; DeMarcus Cousins was being compared to Derrick Coleman with regard to attitude. He was constantly on Cousins' back throughout the season and eventually the good shined through. So Calipari may want the challenge of coaching Mark Lyons but the risk to benefit ratio is not in our favor. We should pass on Lyons.