John Calipari recalls his favorite college players to coach

New Arkansas coach John Calipari has no shortage of pros produced between stops at Massachusetts, Memphis and Kentucky, and on an appearance with the Pat McAfee Show, he named some of his all-time favorite players.

McAfee and his henchmen were pretty amazed by Calipari’s sheer track record of producing pros. But among all those stars in the NBA, which were some of his favorite recruits and players before all the pro success? One member of the show asked and Cal came back with some of his best guys:

“Derrick Rose, Karl Towns, you’re missing, how about this, how about Marcus Camby? Lou Roe? How about those guys?” said Calipari.

He then went on to break down some of those elite guys he coached.

“So here’s what I’m going to say: Derrick Rose had a twitch like I’ve never seen before, twitch,” he commented of the 2011 NBA MVP.

“John Wall was so fast. I asked Eric Bledsoe, ‘Eric, how fast is John?’ He said ‘Oh coach, so fast.’ I said, ‘Faster than you?’ He said ‘No, he’s not faster than me, but he’s really fast.'”

At the time, and perhaps still today, Wall was one of the fastest point guards in college hoops history with the ball in his hands. That guy could fly.

“So you have Anthony Davis. How about Devin Booker?” Calipari continued through the list. “(Booker) was 17 when he played for me, 17! But you know, Maxey, and I’m leaving all these guys out.”

With 30-some-odd guys under his umbrella currently in the NBA after this past week’s draft, plus the numerous others that came and went, it’d be impossible to remember everyone off the top of his head. But Calipari does note that many of his best players had a common trait.

“Here’s what I’d say: my best players were always good guys, and I was able to coach them and coach them hard. Yeah, that’s why our best players were that way, and by being able to coach them and challenge them, you know, my best players that were that ended up going into the league and doing well.”

The former Kentucky coach also expects this year’s crop of Wildcat talents to fair well. He went to bat hard for Antonio Reeves and Justin Edwards, players who Calipari swears that NBA teams will regret passing on in the first and early second round of the 2024 draft.