With Arkansas' hiring of former Kentucky Wildcats' head coach John Calipari all but official, players from the Hall-of-Famer's 23-year career have spoken up with their thoughts on the situation and Calipari as a whole.
One prominent player to make his opinion known is former one-and-done Demarcus Cousins, who averaged 15.1 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game for the Wildcats during the 2009-10 season — Calipari's first in Lexington, Kentucky.
"I put (John) Calipari and Deion Sanders in the same category," Cousins said on a recent episode of Bully Ball on Tuesday. "Deion has the "Prime effect" and we've seen what it's done for the entire state of Colorado. It's the same thing with Calipari."
A former five-star and No. 2 nationally ranked prospect out of high school, Cousins understands what highly-rated talents are looking for in college. The once-fifth overall NBA Draft pick was on national television every game at Kentucky, but he thinks that'll change for new players following Calipari's departure.
"Kentucky won't be on TV anymore, it's going to be hard to get a kid to go to Kentucky if they're not on TV," Cousins said. "What kids are looking for in today's time is what's hot, what's cool, what's relevant. I want to be on TV every night to show my talent. Guess what team is going to be on TV every night? The Arkansas Razorbacks.
"Arkansas will now be the hotspot, Arkansas will now have the No. 1 recruiting classes coming in every year. Arkansas will now be full of celebrities, Arkansas will have the most talent coming in and out every year. The machine will go, it'll just be in a different place."
No official announcement has been made by Calipari or Arkansas regarding his reported hiring. A source told HawgBeat that there is an event scheduled for 6 p.m. CT Wednesday at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
