ESPN Men's Basketball

Back in December, Basketball Prospectus and ESPN Insider scribe John Gasaway -- who made a guest appearance on our podcast this week, which I will now shamelessly plug -- noticed a rather remarkable trend: In 2011-12, some of the top scorers in the country on a sheer points per game average were also among the nation's leaders in offensive efficiency. As John wrote at the time, this is not how things are supposed to work:

Are Division I coaches more savvy than they used to be, or is it just a coincidence so many of the nation’s top scorers are actually highly efficient performers? Back in the day, scoring tons of points often required two things: a high proportion of missed shots, and a mistakenly permissive coach. (Draw up a chair, young people. When I started writing about college basketball, many in the media thought that because he scored a lot of points Bracey Wright was good at basketball. I’m serious.) But early in the 2011-12 season the guys atop the NCAA’s scoring leader board are unquestionably players who make their offenses better -- much better, in fact.

Oh, Bracey Wright. Halcyon days indeed.

Anyway, a month later, this trend still stands -- and remarkably so. Creighton's Doug McDermott, the nation's second-leading scorer (23.5 ppg) also possesses the nation's second-highest offensive rating (123.4) among players using more than 28 percent of their team's possessions. For a player to shoot and score as often as McDermott does, while also maintaining sterling efficiency numbers? That's crazy, right? (Right.)

And yet, somehow, McDermott isn't the paragon of this virtue. That would be Weber State's Damian Lillard. What Lillard is doing deserves special, even constant, consideration. The Wildcats guard leads the nation in points per game with 24.8. He also just so happens to lead the nation (among players in the plus-28 percent usage category) in offensive rating, where he is seven points ahead of McDermott at 130.7. It's hard to describe how amazing this is. It almost never happens. Usually, when you score a lot of points, you take a lot of shots, and a good portion of those shots fail to fall through the hoop. Not with Lillard. He's averaging 24.8 points per game because he shoots at a 46 percent clip from the field, a 45 percent clip from 3, and a 91 percent clip from the free throw line, where he finds himself nearly eight times per game. And the scoring is just the half of it: Lillard also leads his team in rebounds (5.8 per game), assists (3.7) and steals (1.3). If he played for a power conference team, he'd be the runaway favorite for national player of the year. There's a chicken-egg argument there, of course; maybe if Lillard played for a power-six school he wouldn't be playing the same level of competition, the numbers wouldn't be as good, etc. But however you want to slice it, the dude is having an insane college basketball season. Frankly, he's nearly been perfect.

Given all this, perhaps it's no surprise Lillard is garnering the attention of NBA scouts. But it is surprising -- and encouraging -- to hear that other NBA types have made his games appointment viewing, too. That was the case Thursday night, when the Lillard-led Weber State Wildcats scored another road win at Sacramento State. From the Sacramento Bee:

Representatives from at least nine NBA teams, including Kings president Geoff Petrie, came out to scout Lillard. Kings players DeMarcus Cousins and Jason Thompson, along with Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson -- a Fairfield native -- also were at the game.

Lillard, an Oakland High School graduate, said the attention does not faze him.

"I'm more comfortable with it now," he said. "It never bothered me, but I'm more used to it now because I know they're there. It doesn't bother me because I know what I need to do for my team."

Boogie Cousins in the building? If that's not an affirmation of your ability, Damian, I don't know what is.

In any case, the NBA clearly likes what it sees. According to ESPN Insider Chad Ford, Lillard is currently slotted as a potential mid-first-round pick in a loaded 2012 draft, albeit one that lacks "top-flight point guards," to use the scouting terminology. In his most recent analysis, Ford says Lillard has probably benefitted from the early success of former Cleveland State star Norris Cole, who fell to the Miami Heat thanks to concerns about his size and the lack of elite competition he faced in his career with the Vikings.

The NBA doesn't like to make the same mistake twice, apparently, and with Lillard, it shouldn't: If you don't want to draft a player that can do this much for your team -- or even, at the very least, put up these kinds of scoring numbers while maintaining such a high rate of efficiency -- you should immediately relinquish your position as an NBA general manager. Because you're bad at your job. And Lillard is going to be very good at his.

John Calipari is coaching the Dominican National team and has arranged an exhibition game on Aug. 15 in which they'll go up against a team of former Kentucky players including Eric Bledsoe, DeMarcus Cousins, Tayshaun Prince, Rajon Rondo and John Wall.

Calipari wanted the team of pros to be coached by former Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall and former Wildcat Sam Bowie, leaving the 82-year-old Hall thrilled to be making a nostalgic return to the Rupp Arena sideline.

But after it became unclear whether NCAA rules would allow Hall to coach the team, Calipari was forced to backtrack and have his predecessor join him on the Dominican sideline instead. The whole thing has left Hall confused, according to John Clay of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

"It’s a little bit embarrassing," said Hall. "To have Coach Calipari ask me to coach the All-Star was an honor. I was happy to do it. He's so thoughtful and been so good to me. He’s always been very respectful and supportive, including me in everything he does. I'm happy to help him out with coaching the Dominican Republic team in any way I can."

Hall said that he thinks that he and Bowie were "unfairly singled out. We didn't do anything. I don't understand how the former players can play in the game, but we can't coach. That makes no sense to me. I’m no danger to anybody. I would just be sitting on the bench. We're not doing any real coaching. No one ever told me that I couldn’t be a part of it until I saw it on television and read it in the paper. No one talked to me to tell me why.

Hall's frustrations are understandable considering it appears that the NCAA rulebook is getting in the way of Calipari's gesture.

Kentucky somehow isn't supposed to be officially affiliated with this game even though Calipari is coaching a Dominican team that includes forward Eloy Vargas against a team of ex-Wildcat pros in Rupp Arena, so apparently Hall can't coach the Kentucky pros, according to The Courier-Journal.

DeWayne Peevy, the UK Associate Athletic Director of Media Relations, is acting as a spokesman for ProCamps Worldwide, which is putting on the event.

He said UK can’t have former players or coaches involved in the production of the event, and it’s unclear whether NCAA rules would allow a former coach such as Hall to coach the team.

“(The NCAA) has worked with us from the start of this event,” Peevy said. “This is the first of its kind so there are no actual exceptions or rules for this type of event.”

All in all, being an NBA player is pretty great. You get to play basketball for a living, and by "living" I mean "a wildly lavish lifestyle beyond the ambitions of 99 percent of Americans." You get to see the nation's greatest cities. You don't have to be good-looking to attract members of the opposite sex. You get to wear those Dr. Dre headphones for free.

But don't think there aren't perils to possessing otherworldly individual basketball talent. Some players are so good they're compelled, whether they much like it or not, to enter the NBA draft after one season of college basketball. Case in point: John Wall.

During his brilliant freshman season at Kentucky, Wall semi-jokingly mentioned his desire to remain to Lexington, Ky., for another year, which was greeted with a big fat "you're the No. 1 pick, don't even think about it" from his coach, John Calipari. Wall said he had "no choice" but to turn pro, and while he may have been joking, you sort of got the impression that maybe, just maybe, the idea of staying in school for another year was somewhat tempting. Sure, being in the NBA is great. But being an awesome college athlete -- heck, just being in college -- is pretty great, too.

In the end, after Kentucky's Elite Eight loss to West Virginia last season, Wall left. His teammate, DeMarcus Cousins, followed suit. Both were selected in the top five of the 2010 NBA draft, and both are now wealthier than I can even fathom. But by leaving, both missed a chance to be part of this year's Kentucky team, which is having itself the college hoops experience of a lifetime at the Final Four.

So ... do Wall and Cousins wish they'd stayed? Not so much. But that doesn't mean they don't seem to miss going to the Final Four. From the Associated Press:

"Yes, I wish I was still there," Cousins said. "College life was fun."

[...] More than a thousand fans showed up at Blue Grass Airport to welcome the team back late Sunday night after knocking off North Carolina in the East Regional final, the same kind of celebration that was supposed to happen last year.

"I wanted to be there for that," Cousins said.

"I'm feeding off it," Wall said. "I'm happy for my Kentucky teammates. They did something we couldn't do last year. ... Hopefully they can win it all."

Being rich and famous and young and cool and the kind of person greeted with stunned murmurs when they walk into swanky upscale lounges has to be pretty tremendous. But being a part of a Final Four team during your college years isn't so bad, either. Wall and Cousins -- especially Cousins -- seem to realize as much.

Even Patrick Patterson, who told the AP he had "no regrets at all," still admitted he thought "about it all the time how much I miss it." Does that mean he, Wall and Cousins should have stayed for another season of college hoops? No. When you're going to get paid like those three, especially the two freshman, were about to get paid ... well, you go get paid. The college is awesome argument doesn't rank very high in the "should I take my millions now?" discussion. Nor should it.

Still, it's worth noting. These quasi-lamentations do make decisions like Jared Sullinger's -- who is turning down a likely top-five spot in this summer's NBA draft to return to school -- easier to understand.

Most of us don't have millions of dollars waiting for us after college is over, but if you went to college, well, you know the deal. Once you're there, you don't want to leave. And if you think you do, it doesn't take more than a few weeks in the office to know just how wrong you were.

A year ago today, Mississippi State fans acquired Kentucky forward DeMarcus Cousins's cell phone number. Naturally, they proceeded to call Cousins non-stop, and they even sprinkled in a few racist, sexist and anti-gay slurs just for good measure. Cousins handled the nonsense well; he took to answering his phone to have conversations with the rare brand of whackjob that thinks harassing a 19-year-old athletic rival is just good fun.

If Kentucky fans were outraged at this sort of behavior last year -- and many of them seemed to be, and rightfully so -- they didn't do a very good job showing it Tuesday. Because, yes, UK fans managed to get Renardo Sidney's number Tuesday, and according to the Clarion-Ledger's Brandon Marcello, Sidney was bombarded with calls and messages from Kentucky area codes throughout the day. Sidney, who couldn't possibly afford another off-court incident, did the smart thing: he never answered.

The messages have been characterized as "nasty," but Mississippi State guard Dee Bost told the Lexington NBC affiliate that there weren't any racist remarks left for Sidney. Bost also said he didn't think the retribution effort worked.

It's almost tempting to give Big Blue Nation credit for avoiding the racist stuff; that's something Bulldogs fans apparently couldn't do last year. But giving UK fans "credit" for leaking an amateur (ahem) athlete's cell phone number, and then dialing that number incessantly, would not be the appropriate reaction. Frankly, I don't understand why this ever happens. I suppose it's not surprising; Tuesday isn't the first time this has happened, nor is it the most high-profile case. But I will never understand the psychology of the college sports fan who thinks this sort of thing is a good idea. It's just ... strange. Do you know anyone who would do this? Probably not, right? And yet, these people exist. It's mystifying.

Anyway, Kentucky got a surprisingly hard-fought win, Sidney had a decent but largely mediocre game, and now he can change his cell phone number and hope it doesn't wind up in the hands of opponents again anytime soon. Just another day in college hoops, I guess.

How much would you pay for a mint condition Bill Self trading card?

Upper Deck has announced it will release cards of more than 30 current college basketball coaches, including Self, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun, Bob Huggins, Tom Izzo and Tubby Smith.

"This is an exciting venture to have college basketball coaches featured on Upper Deck trading cards," Self said in a statement. "It was always a thrill opening up packs of cards as a youngster to see who you had.

"With the tremendous popularity of men's college basketball today, having college coaches on cards will continue to help grow the game."

The cards will be released in early 2011 as part of Upper Deck's World of Sports 400-card set, featuring players and coaches from a variety of sports and including autograph cards. Other cards in the set include Michael Jordan in his North Carolina uniform and also recent NBA draft picks DeMarcus Cousins and Derrick Favors.

The company has exclusive deals with the Collegiate Licensing Company and the National Association of Basketball coaches.

From one former Kentucky big man to another who might never get to play for the Wildcats, DeMarcus Cousins had this to tweet the other day in support of Enes Kanter.

With Kanter's college eligibility in question after the general manager of his Turkish club team told the New York Times the team had paid the top recruit, Cousins responded with a fusillade of this:

#FreeEnes

The phrase has now spawned a T-shirt campaign. The blog Kentucky Sports Radio reports it has generated a "tremendous response" after the site began promoting this $16 "Free Enes" shirt.

Other versions of the "Free Enes" shirts for sale have popped up here and here.

While John Calipari awaits word from the NCAA of its decision regarding Kanter's eligibility, there has been no public support from Coach Cal toward this particular campaign with his million-plus Twitter followers.

But if you see Ashley Judd, Drake, or LeBron James making a protest fashion statement in the near future, you'll know why.

Down here in the college ranks, package deals -- wherein a high school or AAU coach uses his relationship with a top recruit to land a college job -- are all the rage. The NCAA has taken some steps to limit this practice, but coaches, like so many other college hoops hangers-on, are still finding a way.

This practice is far less common in the NBA. And by "far less common," I mean I'm pretty sure it never happens. Until Thursday when DeMarcus Cousins' high school basketball coach, Otis Hughley, was hired as an assistant by the Sacramento Kings. The Kings, as you'll recall, drafted Cousins with the fifth overall pick of this year's draft.

Joking aside, this isn't really a college-esque package deal; it reads much more like a franchise making sure their young star has mentors in place as he embarks on a new and challenging stage of his basketball life. Really, it makes sense. The Kings have a vested interest in making sure Cousins fulfills his potential, and if having his high school coach around to keep him focused accomplishes as much, well, why not? And it's not as if Hughley is a total schlub; he has experience coaching for USA Basketball and various top-level camps.

But, yes, the NBA package deal. It may never exist, but this is the closest anyone's ever been.

Former Kentucky star DeMarcus Cousins, who once famously remarked that an NCAA tournament game against Cornell is "not a spelling bee," misses going to Kentucky.

In fact, the one-and-done first-round NBA draft pick told reporters Thursday while back on campus for a John Calipari basketball camp that he misses Kentucky so much ...

"I wish I could just start going to classes again," Cousins said.

But the smile on his face immediately after saying it prompted one reporter to ask, "You mean really classes? Come on!"

"Nah," Cousins said, his chair tilting back as he and the reporters laughed.

Of course, Cousins is really no different than many former students whose fondest memories of the college lifestyle have little or nothing to do with what they might have learned inside a classroom. And even many who loved going to class have moved on from that stage of their lives as Cousins has.

Then again, while the comedic timing of this interview exchange was good, the guffaws also could be seen as ill-timed given recent revelations of Kentucky's low fall semester grades.

After the publication of that Lexington Herald-Leader report, Calipari himself responded by reassuring the Big Blue Nation of his "commitment to academics" with this statement:

"My job is to make sure there's growth academically and they're on line to graduate."

Answering a fan's question on Twitter, Kentucky incoming freshman Terrence Jones wrote today that of all the things he's most looking forward to about being a Wildcat, it's playing in coach John Calipari's dribble-drive motion offense.

Players generally like the idea of seeing their play-making abilities accentuated in this attacking offense as do recruits, so they'll all be happy to hear what Calipari has in store for next season.

Calipari, speaking on a Lexy audio post yesterday, mentioned that due to the change in personnel on the team, the Big Blue Nation can expect to see even more of the dribble-drive and possibly a more extreme version of it.

"Right now, I'm spending my time trying to come up with ways that we're going to play the dribble-drive more than we did a year ago, but with this group. We got a left-hander on the team in Terrence Jones. How do we now put him in the right spots so he can do his best? How 'bout this is a team maybe we go with five-out...so that we have the true strength of our team?

"Where last year with DeMarcus [Cousins] and Patrick [Patterson] and Daniel [Orton], we had terrific players around the goal. We had to play that way. Now we do have some strong guys that are bigger players but maybe a little more perimeter-oriented, so I've got to figure that out. My time's got to be spent doing that."

The SEC and the rest of the nation can't say it wasn't warned, and in fact, anyone with a passport can get a glimpse of Kentucky's top recruiting class test-driving the dribble-drive.

Calipari, after all, has the benefit of extra practice days to implement the system after organizing a Canadian tour for the team next month.

For the next month or so, our friends at The Mag are previewing one high-profile school per day for their Summer Buzz series. For the sake of all that is synergistic, yours truly will be attempting the same, complementing each comprehensive Insider preview with some adjusted efficiency fun. Today's subject: Kentucky . Up next? Louisville.

Tuesday, I spent much of the Duke post using the word "change." At the risk of getting repetitive ... ladies and gentleman, your 2010-11 Kentucky Wildcats!

John Wall is gone. DeMarcus Cousins is gone. Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton are all gone. Each was taken in the first round of this summer's NBA draft. And that's exactly how John Calipari likes it.

Either by design or by accident, Calipari is forging a new talent strategy at Kentucky. That strategy doesn't mind recruiting one-and-done players. In fact, it actively encourages it.

The difficult part of this strategy is knowing just how good Kentucky is going to be. The 2009-10 Cats were easier. Wall was always going to be a force and Patterson was a star under former coach Billy Gillispie. Bledsoe had the combo-guard skills to start alongside Wall; Cousins was, at the very least, going to rebound. (He ended up doing much more than that.)

The 2010-11 team is much more difficult to predict. Can new point guard Brandon Knight lead as intuitively and seamlessly as Wall? Will Enes Kanter replace the rebounding and interior defense of Cousins? (Related question: Can Kanter get eligible in time for it to matter?) Can new guards Doron Lamb and Stacey Poole give Kentucky some measure of outside shooting? Is Terrence Jones, the most indecisive UK commitment of all-time, good enough to replicate Patterson?

All of that seems doubtful, which is why the Wildcats aren't likely to be as dominant in the SEC as they were in Calipari's first season on the job. There is reason to think this team can be awfully good, though, and the reason is Calipari.

Coach Cal is often maligned as a master recruiter who lacks the X's and O's ability of his successful contemporaries. There might be some truth to that. (The decision not to foul in the 2008 Kansas-Memphis title game might haunt him the rest of his life.) But since the coach hit his elite-level stride at Memphis in 2005-06, Calipari's teams have always been good at two things: Chemistry and team defense.

The former alleviates concerns about mixing in new talent. It also points to a simple fact that some Calipari haters oftentimes forget: The dribble-drive offense. His system works because it reduces responsibility and makes the game simple. In 2009-10, the style of the Cats dictated a slower tempo, but Kentucky's new blood will be running again in 2010-11. Freshmen might take a while to learn college hoops, but it doesn't get much easier than learning it Cal's way.

The latter in that equation -- team defense -- is where Calipari's teams are always underappreciated. Take a look at the defensive efficiency of his last five teams (stats, as always, courtesy of Ken Pomeroy):

• 2005-06 Memphis Tigers: 87.4 points per 100 possessions. Ranked No. 6 in the country.
• 2006-07 Memphis Tigers: 86.9 points per 100. Ranked No. 11.
• 2007-08 Memphis Tigers: 83.9 points per 100. Ranked No. 4.
• 2008-09 Memphis Tigers: 82.5 points per 100. Ranked No. 1.
• 2009-10 Kentucky Wildcats: 86.3 points per 100. Ranked No. 6.

You get the idea. Calipari's teams can play defense. So can a lot of other teams, right? So what?

The reason why this is so important for Kentucky is because of Calipari's recruiting style. All of the teams mentioned above featured a bevy of young players. A portion of those players were elite one-and-done talents.

Coaches often complain that AAU and high school basketball is so easy for the best players in the country that they learn bad habits, and those bad habits manifest themselves in poor team defense. "Everybody knows how to score, but not everybody knows how to play basketball." How often do you hear college coaches say that?

Not Calipari. He manages to take the best talent in the country and unleash it on the college hoops world, but he doesn't just do so by playing to that talent's desire for stardom or scoring or high-flying alley-oops. It's easy to picture teams with so much young talent lapsing into lazy summer league defense. Instead, Calipari makes them buy in. On both ends. The result is teams that combine those dribble-drive-created offensive flurries with stifling, harassing team defense. It's just what Calipari teams do. There's no reason to expect the 2010-11 Cats to be any different.

There was simply too much turnover in Lexington this summer to know much about the 2010-11 Wildcats. We don't know how they'll respond to adversity. We don't know whether Brandon Knight can be John Wall. We don't know if they'll rebound, especially now that Cousins isn't hoovering everything in sight on the offensive end. We don't know whether this is an Elite Eight team or a No. 6 seed. We don't know how good they'll really be.

What we do know is that Kentucky will play incredibly efficient defense. We'll see if the rest, as it so often has for Calipari, can take care of itself.

From a college basketball perspective, there was one big winner at Thursday night's NBA draft: the University of Kentucky men's basketball program.

As if John Calipari needed to boost his NBA-friendly reputation any more. And yet he did: Calipari's first season at Kentucky produced the No. 1 overall pick in the draft (John Wall), the No. 5 pick (DeMarcus Cousins), a third lottery pick at No. 14 (Patrick Patterson), and two more first-round picks in point guard Eric Bledsoe and forward Daniel Orton. That's -- count 'em -- five first-round picks. Um, wow.

Yes, it was a good night for the Big Blue, though perhaps not quite as good as Calipari thought. Early in the night, he told an ESPN reporter that this was the "biggest night in the history of Kentucky basketball." There are seven national championships hanging from Rupp Arena that might disagree with Coach Cal on that point.

Still, considering Calipari's most notable coaching talent -- recruiting -- you can understand his enthusiasm. The coach managed to get five players, three of whom were one-and-done freshmen, into the first round of the NBA draft. The last two picks are especially impressive: Bledsoe could have taken his point guard brilliance somewhere else once Wall committed to Kentucky, but Calipari convinced him to stay and play combo-guard, and Bledsoe's draft stock not only didn't fade but actually improved. Meanwhile, Daniel Orton played a measly 13.4 minutes per game in 2009-10, averaging 3.4 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. And still he was taken in the first round of the draft.

Which is, in the end, the biggest weapon in Calipari's recruiting arsenal: the NBA draft. Calipari already has a track record of producing NBA-friendly talent. Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans, the last two NBA rookie of the year winners, came from Calipari's Memphis program. With Rose and Wall, the coach has now nurtured two of the last three No. 1 overall picks. This is already paying off in recruiting -- top young point guards like Brandon Knight and Marquis Teague have already committed to Kentucky for the next two seasons, and Calipari's point guard production is the main reason why.

But when you extend the depth and breadth of Calipari's draft success -- when you can get your off-guard and a 13-minutes-per-game role player drafted in the first round -- every elite recruit under the sun is going to take notice. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The most talented players will go to Kentucky to improve their NBA draft chances. Then they'll get drafted. Then a new cycle of players, observing the success of their predecessors, will repeat the process all over again.

You don't have to go to Kentucky to get drafted. At this point, though, it doesn't seem to hurt. That's an exciting prospect for Kentucky fans (so long as they're willing to deal with a slew of one-and-done players, and I'd assume they are) and a thoroughly scary one for everyone else.

It's been almost a full calendar year since we turned our focus to the 2009-10 hoops season. We met the recruits. We greeted the veterans. We saw them play through five months of college basketball, from Midnight to March Madness. We laughed. We cried. We learned. We loved.

And now, many of those players are heading to the NBA, leaving college basketball behind. Despite my relatively unadvanced age (I'm just a couple years older than some of the draft picks) sometimes this process feels like being a high school teacher forced to say goodbye to a graduating class. You come to "meet" (and in some cases actually meet) a group of young people. You spend a year with them. You watch them struggle and flourish. And then you send them off to bigger and better things, waving in the rearview mirror as they go.

That is the NBA draft.

We'll check in now and then. We'll make sure our old students are doing well. We'll lament the burnouts. We'll thrill at the ones who really make something of themselves. We'll say we saw their potential even when we didn't. It's true: We college basketball fans are like a big, passive, amoebic high school faculty, and today the kids are all grown up.

All of which is a really long, silly way of me telling you that no high school graduation is complete without at least two or three intensely embarrassing senior photos. (True story: A kid in my high school graduating class did his senior photo with his shirt off -- it may have been tied around his waist; I can't remember -- and a football in hand. He insisted it was the photographer's idea. Amazing.)

We have those senior photos today thanks to Ball Don't Lie's Trey Kerby, who compiled the best of the 2010 NBA draft portraits into an easily digestible bit of second-hand embarrassment. With the exception of Wes Johnson and Cole Aldrich, pretty much everyone looks ridiculous. DeMarcus Cousins forget to button his sleeves. John Wall is wearing one of those silly LeBron-style custom-made cardigans. And Evan Turner looks like your boss on laundry day.

It's thoroughly awesome, and it makes me just a little bit sentimental. Farewell, boys. May you all be able to afford personal stylists soon. And don't forget to call!

If Arizona State coach Herb Sendek ever decides to get on Facebook like all the cool kids are doing these days, this would make a good profile pic.

Here's Sendek trying on former Sun Devil James Harden's designer glasses during lunch last week. I'm no fashion critic, but let's just say it doesn't appear he pulls off the Peter Parker look quite like Kentucky's DeMarcus Cousins does. Call it the Six Flags commercial guy look?

Still, the point is that Sendek had enough of a sense of humor to try.

Appearances have rarely been a point of emphasis for Sendek over the years, as he's stuck to a grind-it-out system that isn't necessarily pretty to watch. That didn't win him any style points at North Carolina State and might have even cost him the occasional player at ASU, but it was good enough for a surprising second-place finish in the Pac-10 this season.

For three straight seasons, the Sun Devils have won at least 21 games. Sendek has only one NCAA tournament appearance during that time to show for it, but his team once again is expected to be in the hunt in the Pac-10 next year as the program looks to turn a corner.

And the recruits are coming to play for him. Last month, I spoke with Sendek's prized recruit, 6-foot-5 forward Keala King, who raved about his future coach's no-nonsense style.

"I've seen him when he's mad and when he's happy," King said, marveling at a practice he witnessed during which Sendek was especially hard on star guard Ty Abbott. "He doesn't take a day off."

Sendek, who's won coach of the year awards in three different conferences (including last season in the Pac-10), will never be a quote machine. But the wins are coming and maybe behind the scenes Sendek is more of a Mr. Personality type than people give him credit for. Maybe all you need is a new pair of glasses to see that.

Want some more surprising perspectives on Sendek? Check out the info in this Arizona State blog post:

After the 2005-2006 hoops season, there were 60 Division I coaching changes, including Coach Herb coming to Tempe. Guess how many of the 60 remain? If you guessed 35, you got it. So less than 60 percent of the coaches hired four years ago remain.

...

Sean Miller turns 42 this November and is the youngest of the Pac-10 coaches. Johnny Dawkins turns 47 on Sept. 28. Guess who is third and turns 48 in February? Yup, Coach Sendek hits 48 on Feb. 22, 2011.

Kentucky head coach John Calipari said he never thought he would lose five players to the NBA draft when the season started, saying he only anticipated losing freshman point guard John Wall and junior forward Patrick Patterson.

"I thought Eric Bledsoe would stay,'' Calipari said. "I wasn't sure about Daniel Orton because of his knee injury and I wasn't sure DeMarcus Cousins would grow as a person and be ready to leave. Once the season ended, I knew I'd lose all five.''

Wall, Cousins and Patterson left no doubt in their cases once they declared with an agent by the initial April 25 deadline. Bledsoe and Orton left the window open slightly by not hiring agents, but then on Friday informed Calipari, as expected, that they too were staying in the draft. All five could go in the first round.

Calipari didn't plan in the early signing period to lose all five underclassmen. That's why once again he had to go through a furious spring to secure elite players. Expect incoming freshmen point Brandon Knight, guards Doron Lamb and Stacey Poole and center Enes Kanter to be in the rotation immediately. Knight and Lamb were late signees.

Calipari will also have wings Darius Miller, Darnell Dodson and DeAndre Liggins and forwards Josh Harrellson and Jon Hood in the rotation.

"We're going to be good, we're just going to be a different kind of team,'' Calipari said. "We do need a few more guys, maybe one more forward.''

Calipari said he will be studying how the New York Knicks play and is considering going with four guards and one forward or at times having five players out to use more of his dribble-drive-motion offense.

"We have enough good players,'' Calipari said. "I'll spend the next few months trying to figure it out. I'd like to have four perimeter guys who are 6-3 or taller and one big guy defensively, who can set ball-screens, trail and run to the post and elbow and play. Hopefully if we face a 1-3-1, we'll make more 3s."

Clearly, UK's woeful 4-of-32 performance from 3 in an Elite Eight loss to West Virginia hasn't strayed far from Calipari's mind.

John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, Daniel Orton and Eric Bledsoe declaring for the NBA draft today was no surprise, and coach John Calipari couldn't be more proud.

Calipari might be losing all of them to the pros, but he should have little trouble reloading now that he can sell a program that has recaptured rock-star status.

The Wildcats already signed small forward Stacey Poole Jr. and have a commitment from Turkish center Enes Kanter, who previously had pledged to Washington.

Also consider that Calipari is a guy who can even sell empty bourbon bottles with his face on it for charity at $49.99 apiece.

To get their hands one of the 24,000 commemorative bottles that actually had alcohol in them, some Kentucky fans camped out next to liquor stores.