Enough about Coach Cal's draft comments already

I have largely ignored the comments by John Calipari regarding Thursday's NBA Draft, but it has gotten to the point that I need to make a comment.

If you don't know what I'm referring too, Coach Cal told ESPN's Heather Cox that Thursday night, when five Kentucky players were selected in the first round of the NBA Draft, was the "biggest night in the history of the Kentucky program."

This comment sent the blogosphere into a minor tizzy, blasting Cal for having the audacity to believe that an Elite 8 team sending five players to the NBA (via early entry, none-the-less) was more important than any of their seven national titles.

I agree.

Its ludicrous to think that sending five players to the NBA is more important than winning a national title. Kentucky fans haven't been going crazy over the last two recruiting classes because they want to see former Kentucky players in the NBA. Its because they believe that this is the best way for them to land No. 8.

But anyone that blasted Cal over the last couple of days missed the point: he wasn't talking to you. He wasn't talking to me, or Eamonn Brennan, or Rush the Court, or Jerry Tipton, or Matt Jones, or anyone else that weighed in on Cal's comments.

He was talking to Mike Gilchrist and Marquis Teague. He was talking to Michael Chandler, and Tony Wroten Jr., and Andre Drummond, and every other high profile recruit that is considering going to school at Kentucky. And if you missed it, what he was saying was "come to Kentucky, and I'll get you a guaranteed contract."

And if you think about it from that perspective, maybe Cal was right. Maybe last night was actually the biggest night in their program's history. If Cal can get Daniel Orton, who averaged 3.4 ppg and 3.3 rpg into the first round of the NBA Draft, doesn't that make his program incredibly appealing? Hey, you don't even have to play all that much here and I can get you paid.

Cal already has landed two of the top five players in the class of 2011. If he continues to add to that class, and he catches a break with some of this year's crop of freshman playing more than one season, isn't it feasible that an eighth national title is on the way? And if he can continue to recruit like this, is No. 9 that much further on the horizon?

Let's assume that Cal actually does lead Kentucky to two or three national titles in the coming years, and that he does it with crops of one-and-done freshman.

Would his comment be looked at as negatively then?