FanHouse Xavier Henry

Anyone following the Henry-Kansas basketball drama this week has been thoroughly entertained.

Kansas coach Bill Self has to be scratching his head now wondering, "What just happened here?" Self and his staff had successfully lured Xavier and C.J. Henry, the offspring of former 1980s KU basketball standouts Carl and Barbara Henry, into the Jayhawks' fold after breaking their previous commitment to Memphis in April.

All was right in the slimy world of big-time college recruiting.

The fallout of John Calipari leaving Memphis looks to be immediate and swift. John Wall is obviously not going to Memphis without John Calipari. The disintegration of one of the best recruiting classes ever is the first and obvious casualty.

DeMarcus Cousins has not signed his Letter of Intent (LOI), so he is free to sign with another program with no encumbrance. All of the other recruits that have signed LOIs -- Xavier Henry, Will Coleman, Nolan Dennis and Darnell Dodson -- they apparently have an additional clause to their LOIs. Specifically, if Calipari is not the coach at Memphis, they will be released from their LOIs without restrictions.

It's a marriage of mutual necessity. He needs them -- and, oh, do they need him, as sure as Ashley Judd can fill a "Go 'Cats'' t-shirt. The anguished looms at Kentucky need John Calipari because he'll hustle, sell the program, recruit stud players, kiss babies and embrace the psychotic romance that is Big Blue Nation. And John Calipari needs Kentucky because, well, he still isn't roundly accepted as an elite coach, a perception he'll change if he resurrects a fallen dynasty.

As things progress on the John Calipari-to-Kentucky coaching front, one can't help but get a feeling of inevitability. Monday, we covered the swirling rumors and now it appears Calipari is going to accept the offer any minute. According to a source for the New York Times, one claiming to be a longtime friend of Calipari's, he will accept a very lucrative deal to become the Wildcats' next coach. It's worth noting Calipari is already one of the highest paid coaches in college basketball, so he'd likely become far-and-away the highest paid coach in the nation.

More interesting, perhaps, could be the immediate impact of talent to Kentucky -- at the expense of Memphis' once vaunted recruiting class.

---

---