Mike DeCourcy

Not even a month into his tenure, John Calipari already has made astounding progress. No, not talking Kentucky recruiting here.

Talking Twitter.

Calipari already has 60,551 people following his Internet alerts, and he's hit the "update" button 195 times. He hasn't yet gotten a signed letter of intent from Raleigh, N.C., point guard John Wall, so he hasn't had to figure out a way to squeeze that particular exclamation into 140 characters, but it's coming.

So, OK, this really is about recruiting. And coaching. And remaking the Kentucky program so fast Twitter is the ideal device to signal the Wildcats' ascent. In some ways, it's also a representation of why Calipari was able to walk into his office at the Craft Center on April 1 and transform a team that did not reach the 2009 NCAA Tournament into an early No. 1 for 2010.

As much as any coach in college basketball, Calipari embraces what is current. The modern circumstances of recruiting made it possible for him to assemble the nation's top recruiting class -- Wall, point guard Eric Bledsoe, center DeMarcus Cousins and forward Darnell Dodson to go with early signees Daniel Orton and Jon Hood -- in such a short period of time.

A half-dozen years ago:

• A signed letter of intent was not as easy to escape as colleges have allowed it to become. Now, a player who signs early and wants a release because of a coaching change can be allowed to compete immediately at another school. That's how Dodson, a top junior college shooter, followed Calipari to UK after signing early with Memphis.
• Nobody would have asked for the sort of escape clause Cousins, rated No. 3 in the class by Scout.com, wanted after committing to UAB. Because his request wasn't granted, Cousins remained a "free agent" and eventually committed to Memphis, then opted for UK after Calipari changed schools.
• A player with Wall's ability would not have been available to anyone in Division I. Wall is ranked No. 1 by Rivals.com. He'd have placed himself on the NBA's early entry list directly out of high school. Calipari might have gained a commitment -- like from Kendrick Perkins and Amare Stoudemire -- but never would have coached him.

"The last time I've seen this much collective excitement was when Kentucky was winning in '03," said Matt Jones, who runs a UK-centric website and hosts the nightly Louisville Sports Report on WBKI-TV. "But this is even more, because unlike that team the fans know this team will have NBA lottery picks, those kinds of players.

"I just had lunch with some UK types, and they're all ready to buy their Final Four tickets."

Lots of Kentucky fans are wondering not whether this is the best recruiting class of the year (it is) but where it ranks with the best ever assembled (pretty doggoned high).

It is not the Fab Five, which Michigan assembled in 1991: three top 10 prospects in Chris Webber, Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose plus two other exceptional talents, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson, who started as freshmen.

But anybody else in the argument -- North Carolina 1993, Duke 1997, Ohio State 2006 -- has some new company.

"When you look at the first three kids, it's as good as any threesome," said recruiting analyst Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com. "They're all going to be pros. It's going to be the other kids who have the chance to lift it into one of the best ever."

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The excitement regarding Wall's commitment comes with a catch, however. Success must be immediate. He will not play a second season with the Wildcats, so he has to make them substantially better in 2009-10. It worked for Calipari when he signed Derrick Rose at Memphis, and the similarities between Wall and Rose have many expecting those kinds of results. Their games and circumstances are not identical.

With star forward Patrick Patterson back from a short excursion into the NBA draft, this team will have stronger veteran leadership than those Tigers. If Jodie Meeks comes to his senses and returns, the Wildcats will have a much more dangerous 3-point attack.

But this team will be significantly younger. Cousins, Orton, Dodson and Bledsoe have not played in Division I, and they will be important rotation players. Neither has Wall, although the lack of experience in so many spots might mean he won't have to measure himself the way Rose did early on with the Tigers.

"I think John Wall is the most difficult guard in America to check," Scout.com recruiting analyst Dave Telep said. "I don't think that's going to change much from high school to college. He's a major problem for 99 percent of the defenders he's going to face."

Wall will need to adapt to being a part of something bigger than himself and being challenged by consistently high-level competition. That'll be new to him. He'll be the finest talent in college basketball next season, but becoming the most significant player will be a greater challenge.

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