Following John Calipari at Memphis won't be easy.
Not after what he was able to accomplish in Graceland in nine seasons. We're talking about 253 wins, nine consecutive postseasons and a Mario Chalmers missed 3-pointer away from a national championship.
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He put Memphis back on the national map by recruiting highly regarded prospects Dajuan Wagner, Darius Washington Jr., Derrick Rose and most recently Tyreke Evans.
But in just his first season at Memphis, Josh Pastner has already been able to accomplish something that even Calipari, who is known as one of, if not, the elite recruiters in college basketball, wasn't able to at Memphis.
See, Calipari has never had a problem recruiting talent. He proved that with his No. 1 recruiting class at Kentucky last year. At Memphis, he secured top 25 classes on a yearly basis and managed top 10 classes in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
"I'm following a guy that is a legend and a future Hall of Famer," Pastner said. "That's not easy whatsoever. You look at the last four years, and it's the greatest run in the history of college basketball and may never be done again."
"Memphis is a very strong program. It's just the last four years it's been elevated to a new level," he added. "It's very hard to follow a guy like that at that elite level. But there's also some really good momentum, and we want to keep that momentum going."
Keeping it going hasn't been a problem for Pastner. He just signed seven prospects in the early signing period and has the nation's top recruiting class, according to Scout.com, for the first time in the program's history.
