Kentucky's John Calipari on UCLA Basketball and Bryce Alford: "He Can Do What He Wants"

Looking ahead to Saturday's matchup against Kentucky, the coaches participated in a conference call today to discuss the game and their players and exchange the usual pleasantries.

Of course, a question came up about Bryce Alford.

John Calipari said Bryce Alford "can change the complexion of a game" in 90 seconds. "Plus he’s the coach’s son so he can do what he wants."

— Jack Wang (@thejackwang) December 18, 2014

Must be nice to play without repercussion.

This isn't just a snarky remark from Calipari - this is calculated. He is sending a message to recruits "hey. You won't play point guard at UCLA any time soon. Also if you go there, you have to deal with the Coach's son, who can do whatever he wants, while you're stuck on the bench wondering if you'll ever get a shot. Come to my team. I turn my team over every year - I'll give you that chance."  Genius, Calipari.  Recruiting is dirty - thoughts get planted in recruits minds all the time and they very easily flip to other programs, if they'll even consider us in the first place.

If you want to read more into the conference call, there is a nice transcript available here. Some highlights include Alford praising Bryce for being an assist and scoring machine, that we need to be good defensively to have a chance, Kentucky is deep and we are not.  Calipari made a few comments about how UCLA is "happy" because the players know who is and isn't playing, because even he can see that player development is not a point of emphasis in the Alford regime.