Pearl says Cal raises the bar ‘tremendously’

Kentucky basketball led by John Calipari will make success more difficult to achieve in the Southeastern Conference, Tennessee Coach Bruce Pearl said on Monday.

“John raised the bar tremendously for all of us,” Pearl said on a SEC coaches’ teleconference. “. . . He is a big thinker.”

While saying that Calipari brings “great credibility” to the SEC, Pearl said that Kentucky will be more difficult to surpass.

“John in the league is going to make us all better,” he said. “It’s going to be more difficult to win a championship and more difficult to finish ahead of Kentucky.”

In what he called a 90-day “whirlwind” on the job, Calipari recruited the nation’s best class of freshmen. With that comes great expectations.

Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey, who played for UK in the late 1980s and early 1990s, noted how Kentucky is synonymous with basketball success.

“It’s what they’re going to do,” Pelphrey said. “With Cal there, they’re going to do it very, very quickly.”

When a reporter asked about the impact Calipari’s made, Mississippi State Coach Rick Stansbury said, “It’s very obvious the impact he’s had. He’s got you asking me about him in June. That tells you the impact he’s ad on you guys already.”

The SEC is coming off a sub-par season. The league received only three bids to the NCAA Tournament, its fewest since expanding to 12 teams in 1991-92. That’s also the fewest since 1990 when Kentucky was on probation and ineligible for post-season play.

Several coaches suggested that fewer bids and a perception problem for SEC basketball comes when Kentucky endures a poor season. UK failed to make the NCAA Tournament this past season for the first time since 1991.

“From that standpoint, I think the higher ups would tell you it’s better when Kentucky is good,” Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings said. “But I don’t want Kentucky to be good. We have enough good teams.”

Stallings chuckled and added that the SEC “higher ups” would get their wish.

“That place has always been good,” he said of UK. “And they will continue to be good. . . .

“John has had success everywhere he’s been. To think he would not have success at Kentucky would be foolish.”

LSU Coach Trent Johnson downplayed the importance of Kentucky to the SEC’s basketball profile.

“It doesn’t really matter,” he said. “It’s what you do in late February and March. That’s what’s going to benefit your league.”

Pelphrey offered a personal reason for another SEC coach wanting Kentucky to win. As a UK graduate, he wants Kentucky basketball to succeed in order to stay ahead of North Carolina in terms of all-time victories. Going into next season, Kentucky leads with 1,988 victories. North Carolina has 1,984.

During his playing days, Kentucky slipped to second place before re-claiming first place in all-time victories.

“If you had a bad week, you fell behind,” Pelphrey said.