The One and Done King is at it again.
On Friday and Saturday, Kentucky’s men’s basketball team will hold open workouts for scouts from all 30 NBA teams. It’s an unprecedented event usually reserved for college football teams in the spring and it will be televised live by ESPNU on Friday at 3 p.m. — the latest example of John Calipari’s vision and ingenuity since he arrived in Lexington, Ky., five years ago as head coach.
“He’s been very good of thinking one step ahead,” said ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, who will be part of the live coverage and expects select other college basketball programs to follow suit.
Kentucky sports information director John Hayden told The Post he is expecting representatives from each NBA team to be on hand, and some are expected to send as many as three reps. Why wouldn’t they? Kentucky, heavy favorites to win it all with nine McDonald’s All-Americans, is teeming with NBA prospects.
The Wildcats, runners-up a year ago to Connecticut, are so talented and deep Bilas said if their top 12 players were split up, it would produce two six-man teams he would rank in the top 25.
Friday’s two-hour practice at the Joe Craft Center will feature individual and team drills to showcase the roster. Each player’s height, weight, wingspan and vertical leap will be distributed to the scouts.
NBA Draft Express ranks five Wildcats among its top 30 prospects in the world, listing freshman forward Karl-Anthony Towns, who played at St. Joseph High School in Metuchen, N.J., as high as No. 3, and three other players are considered possible first-round picks.
Calipari has explained the reasoning for the event as a way for him to introduce his new players to NBA scouts early. They all would have flocked to Lexington anyway over the first few weeks of the college season, so this just consolidates the visits. After this weekend, Calipari will close his practices to scouts for at least the early part of the season.
College coaches contacted by The Post didn’t have an issue with the event. Three different coaches, speaking on condition of anonymity, called it “genius.” One coach described it as a “major recruiting play.”
“[Calipari is] so ahead of everybody else,” said another college coach who has recruited against Kentucky. “More power to him. If he can get all 30 teams to come in, then he should. It’s impressive.”
The coach said there is “jealousy” about such an event, which Bilas finds laughable. All programs, he said, have the ability to hold similar events if they can stockpile similar talent. There is no rule against it.
Scout.com national recruiting analyst Evan Daniels said this NBA combine is becoming part of Calipari’s sales pitch. He will have a number of prospects on campus this weekend to illustrate what attending Kentucky includes.
“This is part of what makes Cal such a recruiting genius,” Daniels said. “Sure, it’s good for the guys there to play in front of the NBA scouts, but they were going to play in front of them anyway. This is a recruiting tool. He’s bring in a lot of kids for visits, and they’re going to see all these scouts. It’s a heck of an idea.
“From a recruiting standpoint, he’s the gold standard right now. Some of it is just marketing and PR.”
This weekend is the latest example.