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Kentucky’s John Calipari gives take on potential NCAA live period changes

Northern Kentucky v Kentucky

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MARCH 17: Head coach John Calipari of the Kentucky Wildcats reacts during the game against the Northern Kentucky Norse during the first round of the 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on March 17, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

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With the NCAA potentially making monumental changes to the live evaluation periods as early as next summer, it has left the college basketball world asking a lot of questions about what summer recruiting could look like in the future.

The NCAA has talked about setting up youth development camps in collaboration with USA Basketball and the NBA. The groups will help identify which prospects might be allowed to speak to agents (about potentially going to the pros out of high school) while also setting up camps of prospective college prospects that college coaches would attend.

Since he’s known so much for his recruiting prowess and ability to land high-level players, Kentucky head coach John Calipari gave his take on the potential live evaluation period changes during an appearance on Kentucky Sports Radio on Wednesday.

Calipari seems to believe that dealing with agents, as a college coach trying to recruit student-athletes, could be the most troublesome new development in the potential rule changes as he elaborated on some of those difficulties.

“How do you decide who are the high school guys that should put their names in [the draft] and come out? How do you decide that? Do you want 1,000 tenth graders thinking they’re coming right out? Don’t care about academics? Who now can’t even get into a university? Who’s going to take care of those kids, society wise?” Calipari said. “Are we all just going to say, “Yeah, they were taught, it’s up to them’? They’re 16, 15-years-old. They can’t make logical decisions at that age. They’re all going to be thinking they’re going. How do we make a decision, which 10 or 12 go directly to the league? How do we make that decision? That’s my concern.”

Calipari also voiced his potential displeasure if players were allowed to come back to the school after the draft. Since Kentucky has so many players leaving early for the pros every offseason, this issue directly deals with the Wildcats more than most of the schools in college hoops.

“We’re talking about letting kids go through the draft and then come back to college. Well, what if there’s no scholarships for them when they come back after the draft? Can they go wherever they want? There’s some issues we’ve got to deal with if we’re doing it,” Calipari said.

Despite some of his concerns, Calipari seems ready for the next step in the recruiting world as he’s always been a coach who is a few steps ahead of many of his competitors when it comes to landing top-notch talent. Calipari might have some misgivings about the future, but there is no doubt that he’ll be prepared to adapt once the NCAA decides to make a move. Only time will tell what those moves might be and how Calipari and Kentucky reacts to them.