Calipari's hot start to Kentucky recruiting just the beginning

John Calipari privately made a list a few weeks ago on which he wrote six things that would make his transition from Memphis to Kentucky go perfectly.

It read ...

1. Sell house in Memphis
2. Move into new house in Lexington with no issues
3. Have Patrick Patterson return to school
4. Have Jodie Meeks return to school
5. Sign Eric Bledsoe
6. Sign John Wall

Basically, that was the list.

Calipari has plenty of reminders around him of Kentucky's past achievements. (US Presswire)

But Calipari knew trying to cross all six off might be too ambitious.

So he took a realistic approach instead.

"I'll be OK if just four of those things happen," Calipari said. "So that means I hope I can't sell my house in Memphis, that the roof on my new house falls in, and then I'll take the other four. That would be four-of-six. I'd be OK with that."

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How about better than OK?

John Wall publicly committed to Kentucky on Tuesday, at which point the Wildcats became a legitimate Final Four contender because the third (Patterson returning to school) and fifth (Bledsoe signing with UK) things on Calipari's list have already materialized. All that's left is getting Meeks back on campus (he has until June 15 to withdraw from the NBA Draft). If that happens you can go ahead and -- with apologies to Kansas -- make the Wildcats the favorite to win the 2010 NCAA tournament based on the fact that they could have at least two lottery picks (Wall and Patterson) and two more first-round picks (Meeks and DeMarcus Cousins) in the starting lineup to go with a supporting cast featuring a slew of former top 50 recruits (among them Bledsoe, Daniel Orton, Jon Hood, Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins).

And this, quite simply, is why Kentucky hired John Calipari.

The man gets things done.

Wall could be Calipari's latest one-and-done guard. (AP)

You can debate the pros and cons of his tactics, his exploitation of loopholes or his willingness to use every advantage and relationship he possesses in pursuit of victories. But what can't be argued is the bottom line, because Calipari consistently produces the type of recruiting success that makes losing difficult. He did it at UMass, then at Memphis. And now he's immediately doing it at Kentucky, where recruiting will prove much simpler, which is why the rest of the SEC -- and almost everybody in the country not named North Carolina, UCLA or Kansas -- is about to spend the foreseeable future consistently competing against a superior roster.

Seriously, this is not going to stop or even slow down.

This year, it's John Wall.

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Next year, it's Brandon Knight.

And if you think I'm being hyperbolic, then consider this question: If Calipari could in various years lure the top prospect from Detroit (Chris Douglas-Roberts), Chicago (Derrick Rose) and Philadelphia (Tyreke Evans) to a C-USA school in the south with just a handful of nationally televised games each season, how difficult do you think it will be for him to do that and more at an SEC school that could routinely lead the country in network appearances?

Answer: Not very difficult at all.

And Tuesday's commitment of the nation's top point guard should serve as another reminder.

Or better yet, a warning.