Print edition: 
NEW YORK — When the Kansas Jayhawks and Kentucky Wildcats meet tonight in Madison Square Garden, many will see two blueblood programs playing in a game that is great for college basketball.
But a closer look will reveal two programs that surprisingly are building their win totals — Kentucky is first with 2,052, Kansas second with 2,038 — in entirely different ways.
The second-ranked Wildcats field a team stocked with surefire NBA talent. Kentucky coach John Calipari will roll out four freshmen and two sophomores who were rated five-star recruits out of high school by Rivals.com, and any number of those players could be playing professionally by next season. In just two full years, Calipari has turned Kentucky blue into the new black.
The 12th-ranked Jayhawks field a team with one surefire NBA talent, junior forward Thomas Robinson. Kansas coach Bill Self will start five upperclassmen who have put in their dues and have helped the Jayhawks keep their streak of seven straight Big 12 regular-season titles alive. KU has one player on its roster who was a five-star recruit by Rivals, junior guard Elijah Johnson.
Calipari is viewed by many as a great recruiter who fails to get the most out of his talent at the college level before it leaves for the NBA. Self, once viewed similarly as a guy who wins July (the summer recruiting period) but not March, now gets credit for finding a way to win with teams who may not be as gifted top to bottom.
So much has changed since Calipari and Self last met in April 2008 in the epic national championship game between Memphis and Kansas, won by the Jayhawks 75-68 after Mario Chalmers' three-pointer sent the game to overtime. A year later, Calipari was handed the keys to a blue Corvette and suddenly had the horsepower to compete with Self on a level playing field.
In four recruiting hauls since going to the Bluegrass State, including this upcoming class of 2012, Calipari brought 14 five-star prospects (seven top 10) to Lexington. In those same years, Self has brought four five-star kids (two top 10) to Lawrence. Self has continued to hang banners in Allen Fieldhouse, but the lack of big-time success on the recruiting trail has analysts baffled.
"They've won a ton of games," Rivals.com recruiting analyst Eric Bossi said, "and their players have gone on and gotten drafted and are playing in the pros. It would seem that all the things you would want to point to in recruiting should be going in their favor right now. I think anybody who follows this is a bit surprised that, coming off a national championship, they haven't been able to get a few more guys."
The 2011 class was humbling for KU. The Jayhawks missed on Brad Beal (Florida), LeBryan Nash (Oklahoma State), DeAndre Daniels (Connecticut), Josiah Turner (Arizona) and Trevor Lacey (Alabama), among others. In 2012, KU missed on its top target, center Kaleb Tarczewski (Arizona).
Bossi says he knows that teams are recruiting negatively against Kansas with the ammo of one-and-done players Xavier Henry and Josh Selby not being showcased enough at KU.
"We live in an instant gratification society," Bossi said. "A lot of kids are going to listen to people who say (about KU), 'You can't get instant gratification there.' "
Self acknowledged last week that Calipari has excelled with the one-and-done kids.
"He's been able to do very well with the guys that are bona fide NBA-talent guys, the one-and-done or two-and-done guys," Self said. "The thing about Calipari that I think is a little bit misleading is that guys can get reputations of being really good recruiters and very rarely do really good recruiters get the reputation of being a really good coach. I think he is a really good coach."
Self said he knows that perception existed about him early in his career. Nobody can say that now after the consistent success that the Jayhawks have had. Lately, Self hasn't been able to count on his recruiting touch to land a class like the 2005 haul of five-star prospects Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Julian Wright and Micah Downs. He's had to get the most out of the guys he has.
"Recruiting is hard everywhere," Self said. "People think that just because you coach at a place that has the appearance of having everything in place... the people you are going against have (that, too). It doesn't make any difference if you are at Kentucky or at Duke or Carolina or Kansas."
By the end of this week, KU will have signed three forwards for the 2012 class: Five-star Perry Ellis of Wichita Heights, three-star Zach Peters of Plano, Texas, and three-star Landen Lucas of Portland.
And tonight, Self's upperclassmen will have their hands full with Calipari's kids. Certainly, if there's a good time to play this Kentucky team, it's November.
"There is no question," Self said. "We'd rather have our February team playing a November team. We'll have a November team playing, too. There's a lot of things that go into having a great team, and talent is the most important one, but there are a lot of other intangibles, too."
