All right, Big Blue Nation, let’s all calm down a bit and have a little history and perspective.

No matter how good the class of recruits John Calipari has corralled for his basketball team at the University of Kentucky, it won’t be the best freshman class in the history of college basketball.

The greatest ever was assured for John Wooden when he convinced  just one New York City great, Lew Alcindor, to enroll at UCLA.

The greatest at Kentucky was when Adolph Rupp saw 7-foot Bill Spivey steal the ball and run the floor on a fast break during a tryout camp (it was legal then) at UK’s Alumni Gym in the spring of 1948.

Spivey became the most dominate player in the history of basketball in the Commonwealth – UK, U of L or Western. I was the only outsider at that tryout of about 60 of the nation’s finest high school seniors. Had Rupp seen me, I am sure I would have been evicted, but he couldn’t take his eyes off all of the talented players trying for a place on UK’s team that had just won the first of his four NCAA championships.

Another Blur?
Now about John Wall. And what I am about to tell you doesn’t come from a dot com or any of the so-called recruiting gurus.

People who have seen Wall tell me that he may be the best passer and the quickest player they have ever seen. And they say that he definitely will be one-and-done, by this time next year he will have been the No. 1 player chosen in the 2010 NBA lottery. My sources say that Wall will be the new “Blur” for UK. That was the name Cawood Ledford assigned to Dwight Anderson. Anderson and the late Ralph Beard were the quickest Wildcats of all.

He’s for real
I have seen enough clips of Wall in action to know that he’s for real, maybe a Wildcat for the ages. Just enjoy him while you can.

For the record: Other than Spivey’s class, the most talented group of freshmen in Lexington was the Dan Issel, Mike Casey, Mike Pratt group. Issel was – and still is – the scoring and rebounding leader of all the UK players. If Spivey had played four years, he would be the leader in both categories. But that’s a story for another day.

Jeff Walz: Winner
U of L’s women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz doesn’t have a lot of spare time, but if you get a chance to hear him speak take it! He’s very good and he’s entertaining. He spoke last week to the Louisville Quarterback Club at Big Spring Country Club.

He can coach, too. He guided the women’s team to the championship game of the NCAA Tournament. No, he didn’t beat Connecticut for the national title, but there are some men’s teams that couldn’t beat UConn’s women.

Oh, those tattoos
Ralph K. Hammerle, one of my Louisville readers, writes:

“I know that I am old and out of touch with modern society, but it saddens me to see these teenage athletes covering their bodies with tattoos.

“I do not understand their reasoning, but do know that they will carry these tattoos the rest of their lives. And, at some point, they will regret their actions.

“Do you know of any attempt by the high school programs to discourage this practice? It would seem that any attempt to discourage or stop this action would be a noble cause.”

Mr. Hammerle, I get a sick feeling when I see what kids are doing to themselves. But it’s a free world and they can do just about anything they want to do.

When I was in high school during World War II, many of the older students in my school joined one of the services, most of them the Navy. And, yes, they came back with tattoos. Some of their girlfriends complained and the guys tried to get rid of the tattoos. But they were left with what looked like horrible burns.

Some of the present-day kids get in trouble when they have their girlfriends’ names put on them. Then when they split up, they are stuck with another girl’s name on their arms.

I know of no schools that prohibit tattoos, but I am sure that some of the church and/or private schools don’t allow them.

Whatever kids see professional basketball players doing, they want to copy them. The most freakish NBA player now is Chris “The Bird Man” Andersen of the Denver Nuggets. He is a good player, usually the first or second man off Denver’s bench .

In addition to the unsightly tattoos, he has spiked hair and is the closest thing to Dennis Rodman in the NBA.