As the early signing period begins in college basketball Wednesday, few coaches will be under more scrutiny than Kentucky coach John Calipari. Calipari has built a reputation as one of the foremost recruiters in the history of the sport, assembling teams that have reached six Final Fours, including one national title, and yielded a total of 31 NBA players. ESPN National Recruiting Director Paul Biancardi sat down with Calipari to discuss his philosophies on the trail, the challenges he faces in identifying talent that will uphold the Kentucky standard, and the way the recruiting climate has changed since he became the UMass head coach at age 29 in 1988:

Paul Biancardi, ESPN: Obviously every coach wants to have the most talent he can at his disposal, but how challenging is it to recruit at a place like Kentucky where there are constant unknowns about players leaving for the next level, players reclassifying, etc.?

John Calipari: Well, our recruiting comes back to who really wants this situation, because there's some unknowns. The unknown of how much are you going to play. Are you going to start? How many shots are you going to take? Who are your teammates going to be? There are really a lot of unknowns and you know what? Some don’t like that.

The knowns are: I am going to improve, I'm going to learn servant leadership, I'm going to learn to be a great teammate, to share, to have what I need for the next level, I'm going to be drafted after one, two, three or four years, I'm going to get a second contract in the NBA -- we currently have 15 guys in the NBA with second contracts. That's what our guys get. That's the difference at Kentucky.

Biancardi: How much time do you spend with your staff going over contingencies, i.e. who should we recruit if this player leaves after a year, if this player stays, etc., when you're putting together your list of targets? Is there a point where you risk overanalyzing those contingencies?

Calipari: We don't recruit that many guys. We only recruit eight, nine, or 10 prospects, normally it's to fill four, five or six spots -- we never know exactly how many we have to fill.

We target our recruits in this way: Is there anyone out there that has said publicly they want to play at Kentucky? If so, my staff evaluates to see if they are good enough and if so, let's go see them play. If they are good enough then let's stop right there, we won't go any farther. Next, let's get a little deeper into it and see if they really like us and really want us. We are never begging a kid, we are not going to spend time trying to "flip" a kid -- we don't do that. "We really like you, do you like us with the same level of interest? No? Fine -- who's next?" That's how we get it down to less than 10 guys for a handful of spots.

Biancardi: What would your message be to a high-level recruit who voices concerns over potential minutes ... is that a red flag for your staff or is it something you seek to address with the recruit?

Calipari: You have to answer their questions, and it's OK to have those questions. A recruit will tell me that some schools promise starting positions, minutes, shots, and that the offense will center around them. We don't promise those things, and some are not comfortable with that. I ask them why [they're not comfortable], and explain how Devin Booker came off the bench and was the 13th pick in last year's NBA draft.

My question to them is: Do you want to be drafted, or do you want to play minutes and score in college? Tell me your goals. If you want to be prepared for the NBA, have a great campus life, be with a group of guys who are all trying to eat, not just you ... If you want to be the face of the program, then you're not coming to Kentucky, because you are not the only guy. It's just not happening.

Biancardi: Do you, or have you ever recruited to a system, i.e. we want to play up-tempo so I need a certain type of player, or we need to "play big" so I need a certain type of player?

Calipari: I would like to play small ball with 6-[foot-]9 players. I want position-less players who have a good heart and high character because everyone is trying to eat, and then piece it together based on their strengths. There is no real system, we always want to play at a fast tempo, we want to attack, shoot more and make more free throws than our opponents. I only want to average 11-12 turnovers a game, no more, and I don't want much less than that because it might mean we are not playing aggressive, with unselfishness, and making defense a priority. How it happens depends on who we have. When you have a yearly changeover like us you can't say, "This is how we're going to play." We can't have a system, but we do have a philosophy. Right now, with this year's team, I haven't figured out how we are playing.

Biancardi: After you establish a recruit's talent level, what traits are most important to you in the evaluation process?

Calipari: Does he help other players get better, by him being on the court does everyone else better? Does he make the game easier for his teammates? Character matters when groups of young people come together to do something special. One guy can ruin it for everyone else, one guy without character who goes out on his own, he hurts the chemistry of the group. So it boils down to does this guy make the game easier for his teammates? Is he disrespectful to his family? There's no way that he can make it here, because it's not going to be about him anymore, it's going to be about us.

Biancardi: Kentucky has a great tradition ... is that something you try to sell to recruits? Do 17-year-olds really care about tradition or is that just something fans would like to believe?

Calipari: This is about a relationship that my staff and I have with a player and his family. That relationship is based on trying to help them achieve their goals. We try and make them understand there is a plan and a process to this. You have to understand what it means to be a servant leader, to share, to be unselfish, what it means to be a great teammate -- it's more about that than the history of Kentucky.

Now, Kentucky is the stage, it's Carnegie Hall. You can be off-Broadway and maybe make it, or you can make it on the biggest of the big stages, which means you are making it -- that's what Kentucky is for us. When I leave here there will be another coach, and it will still be Kentucky. Fifty years from now, it's still going to be Kentucky. This is about a relationship me and my staff are going to have with that young man making sure he eats first, that we know what his dreams and aspirations are, and help him reach those goals.

Biancardi: How has the recruiting climate changed from 1988 when you took the UMass job, until today?

Well, back then you had guys for four years. When we recruited at UMass we weren't worried about positions, we were just trying to get guys. I didn't care if they were centers, forwards or point guards. One team had five centers on it by position -- I had to make someone the center, the power forward and small forward. We took them because they were the best players we could recruit. When we got them they were staying four years -- we had time to develop them. Every third class, you had to have a really good group. In between you could land a player or two, or sometimes we would strike out, but it was OK because you had your team coming back, so it was not that big a deal.

Now it is a totally different look. With this new television deal and the NBA collective barging agreement, this becomes generational poverty to generational wealth, and I don't take that lightly. We offer kids a lifetime scholarship, or they can leave after one, two, three years or stay and graduate. They don't have to stay and they don't have to leave, it's about what's right for you. Some, mentally, physically or skill-wise are not ready to leave. Some are, and they go. I only had one guy talk me into [the player] staying -- it was Patrick Patterson. (Patterson came back for his junior year of 2009-10, and left for the NBA with a degree after that season).

Biancardi: What do you think is the biggest mistake young coaches make in recruiting, whether they're young head coaches or young assistants?

Calipari: Probably trying to recruit too many guys. But I understand the fear of not getting anybody who's out there, so I wouldn't blame them. At UMass we had the guys we wanted on a list, and then if we missed on those we had another list. And if we couldn't get anyone, and we were in total desperation we would go to another list, reach on a kid, and hoped that he would be good enough in time. Now I think it's different, but there are still schools in that frame of mind and that's OK. But when you talk the top 50 programs, they are in the same boat I am in. If any school were to say, "I am not taking a kid for one year," please say it publicly so I have less people to recruit against. We are all looking for the best players.

Biancardi: If you could have given a lifetime scholarship to one player over any of your previous stops, so you could have coached him forever, who would it have been?

Calipari: Wow. There is no way it's just one player. [pauses]. This is impossible because at UMass we had guys like Lou Roe, Derek Kellogg and Tony Barbee; at Memphis, Derrick Rose, Chris Roberts, Antonio Anderson, Tyreke Evans and here at Kentucky ... there's a bunch.