Top HS prospect's father shreds Coach Calipari after falling-out
The way Tim Langford tells it, Kentucky coach John Calipari had every chance to nab one of the top high school basketball prospects in the country, but failed to take advantage.
Tim’s son is Romeo Langford, a 6-foot-5 guard ranked as the number five high school senior in America, according to CBS Sports. Romeo is one of the few top prospects who has yet to reveal what college he’ll attend next season.
But it won’t be Kentucky, especially after Tim Langford lambasted Calipari in a recent interview with The Louisville Courier-Journal.
Last summer, Calipari coached Team USA’s under-19 squad for the FIBA World Cup. He selected Romeo for the team, after telling the Langford family several months earlier that he couldn’t wait to coach the young player, both on the international level and at Kentucky.
But despite those laudatory words, Langford, whose back was injured at the time, only ended up playing in five of Team USA’s eight contests. Overall, he averaged just 5.8 minutes per game.
Team USA ended up losing to Canada in the semi-finals, and thus failed to win gold in the tournament for the first time since 2011.
And during that loss to Canada, Calipari was apparently unable to “adapt to what was going on” in the game, Tim recalled his son saying.
From that point on, the relationship between Calipari and the Langford family — particularly Tim — deteriorated even further.
In a phone call to Calipari, Tim tried to defend his son.
“I just told him, ‘You came in our house, said you couldn’t wait to coach our son and do this and that. You had the opportunity before his back started bothering him. I didn’t appreciate it because you said you wanted to coach him and you had the chance to do it,'” Tim said.
Even then, Romeo liked Calipari and was still considering Kentucky. So, he had his father call Calipari again to set up a visit to the school.
“I don’t have to play the game,” Tim said. “Romeo does.”
Tim, though, never got a call back from the Kentucky coach.
Now, with Kentucky no longer in the running, Romeo’s short list of schools includes Vanderbilt, Indiana and Kansas, with 247 Sports predicting that he’ll likely attend Vanderbilt or Kansas.
Regardless of what happens, one thing is for sure.
“He always knows his dad has his back,” Tim said. “The family has his back and he’s in control.”
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