Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: Is too much talent too much?

In my opinion, winning a college basketball championship is one of the hardest feats in sports.  And to do it with a core of players that are less than a year removed from their Senior prom is impossible.  Michigan’s Fab Five could not do it.  And John Calipari’s greatest class of all time probably won’t do it either.  And that is OK with me. I don’t need a NCAA title to appreciate my team.  

So part of the blame probably goes to all the sportswriters who are now taking their potshots at Kentucky and John Calipari.  They are the ones that made this team a preseason  number one team just minutes after Louisville won the national title.  So they too bought into all of the hype that surrounded John Calipari and this team.  And today, even they are scratching their heads at what has happened.

Even with his astronomical success at Kentucky, John Calipari had to know he was bucking the odds with this team being a title contender.  His 2012 National Champs had talented freshmen galore, but they also had senior leadership in Darius Miller and Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb returning from a Final Four team.  Even though Alex Poythress and Willie Cauley-Stein returned, you still can’t underestimate the impact a guy like Miller brought to this team.   And players like Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist only come around once in a lifetime.  In spite of all the above reasons, this team was able to find and define greatness.

And in the end, we probably should not be surprised by the struggles of this team.  The stress of having to replace his whole team with a new mix is showing on John Calipari and the last two years has shown that sometimes even the best talent in the country does not mesh like it should.  At least not in the six months from October to March.  And for that unfortunately, there really is no easy explanation or person to blame.  It is one of the mysteries in sports and why we are all such big fans.  Nothing ever happens like we thought it should do.

The biggest complaint now is about John Calipari and the fact that he recruits one and done players.  What should he do?  Quit going after the best players?  Tell his staff that they no longer go after the best players in the land and only go after players that will stay three years?  No.  That’s ridiculous.  Kentucky will always go after the best players in the country as will every other division one coach that wants to keep their job.  And it is an imperfect science.  It will result in a 20012 boom or a 2013 bust, but in the end you can never have too much talent .

Last year, UK’s season was derailed by a Nerlens Noel injury and by some players that “hijacked” the program.  John Calipari stood steadfast and said this would not happen in 2014 while the Who’s  ” Won’t get fooled again” blared in the background.  And Calipari did what he did best.  Went out and recruited like a gangster and landed the number one class in the history of college basketball.  That’s his job.