UK Wildcat Basketball: Don't Tell Me Calipari Can't Coach

I wrote a piece a few days ago called Calipari’s Short List. Nothing much to speak of, just kinda mentioned how there were a few tings that Coach Cal would like to see in his stocking this year. And in receiving comments about that story, I was served a rather large slice of vitriol and hatred for Calipari and his youngling stars, and his overall selling out of the UK program for the “fast buck”. “Calipari can’t coach”, one said.” Calipari has announced to the world that UK has become a whore to winning”, said another. “I don’t know why Calipari cannot do things like Coach K at Duke”, another rallying cry. And these were supposedly UK fans talking. I heard some of the most unbelievable diatribes in my 40 + years as a fan, about a coach who is winning at almost a 90% clip in only the 1/4 mark of his second season at the helm of this program.

I was appalled at the incredibly naive sorts of comments coming from a fanbase that is supposed to be one of the most educated in the country. There were what I considered to be racist comments concerning the players he recruits, which were explained away by the commenter as not racist, but concerns that these were not the type of kids we should be recruiting to Kentucky. But even more disturbing were the comments that Calipari shouldn’t be at UK because he cannot coach.

I watched Calipari last year take the most talented young team I have ever seen, and let them learn how to let their skills lead them. He did what he needed to do to guide them, but then got out of their way and let them play. He made a couple of mistakes along the way, and readily admitted them so the focus would be on his mistakes and not his kids. He took flak for DeMarcus Cousins and his back talking, he took grief for John Wall’s turnovers, for Daniel Orton’s immaturity, and every other thing that happened along the way, and let that team form into one incredible game force that came up one half short of the Final Four. Now this year’s group needs a totally new approach. They need to be pushed and prodded, molded and honed into a machine. They have different talents and better shooting eyes, but are not as powerful. So Cal adjusts his style to a cajoling, cheer leading, ranting and screaming sideline maniac and voila’ this team starts to respond. Now, according to everything I have ever read about coaching, that is textbook technique for dealing with young players. They have to be torn down, built up, and more, over and over again. Calipari has been absolutely amazing with these kids. He gets the top talent out there, and one might think that takes all of the coaching out of the picture. Wrong. Calipari has to get large egos to buy into his style of play. He demands defense first. He makes sure that these kids learn about things off the court as well as on. And he defends them to the hilt no matter what. He makes role players out of superstars, and vice versa. There is nothing he asks out of those young men that he does not get. And for all of that effort and those kinds of winning results he has to have critics who cannot see reality when it is right in front of their faces. In the last game this team shut down Notre Dame for what I believe was almost 15 minutes without a FG from the end of the first half to the middle of the second. You don’t get those results without being able to coach.

I find it to be incredibly void of common sense for people not to recognize what a job Calipari is doing now and has done in the past. He teaches respect, hard work, giving back to your fellow man, being bigger than the other guy, and putting your heart and soul into what you do. For this effort, kids are falling over themselves to play for this man. But the critics want Calipari to get different players. They want “regular guys” who will work hard and graduate, and be highly educated. And they want all of this now. They not only want to win, they want to win and be perfect as well. Last time I checked, no one is perfect, or at least no man, anyway. Comments like, “Coach Rupp would have done this”, and ” when this team played in the past”. It is time people started appreciating the job that Calipari is doing both on and off the court. And time for the critics to sit back and relax at least long enough for the man to be here a couple of years before they start complaining that all Calipari can do is recruit.

Coach, keep up the good work, and prove the critics wrong. I have a whole trunk full of humble pies that need serving to a few folks.

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