Kentucky Wildcat's 5 for Friday: The John Calipari 12% challenge edition
By Paul Jordan
Good morning, BBN. I actually missed you the last couple of days, but insane internet problems and other personal drama have kept me away from the blogging world for a couple of days and I am back with a vengeance with this edition of “the five”.
First, I took a trip to the Insider section of ESPN where John Gassaway took at look at the unique challenge John Calipari is trying to achieve this season; reaching a Final Four with just 12% of his team’s returning possession minutes from last year. The RPM is a relatively new stat, but Kentucky reaching the Final Four this year would be epic as Final Four teams usually skew older:
"Yet, Kentucky’s near miss in 2010 was more unusual than you might think. Wall, Cousins & Co. were flying in the face of a tendency that’s downright anti-youth: The further you go into the NCAA tournament, the older the teams tend to get. In this sense, the example of Duke last season is particularly instructive. The Blue Devils seemed like a veteran bunch, right? Jon Scheyer, Brian Zoubek, Singler, Smith — those guys weren’t what you’d call precociously young."
"Maybe not, but get ready for a surprise. Duke in 2010 actually skewed young in terms of recent Final Four teams."
"Of all Final Four teams from 2008 to 2010, the 2010 Blue Devils actually had the lowest percentage (64) of possession minutes returned from the previous season; the Butler Bulldogs, whom they beat to win it all, had returned 97 percent of their possession minutes from the previous season."
Sticking with the worldwide leader for just a bit, they have gone in an looked at their preseason rankings and given those teams a grade for the first month or so of the season. As we recall, they had UK as 11th in preseason and here is what the self proclaimed leader has to say now:
"11. Kentucky (Current ranking: 16)"
"Grade: B-"
"The Wildcats were so good last season with their talented freshman class, it was hard not to expect the same this season. But the reality is, this group of freshmen, while good, isn’t as exceptional as the John Wall-led group was. Perhaps the biggest mistake here is discounting how valuable Patrick Patterson’s leadership was for Kentucky. The Cats need someone to guide them if they’re going to match last season’s run."
Big news for Kentucky’s schedule next year is the news that the SEC/Big East Invitational has evolved into a full fledged challenge now as all 12 teams in each conference will now participate during a three day span after Thanksgiving. It will be on the teams home courts and this only assures that Kentucky will annually have one of the toughest schedules every season. Next season, Kentucky plays Kansas, Louisville, UNC, Indiana, a random Big East school, plus possibly a holiday tournament. Whew.
It’s official now. Rick Minter and Steve Pardue are now officially members of the UK football staff as this was announced today by Kentucky. Here at the WBN, we anticipated this news a little early and our football editor Kyle had a pretty good look at Minter and Pardue and what they bring to the table. Call us psychic.
And finally today, we can’t forget All American Randall Cobb of the football Wildcats. He still has a pretty big decision to make and he chatted a bit about his upcoming decision on whether to enter the NFL draft. (Thanks to John Clay on the video):
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