Does John Calipari's tough talk help or hurt the Wildcats?

There are a lot of great things that come with John Calipari as the head coach of the University of Kentucky: great recruits, great teams, great quotes, great confidence, great swagger and great coaching. The national exposure that he brings to Kentucky is worth the money that he is paid. He has entire NBA teams practicing at his facilities. What other coach can boast this about his program?

With all of those positives, are there any negatives? Yes and no. Some of the comments that he makes places a lot of negative attention on his team that might not be there if he didn’t say them.

Take for example his non-comments about the University of Louisville. Cal got all kinds of negative attention focused on him and he didn’t really even say anything about his main team rival and personal coaching rival. He just happened to not mention them when he was discussing the greatness of Kentucky basketball in this state and that the Wildcats were the only team that people supported.

Of course Louisville fans, coaches and media members were all extremely offended. Rick Pitino fired back by calling Calipari ignorant and malicious among other things. Local newspaper writer Rick Bozich wrote a completely ridiculous hatchet piece on Cal by saying that he is envious of Pitino and is a vindictive, jealous man. And I don’t even have time to get into fan reactions from the Cardinal side of the aisle.

This isn’t the first time that the leader of the Big Blue Nation has pushed buttons with his mouth. We all remember last season in the tournament when he claimed that “They want to be us” when he was speaking about Ohio State before their showdown in the Sweet Sixteen. Of course many nay sayers were taken aback that he made such a derogatory statement about the historic program of Ohio State. Too bad Buckeye coach Thad Matta totally agreed with his opposing coach and stated that his team did want to be in the upper echelon of college basketball.

He also ruffles feathers every season when he claims that the Wildcats are “Everybody’s Super Bowl”. How dare he have the audacity to claim that Kentucky is the biggest game on the schedule of every opposing team? But every time they go on the road in the SEC the arena they are visiting turns into a mad house.

What about the time he said that the biggest day in the history of the UK program was drafting five players in the first round of the NBA draft? Forget the fact that every recruit looking at UK wants to hear that they will one day play in the NBA; his comment was blasphemy.

Does all this tough talk help his Wildcats or hurt them? The answer is an easy one: it helps them and it makes them thrive.

The confidence and assertiveness that he exudes can be seen on the faces of his players and in the style that they play. They know that there is a target placed firmly on their backs and they know that every team wants to beat them. Why else would arenas such as The Tad sell out one time a year and that’s when the Wildcats come to town.

Every team they are going to play treats Kentucky like they are the best, so why not act like it?

Cal’s philosophy is to not run away from the burden of being the nation’s top team, it’s to embrace it and make it yours.

John Calipari is about as clear and as calculated as anyone can be when he makes his statements. He gets under the skin of guys like Rick Pitino because he knows it throws him off of his game. He owns Pitino right now and he knows it. Does Cal really care what Pitino or Rick Bozich say about him? No. He got the exact reaction he wanted and he also got a spot on Sports Center because of it.

At the end of this ordeal Pitino was the one that looked petty and jealous with the personal attacks he lobbed at the Kentucky coach. Calipari has the excuse of “Hey, I was talking to Kentucky fans at a Kentucky event. We weren’t interested about talking about Louisville at they time. They have a great program and we respect them.” But he never used it. He kept silent.

The Louisville/Kentucky game in Rupp Arena will be one of the most highly anticipated regular season college basketball game of the season, only behind Kentucky/North Carolina. The ratings will be up, the stage will be dramatic and the talent on the court for the Wildcats will be amazing. Those kids will be ready to play and Calipari will make sure of it.

John Calipari will continue to talk tough as long as he is at Kentucky. The fans love it, his players love it and the high school kids he recruits love it too. He continues to back up everything he says with win after win.

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