Kentucky Wildcats: Landscaping College Basketball
By Wayne
One example is our own Adolph Rupp and his Kentucky teams in the 40’s and 50’s. Those times were distinctly different in terms of recruiting, race, etc from even those of Wooden’s, but Rupp transformed the landscape of College Basketball all the same. Just a note: Everyone calls Adolf Rupp a racist but he is the first coach in the history of college basketball to have a black player on a team, Tom Payne. And that after having won 4 National Titles. Transformative indeed.
Another example in College Basketball that I would consider transformative such as Wooden’s UCLA domination in the 60’s and 70’s and that was in large part because he was able to sign giants, literal giants, like Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton. They were just larger than most everyone else and one thing you can’t teach is height so many of the other school had no chance to beat them.
Sure that’s not the only reason UCLA won 10 National Titles under Wooden but it was a distinct advantage for sure.
Which brings us back to Calipari. You’ve heard him say a thousand times if he had to choose between experience or talent, he’ll take talent every time and if he does a half decent job of coaching them then the team should win. He said it yesterday on ESPN’s First Take and he is right. Is that to say that he didn’t do a “half decent job” in 2009 with Wall and Cousins or 2010 with Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones? Maybe he didn’t, I don’t know but I do know two things: 1.) If he didn’t think he did then he would admit it. And #2.) He is a better coach than John Wooden. They are both cut from similar cloth in that they always could get more out of the players than even the players realized they had, but John Calipari is a better coach.
Now I’m not trying to piss any UCLA fans off, but get over it anyway.
What John Wooden did with UCLA, Calipari is doing at UK and that is transforming the landscape of College Basketball. The difference between the Wooden and Calipari Wooden was ahead of the game and it took years for schools to catch on and up. Calipari has to operate in an era of recruiting where HIGH SCHOOL kids are calling press conferences that ESPN is streaming LIVE, and multiple schools are always in the running for multiple elite recruits and these schools has endless resources, by comparison to schools in Wooden’s day, to lure the recruits there. The game is so much tougher in every aspect from recruiting to game planning because of technology and the evolution of game mentality. .
I imagine that UCLA fans were an elitist bunch of pricks during their heyday and rightly they deserved to be.
And now, as the landscape of College Basketball is changing before our very eyes thanks to John Calipari and the University of Kentucky Wildcats, the Big Blue Nation is getting dinner AND dessert.
Of course we will always have an elitist attitude toward every other program in College Basketball, including UCLA, but we should because we are better than them.
Listen, when one school in a matter of 3 weeks has 2 Top 5, 1 Top 10 and 1 Top 15 recruit all sign and they are STILL in the running for the #1 recruit in Julius Randle, it’s a sign that the landscape of College Basketball is changing and UK is doing what it always does…LEADING!
A word of caution: WE CANNOT HANG BANNER #10 BEFORE #9 SO FOCUS ON THE 2012 TEAM!
On, On, U of K!
Got something to say? Well say it to my face…err…here!