Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: Too Many Buttons for Coach Cal To Push
By Wayne
Jan 12, 2013; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari reacts in the game against the Texas A
If we have discovered one this in this dismal season thus far, it is that there is not only one person to blame for our half & half play unless, perhaps, that person is John Calipari.
Wait what?
Yeah, I said it. John Calipari.
Yes, we are defending National Champions and we have one of the top recruiting classes in history coming in this year, but that doesn’t excuse this season. Knowing what Calipari had to work with coming in, I didn’t expect this mediocre season and I’m sure he didn’t either. That’s what’s troubling.
Follow me here. We are currently 12-6 (3-2) and have already lost two at Rupp, three away, and one on a neutral court. The reasons for the losses have been numerous and different for virtually every game.
- Started the season without Ryan Harrow
- Poythress is as motivated as Daniel Orton
- Goodwin doesn’t change up his game based on defense and officiating
- We are terrible against the zone
- Our fundamental defense is more like fun”duh”mental
- Taking advantage of Nerlens Noel’s freakish ability to cover mistakes by not playing D
- **Insert reason here**
I could go on but really what’s the point? There are likely more excuses than Carter has liver pills (yes that makes me older than a few of you) but no matter the excuse, the fact that there are multiple problems involving multiple people and varying aspects of the games, all that points to John Calipari as one of the reasons too.
His job is to mold the team he assembled to win ball games. No one knows his team better, nor is anyone more equipped to get more out of his players than what they even know they have to give, but for some reason, he hasn’t found the right buttons. We’re past the switch flipping at this point. There is not one single switch to be flipped. There are multiple switches and I don’t know if Coach Cal is certain which ones to push at which times because these Frosh are as unpredictable as teenage girls.
Based on my last statement, you’re probably ready to blame the kids for everything but the fact remains that these are still kids; eighteen year old kids who are working under the tutelage of the best CBB coach in the game today. Yes the curve is steep but that’s why they chose to play for Cal at Kentucky. Calipari’s reputation as a miracle worker and NBA career starter has preceded him but this time his rep has bit off more than it can chew.
At this point I don’t care about the tourney seeding, whichever tourney that ends up being because until we can find an identity and some heart to play even 2/3 of a game then we will be miserable regardless of how we finish the regular season.
There are multiple problems with this team and Coach Cal’s difficulty with pinpointing and correcting them is arguably the biggest one.