In the end, the Kentucky Wildcats freshmen are the ones still standing

For the first thirty-five games of this season, John Calipari has listened to all of the criticism about his freshman laden team. “The Players First system is broken” the critics yelled? “It’s time to take a look at what Calipari is doing” the fans yelled. Meanwhile, teams with lots of freshmen like Duke and Kansas lost a lot of games as well yet did not illicit the knee jerk reaction in the polls a Kentucky loss did.

And after the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament, guess who is still standing?

"When one reporter asked Julius Randle about other freshmen in the tournament failing to live up to expectations, Calipari interrupted. “I would like all the other freshmen up here to answer the same question,” he said, his joke masking the fact that he has a point to prove. Calipari gestured down the row. James Young, freshman. Randle, freshman. Aaron Harrison, freshman. Andrew Harrison, freshman. All at the podium. All advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. All 19 years old – except for Young. He’s 18. Two days before, Jabari Parker’s college career had likely ended in Duke’s upset loss to Mercer. In the game, Parker had 14 points, although he did so on dismal 4-of-14 shooting. Then, just hours before Kentucky’s game, the other two highest-rated freshman made their early exits. Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins had his worst game of the season, with just 4 points to go along with 4 rebounds, and Joel Embiid spent the game on the bench with a back injury. Adding insult to (literal) injury, the 7-foot center said after the loss that he’d have played in the Sweet 16 had Kansas made it. Syracuse’s Tyler Ennis, too, made an early exit on Saturday with 19 points on 33.3 percent shooting, leaving only Kentucky’s crew and Arizona’s Aaron Gordon alive among the elite underclassmen. In a season featuring the most talked-about freshmen in years – most, if not all, of whom are bound for the NBA – the talent vs. experience debate has reigned supreme, and Sunday’s Kentucky win did a lot to shift that narrative. First Parker. Then Wiggins, and Embiid by proxy. By Sunday afternoon, the freshmen were falling, and there was cause to wonder: Is experience beating out the one-and-done model? Mercer’s starting lineup was composed entirely of freshmen, Stanford’s of upperclassmen. Down fell Duke, and down fell Kansas, despite assurances that young rosters were ready."

And we will hear plenty more of the “youth vs experience” argument all week, but that will be overshadowed by the “Calipari vs Pitino” matchup. As different as the two are, there are plenty of similarities in their careers.

A Calipari story. Not long after he took over at UMass, which was sort of a backwater, dead zone place to coach, he’d go anywhere to sell his team, even a tiny cable TV show in Worcester where I was on this particular day. His segment was due to start soon, but he hadn’t showed up yet. He called, saying he was lost. I gave him directions. He wasn’t that far away from the Quinsigamond St. studio

Soon as he sat down Calipari took over the show, his theme being you may not know us now, but just wait. UMass was going to be heard from.
One night, after UMass beat Holy Cross at the Hart Center, the Globe’s Bob Ryan and I met up with Calipari. He didn’t really want to talk about the win. He simply implored us to get the word out. Come to Amherst and we’ll put on a show for ya. The Globe wound up assigning Joe Burris, who lived in Framingham, to cover UMass full-time.

A Pitino story. After a game when he was at BU, he was peeved that his team hadn’t caught on with fans or the media. Couldn’t we see, he reminded us, that his team played an exciting, up tempo style? He was right about that. So where were the fans? I was tempted to say “buying tickets for the hockey games.”

Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

There is one thing that a lot of the media seem to forget about this UK and Louisville game. Kentucky actually won the first time these two teams played. And breaking that game down, it’s important that UK controls the Cardinal’s long-range threats.

"Kentucky’s size bothered Louisville and made its biggest impact on rebounding, where the Wildcats got 41 percent of their own missed shots and scored 17 second-chance points. Size also got UK 42 points in the paint. Beyond that, Kentucky took 18 more 2-pointers than Louisville, and made 24 of 48. Louisville shot 53 percent inside the arc, but was 17 of 32. That’s a big difference. UK also canceled out two numbers that usually separate Louisville from its opponents. The teams tied on points off turnovers, and Louisville only outscored UK 10-6 on fast-break points. We know now that Louisville (31-5) is at its best when it’s trapping ball handlers, shooting into passing lanes and getting out in transition. Kentucky is at its best defending in halfcourt sets, where the Wildcats’ size shrinks space for offenses to operate. Louisville’s effective field-goal percentage, a statistic adjusted to reflect the value of a 3-pointer vs. a 2-pointer, is 11 percentage points better in transition. Kentucky’s opponents have a 54 percent effective field goal percentage in transition. It drops to 42 percent in the halfcourt. Louisville also struggled from 3 and turned the ball over too much. The Cards were 6 of 26 from long range and committed 13 turnovers to UK’s 11. As I recently found, a bad night shooting the 3 usually costs Louisville a win."