12-28-2023, 06:28 AM
Had this question posed in another thread and thought it was worth one of it's own.
My Opinion of Calipari:
My Opinion of Calipari:
- He's singularly one of the most willing coaches to embrace new philosophies but can also be one of the most stubborn, even within the same season. He didn't mind embracing the dribble-drive or one-and-done. He's one of the first to embrace the grad transfer rule, transfer portal, and NIL. He's done a lot of great things in preparing kids for life after college, including pushing players into the pros when other coaches might not have been as willing to do so-- whether this is out of virtue or self-interest may be a more nuanced discussion, but there's no doubt that he's created a legacy of generational wealth for countless families. I think that this is best summed up when a Wisconsin alum tweeted to Tyler Herro, something to the effect of "think of how good this team would have been with you" and Herro replied "yea... but I'd still be there" from the comfort of his NBA contract). That said, putting in some side-out and baseline inbounds plays that are slightly more complex than what top high school teams are running would be nice. The "weave to nowhere" thirty-feet from the goal that ended in a non-shooter pulling up late in the shot clock was all too common over the past five or so. "We have to go out and fight" was becoming Billy G's "we have to get tougher". Playing more shooters and trying to do some things to mask them defensively was not en vogue until we heard the phrase "positionless basketball".
- He's a recruiter, but that isn't a negative thing. It takes someone special to blend and motivate the type of talent that he's able to pull yearly. During the Tubby and Billy G years, fans spent summers following the recruitment of a Patrick Patterson, Jai Lucas, Tyler Hansbrough, or DeAndre Liggins and knew that those players would make or break the team's ceiling. Cal's ability to collect talent is nearly unmatched. At the same time, his best teams are always going to come in "up" years of highly rated overall recruiting and draft classes (2012, 2015, etc.) and his worst are going to come during the "down" years where analysts are talking about how weak the class is across the board (2013, 2016, 2020, etc.). If you disagree, look at a year where Cal hasn't had at least one top 5 pick and another lottery pick, then get back to me. Only two of his Final Fours have come without a #1 or #2 overall pick in the following draft, and he still had fairly high picks in those.
- He's not afraid to shield his kids from fans and the media; there are times when I definitely feel that he's jumping on the grenade for a kid during a press conference, perfectly content to let casuals think it's his lack of coaching and preparation when it's actually him trying to manage his team's psyche. He tried with Skal. Remember the Liggins suspension no one knew about until it'd passed? In various ways, he shielded Darius Miller, MKG, Terrance Jones, Humphries, Poythress, and countless others. I've always been of the opinion that Shaedon Sharpe was never eligible-- he was taken on the chance that he would become eligible, just like Enes Kanter and now Zvonimir Ivisic. Not only that, but I think he's fine with taking the risk that it all blows up in his face if they don't end up playing. We all remember the ones who couldn't get eligible, but there were plenty of players that are household names in the NBA who had to shed that cloud (Jamal Murray).
- Cal isn't Tubby, who was an excellent in-game coach and made great adjustments (but wasn't able to keep up with the times and pucker up to AAU coaches). I don't mean this in a condescending way toward Tubby, who is one of my all-time favorites, but creating a synergy that perfectly paired Cal's salesmanship and Orlando's tactical prowess would be something special. Both preached defense and have more similarities than casuals may see on the surface (hint: look at their assistants and fan's perceptions).
- Cal isn't Pitino, who usually came in with a great game-plan and was okay* at making adjustments... *[he was good but not great... fight me on this one because his teams might wear you out in the end, but adjustments were not one of his greatest strengths]. Rick wasn't the best recruiter and his teams weren't dripping in the newest gear (even though they still almost had two in a row wearing Converse), but he had solid classes headlined by one or two stars and a cast that could be developed around them over time. Pitino will always be the King of the "talented big man with soft hands who needs to develop while keeping his weight down in order to reach his ceiling" and the "stocky underrated guard who is an inch too short but tough as nails and won't fold"; Cal may get an Antoine Walker to pass the eye test, but there's no way he squeezes everything out of Nazr Mohammed and/or doesn't recruit over an Anthony Epps or Taquan Dean. In many ways, Calipari is always going to be compared to Pitino, regardless of how different the times they actually led in were because the game had evolved.
- He isn't Tubby or Pitino, but he is Calipari-- pick his all-time team at Kentucky and you won't have college legends like Chuck Hayes, Mark Pope, or Scott Padgett who are beloved by the program's diehards but otherwise fairly unknown outside of maybe fans of the NBA team they played for. You'll have to justify your picks based on how well they performed in the NBA and there are plenty of careers to choose from, so you may be splitting hairs on which franchise drafted someone and what their organization had going for them then. Give Pitino his full career of players (including those he coached in the pros) and they probably still won't stack up; Calipari will likewise never come close to fielding a roster of players that everyone remembers for what they did while wearing Kentucky across their chest.
- Are there decisions he's made that make me yell at the screen? Sure. Maybe it wasn't the best strategy to take the air out of the ball late against Wisconsin. More patience and shooting against West Virginia could have really kick-started a program that he'd already revived from life support. But he had the talent that put him in a position to win those games. More than one coach has had that talent but ended up crashing and burning before they even get to the point of being in a position to win those types of games. Hindsight is 20/20. Maybe '92 ends differently if Pitino puts a man on Hill while he's inbounding. Maybe '97 ends differently if Pitino plays Derek Anderson (or lobbies for violations while Miles Simon is trying to split traps). It's likely that '03 ends differently for Tubby if not for a Bogans' sprained ankle. Maybe '04 ends differently if he doesn't allow anyone into practice (urban legend re: Nolan Richardson). Would his tenure have been saved by convincing Chris Lofton and Shelvin Mack to stay close to home?
Or maybe Calipari never takes up residence in the Bluegrass or leaves after a couple of years for another shot at the NBA because he has a guard who can make free throws that isn't named Doron Lamb or Marquis Teague. Fun fact: Teague only missed 6 free throws in the entire 2012 run, and four of those were during blowouts in the first two rounds. Now apply that standard to other Cal teams and think about how thin the margin of error between success and failure is and just how different things could be, for better or worse, in the eyes of a Kentucky fan.