Wildcatk23 Wrote:^ ITs your Opinion. We disagree. Cal has won where he has been.
I agree, he has won because he has won with the best talent. Where we disagree is when Talent get's trumped by a great coach on the other side. And I think many would hate to admit that Huggins is a great X's & O's coach, but his plan forced the Cats into NO answers. Bill Self made the game so simple, that Kansas literally STOLE the 2008 NCAA championship. Wins, yeah, their great and can even get you into the HOF. Winning the big games, well, that takes a great plan with great players. I sure hope we can get that and put titles in the rafters.
Stardust Wrote:LOL, Like I said, you can view him as a great X's & O's coach, but I do not. I hope he puts banners in the rafters and we get to keep them. But to date, Cal has proven that he is a great Recruiter and has won with GREAT talent! He has taken that Great Talent against teams inferior talent wise, and has lost due to X's & O's.
You can make the comparisons to Coach K, Coach Rupp, Coach Wooden, or whoever you want, but you cannot change the fact of what I have said about CAL!
Dust!!! Any coach that comes to UK is without a doubt the best coach to ever coach anything!
I agree with Dusty, average at-best coaches have won championships. However, I also believe that a coach can be a great coach without in-game X's and O's expertise. Nobody would consider Calipari or Billy Donovan great X's and O's coaches but they are still great coaches.
Billy D has 3 championship game appearances and 2 titles to his name but he isn't great with X's and O's, if he was then his non-title teams wouldn't underachieve so much. I would still call him a great coach. He has proven that great recruiting, good teaching skills, good motivation and the ability to manage personalities can get you a championship, (or two)
I think the same can be said for Cal. We also have to remember about last years team that Cal has a bad track record against Huggie Bear. Huggie bear is his kryptonite. For some reason he has not done well against Bob Huggins teams. I still think last years Cats beats any other team in the tournament. Going in, I was worried about them because Huggy always seems to have Cal's number.
Aslan Wrote:Dust!!! Any coach that comes to UK is without a doubt the best coach to ever coach anything!
LOL, I know I am fighting a losing argument, thanks for the reminder:biggrin::Thumbs:
LWC Wrote:I agree with Dusty, average at-best coaches have won championships. However, I also believe that a coach can be a great coach without in-game X's and O's expertise. Nobody would consider Calipari or Billy Donovan great X's and O's coaches but they are still great coaches.
Billy D has 3 championship game appearances and 2 titles to his name but he isn't great with X's and O's, if he was then his non-title teams wouldn't underachieve so much. I would still call him a great coach. He has proven that great recruiting, good teaching skills, good motivation and the ability to manage personalities can get you a championship, (or two)
I think the same can be said for Cal. We also have to remember about last years team that Cal has a bad track record against Huggie Bear. Huggie bear is his kryptonite. For some reason he has not done well against Bob Huggins teams. I still think last years Cats beats any other team in the tournament. Going in, I was worried about them because Huggy always seems to have Cal's number.
Very solid post LWC. There are coaches that can coach themselves through the tough times, and in my experience, I have not seen that skill from Cal. I want titles, and if Cal can bring them here, it will make me happy, PERIOD!
You have to have good recruits to win.
Benchwarmer Wrote:You have to have good recruits to win.
There is no doubt, that in today's game, you have to have great recruits. Once you have great recruits, you have to get them to believe in a system. Then in the system, they have to perform. The final piece must be to put your players in position to be successful by forming a plan, altering the plan, and adjusting to what the other team is doing. You want to win championships, all of the functions must be in place.
Too often in all sports, at all levels, you see the team with the better plan and the ability to make adjustments beat the team that is more talented. That is one coach doing the X's and O's better than the other coach.
My top 5 COACHES would be
Tom Izzo
Coach K
Bill Self
Rick Pitino
Jim Boeheim
Those Coaches hasnt had the talent that Cal had last season or in the past years and they somehow win the big games!
Now Top 5 recruiters
Calapari
Coach K
jim Boehieim
Wildcatk23 Wrote:Not that im comparing coach cal to coach K, But it took coach k 11 years to win his first title at duke. He lost in 4 final fours before jumping over the hump. Was he not a great coach at the time? In 1986 UL beat TOP ranked duke in the final. In 1988 kansas beat duke in the final four. 1989 duke was once again blew out by seton hall making an early exit from the tournament. In 1990 he was dominated by UNLV by 30 points...,. Then he got his championship and is now considered one of the greatest coaches of all time. Losing big games dont make u any less of a coach. Do you here any of these games when you hear coach k's name? NO, but you here the big games is 92 and so on. As soon as cal gets a championship under his belt that gets to stay there. Wont be long and u will have to admit hes a great coach.
Weather you have the best talent or the worse. Some times the other team just wins!
Coach K is a great coach now! Calapari has never won a championship or been to the final four *that wasnt taking away* However he isa great recruiter and the godfather at that. However he cant coach his way out of a paper bag. Last year WV game? how did he loose that? sure WV shot the lights out. A simple 1-3-1 zone drove him crazy. with john wall one of the greatest players ever at getting to the rim! and cal couldnt coach that team to a W. COACHES are the ones that can have very little talent and make the team believe they can beat the lakers. Yes there are very few of them
5 that comes to mind are
Tom izzo
Coach k
Bill self
Rick pitino
Bruce Pearl- who hasnt won much in big games but he is a great motivator
theVILLE Wrote:Coach K is a great coach now! Calapari has never won a championship or been to the final four *that wasnt taking away* However he isa great recruiter and the godfather at that. However he cant coach his way out of a paper bag. Last year WV game? how did he loose that? sure WV shot the lights out. A simple 1-3-1 zone drove him crazy. with john wall one of the greatest players ever at getting to the rim! and cal couldnt coach that team to a W. COACHES are the ones that can have very little talent and make the team believe they can beat the lakers. Yes there are very few of them
5 that comes to mind are
Tom izzo
Coach k
Bill self
Rick pitino
Bruce Pearl- who hasnt won much in big games but he is a great motivator
I think you are missing the point of the argument. I do not think Pearl is a great X's & O's coach. I have seen his teams blow games because they could not make late game adjustments (which is most always a result of coaching). Great motivators do not mean you can win a game in the final two minutes against a team that has made adjustments against you.
Stardust Wrote:I think you are missing the point of the argument. I do not think Pearl is a great X's & O's coach. I have seen his teams blow games because they could not make late game adjustments (which is most always a result of coaching). Great motivators do not mean you can win a game in the final two minutes against a team that has made adjustments against you.
Nope I wasnt meaning that bruce pearl was a top 5 coach. It looked that way in my post but that wasnt my argument... He just seems to be a great motivator is all I was saying
Stardust Wrote:There is no doubt, that in today's game, you have to have great recruits. Once you have great recruits, you have to get them to believe in a system. Then in the system, they have to perform. The final piece must be to put your players in position to be successful by forming a plan, altering the plan, and adjusting to what the other team is doing. You want to win championships, all of the functions must be in place.
Too often in all sports, at all levels, you see the team with the better plan and the ability to make adjustments beat the team that is more talented. That is one coach doing the X's and O's better than the other coach.
Good post.
In today's game I think you HAVE to have a balance of both coaching and recruiting.
Good recruits are a must, but having them half-way buy into a system for a year and then run off to the NBA simply doesn't get it done IMO.