[Hoot Gibson]

I think you mean "than Coach Cal's teams", but that's beside the point.

But back to my argument: Like I've said, it's really HARD to win a championship. Really, really hard. Calipari has taken two no-name teams to Final Fours (I don't care if they were taken away). Taking UMass and Memphis to Final Fours is a pretty darn good accomplishment if you ask me (even if he did cheat, which in my mind [which no one will ever get me to believe differently] he didn't). How'd he do it? He recruited some of the best players (yeah yeah, he cheated and paid them..blah blah blah) and COACHED them to the Final Four. I'll never figure out why the Cal-haters out there can't at least acredit him to that. **** people, only one team wins the title in college basketball each year. Just look at the great HOF coaches out there and how many titles they have won.

Coach K - The best coach in the game today. He has three to his credit in 30+ years of coaching at Duke. That's outstanding.

Roy Williams - Williams has two titles under his belt. He didn't even win one until he arrived at UNC and think about the great teams and players he had while coaching at Kansas.

Jim Boehim - Jim has one title to his name while coaching 30+ years at Syracuse and didn't get it until 2003. That's still pretty darn good and HOF worthy when you look at his great teams he has had and the wins he's piled up.

Jim Calhoun - Two national titles for Calhoun in 30+ years of coaching. He's another example of how hard it is to win it all.

Bill Self - Self has one title. He's a younger guy (in his mid 40's I believe) and has done an outstanding job at Kansas. I say he'll be lucky to win more though in his career.

Billy Donovan - Back-to-back titles in '06 and '07. Then what? Back-to-back NIT appearances. Starting to see what I mean yet?

Rick Pitino - Only one national title for the great Pitino. He's a heck of a great coach and will be until he's done with it all. He's getting older though and will be lucky to even get back to another Final Four.

Tom Izzo - The best example of how hard it is. He's been to an unbelievable six Final Fours and only won one NCAA Championship.

I could go on with a few more names like Lute Olson and Gary Williams and guys that haven't even won a championship (Jay Wright, Rick Barnes, Bob Huggins, and on and on and on). So, like I've said: it's tough to win a championship people. Saying Calipari has never done anything in his career is lieing to yourself.

This won't change your minds about Cal, but I just thought I'd mouth my worthless opinion about it all.

I feel like I'm contradicting myself because I started this thread, but I just didn't agree with not calling that timeout last night. That's one of the two things I haven't agreed with him doing so far (the other being him saying the SEC "means nothing" but I don't feel like getting into that).

The wins taken away by the NCAA will not be included in Calipari's career wins record will they? If not, then I think that they qualified as his wins because he had been credited with them.

I am not a Calipari hater. He has handled the pressure of being the UK head coach as well as anybody since Rupp and he has been a great ambassador for UK basketball (notwithstanding the incident involving Jones on national TV).

I also don't think that you have to be a great coach to win a title or that failing to win a title means that you are not a great coach. I just don't personally believe that Coach Cal is a great coach and my opinion won't changes when he (almost inevitably) wins his first NCAA title. An extremely athletic, deep, and talented team can make an average coach almost unbeatable.

This team lacks the depth to be a serious title contender but, IMO, next year's team could be the most talented UK team ever if the threat of an NBA lockout results in all of this year's freshmen remaining in Lexington.

FWIW, I never thought that Pitino was much of a game day coach either - but Pitino excelled not only at recruiting but also in player development and game preparation. I just don't see evidence that Calipari has those kind of skills.