[Cactus Jack]

Enough typos to make me cringe a bit, but still thought this one might have sparked more debate.

Regardless, here's to hoping that he can produce more finishes similar to his first six years than most of what we've seen since.

I think your analysis was excellent. You are spot on with Cal being both open to embrace new ideas AND stubborn. I like Cal and I think he's a good basketball coach, overall, when you consider everything that goes into making a coach a winning coach. Cal, I believe, is a guy that truly cares about his kids and their lives after UK and after basketball. He's not the absolute best x's and o's coach but he does a lot that is better than most coaches. Winning 28 or 29 games a year is nothing to sneeze at. He's got the type of talent this season that fits a lot of what he likes to do and it wouldn't surprise me to see him lead them to a FF appearance. However, there's a lot of good fortune that has to happen to reach a Final Four. Let's hope everyone's healthy and playing their best down the stretch. I think by the time he's done at UK, especially if he wins another title, he will viewed by many as one of UK's most successful coaches.

I think Cal is so interesting in that he's one of the few coaches whose entire legacy could wind up in so many different places with a a few more breaks or a single loss. We're literally talking about being on a list with only six other coaches (who've won more than two titles) or considered a complete choker with a loss in 2012.

In 1996, his UMass team beat The Untouchables and were down 71-67 with possession of the ball and 1:30 remaining in their Final Four rematch. They'd miss a shot but still go on to cut the lead to 3 and put Mark Pope (a 66% shooter) on the line with about a minute to go. Not the best team that year, but probably win it in most of the years immediately before or after where they wouldn't have been running up on what's largely considered one of the best college teams of all-time. I don't know that 94 Arkansas, 95 UCLA, 97 Arizona, or 98 Kentucky are ever mentioned in the same breath as The Untouchables.

In 2008, Memphis chokes the Final away to Kansas at the line in OT. Easily could have been a national championship. In 2010, he had the best team but ran into a bad match-up on an off-shooting night (play the tournament 100 times and Kentucky wins 70 or more times IMO). Had the best team in 2015 and lost to Wisconsin. Those are probably the four best shots that he had in terms of talent, even if none of them reached the Final.

Don't think he had the best teams in the 2011 or 2014 fields by any means, but he was able to reach the Final Four and lose to the eventual National Champion by 1 in the former and to go the final in the latter. UConn was ahead by 6 for most of the last four minutes of that Final, but it certainly wasn't as if the game was out of reach or they couldn't have won if they'd have played a little better.

One of those six really good shots work out differently and he's in more select company. Two of them pan out with 2012 and we're probably having an entirely different discussion.

Going back and watching some of those highlights on YouTube, I see how sound his UMass team played and wonder where some of that execution and hunger might have gone over the years.



In comparison, I think Pitino's legacy is what it is and there's much less that's up for debate. Three Final Fours with different schools. Two national championships at different schools. Yes, another National Championship in '93 (#1 overall and lost to eventual champ Michigan in the Final Four) or '97 (#1 overall, but missed repeating by losing to Arizona in the Final) would have elevated him even further, but he left the college game at his peak for a second stint in the NBA.

Talk coaching chops all you want, but I don't see a world where Coach K, Bobby Knight, Roy Williams, or Jim Calhoun are essentially being offered control of the Boston freakin' Celtics after they'd already taken the New York Knicks to the Eastern Conference Final.

This may sound crazy, but outside of Larry Brown and maybe Brad Stevens or Billy Donovan, has anyone else had more success at both levels? Stevens has a more impressive overall resume, but he has zero titles to show for it. Donovan, a Pitino protege himself, caught lightning in a bottle at Florida but hasn't been out of the first round of the NBA Playoffs either.