My critique of Calipari

[GoCardsfromNY]

Look, it's hard to criticize a guy who has won so many games and gone to so many Final Fours. Let's be honest: it's truly remarkable what he's doing.

But the reason UK under Calipari is still seen as underachieving, with all the talent they've got, boils down to coaching.

Specifically, what I find absurd from the Wisconsin game, and I'm not sure if this has been true for the rest of Calipari's UK tenure, is his admission that they didn't watch any tape of Wisconsin or do any game planning specifically catered to the Badgers.

Now, I admit that sometimes I think Pitino overdoes it in terms of scouting reports and the like. But if I had to pick the extreme, I'd take Pitino's. How can you not prepare for your opponent? How can you just roll the ball out there, and hope for the best?

That's either hubris, or stupidity. Probably the first, which stems from the second.

Wisconsin is a 1 seed who would have beat you last year save a one shot at the end of last year's game. They are basically the same opponent you were just lucky to beat in your previous game, only without the size disadvantage. Oh, and you have almost a full week to prepare.

And considering how often UK's offense broke down, and how often UK's switching defense led to mismatches and wide open shooters, I'd think a little bit of opponent study could have gone a long way.

UK got caught up in thinking their natural talent was enough, despite evidence to the contrary (like several near-defeats this year). It was basically, well, it'll be close, but we'll find a way. At the end of the Notre Dame game, Calipari said, "well, we just have a great will to win." Did UK not have a will to win in the Final Four, or were they just unprepared?

If I were a UK fan (heaven forbid) sure, I'd be happy with all the wins and March success. But you can't deny they've left banners on the table. And this is why.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Which is exactly what UK and Calipari did. They got what they deserved.

 

[jalovell23]

"We don't just play college basketball," "We are college basketball." UK Coach John Calipari

 

[ULCard17]

So now we know who does not do their job when preparing for games...

 

[SpotHogCard]

Originally posted by jalovell23:

"We don't just play college basketball," "We are college basketball." UK Coach John Calipari

The above is why he fits so well in the fanbase that is begining to turn on him.

He reminds me of a cheap used car salesman. The kind you can't stand to be in the same room with because nothing he says is genuine. He is a cheater, point blank his record proves it (vacated games). Nothing about sUcKs is genuine (as another poste r pointed out) it is all bought and cheap.

These young men are not being developed or even going to class like they should be. They will never suffer any obstacles in college or have to overcome any adversity as individuals or as a team for that matter. This is everything that is wrong with college sports today. Winning is not everything, sometimes losing is a much more valuable tool. It is why I am a Cards fan.

 

[ShortCreek]

My critique:

1) Fat
2) Sweaty

Enough said!

 

[zipp]

Originally posted by GoCardsfromNY:
...what I find absurd from the Wisconsin game, and I'm not sure if this has been true for the rest of Calipari's UK tenure, is his admission that they didn't watch any tape of Wisconsin or do any game planning specifically catered to the Badgers.

Now, I admit that sometimes I think Pitino overdoes it in terms of scouting reports and the like. But if I had to pick the extreme, I'd take Pitino's. How can you not prepare for your opponent? How can you just roll the ball out there, and hope for the best?...There's a perfectly good reason for what you're talking about. It's the same reason that a guy like Wiltjer leaves LPT after two years and transfers to Gonzaga reportedly in such poor physical condition. Why Byron Scott of the Lakers made similar comments about Julius Randle. And why Pitino Lite's offensive and defensive systems are fairly simple.

It takes work otherwise. Pitino Lite doesn't recruit NBA prospects for a few months in college for them to work hard. Most of them are so talented. they never had to work hard in high school. And all on the same team in college, hard work isn't a prerequisite for success either. (It may be, however, to win a championship...)

You can play on a glorified AAU team in college for a few months and start cashing checks, or you can enroll for Pitino's boot camp and really learn basketball. Which do you think most 17-year olds would choose?

"Elite program", my a$$...

 

[Louisvillian]

Originally posted by zipp:

There's a perfectly good reason for what you're talking about. It's the same reason that a guy like Wiltjer leaves LPT after two years and transfers to Gonzaga reportedly in such poor physical condition. Why Byron Scott of the Lakers made similar comments about Julius Randle. And why Pitino Lite's offensive and defensive systems are fairly simple.

It takes work otherwise. Pitino Lite doesn't recruit NBA prospects for a few months in college for them to work hard. Most of them are so talented. they never had to work hard in high school. And all on the same team in college, hard work isn't a prerequisite for success either. (It may be, however, to win a championship...)

You can play on a glorified AAU team in college for a few months and start cashing checks, or you can enroll for Pitino's boot camp and really learn basketball. Which do you think most 17-year olds would choose?

"Elite program", my a$$...

Right on the money

 

[EasyCard]

Exactly, players don't go to a basketball life-coach to get great coaching. They go to be shown how to be a professional in basketball.

I don't blame Calipari for excluding complex scouting reports on each opponent. It would be a extreme waste of time with 18 year olds who can't even remember where there class is on campus. So, Calpari uses his time more effectiently by managing the emotional side of the team like team focus and ego management. It's actually quite a brillent strategy under the current OAD system. But, it is not a practice that resembles anything like a collegiate model where the goal is to teach and train young student-athletes how to be more well-rounded people while playing basketball.

 

[LuvCards]

Cal and his team thought they had to game won and all they needed to do was show up. Arrogrance at it's finest. The showed no respect to WI. If you don't respect your opponent - well we all know what happens.

That team was a bunch of spoiled - get all the calls your way players. When the game was called evenly, they lost their composure because they didn't know how to handle it.

They missed shots badly and went 5 min. without a basket, had three shot clock violations. They didn't know what to do when everything wasn't going their way and a coach that didn't know how to make adjustments during the final minutes.

Their expectation of having the game won showed in their poor sportsmanship at the end.

 

[thecycle21]

One day there will be a 30 for 30 on the whole Cal system. It started at Memphis with Cal, WWW, AAU and Nike all came together to discuss how funnel star players to Cal. It was a perfect system for Memphis and a marriage made in heaven when Cal went to UK. At both places Cal was playing in inferior conferences. It allowed him to play tough teams out of conference on his terms without having any real fear of struggling in conference. With the star power and conference wins he is guaranteed a high seed in the tournament.

I agree the beauty of his system is in its simplicity. It is completely reliant on elite talent. As someone said earlier there is no reason to waste time on the small stuff. The number one goal is to get them to play together. Let the talent take over.

Everything offensively and defensively is on pure talent and effort. That alone can beat 95% for the teams in the NCAA. It really is a system that is built for March. The problem is in the Elite 8 games and beyond those games will come down to the final minutes and he has proven not to be a great coach late in those games.

 

[zipp]

Originally posted by thecycle21:
...It allowed him to play tough teams out of conference on his terms without having any real fear of struggling in conference. With the star power and conference wins he is guaranteed a high seed in the tournament.

I agree the beauty of his system is in its simplicity. It is completely reliant on elite talent. As someone said earlier there is no reason to waste time on the small stuff. The number one goal is to get them to play together. Let the talent take over.

Everything offensively and defensively is on pure talent and effort. That alone can beat 95% for the teams in the NCAA. It really is a system that is built for March. The problem is in the Elite 8 games and beyond those games will come down to the final minutes and he has proven not to be a great coach late in those games. It's just semantics, and you and I are on the same side of this issue. But I wouldn't describe Pitino Lite's approach in quite the same terms...

He didn't play many "tough teams out of conference" UNTIL the NCAA tourney. Retrospectively, U of L and North Carolina were the best OOC teams on the LPT schedule. And the fans of neither of those teams would have called their teams particularly great. LPT played none of the Final Four teams, while the other three played each other. And that was while playing tough IN-conference schedules for each of those three teams.

It's not the "beauty" of his system being simple. It's the NECESSITY. He has no choice but to keep it simple. First, the players don't wanna work that hard, and there's no evidence that he can coach anything more complex. Hard for me to talk about that in positive, admirable terms.

And I don't know where the "built for March" tag comes from. Two of Pitino Lite's biggest disappointments--this year and in 2010--were talented teams that couldn't get it done in March.

We both agree that his coaching skills won't overcome anything. You could argue that the last six years for LPT have distilled down to one truly elite player: Anthony Davis. (I used to wonder the same thing about Angel McCoughtry and Jeff Walz...) Davis was arguably the best player in those six years, and he was good enough to overcome the deficiencies in Pitino Lite and his OAD system at LPT. Without a player the caliber of Davis, those deficiencies will eventually surface before the championship is won.

"Elite program", my a$$...

 

[glassmanJ]

actually pay attention to what cal says he tells you his philosophy-

first, he doesn't scout other teams. he admits that todayt. admitted it years ago. admitted after the loss they only watched 8 minutes of Wisconsin film. his general premise is they other team has to stop us and we don't worry about what they do.

second, this year especially, he had no offensive system. his dribble drive system is good but it is based on the premise that you beat your guy off the ball and he goes to the rim either for a layup or a kick out to the three. when he drive the rest of the guys either crash the boards or wait for the kick out. the system works for cal only because he is able to recruit the best players. it's a lot easier to teach the dribble drive to guys that are quicker, faster and more athletic than their opponent.

third, with the offense, this year they simply played the game of whoever has the hot hand you guys figure it out and get him the ball. he's not running intricate sets, his players are simply more talented and someone has got to have a match advantage. that's his entire offense in a nut shell. no real coaching.

fourth, with defense, again, hr doesn't teach anything here in terms of different types of schemes, it's more that his guys are bigger and taller and faster and should be able to guard anyone one on one. cals teams rarely play zone, it's too confusing to their players. they have to think. play man to man always. and it killed them vs wisc as they were good enouygh to exploit bad matchups. had UK gone to zone different story.

finally,.regretfully i don;t have the article but someone ranked the best college coaches and pitino was 7th and cal 8th i think. in the description it said pitino's strong points were getting players physically and X's and O's ready for the NBA. they said cal prepared his players for the social media aspects of the NBA. not actually playing int he nba, but living the life of an NBA player. so basically, he teaches them life skills because he has no idea how to teach them basketball skills. i can teach the dribble drive and man to man defense. pretty simple. which fits my overall idea of the man himself.