ESPN’s Myron Medcalf gave his list of college basketball’s most underappreciated coaches last week.
According to Medcalf, John Calipari is so underappreciated that he named an entire category after the UK head coach.
Medcalf says Calipari is underappreciated because he’s won so much that his success is taken for granted. Some other coaches in the same category: Bill Self, Bob Huggins, Bruce Weber and Mark Few.
Here is an excerpt:
Coaches who are underappreciated because they’ve won so often their success is taken for granted (The John Calipari category)
1. John Calipari: The popular assessment of Calipari at Kentucky is this: He gets multiple five-star kids each year so his job is easy. But that take belies reality. Only two freshman-led collectives have won national titles (Kentucky in 2012, Duke in 2015) in the one-and-done era. Calipari’s ability to recruit a fleet of NBA prospects each season and mold that group into a contender is an amazing feat. With teams mostly led by teenagers at Kentucky, Calipari has won fewer than 26 games only once (2012-13). Plus, he’s backed by a fan base that expects Final Four runs each season. Calipari never attempts to minimize the high expectations. He acknowledges them and, most seasons, meets them. The critics claim he should have more titles, but that’s a shortsighted take that ignores the challenge he embraces each season.
