Mike DeCourcy of SI.com answers 5 burning questions about this weekend’s Final 4 and the first one is if Calipari is feeling pressure to win the title this season.
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[I]1. Which coach has the toughest assignment?[/I][/B][/B][LEFT][I][COLOR=#000000][FONT=sans-serif][B]DeCourcy: [/B]I know everybody wants to talk about how the most pressure is on Kentucky’s John Calipari because his team is the favorite, and now the Wildcats must face their in-state rivals from Louisville to get to the championship game.[/FONT][/COLOR][/I]
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Honestly, Calipari doesn’t have a lot of pressure. He’s making nearly $5 million annually. He still has money from his stint with the New Jersey Nets that he hasn’t even begun to count, and he left them more than a dozen years ago. Whatever happens this weekend, he’s going to be able to buy dinner on Tuesday.[/FONT][/COLOR][/I]
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The only pressure on Calipari and his players is what results from knowing they’ve got the best team and wanting to take advantage of that. In that sense, the pressure could drive them to work harder and smarter to assure they don’t waste the opportunity.[/FONT][/COLOR][/I]
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The coach who must to conceive a way to defeat Kentucky is the one that has the tough assignment. Right now, that’s Louisville’s Rick Pitino. There’s no better man for the job. He is the most inventive strategist in Division I, and he’ll have a week to think up something to bamboozle the Wildcats.[/FONT][/COLOR][/I]
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If there’s pressure on Calipari, it regards having to anticipate what Pitino might conjure and have the Wildcats prepared to deal with it.[/FONT][/COLOR][/I][/LEFT]
[URL=”http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2012-03-28/ncaa-tournament-2012-final-four-kentucky-kansas-ohio-state-louisville”]Read Entire Article[/URL]
