Gregg Doyel has a piece on Coach Cal for CBS Sports, touching on Cal’s legacy and what a National Title means (or doesn’t) mean to it.Here’s an excerpt.
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The issue is Calipari’s coaching acumen, and whether he needs a national title to get everyone off his back, and it’s another forest-or-trees argument. The forest shows one great player at UMass in 1996, several at Memphis in 2008, several more at Kentucky since ’09 — and no national title for the coach who had them. The forest says Calipari is a great recruiter, isn’t a great coach. That’s one way to see it.[/FONT][/COLOR]
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Another way is to consider Calipari in comparison to Boeheim, Self and Roy Williams, great coaches whether they won titles or not. And there are numbers that say Calipari ranks right with them. Only Williams has won games at a faster clip, but he has spent all of his 24 years at royalty — Kansas and UNC — while Calipari (77.9 percent) has spent 17 of his 20 years at UMass and Memphis. Big difference.[/FONT][/COLOR]
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Calipari has 510 victories, and he’s only 53 years old. If he coaches to 65, wins at his career rate, he’d soar past 800. With or without a title, would anyone deny his greatness then?[/FONT][/COLOR]
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Surely not. So why deny it now?[/FONT][/COLOR]
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Anyway, I spent the weekend inside the forest, looking at some trees, and here’s what I’ll remember from Friday: Calipari putting his team through a high-energy, no-frills practice devoted to Vanderbilt’s complicated offense, as demonstrated by Kentucky’s assistant coaches. Calipari’s attention to detail was telling, his whistle blowing every few seconds when Darius Miller or Marquis Teague didn’t react with the precision Calipari knew would be required. By the time practice was over, even I knew what Vanderbilt would do Saturday — and sure enough, Vanderbilt did it. Running guards off high screens, breaking at unusual angles to the low post. Kentucky was ready, holding Vandy to 41.3 percent shooting in an 83-74 victory.[/FONT][/COLOR]
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That was defense. On offense, here’s what I’ll remember from Saturday: After trailing most of the first half, Kentucky was clinging to a 45-42 lead when it faced an inbounds play with two seconds on the shot clock — 40 feet from the basket. Calipari didn’t call timeout, just called a play. It unfolded with a series of screens 40 feet out, resulting in Player of the Year candidate Anthony Davis sneaking unseen to the basket, where he caught the inbounds pass and laid it in before the buzzer.[/FONT][/COLOR]
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A few hours later Calipari was giddy about that one, clapping his hands and saying, “Oh, you saw that?”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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It was a play only a great coach would’ve had in his team’s arsenal, ready for the right time. It was a play you’d expect from one of only two coaches in history to lead three different schools to the Final Four, and one of only two coaches to lead three different schools to the No. 1 ranking — and the only coach to be on both lists.[/FONT][/COLOR]
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It was the kind of play that would suggest his victory total and winning percentage aren’t the results of only great recruiting, but great coaching as well.[/FONT][/COLOR]
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The man’s a great coach. Cling to the notion that he’s not, but understand something: The book on Calipari, just like the book on that white whale, isn’t true.
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I completely agree with the sentiment of this article, Cal is one of the greatest coaches in college basketball. But I feel like while there are great players and coaches in every sport who have never won a championship, there is a differentiator that lies in wearing that ring. And hopefully after this year, Cal will have crossed that line.
[URL=”http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/17471999/greatness-of-kentuckys-calipari-not-measured-by-lack-of-national-title”]
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