catmandoo
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Member # 1284
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posted 07-22-2020 09:52 PM
When you've appeared in more Final 4s (4), more Elite 8s (7), more Sweet 16s (8) and won more NCAA Tournament games (31) over the past decade and produced more No. 1 overall picks (3), top-10 picks (13), lottery picks (21), first round picks (29) and total NBA Draft picks (38) than any other school since 2010, picking a "Best Of" can be quite difficult.
That's exactly what Kentucky head coach John Calipari was tasked with during an appearance on the March Madness 365 podcast with Andy Katz Tuesday.
Katz held Calipari's feet to the fire, having the 11-year Wildcats head coach hand out superlatives across 10 different categories and while it was hard to pick just one, Calipari's answers were revealing nonetheless.
BEST PLAYMAKER--
"From John Wall and Eric Bledsoe to Brandon Knight to Isaiah Briscoe and Jamal Murray. Marquis Teague on my NCAA championship team. You can go even further, Andrew Harrison, Ashton [Hagans] but you have to look at Tyler Ulis in that grouping. Even with his size, didn't care. Never thought of him as anything but a big-time guard. He was unique in that."
MOST CLUTCH
"John Wall made one against Miami, Brandon Knight made a couple in the NCAA Tournament for us to advance. We all remember Aaron Harrison and the shots that he made. Devin Booker and Tyler Herro made clutch baskets to stretch out games. Immanuel Quickley became a clutch shot-maker. Aaron probably had the biggest."
BUCKET GETTER
"Doron Lamb that could do that, Devin Booker, Tyler Herro, Eric Bledsoe by the end of the year that's what he was able to do, as a finisher Michael Kidd [Gilchrist] would do that, Anthony Davis by the end of the year was ridiculous. He could go get buckets 10 different ways. Karl Towns by the end of the year, that's all we did. We were going at him."
ULTIMATE DEFENDER
"Julius Randle was such a beast physically and could just go get a rebound and guard multiple positions. Terrence Jones was another one that could do that. Obviously, Anthony Davis. How about Nerlens Noel? We've always had shot blockers. That's been our forte. PJ Washington was physically tough and could go get a rebound."
BEST REBOUNDER
"DeMarcus Cousins, a beast. Terrence Jones, Nerlens Noel, Anthony Davis obviously, Karl-Anthony Towns, what about Willie Cauley-Stein, Trey Lyles was a terrific rebounder, Dakari Johnson and how Nick Richards blossomed was incredible."
BEST SHOOTER
"I know there are some guys that would be mad but I would tell you when Devin Booker got it going, it would be hard to say anybody was better. Tyler Herro was edging up on him but this guy was unconscious. Every time he shot it, everybody in the building thought it was going in. Doron [Lamb] was probably in there somewhere. He had 22 in the national championship game."
GLUE GUY
"I would say Darius [Miller] was one of them, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was one of them and he was the second pick of the draft. Shai [Gilgeous] Alexander, he and Jamal Murray will be All-Stars. Both scorers, both clutch players but both were wiling to step back so others could step up. Shai Alexander doesn't start his first nine games but they step back and make room ... Patrick Patterson."
BEST ATHLETE
"Let me zero in on two guys. I had John Wall, who was so fast it was crazy. I looked at Eric Bledsoe and said, 'How fast is John Wall?' And he said, 'Coach, he is so fast.' I go, 'He's faster than you?' 'Oh no, he's not faster than me but he's really fast.' You talk about two athletes at guard. Eric Bledsoe could put his head on the rim and so could John."
HIGHEST BASKETBALL IQ
"Tyler Ulis being a coach on the floor. I thought Ashton Hagans started to be a coach on the floor. He grew into it. We had different guys that could do that but here's a guy who was 5-8, 140 pounds in the NBA and he'll be back in the NBA. He had to have a hip operation."
TEAM CAPTAIN
"Anthony Davis could be a team captain because he would step back if he had to and step up if he needed to and was the ultimate teammate. He could have gone here and tried to shoot 30 balls a game and we probably wouldn't have won a national title. He accepted what he had to do and by the end of the year, he ends up being the player of the year, the first pick in the draft, he ends up being on the Olympic team, All-Star in the NBA but he did it by stepping back."
Link
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http://www.ukfightsong.com/
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