TheCatsDomain.Com Message Boards: Cal sells the program when he says national title isn’t a goal

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Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 05-22-2015, 09:00 PM:

I think this writer makes a good case but still thinks he sacrafices some of his players because of it. Like Ed pointed out in a earlier post Teague and Lamb had no business leaving for the NBA and I think Dakari, and the Harrisons, especially Aaron may meet that that same fate.

“For me, the mission for me is to be a vehicle to help others reach their dreams, to be the stone that creates the ripple in their lives that goes on and on and on. Now in our state, they want my mission to be, ‘win national titles, win national titles.’ My mission is bigger than that.”

Spin, spin, spin.

Sell, sell, sell.

This is nothing but a recruiting tactic. Cal’s not stupid. He knows that the biggest reason he’s been to four Final Fours in his six seasons at Kentucky is that he’s turned it into a draft factory. He knows that his ability to convince elite recruits to spend their seven months of basketball purgatory in Lexington is the engine driving his Kentucky program. And he knows that one of the biggest reasons he’s able to continually land players like Karl Towns and DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall and Skal Labissiere is that he makes it very clear he’s going to shove them off to the NBA as quickly as possible.

He knows how to market. He understands his program’s ‘brand’. And you’ll never, ever catch him saying otherwise.

I believe Cal when he says that he wants to get eight players drafted in a single season, I really do. I don’t think there is a coach in the country that wants anything less than the best for his players, and getting drafted by the NBA is as good as it gets. There’s no question Cal wants his guys to succeed.

Link

Posted by boomdaddy (Member # 2644) on 05-23-2015, 07:07 AM:

Calipari is the best coach since Rupp. When he retires or gets fed up with the crazy fan base, there will be a huge void that will not be filled any time soon after his departure.

Any fan uproar about Cal's statement about players first is insane. I would expect that the only other fan base that is crazier than Kentucky basketball fans might be Bama football fans and that is a huge maybe.

Posted by Gunny (Member # 2869) on 05-23-2015, 07:10 AM:

Coach Cal is a lot better of a recruiter than a bench coach., Coach K, even though I'm not a fan of Duke at all, you can see how good he can coach and out of know where, they win the tournament this year when know one picked them to win. As long as Coach Cal keeps pulling top players especially really great point guards, there is a chance we might win it all. But I'm getting tired of the players first talk, but if it helps sign top players, I guess we'll keep hearing it.

Posted by boomdaddy (Member # 2644) on 05-23-2015, 08:21 AM:

Not me. Cal could say he talks to aliens for coaching advice and it wouldn't bother me.

Posted by ukman (Member # 3032) on 05-23-2015, 04:50 PM:

Maybe the aliens can tell him to actually watch some game film and be prepared for what the other team might do. It sure seemed to work for Wisconsin, and you could tell we weren't prepared. Kaminsky said they watched 7-8 UK games before they played. Cal said we didn't watch one. Well, I think the better prepared team won, not the team that had better talent. Sure, we should be happy with the final fours, but at the same time no one can actually tell me that we shouldn't have won this National Championship, or the one in 2010. I know it's hard to do, but both of those teams were in positions to win it all and they were not prepared for what the opponent did. I am not saying he is a bad coach by any means, but he is not a top game coach, or game planner. He just develops his guys for the NBA and then counts on them just being better than the other team, and hopefully that wins out.

Posted by SCWC (Member # 2464) on 05-23-2015, 05:34 PM:

Cal really upset a lot of old time UK basketball fans with his statement. Kentucky basketball has always been big, it survived prior to Cal and will certainly thrive after he is long gone. I am very happy to have him as our coach but he is a much better recruiter than he is bench coach. He had the best talent in America this past season and certainly should have won a national championship with that team.

[ 05-23-2015, 05:39 PM: Message edited by: SCWC ]

Posted by Gunny (Member # 2869) on 05-23-2015, 10:52 PM:

With the team that Kentucky had last season, Tubby Smith would have won a championship.

Posted by boomdaddy (Member # 2644) on 05-24-2015, 08:31 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by Gunny:
With the team that Kentucky had last season, Tubby Smith would have won a championship.

Tubby has the charisma of a paper bag. He can't recruit and would never be able to assemble that type of talent. My advice is for anyone that is pining for Tubby to go root for whatever team he is coaching now, if he is still coaching. Haven't heard his name at tourney time.

[ 05-24-2015, 08:41 AM: Message edited by: boomdaddy ]

Posted by Bama Cat (Member # 153) on 05-24-2015, 08:55 AM:

I'm on the same bandwagon as UKMan. Cal has two years that can be grouped with 1984 and several other years that a NCAA championship was blown. For one reason or another we have at least 4 or 5 Championships that should have been but weren't so it's not just Cal who didn't follow thru.