Plenty of good stories on Kentucky and John Calipari worth reading this Wednesday. Quickly, let’s run through the best of what’s out there.
Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated writes that Kentucky is balancing experience and freshman talent in pursuit of a title. Sounds like what everyone else is writing, huh? Not quite.
Staples has an interesting anecdote from an assistant coach who, in the process of criticizing one-and-done players, said that a team can’t win a national title without, what he called, “Good Program Guys.” Staples agrees, pointing to Kemba Walker from last year, Brian Zoubek of Duke in 2009 and Mario Chalmers of Kansas in 2008.
Almost every championship team has some type of glue guy, a missing piece that is always filled by a veteran, Staples writes.
But what that assistant coach that Staples talked to fails to see about Kentucky – assuming the program he was singling out was Coach Cal’s – is that UK has had a Good Program Guy under Calipari. That’s the point of Staples’ story.
An excerpt:
At Memphis and now at Kentucky, Calipari has specialized in recruiting potential one-and-done players. He can’t win the national title, his critics say (among other things), because his emphasis on fantastic freshmen limits his opportunities to develop the GPGs that can lead his team to a national title. That’s simply incorrect.
In fact, Calipari may have hit on the ideal formula for recruiting top-flight talent and supplementing that talent with GPGs. If he stays at Kentucky long enough, that approach is going to win the Wildcats a national title. Of course, long enough may be a relative term. Kentucky has the talent to win the title this year, but do the Wildcats have the GPGs?
Staples points to Patrick Patterson in Cal’s first year and Josh Harrellson last season as the GPGs. So who is this year’s GPG?
To find out, you’ll have to read Staples’ full story at Sports Illustrated.
Speaking of SI (boy, it seems like an SI day here at CoachCal.com with the Terrence Jones cover from earlier), Staples’ colleague Andy Glockner previewed the Southeastern Conference on Wednesday.
Like just about every other conference prediction this year, Glockner believes Terrence Jones will win SEC Player of the Year and UK will win yet another regular-season title.
Where Glockner differed from the rest of the media is that he didn’t pick a Wildcat to be his “Impact Freshman.” Instead, Glockner decided to go with Florida’s Bradley Beal because “Kentucky may have too many freshmen for any one of them to make an award-winning impact.”
Make of that what you will, but here is what Glockner had to say about Jones and Kentucky:
Player of the Year
Terrence Jones, Kentucky
In some circles, Jones is being overlooked because he’s not new and because his numbers tapered off down the stretch last season. In this circle, give me the guy with a year of experience at this level who now is surrounded by significantly more talent than last season’s team. This version of the Wildcats still doesn’t really have a traditional big man (Eloy Vargas, anyone?), so Jones’ rebounding — especially on the defensive end, where he was statistically elite last season — will still be crucial. With better players around him, Jones’ offensive efficiency should improve, as well, so he’s in a good position to put up strong numbers on a great team, the formula for postseason honors.
1. Kentucky
On paper, the Wildcats have much more talent than last season’s Final Four team, importing four elite recruits to join forces with Terrence Jones, Doron Lamb and Darius Miller. Marquis Teague should star at the point and long-limbed big man Anthony Davis could be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft next season, but neither may have as good a college season as Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who even if he’s not starting, should pour in plenty of points from the wing. If you really want to nitpick, the Wildcats don’t really have a true physical 5 to mimic the role Josh Harrellson capably filled last season, but there’s too much talent (and now some experience) to expect anything less than an SEC title and a Final Four appearance.
And finally, Cal only has a small chapter (so far) in the storied UK-Louisville rivalry, but this video was just too good not to post. Credit Adam Lefkoe of WHAS11 in Louisville for putting together a fabulous piece.
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