Comments on: Eric Bledsoe: Coach Calipari, You Told Me I Was The Man

By: John Samford

John Samford — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:20:28 +0000

You are both correct. Memphis players DID choke, Coach Cal is not much of a floor coach. That game against Kansas was not the only game where Coach Cal stood there with his thumb up and watched his team lose.
One of a Coach’s Jobs is deciding when to take a TO and get a little calm down time, when to order an intentional and when to get a “T”. Calipari recruits, and he sells the program better then almost anyone. But when the game starts, he just rolls the ball out and enjoys the best seat in the house.
Memphis lost the NC in OVERTIME. Why weren’t the guys ready for the OT? Somebody got the gayhawks ready for OT. Somebody didn’t get the Tigers ready for OT.
KU isn’t going to the Final Four this year. Sorry, but the Dribble Drive is a VERY complex offense. It just looks like confusion. Players that don’t understand it get lost in it. That is what happened to Willie Kemp, who was as highly rated as Rose coming out of HS.
Rose and ‘reke were able to function in the DD because they had other guys on the floor who knew what was going on. KU won’t even win the SEC this year. Memphis will go farther in the tourney this year then KU.

By: Hail Mary Jane | Hail Mary Jane

Hail Mary Jane | Hail Mary Jane — Fri, 22 May 2009 04:15:25 +0000

[...] Eric Bledsoe: Coach Calipari, You Told Me I Was The Man [...]

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:25:58 +0000

Corey,

Yes, let’s review. Cal slowed the game down with two minutes left and a nice lead against one of the most athletic teams in the nation and allowed them to come back. However, you’re right, it was all on the players and no blame can be assigned to the coach.

As far as bringing Memphis out of relative obscurity, Memphis had been a top 5 team less than 5 years before Cal took over and had put out two lottery picks in four years. Memphis isn’t on the level of UK, UNC, etc., but to say it is was a program is obscurity tells me you don’t know what’s going on outside of Lexington.

As far as who’s playing against what talent, I can tell you that Memphis will not be in CUSA much longer…..and that Kentucky’s CUSA record leaves a bit to be desired.

Y’all will find out about Cal soon enough.

By: Seniors become freshman, what to look for out of Kentucky’s class

Seniors become freshman, what to look for out of Kentucky’s class — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:34:53 +0000

[...] If you ask me, I think it’s going to better practice for Bledsoe to go up against John Wall every day in practice than to start against Houston or UAB in C-USA. They are going to challenge eachother every day and push eachother to be better every day. I don’t think Bledsoe held any realistic notions that he could be a one and done, as our friend Moondog suggests. [...]

By: corey

corey — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:12:13 +0000

eric, i do think that the argument that not deciding to foul in the last few seconds was a bad call holds a lot of water. however, there are very few coaches in the country who follow that logic. i have never understood why that is the case, and i think it is quite stupid. however, for whatever reason, that seems to be the generally accepted philosophy among coaches, so it’s not like this was cal being cavalier and going against the grain. not necessarily a good defense of this by any stretch, but it was hardly a shocking decision either.
as far as the free throw shooting is concerned, i strongly disagree. how do you teach a player to shoot free throws? it’s not like this is something that they did not work on, they were just bad at it. i don’t think the idea of “a team of shaqs” is really that far off. and again, had they made these free throws then the decision to foul at the end would have been completely moot. i’m not trying to argue that cal is completely blameless in the loss, but the fact of the matter is that no matter how well a coach schemes the players still have to execute and memphis simply did not.
furthermore, to argue that calipari is not a good coach on the floor is absolutely ridiculous. we’re talking about a man that took not one but two programs (along with umass) from relative obscurity to national prominence in a very short time span. the man is one of the best coaches in college basketball today. is he a jerk? probably. arrogant? yup. does anybody argue that guys like rick pitino and bob knight were bad coaches due to their personality? not if they know anything about basketball. anyways, my point in my previous post was simply that memphis’s lack of execution was what eventually cost them the national title. if the free throw shooting doesn’t do it for you, then take a look at their shooting percentages in the overtime period.