Kentucky Players and Coaches are Still Underrated.

If I asked you which team had the best scoring percentage
defense in the country and 10th scoring defense you might say
Michigan State, or Princeton or BYU or some other team not known for being
flashy. I suspect you would not say Kentucky, yet that’s the right answer.

The question is: Why are we surprised? The answer may be that we have biases not
disclosed to anyone – not even ourselves. The Kentucky team depends on freshmen
at several vital positions, particularly point guard (Teague) and center (Anthony Davis), and small forward (Kidd-Gilchrist). And the veteran go-to-guy is a sophomore (Terrence Jones).

We believe defense is all about self-sacrifice, discipline, work ethic, mental toughness, and technique.

If you are over 40 like me…OK over 50, then we may as well admit that we assume the youth, by virtue of youth, just don’t work as hard as our generation. We assume that youth, like our own children or those we know, have a level of immaturity, which means they may act without appreciating the consequences of their action. Therefore, they often act prematurely, and are
thusly prone to error. We assume they need more time to get the engrained techniques that must be taught, not natural. Examples include moving your feet to stop the opposition instead of your hands to reach in and foul.

We also assume the kids are more prone to “me-first-ness” which means they want to get the glory of scoring, rather than concentrate on the thankless task of preventing the opponents from scoring. We assume they do now know enough about sacrificing their body to take a charge.
And then there are some of us who probably don’t realize that when we see a fast paced run-and-gun style, we assume all they do is offense.

So we are surprised when a group of guys new to shaving can execute all those elements that comprise defensive excellence. The definition of excellence should include a high level of consistency in doing the right thing. Kentucky enters the NCAA tournament having earned those impressive defensive statistics over 34 games during the season, despite having the bulls-eye on their back, taking everyone’s best shot, saving their best effort and yes their best offense for Kentucky.

Credit, like blame, should be shared. Defense means mentally saying, “I may be outplayed but not outworked”. That mental toughness and technique building did not happen by accident. Coaches privately admit that no one coach has a monopoly on coaching methods. They share plays with each other in camps. They move from job to job and take their methods with them. What is unique is their brand of communicating, their personality, their judgment and wisdom about organizing a system and picking staff and player personnel.

For three years now, John Calipari has that combination of attributes to do something virtually unprecedented in modern college basketball. He has brought in the highest quality talent in each season to Lexington Kentucky. If we had not been previously shocked and therefore now
conditioned by Michigan’s Fab Five, the media and fans would be going crazy, claiming Calipari was inciting a riot in the sport and he cannot has “sustainability” without long term loyalty by players to the program. Each season he brought in an eye-popping collection of McDonald’s All
Americans. Each season therefore Calipari faced the challenge of downsizing All American egos, and creating a culture of sacrifice.

But before I say Calipari did all of that, I am not going to succumb to the underlying and
undisclosed assumption that the selected All Americans had bigger-than-necessary egos. It is entirely possible and frankly more likely probable, that these are just very good team players who were extraordinarily talented. I suspect there is already a willingness to sacrifice, and had some
good home training as an ingredient. Stated differently, I don’t think one coach completely transforms an entire group of players in a season, without a qualitative character within each of them to “buy in” to the coach’s system. Many scholars and social scientists have authored empirically based studies concluding that much of one’s personality and mental aspects are molded early in life. Each of these highly recruited players with super-sized talent brought a lot to Kentucky.

Yet sharing the credit means noting that Calipari convinced them to come. Yes, there is Kentucky tradition and resources, but the Wildcats have had plenty of other coaches before Calipari. I doubt any of them could have reached the influence level like Calipari. Calipari had to have something special. He had convinced them he was trustworthy with their future, honest and
tough-loved with them, and culturally attuned enough so he could communicate with them in a way they can appreciate. Not every coach can do that. Some coaches never get enough of the blue chip players. They soon have to put their house up for sale. Other coaches get the players, but have trouble connecting until they are juniors or seniors. By that time, the team suffers losses and/or transfer attrition.

So part of Calipari’s transformative coaching is his ability to blend all those intangibles, getting the player buy-in to the system harmoniously all in one year. And then Calipari has repeated that process the next year and now again this, the third year. When top players leave after one year, Calipari’s testimony has been clear, honest, and so resonating with players, that the next wave of blue chippers are as convinced as the players they adulate and now hope to replace. If the Calipari experience was not working, if Calipari was not the honest broker for them, believe me, players talk. And the youngest teenagers respect the opinion of the senior teenagers. Something very special is going on in the locker room, practices, and training tables we never see on the court. Calipari is indeed very special.

I trust all this player and coach-speak does not leave you feeling sorry for the university, being taken advantage of by these employees and students. Just like the Patrick Ewing/John Thompson glory years of Georgetown or Fab Five years at Michigan, I suspect the royalty revenues at Kentucky, already in the millions per year, is rising. In the two years of Michigan’s Fab Five, the merchandising royalties grew from $1.6 million to $10.5 million. Even after the scandal, U of M did not have to give any of itback. Applications to Kentucky by non-athletes too, I suspect, are also on the rise during the Calipari era. But as for the moment, we should at least takenote of something special. Calipari and particularly the players in each of these years comprise a shared success, defying our unwitting assumptions.