John Calipari is a masterful recruiter, a skill that makes him one of the best coaches in college basketball. The man is a machine, as he has churned out Final Four appearances at the only three schools he has been head coach, putting him in a class all to himself.
Calipari has coached some of the highest rated recruits down through the years in Derrick Rose, John Wall, Tyreke Evans, Brandon Knight and this year’s latest crop in Anthony Davis and Marquis Teague.
One thing is missing in all of this for Calipari and his troops; that is a national championship, and if history is any indication, this year should not be any different.
As the No. 1 overall seed, the Kentucky Wildcats are the odds-on favorite to win the NCAA Tournament. At the same time the last time the No. 1 overall seed won March Madness was in 2007 when a veteran Florida Gators team won back-to-back national championships.
For Calipari to truly distinguish himself as a great coach he needs to win a championship, something he cannot do with the formulaic procedure he has mastered in landing the top phenoms each year. How can he expect to win a championship when every year his top player is a freshman?
At the same time, part of the problem is the allure for the top prospects. Play for Calipari and become a top NBA draft pick in a year. Just ask Rose, Wall, Evans and Knight who have collected approximately a combined $61.2 million thus far with their first NBA contracts.
In the circumstance of college basketball, experience trumps talent, especially during late-season play. In looking at the best player for each of the past eight national championship winners, I found that each one had multiple years of college basketball under their belt. With the exception of Joakim Noah, who was a sophomore the first time Florida won it all, every team’s best player was at least a junior.
Additionally, when a player decides to forgo college and play in the NBA, it breaks a team’s continuity. This process is when coaches and student-athletes spend countless hours with one another, learning each other’s game and striving to become the best team possible.
While the quality of play might not necessarily be as high compared to the NBA, college basketball is so pure, because an overwhelming majority of the student-athletes are competing in their last games at such a big-time level.
For a moment in time, players that have no shot in hell at competing as a pro get to leave their mark on the sport and their school before they fade into obscurity. Many of these players will never see such a big stage for the rest of their lives, even in another field entirely separate from sports.
This March Madness, Calipari will once again try to get the monkey off his back, and even though he has fallen short of an NCAA championship, he has still accomplished more than most college basketball coaches are able to say.
That being said, Calipari’s track record indicates that he is a tremendous assembler of talent, something extraordinarily different from being a truly great coach.