Kentucky and The Chase For Perfection

LEXINGTON, Ky.– John Calipari was preaching his typical fire and brimstone sermon to the Big Blue Nation and select recruits the other night before a sellout crowd of 24,000 at Rupp Arena. He just couldn’t resist telling them how big their beloved program has become as the “Amens” came thundering down.

“We are not just a part of college basketball,” Calipari claimed. “We ARE college basketball.”

The roar of approval from the faithful was only matched by the fact Calipari could be right. Kentucky has won eight national championships, the last in 2012. And it looks like their is another on the horizon.

The Cats are the most talented team in the country with eight future NBA players and five starters– 7-0 sophomore center Willie Cauley Stein and four freshmen power forward Julius Randle, forward Michael Young and twin guards Andrew and Aaron Harrison– who could all be lottery picks in next year’s draft.

“Listen to this,” Calipari told a group of recruits who dropped by his office recently. “This is from Yahoo. It’s a conversation between an NBA scout and writer…

“NBA scout: “I just saw a good NBA team today.”

Writer: “Who?”

Scout: “The University of Kentucky.”

Even Calipari had to laugh when he repeated the story.

But he has always set the bar high.

“Before I retire, I’d like to coach an undefeated team,” he recently told a UK booster club meeting in Louisville.
This year’s Kentucky team would have to go 40-0 to accomplish that.

For the record, Calipari has made that same bold claim before.

“This isn’t the first time I said it. I said the same thing in 2012 and we won 38 games– the most wins ever by a Kentucky team– and raised another banner in Rupp,” Calipari said. “You know the only other time that’s happened? Yeah, that’s right, my 2008 Memphis team.”

Calipari has always received credit for his ability to recruit future pros. He has produced 17 first round picks in just four years.– including point guard John Wall on 2010 and center Anthony Davis in 2012, who both went No. 1 overall in 2010 and 2012. He is also an accomplished bench coach, as anyone who watched his 996 26-2 UMass Final Four teams will attest.

Despite the fact Kentucky will be younger than every team they play this season and has difficult non-conference games against Michigan State, North Carolina and Louisville in the first two months of the season, Calipari has the potential to coach the first undefeated men’s basketball team since Indiana in 1976 when Bob Knight’s Hoosiers finished 32-0 and won the national championship.

That starting lineup on that IU team consisted of four seniors– Scott May, Quinn Buckner, Bobby Wilkerson and Tom Abernathy and junior center Kent Benson. It didn’t take long for them to announce their presence, defeating the Soviet National team, 94-78, with 1972 Olympic gold medal stars Aleksandr Belov and Sergei Belov in an exhibition game before a sellout crowd of 17,377 at Market Square Arena.

The Hoosiers opened the regular season, smashing defending national champion UCLA, 85-64, in St. Louis.

They rolled through the Big Ten, then advanced through a rugged Mideast Regional, beating 18th ranked St. John’s, 90-70, in the first round; rallying to beat seventh-ranked Alabama, 74-69 in game they trailed until the final two games, and second-ranked Marquette, 65-56. Then they rolled past fifth-ranked UCLA, 65-51, in the national semis in Philadelphia and ninth-ranked Big Ten rival Michigan, 86-68, in a game where May had 26 and Benson, the MOP of the tournament, finished with 25.

Two other teams– the 1979 Larry Bird-led Indiana State and a senior dominated 1991 UNLV team almost duplicated the feat. Unheralded Indiana State from the Missouri Valley won 33 straight games before losing to Magic Johnson and Michigan State in the most watched NCAA game in the history of the sport.The well-rounded Bird, a 6-8 senior forward who won the Naismith and Wooden Player of the Year awards, averaged 28.6 points, 14.8 rebounds, and, most significantly, six assists for the Sycamore, who were coached by assistant Bill Hodgeds, who was elevated to the position of head coach after Bill King suffered a stroke and was unable to continue.

UNLV was the defending national champion headed into the 1992 season. The Runnin’ Rebels, coached by Jerry Tarkanian, were filled with senior stars– forward Larry Johnson, forward Stacey Augmon, forward George Ackles and guard Greg Anthony– and a junior, Anderson Hunt, who was selected the MOP of their 1990 national championship team. Johnson was the first pick in the eraft. Augmon went ninth, Anthony 12th and Ackles was taken in the second round. The Rebels advanced to the NCAA semi-finals with a 32-0 record before being stunned by Duke in the final minute of the national semi-finals in Indianapolis.

But the dynamics of the game have changed in the era of the one and done. In 2012, Kentucky won with its youngest team ever, with three freshmen, two sophomores and a senior. Calipari could change the dynamics again with this team.

When this year’s Kentucky was formally introduced and participated in an intra squad scrimmage, it was easy to see this year’s Cats are light years ahead of last year’s dysfunctional NIT team in terms of chemistry, size, length, athleticism and perimeter shooting ability from three different spots on the floor. Sophomore forward Alex Poythress, a starter last year, and three other freshmen — center Dakari Johnson, Marcus Lee and forward Derek Wills would likely be starters on 95 percent of the Top 25 teams in the country.

Calipari’s biggest problem will be finding minutes for all the blue chippers on this roster. He arguably has seven players capable of scoring 25 point s in a game.

It is awesome to watch.

“We’re chasing greatness,” Calipari said. “We’re chasing perfection. We’ve chasing things that have never been done in our game. What’s wrong with that? What I like about that, people say, ‘Pressure.’ Man, pressure brings out the best. Wakes you up earlier in the morning.”

Leave a comment