Calipari has Failed!
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Once again, Coach John Caiipari has failed. He has failed to satisfy his own twisted concept of success by failing to meet his own standards of creating perfection in college basketball.
For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, here is a link to an easy read on Calipari and his chase to perfection -
http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/16/john-calipari-were-chasing-perfection/
(The most-telling part of this read is in the comments that follow. These comments seem to represent what is felt throughout America; Calipari is hated and only a certain part of the Kentucky fan base will defend him in manners… well… manners lacking manners!)
For some reason, Calipari doesn’t seem to buy into one of the common understandings of the human condition; that man is not built of perfection. Perfection is never obtainable in any aspect of man’s world.
The fact that Calipari speaks in “God-like” theory has created more disapproval (and hatred) of him as a person and a coach than the fact that he has landed the biggest chunk of top recruits in the past 5 seasons. Other coaches have enjoyed periods of monopolizing the talent pool similar to Calipari, but in a world not dominated by OADs, and none of those coaches receive the hatemail Calipari does.
I feel sympathy for Calipari’s players. The current class of freshmen signed by Calipari may be the best class of freshmen ever to sign in one year, and that seems to be the only statement left that can separate them in distinction from previous classes, players or teams. Because of their loss to MSU on Tuesday, “perfection” has been scrapped from the list of potential acknowledgements or even the potential of becoming college basketball’s greatest team ever because Bob Knight’s '75-'76 team failed to lose in an entire season.
Calipari’s own statements and the loss on Tuesday has built the descriptive framework around this team; mediocrity! This team can reach no higher than winning another National Championship, which one team has always done every year, and can be the only path to earning a single distinction of maybe beating out the Fab Five as best freshmen class coming in. I said ‘maybe’ because for many in sports media, this team will never reach the Fab Five, even if they earn a National Championship. But don’t take it from me, read it yourself:
Now, back to why I feel sympathy for this Kentucky team. I enjoyed Tuesday match-up between Kentucky and MSU. Before the game, I was positive MSU would crush Kentucky. After seeing the first half, I felt comfortable that the hammer would drop in the second half. It didn’t. Kentucky held their own against a quality, experienced team that is coached by one of the best. Kentucky impressed me beyond any thoughts I had before that game. Randle already looks unstoppable, Young has scary talent, and the rest of the team is still playing with a case of ‘freshmanitis’ so who knows what they are capable of!
None of that matters now. Their season has been lost to Calipari’s own words. All the great basketball yet to come by these extremely gifted athletes will fall into the shadows of history because the light will forever be cast on what they didn’t achieve; Calipari’s twisted “perfection.”
I sympathize with these kids who are so gifted but can’t earn their own light above their coach’s light. Kentucky basketball isn’t about the players, it is about the coach. It will always be that way for Calipari, and it will always diminish the attention those players should receive. I can’t blame young HS players for being drawn to playing basketball at Kentucky, after all, Kentucky is a blue-blood program and is distinguished with owning many records setting them apart. These young players are unaware of the fact that their achievements at Kentucky will always fall below their own coach’s words and they’ll be playing for the most-hated coach in college basketball. They’ll carry that burden with them their entire life and they won’t deserve it… all because they signed the dotted line with Kentucky, one of the greatest traditional basketball schools in all the land!
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I actually saw this live, but I still get a kick out of this video. For the curious this meltdown only lasts 50 seconds…
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I’m not going to come on this site and blab about Calipari every day. He doesn’t deserve our attention. However…I couldn’t resist after listening to all his bullsnit all summer about how he was striving for perfection.
He should first see if he can become a decent Xs and Os coach.
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“Undefeated Kentucky shirts now on sale for $1.99”
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/11/undefeated-kentucky-shirts-now-on-sale-for-1-99/
Couldn’t resist posting this. I may have to snag myself an extra work shirt for a measly buck-99!
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You could always wear it wrong-side out!
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@drgnslayr…Reminds me of a couple years ago when they won on a Monday night that would’ve moved them up to number 1 in the rankings and they printed up shirts saying #1. But then they lost on Saturday and didn’t get their #1 ranking.
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HaHaHa. Clearance t-shirts for $1.99 on sale now in KY.
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This freshman class at KY is only the best class per signings and recruit rankings. That is the equivalent to a preseason bracket of 68 teams filled out picking the winner. It’s good in theory but…
The Fab5 of Michigan, King, Jackson, Rose, Howard and Weber didn’t start out the season as the starting 5 of that team, but gelled together to become a team that went to back to back Finals.
Until Cal can take this class to the Finals then they are not the best freshman class in the history of college basketball. Sure it makes for great off and pre season headlines, but it’s almost like the perfection thing.
Nothing is for sure until it happens.
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Perfection in sports cannot be achieved by natural talent alone. Perfection requires dedication, hard work, a desire to improve your natural talent with sound techniques and fundamentals and a tunnel vision to achieve your objective. In team sports it also requires a coaching and support staff that not only improves the individuals, but more importantly, it molds the team into a cohesive unit whose collective goals are greater than those of any individual and the result is greater than the sum of the individual parts.
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The one thing I will say is, I would never in a million years want a coach to say those words out loud. It’s fine if you think it. It’s fine to have that goal in mind. I don’t think human beings have much to wake up in the morning for if not to strive to reach a higher state (which isn’t to say people waking up to survive are in any way lesser individuals, but they probably don’t have enviable lives, either). But if you go and state that as a goal for the season, you’ll likely derail yourself as soon as you fall short.
Having a goal like winning a title is fine cause if it happens it happens on your last game of the season anyway. But not missing a beat in 40 games is nearly impossible as it is (I mean, how hard is it for the best teams to win 5 in a row in March? It’s only happened once since the tournament expanded to 64+ teams), so if it does ever happen in the modern era of college basketball, it’s going to happen organically, not because some 2-bit Cap’n’Crunch decided to Babe Ruth it in the preseason. You know who would never do something so stupid as this? Bob Knight. Ya’ know, the guy that ACTUALLY achieved a perfect season. If Knight were there, he’d have thrown a chair at Cal’s head, then complained about his lack of fundamentals.
Long and short, if UK fails to cut down the nets this April (or even reach the Final Four), it’ll have as much to do with Calipari’s loud mouth as anything else. Clearly this was a check his butt couldn’t cash, so shame on him. But double shame on BBN for actually buying into this nonsense. I get they want to put the memory of last season’s flame out far behind them, but really? REALLY?
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Right on, Konkey.
You are right, and humans need to wake up every morning and reach for a higher place. But that is different than what Calipari did. He played the role of Reggie Jackson pointing to the fences, and he didn’t hit it over.
That’s not fair to this team, because they have the potential to do everything except the grand slam.
Perfection is never reachable. That doesn’t mean we don’t try to be the best we can, but to imply it is something we can reach then you’ve already built in a false sense of achievement you may reach and then quit trying harder because there is no place to go once you reach ‘perfect.’
I’ve been blessed with some of the best coaching on this planet and I never had a coach talk about perfection or ever mention that word. When a word like that leaves a coach’s mouth he has pretty much lost his following of those who aren’t delusional because it places an end place of achievement, and if you are delusional enough to accept that you could get there, you will probably believe you have reached it at some point, and you won’t even come close.
The most obvious example of misusing that word in sports falls in track and field. How can you achieve perfection in 100 meters? Is there a time that can never be beat? Of course not. And if there is, it would surely be some kind of act from God or a higher power used to get there.
Calipari’s words place him on a throne in some kind of Godly kingdom, declaring he knows where ‘perfection’ is, because surely he could define it if he is reaching for it. He put it above Bobby Knight’s undefeated season because he said it had never been reached. So where is that place… perfection?
Speaking of Bobby Knight… since he had the undefeated season… I’d like to hear him comment about Calipari striving for perfection. I bet he’d be critical in concrete terms and would do a better job of critiquing it than I have in this thread.
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@konkeyDong-PHOF KD. Cleverly well stated, particularly about the lack of fundamentals & chair vs the head! Bob would likely give a “Hell Yeah” for that, or then again, maybe even a much more descriptive & quantitative analysis. LOL
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While “Mr. Perfection” was busy trying to be perfect in his loss to MSU, “Mr. Perfection” had no idea that not only his team played that night be he was being played.
Izzo is a master mind, and he knows there is a chance MSU may face UK in March. He never tried to stop Randle, even though Payne had foul trouble, Izzo has some tricks up his sleeve. Izzo knows Xs and Os a lot better than Calipari, and you can bet if they meet in March, there is no way that Randle dominates to the degree he did last Tuesday. In preparation for another game, Calipari will look at this first game and he’ll discount a more-rounded offense with the hopes of doing what he did in this game; dominate with Randle. Izzo will be prepared next time… you can bet he’ll be doubling down in the post and trying several twists to interrupt the feed into the post, something he wouldn’t expose in November.
Calipari was played and he still has no idea of it… because he is busy “striving for perfection!”
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###**The Definition of Schadenfreude: **###
