NEWARK, N.J. — You might question whether or not UK head coach John Calipari has joined select company in becoming only the second coach in NCAA history to lead three different teams to a Final Four.
With UK’s 76-69 win over second-seeded North Carolina, Calipari joined Rick Pitino (oh, the irony!) as the coaches who have taken three different teams to the Final Four; Pitino accomplished the feat at Providence, UK and Louisville, while Calipari has now led UMass, Memphis and UK to the National Semifinals.
However, Calipari’s previous two teams had their Final Fours vacated (which technically doesn’t affect Calipari’s record book — I guess you know my perspective, now). Regardless of your thoughts on Calipari’s previous Final Four teams, there’s no denying the miraculous coaching job Calipari has performed all season, let alone the NCAA Tournament.
In fact, this coaching job is his best one to date.
Calipari said after the game that this Final Four has a special meaning to him for clear reasons.
“Because we lost five first-round draft picks (last season) and everyone wants to say you can’t win with young players,” he said. “And I say if it’s experience or talent, and I have a choice, I’m taking talent, and we’ll figure how to make them play together, how to get them to defend, how to get them to increase their toughness, how they have to play to win ball games, I’ll deal with that.”
Somehow, Calipari molded a small six-man roster consisting of three often hot-and-cold freshmen and three veterans who had as much confidence in themselves as a Louisville fan dressed in red walking down a dark Lexington alley at midnight.
With six close road losses during conference play, including one at Arkansas roughly a month ago, the chances of this Final Four run, the first for the Cats in 13 years, seemed improbable at best.
“We never really gave up, but we were definitely in a rough patch right there,” said UK junior Darius Miller, only two years removed from an appearance in the National Invitational Tournament.
The loyal hoops fanbase in Lexington probably would’ve been satisfied with a Sweet 16 appearance given the rocky road the Cats have traveled this season. A road, which at times, seemed to frustrate Calipari more so than the players and was made worse on Selection Sunday when UK was placed in the East Region, which was a murderer’s row of top teams — Ohio State, North Carolina and Syracuse.
“When I saw the seedings, yeah, I’m a little bit surprised we’re here,” Calipari said. “Not because of how my team was playing, I just thought the path to get here would be so ridiculous that we would have to play out of our minds.”
But Calipari was never going to be satisfied with a Sweet 16 appearance. He was going to get his team to get his team to play out of their minds, something they managed to do in Atlanta, Tampa and Newark.
Calipari’s team began to play together, all six of the major players knowing their roles on the team, the team began to understand that defense, not running up the scoreboard, was the sure fire way to get a victory and, most importantly, the team began to play tough, mentally and physically; closing out close games in the postseason has seemed like instinctual behavior for these Cats.
“It’s just that coach is a great motivator,” said UK junior DeAndre Liggins, who shared an embrace (and forehead kiss) with his coach after a huge block on Carolina’s Kendall Marshall and a huge 3-pointer to seal the win down the stretch.
Said Liggins of the embrace: “It just showed that I love him as a coach, he defined my game greatly, he made me the player I am now.”
Every member of UK’s 2011 Final Four team should show some love to coach.
UK’s upset win over the top-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes in the Sweet 16 might’ve shocked the world, but it should come as no shock that Calipari masterminded and inspired this run out of his team.
There’s no question about that.
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