I haven't wrote in a while and I have been wanting to express some issues I had with the NCAA Final on Monday night. I don't know who was favored nor do I really give a damn, but Memphis after one half of basketball should have won this game going into the second half. They were the better team for 38 minutes in my opinion, not taking anything away from Kansas because they played great, had a tremendous comeback for the ages, and are a very good "team". Memphis played incredible basketball even without a strong first half from freshman standout Derrick Rose. The question that I heard on Tuesday was, "Was it a comeback or a collapse?". Well guess what, it was a collapse! All year long coach John Calipari refused to look at the problems that the team had instead of trying to correct them. He did such a terrible job coaching this season it makes me sick. "We don't have a free throw problem!", "Let's take a look at how good we were off the boards!", "My team will make them when they count down the stretch!". Right! Not only did you continue to play that card, your coaching in the final 5 minutes was terrible. Free throws is a reflection of how disciplined a team is, and as you could tell throughout the game this team was far from disciplined. Even before the Championship game, they had a back up point guard getting suspended from the Final Four. Joey Dorsey committed 2 fouls above the three point arch, one that disqualified him from the game with minutes remaining with his fifth foul. FIFTH FOUL FROM YOUR BIG MAN BEYOND THE THREE POINT LINE!!!! Unreal. While I was waiting for an explanation from Calipari for why they didn't foul either Sherron Collins or Mario Chalmers, Calipari showed his true colors by explaining after the fact to the officials that he wanted a foul. Something tells me that though he wanted a foul, he forgot to mention that to his kids. He probably would have had a chance to mention that to his kids if he called a god-damn timeout after the made foul shot from Rose, which is something that he also didn't do. When Kansas was coming back, Calipari had such a great offensive set in line for the Jayhawks...a one on one offense that was hardly the offense that got them that far. I am beginning to wonder if Calipari is just an incredible recruiter and just get the right kids to his school, so when his practice starts he just sits on a chair and rolls a ball out for them. But, since this is a "try to stay positive" blog, I would like to congratulate Bill Self, Mario Chalmers and the Jayhawks for making such a great game of the championship by coming back with a sense of will, confidence, and discipline!
4 comments:
One thing is for sure and that Calipari is a tremendous recruiter. The thing he throws at these stud players when he walks into there house is that they are going to get to play their games, with a little addition from Calipari. When Calipari was at Mass. he had the best player in the nation in Camby who blocked everything and a bunch of athletes but the the dig on him as he later got fired from the Nets is that his teams played undisciplined and the patients ran the asylum. One thing I believe is that Calipari is a good coach who recruits well but not a great coach. From some of your past blogs, there was questionable coaching the whole tournament, but its always the disciplined "teams" that win the big one. The better "team" won the game. It was due for Self because I think he is a very good coach who runs good offensive sets, tough D and have disciplined players. That has been his MO since Illinois.
i agree pitbull on your take. yeah, my questionable coaching came from coaches who had no discipline on their kids and that's why they didn't win and a very disciplined self squad did!
I can't stand the question, "did Kansas win or did Memphis lose?" In my opinion it doesn't fucking matter!! Kansas is holding the trophy, and that's all that does matter. I think Pibully will agree with me on this one, no matter how many championships Calipari goes on to win, this loss will haunt him the rest of his coaching career.
-Mif
You know I think if he doesn't win one he will be haunted by this one. I don't know if he'll ever have another team this talented or this athletic ever again. I mean WOW! But I kind of put him in the same category as Billy Donovan. Donovan has always good recruits and never got anything done until he got the right mix of disciplined players who knew their roles. Donovan also had a similar stigma on him for often being outcoached and letting chaos ensue. The only way Calipari will be able to get by this is he will need to go back, watch tons of tape and realize that he needs to pull in the reigns a little.
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