OhioBrownFan wrote:StandUp wrote:Maybe it is jealousy, feel the love
OBF -
I enjoy reading most of your posts, I really do, but for you to ask "What did LB do that was so unbelievably incredible?" Really?... He showed college basketball how a coach and his staff can turn around a basketball program. LB changed the culture at SMU. Maybe you don't understand that because you have not lived through the less than stellar days of SMU Basketball. Words cannot express my appreciation for LB and his staff.
No one said that the cupboard was bare at SMU last year. Comparing SMU's roster last year to Kentucky's roster is not even a fair comparison. Two totally different levels of talent. Larry Brown was working with a lesser talented version of players by far than any of the players on Kentucky's team. Kentucky has 5* talent top to bottom every year. We had one 5* freshman who rode the bench. With all of our transfers and true freshman we really did not know what was going to happen. Talented yes, but not 5* talent. Getting all of our players last year, freshmen and transfers included, to buy in to the system, play and as team, and play up to their potential was a tremendous accomplishment. That is coaching. Many players showed steady improvement throughout the year. Sterling Brown, Ben Moore, MK, Cannen and more. Again, that is coaching. All credit to LB and his staff. Larry Brown changed the culture of SMU Basketball. Words cannot truly express what he has done for SMU. What LB would do with a talented roster like Kentucky's roster would be scary. Something tells me that he might do a better job than Calipari
Calipari inherited a program at Kentucky that Rick Pitino built. Good timing. Calipari has continued to recruit well, credit to Calipari, but let's don't act like he is a good coach. None of his players last year, including Julius Randle and the Harrison Twins, played up to their potential. With Kentucky's roster it is hard to understand why they do not win more games consistently, and win by larger margins. None of his players really showed improvement throughout the year. This has been a consistent theme for a number of years now, his players do not show improvement.
I will say it again, not to be redundant, but to get across my point, Kentucky almost didn't even make the NCAA Tournament last year. No one wants to address this point. This wasn't just some down year for Kentucky either. Remember when Kentucky didn't make the NCAA Tournament and lost to Robert Morris in the NIT (I think that was 2 years ago). No one wants to address that either. I guess that doesn't have anything to do with coachingGive me a break...
I'm not trying to attack you but you are way off-base. Cal inherited a program that was in pretty bad shape. First of all, Tubby Smith inherited the Juggernaut that Pitino had left behind and immediately won a NC in '98 I believe. Tubby was fired for having a few subpar years and in walked Billy, the walking/talking DUI drunk that hung out at a local bar and chased women around as if he was a college student still. He got fired and Cal inherited that mess. He may have also put them on probation to some degree, been a while since I recall and I don't follow the program closely enough.
Secondly, my point wasn't so much as you ignoring that there wasn't no talent on SMUs roster. The point was that LB did a good job with solid talent. Cal had great talent, I agree. Cal went to the NCAA Finals, LB went to the NIT. So Cal did more with more. LB did a lot with less. But to treat Cal like he doesn't know how to coach is absurd and to say he's below LB is a stretch. I wouldn't put one over the other because they both have their strengths, the point was that they're both good coaches and did a lot with their talent. LB didn't get his into the NCAA tourney because they let some games get away in the regular season that they had no business losing. Cal did the same thing. They both turned on the heat when they got into their respective tourneys.
I'm just going to assume you have never coached or played basketball. Cal is working with freshmen, they were much better at the end of the year then they were in December. Freshmen struggle, GREAT freshmen struggle. They're young, inexperienced, make plays that probably would put Cal in the hospital a few times a year if he was LBs age. That's jsut the way it is. It's like that at every level from freshmen in high school to a rookie in the NBA. Those players got better and you really discount the job he has to do to have 6 McDs All-Americans buy in that they're a team and no longer the alpha. Every one of them averaged 25 and 10 of some combo in high school. He gets 6 potential future superstars to sacrifice. That's not an easy concept for an 18 year old, look at how frustrated Keith was, he was one.
This entire post has little to do with SMU or take away from what was accomplished last year at Brown but more to point out the fact that Cal is a great coach. And I hate him, but I at least appreciate what he can do. And the year they missed the tourney, they lost their best player on a so-so roster. Just because they were highly decorated high school freshmen doesn't give them the experience of a college junior. You can't recruit college experience in the high school ranks. LB would face a lot of the SAME struggles if he was coaching the kids Cal has coached. That's the way Calipari recruits and likes to coach, that's fine. Many other college coaches operate differently and that is fine too.
Well said.
