Giving Calipari his due

B

bullzak

500+ Posts
Not a big fan of his but for all the talk of Memphis being undisciplined that simply is not the case.

This team plays excellent defense, executes its offense very well, and plays hard. Those are the hallmarks of a well-coached team.

After this weekend I am definitely a believer.
 
One of the people I watched the game with yesterday (not a Texas fan/grad) said he would like to see Texas win just because he didn't like Calipari. What's the story there? I really don't know much about him or why people dislike him. Please enlighten me.
 
I think a lot of people see him as a shady recruiter and classless coach, but I don't know for sure whats the deal with all the hate directed toward him.

I will say I'm not a big fan of their offense which looks like what I'd expect to see at Gregory instead of a NCAA tourney game but it works.
 
The NCAA infractions at UMass that came to light following his departure showed that he's a pretty shady recruiter. The fact that some of the top talent in the country began flocking to Memphis the moment he was hired displayed that his tactics haven't changed much. I fully believe that eventually Memphis will get hit with NCAA sanctions like UMass.

Until then, he's a hell of a coach on the court though but a major point in his strategy is simply to get more talent than the opposition. He's the exact opposite of Kryscewski at Duke. Calipari hardly cares about the academics of the kids before they get to Memphis and is likely selling the school as a stopping point on the way to the NBA.

In many ways, Calipari is a more polished version of Bob Huggins.
 
He and Barnes are friends, they talk almost every week about strategy and such. Barnes however seems to talk with everyone. For some reason other coaches think he is pretty damn smart.
 
Maybe the reason that other coaches think that Barnes is pretty damn smart is because he is. Otherwise those other coaches aren't very damn smart.
 
Barnes is smart and an awesome coach. He sometimes doesn't get as much credit around here as he deserves...
 
I seem to recall that when Calipari was at U Mass, Temple's John Chaney threatened to kill him during a press conference.

*Edit*

I googled it and found the following NY Times article regarding that incident: Link
 
I think it's really not so much Calipari that deserves credit this year, but Derrick Rose. The Memphis teams that Calipari has had since he got there have always been as athletic as this one it, or even moreso (the Rodney Carney/Shawne Williams ones), but played undisciplined when it counted the most. Rose just simply wouldn't allow that to happen.
 
Camby and his friends/family were accepting money and gifts from an agent who wanted to sign him. Worldwide Wes doesn't push recruits to Memphis out of the kindness of his heart.
 
The thing that raises red flags with Calipari, is his ambiguous relationship with William Wesley, who appears to steer players to Memphis.
 
Calipari is calmer than he used to be. When Memphis played in Austin a few years back, I called Calipari a "disgrace to the coaching profession" on this board because of his behavior in front of his bench. Many coaches complain, and that's fine, but Calipari would constantly take it to a new level. Worse was his behavior reflected on the players, they acted immaturely, and it showed in their play down the stretch in not just the Texas game but others like it.

So in "giving Calipari his due", he definitely gets kudos for calming down. Much of that reason is probably he knows his team kicks ***, but at least he's not how he used to be and is allowing his players to play a steady brand of great basketball without getting in the way.

It's something Tom Penders hasn't figured out. Watch him at a UH game. He's a non-stop whiner, and his players do the same. All game long.
 
Calipari may be and probably is a great coach - but he has the Kelvin Sampson penchant for breaking the rules in recruiting. Left UMass in shambles and likely will do the same at Memphis where the grad rate is abysmal. Let's see how much he whines in SA this weekend.
 
Memphis is the modern day UNLV -

1. Shady coach who has gotten in trouble w/NCAA before.
2. Run n Gun offense; very fun to watch.
3. Insanely talented teams.
4. Plays in sub-par conference where they run the table.
5. Always in the hunt for Final Four.
6. Wind up on probation.

(Give it time in Memphis' case but it will happen; way too much smoke with the Worldwide Wes stuff and other recruiting stories).
 
I didnt want to get into the shady rep thing because I just dont know much about it.

My point on the coaching is this perception that Memphis can only run and gun when they absolutely gutted Texas with a short and mid range game. They got good looks because thats what they were after. That doesnt just magically happen.
 
[quoteThe UMass "shambles" was caused entirely by Marcus Camby accepting gifts from an agent.

The NCAA has never accused Calipari of recruiting violations.
 
no way, im sure worldwide wes is just old buds with the memphis coaches/program; nothing to see here, move along...
 
Don't know Calipari, and I doubt he teaches much Sunday school. He can coach however...for all that Memphis has a run and gun rep, they ran over Texas with imagination, will, and a mid-range game. He obviously can recruit, even if some question how he goes about it. Plausible deniability or not, nothing stuck on him concerning UMass' problems...that was on Camby.

Calipari isn't likely to coach a Texas-level school, but he's a good fit in Memphis, and if him and Barnes are good friends, I just don't see any reason to rag on him. Sounds too much like sour grapes to me.
 
Agree he whines too much.

After the game with Texas he didn't say anything about Texas. Typically, after a big win, a coach tips his hat to the opposition saying his squad just beat a fine program and great coach, and then spins that back around to say his kids earned the win, and so on and what a great bunch they are and pumps them up quite a bit.

And THEN... after all that,... then he might pop off about having gotten no respect and all that stuff he said on and on. But after the game he went right into all that and just skipped giving any respect to any program but his.

It's now Wednesday and he's still going on and on about it. I don't see the coaches anywhere else carrying on like he is. The way he has set things up this week, it may backfire on him. By now, if I'm UCLA, I'd get the feeling that Calipari thinks he can beat anybody and that no one has a chance against his Tigers.

He's set himself up for a major effort now. More than if he'd just kept his mouth shut, played the same way and kept on winning. He's winning, so why make it such a story?
 
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