Let's Talk Through The Bullshit After De'Aaron Fox Said "Cal Couldn't Give A Damn About Winning College Basketball Games"
[H/t email from Showtime] - On playing for John Calipari…
Fox – “Man, it was great. I love ‘Cal’. I still talk to ‘Cal’ to this day. He lets you rock. That’s why he wants guards like John [Wall] and myself and [Brandon] Knight, Tyler Ulis. The way that he coaches – it’s like absolute freedom. He’ll put X’s and O’s but at the end of the day, everything’s going to end up in a pick and roll or isolation. That’s what the NBA is too. When he’s able to get those guys, you find success. ‘Cal’ couldn’t give a damn about winning college basketball games. If he’s getting guys who he knows he can end up developing into NBA players, you’re automatically going to win 30 games a year just from that alone. That’s what I loved.”
Here we go again. Another day in the trenches talking through the bullshit people talk about Calipari. Let me be clear, I'm not talking about De'Aaron Fox here. I'm talking about everyone who hates Calipari and all the hillbillies in Eastern Kentucky who scream that Calipari needs to recruit more kids from Kentucky 'who get it.' Nothing annoys me more than those people. Here's where people get confused, there are two goals for major college basketball coaches. Win games/titles and get your players to the pros. Kids that go to these major schools aren't going for school (shout out Cardale Jones). They are going because it's the path to a pro, the same reason you and I picked a school to get us to our career.
To say Cal 'doesn't give a damn about winning games' isn't correct. He clearly cares. He hates losing. It's not like he dreams of being 4-7 without giving a damn. He wants to win every game. There's a reason he talked about wanting to go undefeated in 2015 - fucking Sam Dekker. But, yes, at the same time Calipari cares about getting these guys to their dream, which is the NBA. Remember, a lot of these guys come from next to nothing and he's the one helping them become millionaires. That matters. That's why players love Calipari.
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At the same time, there is truth in the fact that Calipari isn't going to change. I've talked to a ton of guys who have played for him at Kentucky and guys that have played against him. He has a system, he runs it early and the whole plan is it's going to suck to start but come later in the year when the guy adapt to it, they figure shit out. It's a tale as old as time (please be true this year. Please.) that Kentucky looks average the first month of the year and then turns it on around Christmas. Every year this seems to be the case. That's because Cal doesn't care to change there. It's hard to argue when he's won more NCAA Tournament games than any other coach in America since he took over Kentucky. Should he have more titles? Yeah, he should have won in 2010 or 2015. The 2017 team lost on a buzzer beater in the Elite Eight. Let's not pretend like he's getting blown out in the early rounds here. He's made the Tournament all but one season and just one time he didn't make it to the second weekend. Plus, it's a one game scenario. How many times do the best team win the Tournament? This decade alone it just happened 2, maybe 3 times. 2012 (Kentucky), 2018 (Villanova) and 2019 (Virginia). Other than that, the clear cut favorite did not win the tournament. Let's not pretend like it's a Calipari problem. If that's the case, it's also a Self problem, a K problem, a Gonzaga problem, etc.
Of course this is going to get taken out of context. People who hate Cal will run with this and get their licks in during his worst year at Kentucky. Fine. I get that. But the dude wins, he's loved by his players and he turned the Kentucky program around. If you're a Kentucky fan and don't like Cal, go cheer for someone else. Good luck finding guys that can handle Kentucky better than Calipari for the last decade.