SEC: Can John Calipari Win With This Kentucky Roster?
In life we all will go through situations that will shape who we are, either for the best or for the worst. During pressure filled moments, people look towards their leader for guidance to help navigate through storms. The leader is the one who guards over his flock and either he can make really intelligent decisions, or can make terrible ones.
Either way, the actions that the leader takes will ultimately decide the outcome of his group’s fate.
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One of the best leaders in college basketball is Kentucky coach John
Calipari
. This year
Calipari
’s team has talent through the roof, boasting four freshmen who were McDonald’s All-Americans, and five players who made the preseason All-SEC teams.
Though Calipari has coached the likes of Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Terrence Jones on the same roster, is this season his most pressure filled year yet? Can he live up to the preseason expectations?
At Kentucky every year the Wildcats play basketball, it’s championship or bust. However, it seems like this year it is somewhat different. At Midnight Madness, Kentucky had Drake shooting with them in their layup lines.
Though everyone realizes the expectations of this team, it seems like more people are ready to celebrate this roster already instead of watching. Thankfully, Calipari has members of his team that are returning starters and role players from last year. That way the fusion between his returning players and his new additions are going to have awesome chemistry.
Because a Head Coach is the leader of the basketball team from the sidelines, on the court the biggest role of leadership goes to the point guard. The point guard is arguably the most important player on the team because he is the coach on the court and has to get his teammates in the right position to score, the right setup on defense, and has to lift the morale of his teammates.
Kentucky has a point guard who could turn out to become one of the best in the SEC in Andrew Harrison. Last season was not his best as a freshman, but he played to the best of his abilities. Harrison averaged four assists a game in his first year under Calipari’s dribble-drive offense.
At times as a freshman, Harrison played timidly, and deferred to his teammates way too much. On often, he lost his aggression and his play suffered, causing him to make simple turnovers and take terrible shots. However, now that Harrison’s another year more mature and has settled into his role as Calipari’s playmaker, Kentucky is on solid ground.
The point guard position is key to this Kentucky team because they have so many weapons like Willie Cauley-Stein, Karl-Anthony Towns, Aaron Harrison and Alex Poythress (really just name their whole roster). Last season even in the midst of talent, Kentucky couldn’t manage great point guard play.
As a team, Kentucky averaged 11.6 assists per game, which was good enough for 260th in the nation.
This number needs to severely increase if Kentucky wants to win the national championship. Calipari is one of the smartest coaches when it comes to creating a game plan. Because of his basketball mind, he has to light a fire under Harrison to get him to push the basketball a lot more for easier points, more assists, and attempts at the rim.
In the half court setting, Calipari is going to have to create a lot of sets that will use the talent of his players best. One of the most intriguing players that Kentucky has on its roster is forward Karl-Anthony Towns. The 6’11″ forward can play on the perimeter as well as on the low post and is one of Kentucky’s best passers as well.
Creating an offense that can flow through Towns is going to make the lives of every single member on the roster easier.
In addition, the toughest part of Calipari’s year is going to come when he has to make in-game adjustments. Though Calipari can make excellent game plans against his opponents, but the part of his coaching that needs to get better is making in-game adjustments.
At times his Kentucky teams look as if they are playing pickup basketball and when he notices it and calls timeout, after they leave the huddle it looks as if they haven’t changed their game.
When facing possible teams such as Duke, Arizona, Kansas and Florida who all have the athletes that can guard every member of Kentucky’s roster, in-game adjustments are going to play a crucial role on his team’s success.
Thankfully, this is not Calipari’s first rodeo, he has already hard success in the NCAA tournament and will find a way to get through to his team. This Kentucky team at the end of the season could either become the most impressive Wildcats team ever, or one of the most disappointing.
The burden won’t fall on the hands of his players though, instead it falls on the shoulders of Calipari.
Pressure makes diamonds, or it can break pipes, next season we will see how Kentucky handles it.