Article on what is perhaps Calipari's best asset

mstateglfr · Mar 25, 2010

Love him or hate him, you gotta admit that he does an incredible job of managing egos and keeping team chemistry around. With a handful of future NBA/pros on the roster and limited minutes, he manages the egos of elite immature players perhaps better than anyone else. Below is an article from the Courier-Journal.

There are certainly different approaches to coaching, and each one can be successful...i wonder what our staff's approach is.
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SYRACUSE ? Before the NCAA Tournament began, University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari called his players into his office individually and had the same conversation with each one:





<banner id="__gelement_adbanner_0" position="ArticleFlex_1"></banner>"Tell me what you look like when you're playing your best," he said he told them. "Let's really be specific. What are you doing? What does it look like?"

And after each player answered, he said something that surprised many of them: "As your coach, how can I help you be that player?"

Let's be honest, now. How often do you think Adolph Rupp asked that question? Or Bob Knight? This is a long way from Rupp's traditional opening-practice admonition to his players: "Do not speak unless you can improve upon the silence."

As Calipari prepares to take a talented but young squad into the NCAA East Regional semifinals against Cornell in the Carrier Dome Thursday, it's evident that he has hit on something that works with one of the toughest-to-reach demographics? the immature, one-and-done phenom.

And if the results are showing anything in Calipari's first season at UK, it's that there's more than one way to coach a cat.

His approach has persuaded some talented players, like freshman Daniel Orton and junior Patrick Patterson, to accept less prominent roles than they were expected to play. And it has smoothed over potential rough patches like a careless comment from freshman John Wall about not listening to the coach, or Orton's leaving the bench in a huff during the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

He's willing, sometimes, to live with such mistakes. Wall leads the nation in turnovers with 141, but Calipari has found a way to accept some things that make other coaches cringe in order to get to his players' considerable upsides.

While Calipari gets intense and rails and rants as much as the next coach, his is a gentler hold than most coaches keep on the reins.

"It didn't take long to find out why guys like to play for him," Patterson said. "A lot of coaches have this wall between themselves and the players. Cal doesn't have that."

A scene from Selection Sunday: UK's players are gathered in Calipari's home to watch the brackets being announced. Calipari wanders into the living room and all the seats are taken. He immediately brushes one of DeMarcus Cousins' legs aside and sits in an oversized chair with him.





<banner id="__gelement_adbanner_1" position="ArticleFlex_1" refresh="false" loadoninit="false"></banner>It's symbolic. A barrier that normally exists in the coach-player relationship seems barely present, if at all, between Calipari and his players.

It starts with the name. It's not "Coach," for most of UK's players. It's "Cal." It might seem like a small thing, but remember, the words "What's up Knight?" led to the end of the General's run at Indiana.

It's a good thing Knight didn't coach Cousins. The freshman from Birmingham, Ala., has been called everything from a problem child to a ticking time bomb for his notorious temper, but Cousins has become more composed as the season has progressed and now is viewed as a top NBA prospect and a go-to player.

Calipari's relationship with Cousins has been a big part of that.

"Man, I call coach Cal everything," Cousins said. "J.C., whatever. I just like to pick with him. But that's why he's different. It's not like, I'm the boss and you're the slave or anything like that. He's just a cool coach."

One thing Calipari has found effective with young players ? especially elite players ? is getting them to build relationships on the team, keeping their focus on their teammates instead of their draft status or their future.

Senior Ramon Harris said that has meant players spending lots of time not just with Calipari, but his family.

"He's still the coach, but at the same time, he's interacting with us, inviting us to his house, we're over there hanging out," Harris said. "Over Christmas break we were over there eating and watching movies all the time, hanging out together, and he's down there in the basement watching movies with us. It just shows he cares about his players."

But it's more than off-the-court style that seems to have players following his lead. Calipari noted on his radio show earlier this week that he's not big on some of the punishing practice routines that more traditional coaches employ.

Particularly as the season goes on, he cuts back to try to avoid being in the players' ears too much, so that when he is, what he says will carry more weight.





<banner id="__gelement_adbanner_2" position="ArticleFlex_1" refresh="false" loadoninit="false"></banner>"I don't beat them up with tape and practices and trying three-hour practices and running steps and all that," Calipari said. "I don't do that because I want them to have fun playing and I want them to be fresh. Now you may think, 'Well he's just talking about the guy that was just here (Billy Gillispie).' No, there's many coaches that do that. That's what they've always done.

"But there are other guys that do what I do. We want them fresh. We want them sharp. We want them to come in with great intensity, and now get out and go relax and do what you've got to do."

That's not to say Calipari can't go old-school. He went to two-a-day practices in November when he saw some things he didn't like.

"It's a whole new Cal," Cousins said then. "He's not the laid-back, chill Cal anymore."

Still, the style of play feeds into his approach to coaching. In early practices, he'd see players make mistakes and look over their shoulders and stop the whole session.

"I kept having to tell them, 'Just play!' " Calipari said. "They're so worried about making a mistake that they're not making plays."

And that, in the end, is what Calipari's approach is geared toward on the court.

"He's about letting players make plays," freshman Eric Bledsoe said. "You're not going to get a lot of games with him. I think guys appreciate that. If you've got a problem he tries to help you fix it and move on and he just tells you, get back out there and play."

It's not the military-type practices that Rupp was famous for. And it may not be for everyone. It helps, of course, if you happen to assemble the best talent in the country. But it may be that Calipari's approach itself attracts that kind of talent.

"He's got that right mix of passion and caring about you as a player," said sophomore DeAndre Liggins, who was benched early in the season but has emerged as a defensive stopper and key player for the Wildcats. "I love him as a coach. He gets that fire out of you and gives you a chance to play your best."

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zerocooldog · Mar 25, 2010

cb6228 · Mar 25, 2010

Love him or hate him, no one gets more out of his players than Calipari. His players are absolutely tenacious when a ball hits the court. They dive with reckless abandonment without regard for their future multi-million dollar salaries. The article states it best, he manages egos better than anyone (despite his own huge ego). He will sit a Derrick Rose for trying a behind the back pass (showing off), when a nice bounce pass would have worked just as well. As he said many times at Memphis, 'there is no room for showboats on my team'. The only ego on the team can be the one running the show from the bench. Calipari is the ultimate politician and he can make his constituents believe anything.

mstateglfr · Mar 25, 2010

Ha, well WWW was his best asset...before he because an agent. He slipped down to Cal's 2nd best asset.

Article on what is perhaps Calipari's best asset

mstateglfr

All-American

zerocooldog

Redshirt

cb6228

Redshirt

mstateglfr

All-American