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Realistic Expectations for the Kentucky Wildcats This Year

By Alex Zietlow

Nov 21, 2014; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari reacts during the game against the Boston University Terriers in the second half at Rupp Arena. Kentucky defeated Boston University 89-65. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 21, 2014; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari reacts during the game against the Boston University Terriers in the second half at Rupp Arena. Kentucky defeated Boston University 89-65. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports /
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Kentucky has a shot at winning a second national championship under John Calipari because Calipari knows how to get his young talent to play for each other.

The Kentucky Wildcats have a chance to be the best they have ever been under John Calipari – and that’s saying something.

In his five seasons as Kentucky head coach, Calipari has gone 152-37 and has started out the 2014-2015 season 4-0.  He’s coached superstars like John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Terrence Jones, Brandon Knight, Anthony Davis, and Julius Randle.  He’s been to the Final Four a total of three times and has won a national championship.

He currently has nine McDonald’s All-Americans.  Granted, most of them are young, new faces as they always are with Kentucky because there are a lot of players with the talent and desire to enter the NBA before they finish all four years of college.  But nine is crazy.  Kentucky has more McDonald’s All-Americans than all NBA teams except for Charlotte last year who finished with nine on their roster.

Even with their surplus of talent, I believe the Kentucky Wildcats will not be in the top ten the entire year.  But they will have a terrific chance of winning their second national championship under Calipari, and I say this for two reasons.

1) Calipari will play everyone who deserves to play, which may cause a few losses early, but in the end, it will create a team camaraderie that creates success come tournament time. 

As he says in this interview with Jay Crawford, he wants and needs his team to play for each other so he will distribute minutes relatively evenly with an 11-12 man rotation.

"Somebody walked in my gym the other day and said, ‘If you play seven guys, do you know how good your team could be?’  And I said ‘Yes, but I’m playing 10, 11, 12 – I am two platooning – and the reason is, that’s what’s right for these kids.’"

Calipari continued.

"If I’m about the program, I’m playing six, seven guys and forgetting about those other kids.  We’re going to lose games early because I’m two platooning."

Calipari was then asked how he gets these talented players, who have been told all of their lives what great basketball players they are, to buy into the team’s system.  Calipari responded that he recruited these players promising them the chance to get better and to potentially make it into the NBA.  And this trust between player and coach has resulted in some great teams.

"Because they know I’m about them, they can be about each other…If they don’t trust me, think about it, could this ever work – what we’ve been doing?"

2) This is a very talented and young team.  They will have their fair share of “freshmen moments” (bad games), but Wildcat nation will also witness moments of sheer greatness because of Calipari’s ability to make his talented recruits to be all about the team.

Everyone thinks you need experience to win in the NCAA tournament.  And by experience, they often refer to upperclassmen.  Last year, Kentucky proved that five freshmen can start and the team could make it all the way to the final game in the tournament.

Even though Kentucky is returning players from last year’s team like 7’0” Willie Cauley-Stein, all the experience and leadership they need is in John Calipari.  Calipari has proven that he can orchestrate a team full of NBA talent to work together enough to beat older powerhouses.  He preaches the concept that he will get these players where they want to go in their professional careers, and in return, he gets players that play hard, not only for themselves or for their coach, but for their teammates.  The better the team is, the more individual recognition will come, and if Calipari can get this message through to this team, I couldn’t imagine Kentucky losing more than 5 games this season.

When March rolls around, even though they may not be a number one seed (but there is still a very strong likelihood they will be) Kentucky will be the team to put your money on to win a national championship.  They will have the size, the guard play, and the coach with the trust of his young and talented team to win games.

And with their big win over Kansas earlier in the week, it is clear that the Wildcats are developing their team chemistry faster than they have in previous years.

So they might very well be on their way to a second national championship in four years, and if that happens, expect to see college basketball undergo a significant change by having other schools adopt Calipari’s model.

And that is saying something.

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