Minnesota Sports Forum

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:Speaking of college coaches making the jump... this week I learned an interesting nugget:

John Calipari was the person who chickened out of drafting teenage phenom, Kobe Bryant, during his ill-fated stint in New Jersey.

Ironically, as we all know, Calipari went on to create that pretty amazing pipeline for teenagers to enter the pro game as quickly as possible... but at least back in the mid '90s, he was less certain it could work.

Speaking of Calipari......When you look at the success of guys like KAT, Lyles, Cauley-Stein, and Booker are having this year in the NBA, I'm beginning to wonder if Coach Cal and his hockey shift rotations were a huge mistake last year.

Obviously it's hard to argue with going undefeated up until the Final Four, but if he had just picked his top 7 or 8 guys early and played them all big minutes with expanded roles, I wonder if they would have just run rampant through the Tournament last year. Perhaps they would have lost a couple of games earlier in the season, but eventually they would gel. I mean, he had the best big man since Tim Duncan on the roster playing 20 MPG and stay strictly inside the paint. My God, what a nightmare KAT would have been if his full skill-set was unleashed! And Booker was better than either of the Harrison brothers. He should have been starting along with Ulis in the backcourt.

The dude knows how to churn out great NBAers though, no doubt about it.

The Harrison boys were a mistake. Ulis is better. And Booker has so much more game with the ball than he showed in college.

Coach Cal keeps saying over and over its about getting guys ready for the next level. Obviously you want to win but he must be doing something right not just recruiting the talent but getting these you guys ready. He seems to be having a fun time doing it.

I'd have so much fun I'd be singing zippity do dah out of my a$$hole if I was making the kind of money he is...