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I sit here scratching my head, wondering how any coach is sports can $31.65 million dollars over eight years without sitting pretty with a championship ring on his finger. Jon Calipari has just signed with Kentucky for this absurd contract and there are definitely a bunch of wild-headed cats in their front office.
Not only are the Kentucky Wildcats foolish for this desperation move, Calipari is so unbelievably boneheaded for leaving one of the best situations on college basketball. Memphis went to the final game of the tourney last year and lost, but it was impressive how Calipari built up that program. Even though Memphis got destroyed by Missouri this year, they have so much to look forward to in the future. The recruiting class that has been put together has been argued to be one of the best recruiting classes of all time. Excuse me coach Calipari, but how can you just walk away from a possible three top six players in the country coming into your program? This boggles my mind.
Sure he goes to Memphis to coach players like Jodie Meeks and Patrick Patterson, but he could have the chance to have an undefeated season at Memphis, not to mention another trip to the championship game. Also, nothing is definite about Meeks and Patterson staying at Kentucky for the next season. Both players are NBA bound in their future, and after performing so well this season we might be seeing them waving goodbye to college basketball.
But I don’t want to sound pessimistic about them leaving. I would assume at least one of them would stay after the arrival of their new high profile coach.
Let’s talk about what makes coach Calipari so unbelievably desirable by Kentucky. Hmmmmm…beats me. In 1996, he took UMass to the final four. Ok that’s impressive, especially coming from a weak A-10 conference. And then he took Memphis to the finals a year, but didn’t win it all. Leaving Memphis is leaving a job undone. Kentucky is glorifying him for some reason as if he has won a championship. By giving Calipari this contract, he is making more money than some of the great all time college coaches who have rings on their fingers like Rick Pitino.
Obviously now Calipari has monstrous pressure put on his shoulders. There are no fans more dedicated to their team than the Wildcats’ in all of college basketball. With such a storied history, these fans have high demands, but need to be patient. Kentucky won’t go to the final four the next season or even the season after that. Calipari is a good coach, but needs time to bring back the luster the Kentucky program once had.
Like Calipari already said, “I’m a regular guy.” Well coach, now you’re just a regular guy with a $31.65 million dollar contract.
-Sam Gerb
Sam can be reached at sgerb@ut.edu
Clemson University welcomed the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils into the Littlejohn Coliseum with a beat down. The No. 10 Tigers held the Blue Devil talent to just 47 points as they could drain only 16 of 52 attempted field goals.
The win by Clemson snaps a 22 game winning streak over Duke previously held over the Tigers. Duke looked like a confused bunch of high school wanna-be athletes on the court against the Tigers. As if getting routed by the score of 74-47 isn’t enough, the game also marks the first time in 12 games that the Duke ‘D’ gave up 70 or more points.
When you think of the Duke Blue Devils, most think of a high scoring, high percentage shooting team. Not on this night. 30 percent. No, not your last quiz, that is the shooting percentage of the Blue Devils on this Feb. 4 night.
What to you is more surprising? Duke’s terrible performance or Clemson’s amazing performance?
To me, I am easily more stunned by the Blue Devil stumble.
At times, Duke even substituted their entire five on the court. Taking out all five men on the court? That is virtually unheard of. I imagine head coach Mike Krzyzewski attempted to find a spark within his underperforming group of men. Did he find anything? Obviously he did not. Within the last nine minutes of the game the Blue Devils could not come any closer than 20 points.
Perhaps Duke will wake up and actually come to play in the coming games.
Hopefully Clemson can keep up the high performing performances throughout the rest of the season.
-Kyle Bennett
Kyle Bennett can be contacted at minaret.overtime@gmail.com
Bus problems leave the Nova Southeastern Sharks swimming alone at the University Center. The University of Tampa men’s basketball team was unable to make the trip to Fort Lauderdale Florida on Feb. 4. Student athletes are obligated to be just that, student first, athlete second.
The game against the Sharks is labled as postponed, as it stands now, and has not yet been rescheduled.
The commitment states that athletes must attend all regularly scheduled classes. Conflicts with bus schedules prevented the Spartan men from making the trip to the Shark’s center.
Hopefully all of the UT men will be able to make the trip to the Martinez Center, as they will host Rollins at 4 p.m. on Feb. 7.
-Kyle Bennett
Kyle Bennett can be reached at minaret.overtime@gmail.com
On Wednesday night Duke University became the third number one team to fall from their throne the past 12 days, begging the question, “Do you want to be ranked number one?” The answer may not be so obvious.
Wake Forest held Duke to just 4-22 from the three point line and also just a 33 percent shooting percentage from the field. With less than three seconds remaining on the game clock Head Coach Dino Gaudio drew up a beauty of a play to isolate his big man on the inside.
Off the inbounds pass Duke attempted to do a switch on Wake’s scorers. Sophomore forward James Johnson was able to slide past the defensive maneuver, showing his numbers to the in bounder L.D. Williams. As Johnson slipped past the defense, Williams led him perfectly with a bounce pass under the basket. Johnson finished the play with a layup.
Leaving just 0.8 seconds left on the clock Duke was forced to try a hail mary of a pass down court, which proved to not be enough, as the pass was dropped.
Wake Forest and Pittsburgh are the previous two teams to hold the number one spot, and drop the number one spot, in the past 12 days. Pittsburgh lost to number 20 Louisville. The game was at Louisville. The common trend between this loss and the Duke loss is that the number one team was away.
Wake Forest, however, dropped at game at home to unranked Virginia Tech. Wake never really looked to be in this game as they went into the half down by 10.
So if you’re looking for a common trend between the three games, you won’t find one. Maybe teams think they can slide by with just their ‘number one’ ranking. The past few weeks are however proving this to be just a myth.
Maybe our next number one team will show why they are ranked number one in the nation. Let’s see if they can stay ranked for more than two weeks.
–Kyle Bennett
Kyle Bennett can be reached at minaret.overtime@gmail.com
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