John Calipari is the king of college basketball recruiting and the one and done phenomenon, but that doesn’t mean his critics won’t come for him over it.
Calipari recently revealed that he handled the Wildcats a differently than most coaches, platooning 10 guys, with the hopes that he could get them all to the NBA.
Dan Patrick quizzed Coach Cal on the platoon during his Thursday morning show, but the UK head coach was having none of that, and got into a verbal sparring match with the famous host.
Calipari mentioned the efficacy of the platoon system — critiquing himself in the process.
“I tell you what they killed us with this year: platooning,” Calipari said, via Kentucky Sports Radio. “It didn’t hurt a player. Obviously it hurt us, we did not win the national title. But it didn’t hurt anything doing it. I’m never going to do that again. When am I going to have ten guys of that level?”
Patrick pressed the issue further, asking Cal if he thought Kentucky would have won a title if he’d had a seven-man rotation instead of his 10-man.
The barrage was on from that point.
“I don’t know. We didn’t go seven deep. We went ten deep and then we went nine deep,” Calipari said. “We almost won 40 games. And we were given a tough path in the NCAAs. Playing Notre Dame and Wisconsin, come on. Think about our path there.”
“If anybody wants to question me, like results, like ‘I don’t care about results’? The last six years have been a pretty good run. Now, maybe you think I should have won five national titles and been the next John Wooden. I don’t know. But I do know we were right there trying to win them every year. Didn’t do it. It’s hard to do,” he continued.
Patrick, somewhat heated himself, ended the interview early — referring to the other “great coaching legends he wants to interview.”
h/T: The Sporting News