Louisville has no top talent
Team has powered into Final Four despite lack of elite players on its roster
NEW YORK – Lurking in virtually every corner of the Superdome this weekend will be lottery picks, some other National Basketball Association first-rounders and assorted Associated Press All-americans.
Everywhere, that is, except the Louisville dressing room.
This year’s Final Four features three teams – Kentucky, Kansas and Ohio State – all with their fair share of the most gifted players in the country, and a fourth with a coach who has squeezed the most out of the next tier of talent.
Does that make Louisville’s Rick Pitino the best coach, or say something about John Calipari, Bill Self and Thad Matta?
Well, those three might tell you something about how tough it is dealing with a bench full of stars.
“A lot of coaches would agree that, at times, coaching teams with a ton of talent is probably more difficult because you’re constantly trying to get the maximum out of them,” said Matta, who has a star in AP All-american first-teamer Jared Sullinger, widely viewed as a top-15 NBA draft pick. “It’s so much easier to get to the top than stay at the top. A lot of times when you have a team that’s loaded, you fight a lot more adversity on the outside than when you’re scraping to get to the top.”
Which brings us to the Kentucky Wildcats, who play Louisville on Saturday in the first semifinal.
By choice, Calipari has developed a program so overflowing with top-level talent that he’s spending more time looking to replace players after a season or two than developing them over four.
Freshman Anthony Davis, another AP All-american, will likely be the top player in the draft should he leave after this season. Classmate Michael Kidd-gilchrist won’t be far behind. Freshman Marquis Teague and sophomores Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb will also have a chance at the first round if they leave.
So, Calipari must be the most persuasive (some might have another adjective to describe this after those runins with the NCAA) recruiter in history, right?
“We don’t do anything outlandish,” he said. “We’re not promising minutes or shots. They’ve just really got to trust that you have their best interest at heart. It’s a players-first program and they learn that, as you sacrifice, we all gain, as individuals and as a team.”
Getting his players to buy into that, and to come to a team where they aren’t guaranteed to be the only star, might be Calipari’s biggest accomplishment as a coach. But once they get there, he insists he’s doing more than simply rolling the ball out on the floor.
Kentucky leads the U.S. in field goal defence and blocked shots and has a nearly 6-5 assist-to-tur nover ratio. Stoked by this combination of less-glamorous numbers, Calipari claims he has the most efficient team in the country.
“What I’m going to try to do is get guys to play as well as they can play,” he said.
“Let’s go out and play great. If it’s not good enough, let’s make sure we have more fun than anyone else and we’ll take the results from there.”
While Calipari tries to get the most out of a lot of talent, Pitino has been playing a different game this season. He is the only Final Four coach without an AP first-teamer. In fact, there were no Louisville players on the second or third teams either, or even on the honourable mention list.
According to most lists, not a single one of Pitino’s players would get drafted by the NBA if they left this year. Meanwhile, a raft of injuries and roster adjustments has turned every practice this season into an adventure. Pitino coaxed his sixth Final Four trip out of a team that reminds him in many ways of his first – an undersized, underappreciated group of players at Providence in 1987, headlined by Billy Donovan.