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INDIANAPOLIS – Since I've known him, John Calipari has called early season games "big, if you win them". His point of view is that signing wins in November can do a lot for a team in a variety of ways, but losses are rarely more than blips. Not serious. It does not matter.
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In general, I agree with him.
Woo, boy.
"We are going to watch the tape and move on," said Calipari.
And I'm sure this is true to some extent. But the memory of this #BankersLifeBeatdown will last forever in some circles of basketball, because it was the incredible beginnings of RJ and Zion, and because it was so impossible to see it happen.
"I have not had many of these types of games."Kentucky coach John Calipari after losing against Duke 118-84
Understand, Calipari is head coach for 30 seasons now. He has already had a UMass team of 10 wins that has lost 11 times in double digits. He already had a team of Memphis with 16 losses and was so dysfunctional that the players fought in the locker room. He trained the Nets to scream. And yet, no one – neither the big teams of Rick Pitino in Kentucky, nor even the Michael Jordan Bulls – had ever beaten one of his teams as badly as Duke beat his team at the start of the season.
And the UK was ranked second! In all the countries!
"I have not had a lot of this type of matches," said Calipari, who added that he had told his players, with about eight minutes left, that he was not going to play. would call no delay – and that they would be subjugated if they dared to commit. a fault.
"Let [the clock] Run, "Calipari ordered.
In other words, it was time to start, even though an astonished national audience was still watching via ESPN – stuck to the possibility of another flagship event in Sion. To be clear, in the long run and as a whole, I think Kentucky will be fine. I really do. But I will not pretend that there are no things – many things? – exercise. And I will not ignore the evidence – especially the fact that the Wildcats' five-star freshmen are not very close to Duke's five-star freshmen, which was ultimately the most important factor of this explosion. Calipari has been completely destitute in the last two decades. That's the truth. But it's also true: The Duke does not have to be a player to win the SEC or go to a Final Four, and that's something that should not be lost to the prisoners of the moment. Now think that the Blue Devils are about to stay undefeated and Kentucky is 48 hours away from losing to Illinois.
In the end, Duke is probably not as good as he looked at Kentucky. And Kentucky can not be as bad as it looked against Duke. Be that as it may, it's now up to John Calipari to recruit a list of five-star potential candidates who have been ashamed of their opening match and turn them into a consistent unit that uses the next six weeks to restore confidence and improve in general in advance of the confrontation with North Carolina on December 22 at the CBS Sports Classic at the United Center in Chicago.
Can Calipari do it?
Yes, probably. But believe it or not, he was never obliged. So it's very much a new challenge for the Hall of Fame coach – a challenge that no one thought literally two days ago, what he would be facing right now.
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