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John Calipari Final Four

Final Four Buildup: Introducing The Kentucky Wildcats

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The buildup to the Final Four concludes today with a look at Kentucky. Following the same format we did with Louisville, Ohio State and Kansas, TheSportsNotebook takes a look at the Wildcats’ personnel, tracks their path to New Orleans and looks back on the program’s recent Final Four history.

PERSONNEL: John Calipari uses a six-man rotation. If we use the benchmark of about 20 minutes per game as determining if a player is a real part of the regular rotation, six isn’t unusual. But Calipari’s six is top-heavy, with only one other player even being in double digits, and four of the key six breaking the 30-minute mark. Anthony Davis at center is the team’s most celebrated player and presuming the freshman enters the NBA draft, will be the first overall pick in June. He’s a double-digit scorer and rebounder, and blocks five shots a game. It’s not hard to see why the pro scouts love him and why opposing college coaches fear him. But don’t overlook Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who might be the #2 pick. His stats aren’t as spiffy, but he does average 12/8, and has a way of playing his best in the biggest games. The third freshman in the regular rotation is point guard Marquis Teague, who does an excellent job distributing the ball and can shoot just well enough to keep defenses honest, as Iowa State could attest in a second-round game when Teague lit them up for 24 points. The sophomore class on this team is Terrence Jones up front, a 6’9” bruiser who stands in contrast to the lanky Davis. Doron Lamb is the team’s best outside shooter, hitting 47 percent from both inside and outside the arc. Lamb is also the team’s best free-throw shooter and would presumably be the one Calipari wants with the ball in end-game situations. And yes, Kentucky does have a senior getting significant playing time, that being Darius Miller, a 6’8” forward with a respectable outside shooting touch.

SEASONAL ARC: Kentucky won its two big tests of the early schedule, beating Kansas prior to Thanksgiving and then winning a one-point thriller over North Carolina at Rupp Arena on December 3, a game I expected to see again on Monday in New Orleans. UK took its only regular season loss on a buzzer-beater at Indiana on December 10, then recovered with four easy wins, including one over future NCAA Tournament team Lamar. That set the stage for their 69-62 win over Louisville on New Year’s Eve. Kentucky then proceeded to systematically dismantle the SEC. They won their first nine games, including a sweep of Tennessee and the closest game was a 77-71 decision over Alabama at Rupp. The week after the Super Bowl was the time for the ‘Cats to really lay claim to the territory though. Florida and Vanderbilt were on the schedule for a Tuesday/Saturday run on national TV, and UK won both games decisively. Florida and Vandy represented two of the final three regular season games, and though the Commodores were a tougher out this time, Kentucky still swept both rivals. After a win in the SEC Tournament over LSU, it was time for a third straight Florida/Vandy run. This one wasn’t as sharp. Kentucky narrowly escaped Florida by three and then lost the tournament final to Vanderbilt. Calipari was unconcerned and it appears he was right to be so. Kentucky played sharp offensive basketball in beating Iowa State to reach the Sweet 16, taking revenge on Indiana and then a complete domination of a talented Baylor team that put Kentucky back in the Final Four for a second straight season.

FINAL FOUR HISTORY: My short book, Memories Of March Madness, covers a lot of Kentucky’s seven previous Final Four appearances in the post-Wooden era that began in 1976, and I hope you’ll take a look at it for just $2.99. Here’s a brief rundown…

*1978: Jack Givens lights up Duke for 41 in the NCAA final and Kentucky wins its first national title in the post-Adolph Rupp era.

*1984: A little home cookin’ in Lexington got Kentucky through stiff regional tests against Louisville and Illinois, but a neutral floor and Georgetown’s stifling defense did them in at the Final Four in Seattle.

*1993: Rick Pitino brought his team to New Orleans led by Jamal Mashburn and a bunch of no-names. They almost upended Michigan’s heralded Fab Five, before losing in overtime. In spite of the fact that Pitino only had one of the top six players on the floor it was speculated by the press that he’d been outcoached by Michigan’s Steve Fischer. The notion seems as insane writing this today as it did back then.

*1996: The national title returned to Lexington, as Kentucky dominated all year long and then finished the job with a decisive run through the NCAA Tournament. The biggest game was against UMass in the semi-finals…pitting Pitino against John Calipari.

*1997: A return trip to the final game came up just short in overtime as Arizona edged Kentucky.

*1998: New coach in Tubby Smith, but back in the Final Four and this time with another national title, as the ‘Cats won a gut-wrenching Final Four game over Stanford and then beat Utah on Monday night.

*2011: I recall last year being surprised that it had been that long for Kentucky to be out of the Final Four. Calipari did a solid coaching job getting his young team to peak at the end of the season, win the SEC Tournament, and then oust the top two seeds in the East, Ohio State and North Carolina. UConn ended the dream in the Final Four.

NCAA Regional Finals: Sunday Recaps

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The Final Four is set in New Orleans with Kentucky and Kansas joining Louisville and Ohio State in New Orleans next Saturday. TheSportsNotebook recaps the final games in the South & Midwest brackets…

SOUTH (Atlanta): Kentucky 82 Baylor 70
I thought Baylor had the talent to at least compete in this one, but Kentucky showed that when they come to play they are simply unstoppable. They were up twenty by the half and this was the only one of the four regional finals not worth watching in the second half. UK owned the free throw line, getting 44 attempts to Baylor’s 19—an advantage too great to be attributed to just end-game foul situations and translated that into a 30-16 scoring advantage. Baylor had good things going—they won the battle of the point guards, with Pierre Jackson beating Marquis Teague in both points and assists. Perry Jones III and Quincy Acy combined for 39 points and 16 rebounds. But those were the only three players who got anything done. Brady Heslip, whose three-point shooting was identified here as being key to a Bears upset, couldn’t get going. On Kentucky’s side, Anthony Davis had an 18 points/11 rebounds afternoon in spite of a collision with his knee that temporarily had Big Blue Nation undergoing a collective coronary. And Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, a player I’m coming to love, concluded a great two-game through Atlanta with 19 points and 5 rebounds.

John Calipari is in the Final Four for the fourth time in his career (’96 UMass, ’08 Memphis and the past two years with Kentucky). He’s looking for his first ring. For your off-the-wall thought of the day, how about this one—if Kentucky wins it all, and the Miami Heat again come up short of a title, does Heat president Pat Riley place a call to Calipari to see if he wants to take his talents to South Beach? These are the kind of thoughts you come up with when you’re making a three-hour drive across the plains of Illinois with a fellow sports fanatic, but this one makes an almost frightening amount of sense.

MIDWEST (St. Louis) Kansas 80 North Carolina 67
The instinctive thing to say is that the loss of Kendall Marshall finally caught up to North Carolina. And there would be a basis for that belief. The UNC starting backcourt combined for nine points, while Kansas point guard Tyshawn Taylor hit for 22 by himself. North Carolina was out-executed down the stretch in a game much closer than the score makes it sound. As one who saw his bracket finally come down completely with the Tar Heel loss, I’m obviously sympathetic to such a line of thinking. But we have to point out that Carolina’s strength, the front line, was alarmingly pedestrian for a big game—especially a big game when the entire college hoops world knew they’d have to kick up their production. Tyler Zeller, who pounded Ohio for a 20/20 night on Friday, had 12/6 on Sunday. John Henson’s line was 10/4, and Harrison Barnes concluded a two-game stint in St. Louis that stands to cost him a lot of money in the NBA when also had a 10/4 line. Kansas, getting rebounds up and down the starting lineup, and not just from Thomas Robinson and Jeff Withey, but everybody—the Jayhawks won the battle of the boards 40-30 and because of that won the game. So while there’s no point denying the obvious impact Marshall’s loss had on North Carolina, there’s also no point in ignoring that Kansas did what few—if any—teams in college basketball could have done, and it’s contain the entire Carolina frontline while owning the glass.

Bill Self makes his second Final Four trip with Kansas. The last one was with New Orleans…in 2008, when he beat Calipari’s Memphis team thanks to a huge game-tying three at the end of regulation by Jayhawk guard Mario Challmes, whom Calipari will get reacqauainted with when he goes to the Heat this summer. I’m just not going to let this theory die easily.

Saturday’s Final Four games will be Kentucky-Louisville in the opener at 6:09 PM ET, with Kansas-Ohio State following 40 minutes after the conclusion of the first. Last week, TheSportsNotebook gave a historical nod to the 1983 Mideast Regional, one that ended with an epic Louisville-Kentucky final. Now the two rivals can up the ante with their meeting in the Final Four.