If Coach Calipari Goes to Kentucky, Then What?
Monday, March 30, 2009
Gary Parrish, the very talented college basketball writer for CBS Sports, is reporting that Coach John Calipari has an offer from Kentucky to become the next Wildcat head coach. If so, what does this mean for the SEC? And what does it mean for my Vols?
Here's my take if it happens:
1. It's good for the league at large. Not having a representative in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1989 should have been an eye-opener. So should the seeding the SEC teams received. Mississippi State, a twenty-win team, got pimp-slapped with a 13 seed. That's lower tier single bid conference territory. Something has to change in the way the SEC schedules out-of-conference and in national perception of the league. And the top teams in the conference have to be good, really good.
2. I don't think this actually hurts Tennessee or Florida very much. No one has talked about it but Bruce Pearl became the first coach in the history of the SEC to finish above Kentucky in conference for four consecutive years. Cal makes that harder, but it probably opens up Memphis to Pearl in a way Memphis hasn't been opened up before. With the Conference USA affiliation and star coach spurning them, it's altogether possible that Memphis slides into conference obscurity.
3. Even more significantly, it makes a win over Kentucky epic in the eyes of the NCAA selection committee. Right now a Kentucky win is valueless. And a loss is awful. Winning at Rupp should be worth a seed line or two. Last year multiple teams won at Rupp and didn't even play or win a game in the NIT. Put it this way, how many ACC teams over the last decade owe their bids to wins over North Carolina or Duke?
4. With the new SEC television deal, ESPN needs Coach Cal at Kentucky. They need Kentucky to be good, really good. You think the suits at ESPN aren't rooting for this? UT-Memphis in 2008 was the highest rated college basketball telecast the network has ever aired. Pearl and Cal don't like each other, and they're both media darlings. Can you imagine the fireworks and ratings that this match-up would create twice a season?
The end result is that both teams win when it comes to national recruiting. And ESPN wins when it comes to ratings.
5. While Cal to Kentucky might help the top of hte conference, lower-tier SEC teams could get screwed. I'm looking at you Georgia. Who wants to take that Georgia job and have to coach against Billy Donovan, Bruce Pearl, and John Calipari for six games a year? And that's not even considering Kevin Stallings at Vanderbilt and his soon-to-be stud team next year. That's half the conference games against great coaches. I think it will be very hard for programs that aren't already established to get established, and I think the SEC East is the top-heavy side of the conference once more.
6. Is this Saban to Alabama? No, it isn't, not quite. Kentucky hasn't been as awful as Alabama was. And as much deserved praise as Cal gets, he still hasn't won a national championship. He's also got something that Saban doesn't have, a huge mess he left behind at UMass. Cal has the perception of being a really dirty coach. That might be accurate or inaccurate, but at a school like Kentucky where everything is under the microscope, I'd be interested to see how he manages the scrutiny.
Most importantly, head to head doesn't matter that much in basketball. Sure it's great to win a conference championship, but the NCAA Tourney is what fans truly remember. A split against a top-ten program is epic when it comes to seeding or ensuring that your team gets into the big dance. A football loss to a rival is crushing, a basketball loss can improve your RPI.
That's why I think the SEC needs Kentucky to be good. Their rise can lift the boats at the top of the conference. A weak Kentucky basketball program hurts the SEC much more than it helps the rest of the conference. Labels: if coach cal goes to kentucky coach calipari to kentucky sec perspective
Posted by Clay Travis at 11:03 AM
 
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