Cabrera: A Full Time Job

Being a basketball coach isn’t an easy job. You have to plan practices, nurture team camaraderie, watch film and strategize for games, make substitutions, draw up plays on the fly, and most importantly, win games. That said, being a NCAA head basketball coach is far from a walk in the park. Think about it: now recruiting comes into play, and the many days spent away from one’s family. But being the head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, that is a whole other category. Just ask Billy Gillespie.

The Wildcats have won 7 NCAA titles (2^nd best), 98 NCAA tournament games (2^nd best), and boast the most total wins and best winning percentage in college basketball. The infamous Adolph Rupp is responsible for 4 of the NCAA titles. The tradition of UK basketball began and continued with Rupp, coaching for 42 years. Fittingly, the Wildcats now play their games at Rupp Arena. After Mr. Rupp, names like Sutton, Pitino, and Tubby inherited the tradition. Aside from coaches, jerseys with the last names of Riley and Issel, among many others, hang in the rafters. It’s clear that Lexington is a place of basketball tradition. But what makes Blue Nation any different than a place like UCLA or UNC? The absence of professional sports—no NBA team, no NFL squad, no MLB club. It’s UK athletics, period. Sure, the football team has come around as of late, but basketball has ruled and will always rule in the Blue Grass State. In collegiate athletics, players come and go every 4 years or less, meaning the coach is the face of the program and is always under a microscope. In Kentucky’s case, the head basketball coach is the heartbeat of an entire state.

The ‘Cats haven’t held up the hardware since 1998, then under the helm of Tubby Smith. He brought 11 consecutive years of 20-win seasons and won 73.4% percent of the games he coached over his 13-year tenure. But he couldn’t bring another title—bye-bye Tubby. Then a disaster strolled into town, amounting in a 40-26 record over two seasons. Billy Gillespie never really understood what it took to be the head basketball coach at UK. Coming from a school with little basketball tradition in Texas A&M, it never seemed like Gillespie was able to relate to the enormity of Wildcat Nation and handle the pressure that was upon him. Hired on April 6, 2007, fired on March 27, 2009. Enter John Calipari.

Blue Nation expects greatness and nothing less, something Coach Cal has displayed. Calipari built a UMASS program from scratch. From a 10-18 record in his rookie season in 1988-1989, the Minuteman went 35-2 in 1995-1996 and made an NCAA final four appearance versus whom else, but Kentucky. Like many successful college coaches, Calipari decided to flirt with the NBA for a while, before coming back the college game and resurrecting a Memphis program in the beginning of the 21^st century. At Memphis, he won the Coach of Year award, had 4 straight 30-win seasons, and went to a national championship game. All of this for a team not in a major conference. Calipari knows basketball, but so does Billy Gillespie. So what makes Calipari different?

Simply put, John Calipari gets it. He understands the magnitude of being the head coach at the University of Kentucky. He understands the passion the Commonwealth State has for its basketball program. He understands that he is the heartbeat of an entire state. Being the head coach at UK is beyond X’s and O’s, and before his first game on the sidelines at Rupp Arena, Calipari has displayed his knowledge of this. At his initial press conference, Calipari stated, “If I’ve done my job [win a national championship], 10,000 people would say without me, we couldn’t have done this.” As well as, “Our goal is to make the entire Commonwealth proud of this team”. Alongside of these statements, Calipari also described how he promised to act as an ambassador for the state of Kentucky (click on videos to find the John Calipari Press Conference Introduction).

Above all, he has already created his own website at http://coachcal.com/. The website gives any Kentucky basketball fan everything from Coach Cal’s own blog to biography to game day content. He has launched a Facebook fan page that he updates frequently, giving fans an inside view on his day-to-day happenings (check out the amount of traffic he gets on his fan page if you don’t believe Kentuckians eat, sleep, and breathe UK basketball). Also, Calipari has already established many satellite, basketball camps throughout the state of Kentucky for elementary-aged girls and boys.

Coach Cal is among the best in recruiting (he brought #1 recruit John Wall and top recruit DeMarcus Cousins along from Memphis to Kentucky), writing up competitive practice schedules, getting the best out of his players, graduating his four year players, strategizing, game day adjustments and decisions, and flat-out winning. All those qualities might be enough for any other collegiate basketball program, but not in Lexington. Luckily for Blue Nation, Coach Cal understands that.