The High Five is a weekly segment with top plays, big sports news and sports commentary
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[accordion title=”The High Five is a weekly segment with top plays, news and sports commentary“] Click any Story below[/accordion]
[accordion title=”1. GIF OF THE WEEK”]
This comes from the CSCC/Southwest Tennessee game we covered this past Saturday. With the Chargers only up two with one out, this CLOSE play at the plate was huge. Coach Mike Corn said it was something they go over in practice frequently and that preparation proved to be big here. [/accordion]
[accordion title=”2. Sports Media On John Calipari”]
In their first game of March the University of Kentucky Wildcats were beaten by South Carolina.
It was the lowest point of Calipari’s tenure as head coach. He then spoke of a “tweak”, which was either the offense working more drive and kicks or the use of Dakari Johnson. No one really knows but UK came up one play short of the SEC Championship against Florida, so something was working.
UK got an 8 seed and after an incredible run through the tournament everyone is talking about the stellar job Calipari did this season of coaching a team, which he never failed to remind us, was full of freshmen.
Kentucky has gone to 3 out of the last 4 Final Fours. That’s incredible but to me, what was even more incredible was that sports media experts from around the country agree with each other that Calipari is the reason. His style works. His one and done players win.
However, let’s revisit that round of 32 game against Wichita State. What if Van Cleet hits that shot? What if James Young didn’t? Both of those things easily could have happened. They didn’t… but let’s pretend they did.
Kentucky finishes with 11 losses and do not make the sweet 16.
Is Calipari’s system still considered a success?
In the end, that’s what it comes down to. Players making shots and the opposition missing them. That’s the difference between being considered one of the greatest coaches of all-time and just a good coach. As a college basketball head coach your legacy is in the hands of 18-22 year old kids.
John Calipari looks like a coaching genius and his paycheck just got a little better because his players (that he recruited) finally came through.
His system looks successful because, Van Cleet missed a shot, Lousiville missed free throws, Traveon Jackson missed one free throw and then missed a potential game winner that was so CLOSE to going in.
They needed all of that to give the allusion this system, with no seniors on the court, works.
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[accordion title=”3. A Flawed System”]
The point of a postseason is to find out through process of elimination, who the best team in a particular sport is. As much as I love March Madness, the NCAA Tournament doesn’t do that and it certainly didn’t this year.
The last two seasons, it worked out. The two best teams in Lousiville, Kentucky both won. However, seeing UCONN get crowned as champions of college basketball for 2014 was just not a very satisfying ending, in my opinion.
I would say the same thing about Kentucky.
Exactly one month ago today, Kentucky was beaten by Florida by 19, 84-65 and UCONN was blown out 81-48 to Louisville.
Connecticut was beaten by 33 points! One month ago! Yet, somehow last night they were handed the Championship trophy.
They could have been knocked out in the first round to St. Joe’s as they played a CLOSE overtime game with them. Just like in 2011 when Kemba Walker led the Huskies off the bubble with a last second shot, helping them win 5 games in 5 days.
The best team in college basketball was Florida but that’s what the NCAA Tournament is set-up to do. That is, allow teams that can get hot for 6 games to win the big trophy and if the best team going in, plays one bad game…season over. [/accordion]
[accordion title=”4. Hold on to that Whistle”]
As fans, I think we can all agree that we hate to see the game decided by non-players. There is nothing more frustrating than when a referee makes a bad call that determines the outcome of the game.
Mark Emmert and the NCAA allowed more opportunities for this to happen when they decided to make a new emphasis on fouling for the 2013-2014 season.
Their first mistake was assuming officiating throughout college basketball is monolithic. The smaller conferences who already had suspect officiating got worse and even in the bigger conferences, the better officials had a difficult time, all throughout the season, establishing what was a foul and what wasn’t.
A hand check wouldn’t be called one possession but then called the next. So, people expecting the players to adjust, how could they? How do you expect them to adjust when it’s only called correctly half of the time?
This year we saws games where 90 free throws were taken and we didn’t scoring really increase that much, which is what this was supposedly designed to do. How many people agree that you would rather watch a game in the 60’s with not so many free throws than a game in the 70’s and half the points coming from the line.
*Ah, free throw contests…they’re just so exciting.*
Worst of all, players were fouling out.
*That’s what people spend $100 for a seat to see, star players sitting on the bench during a CLOSE game, in foul trouble*
Last year the National Championship game saw 158 points scored between the two teams. This season with a new emphasis on fouling to increase scoring…106.[/accordion]
[accordion title=”5. A new Sports Source”]A new Sports Source will be coming to Mellow Mushroom next Tuesday, April 16th. We haven’t got all of the guests lined up yet but we’re CLOSE. Look for us to be talking a little bit about what you just read above this, High School Baseball and the new soccer club to hit the Music City, Nashville FC.[/accordion]
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