Nate Silver weighs in on how badly Coach Cal blew it. 80%+ chance to win

[ChicosBailBonds]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/coach-cal-blew-it/

[Tugg Speedman]

So he's the Pete Caroll of College Basketball.

[wadesworld]

Superbar

[GGGG]

Superbar

This is beyond annoying.  Report the post to the moderator. 

[ChicosBailBonds]

So he's the Pete Caroll of College Basketball.

Pete is actually a good coach.  Cal, not in that category.  I don't fault Cal, actually like him ok as a person.  Does a lot of things behind the scenes for people. Not his fault that he has taken advantage of the rules, but he isn't a tactician.  He's a salesman, but in college hoops that is a major part of the job...it's literally part of the job description. 

[bilsu]

Cal blew it even before the game started. In the pre game interviews Bo talked about how his team watched game film and went over the other teams game. Cal said they did not watch any film and just worked on how they play. Basically, Cal believed they would win on talent alone. Kentucky was so used to getting offfensive rebounds and was not prepared to compete with a team that was excellant at blocking out on rebounds. They were out rebounded 15-10 in the first half. There are a lot of coaches in the country that would of taken that team to 40-0, but Cal is not one of them.

[Lennys Tap]

I don't fault Cal, actually like him ok as a person.  Does a lot of things behind the scenes for people.

Yeah, Cal does a lot behind the scenes for people - like getting a guy to take Derrick Rose's ACTs for him. He's nothing if not a stand up guy.

[LAZER]

So Cal isn't a good coach now? Wow, tough crowd here.

[jesmu84]

I thought the choice of running a 1-4 offense with Harrison playing one-on-one against Dekker was absolutely stupid.

[Mutaman]

So Cal isn't a good coach now? Wow, tough crowd here.

Many people have been critical of Calipari's game coaching ability for some time.

www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCkQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2014%2F08%2F21%2Fmike-francesa-hung-up-on-john-calipari-and-it-was-fantastic%2F&ei=GQgiVeORC4rXsAXfzIHAAQ&usg=AFQjCNEYkxPeETXBvmx68N_GGZzMvzoIuw&sig2=w-02ErpONYCUQW1zgw5Rpw

[brandx]

This is beyond annoying.  Report the post to the moderator. 

I think the UW win hit him harder than most

[ChicosBailBonds]

So Cal isn't a good coach now? Wow, tough crowd here.

I think he cost himself the title against Kansas a few years ago taking the air out of the ball.  His team struggled all night last night, finally got the lead and up by 4 points he did the same thing.   I give Wisconsin a ton of credit, but UK did not play smart down the stretch offensively.

[brandx]

Too much talk of how many NBA players on the floor for UK. They only had 5 cuz them's the rules. And UW had three, maybe four so the talent difference wasn't that great.

And NONE of the UW guys were freshman.

[WarriorFan]

So Cal isn't a good coach now? Wow, tough crowd here.

This is what I've been saying all along.  Cal is not a good game or strategy coach.  Never has been.  In an even game against Bo or Coach K or Izzo with 2 minutes left, he'll lose more than he wins. 

Great recruiter, great salesman, great bender of the rules.. but just not a quality game coach.

Nothing new here.

[mattyv1908]

This is what I've been saying all along.  Cal is not a good game or strategy coach.  Never has been.  In an even game against Bo or Coach K or Izzo with 2 minutes left, he'll lose more than he wins. 

Great recruiter, great salesman, great bender of the rules.. but just not a quality game coach.

Nothing new here.

I think it's a tad more complicated than that.  Cal hasn't seen NCAAT losses that even come close to the Lehigh and Mercer first round exits like K has had recently.

If anything, this year's team probably didn't see enough close late game situations.  It's hard to teach young talent how to win in crunch time when the majority of the games are over by halftime.  Their average margin of victory over their 38 wins was by 20 points.  Notre Dame was a great team this year and Wisconsin is even a better team.

It's dismissive of what UW accomplished to chalk the loss up to poor coaching by Cal.

[eg021]

Towns was starting to establish himself on the low block and they let Harrison go one on one multiple possessions.

Jahlil starts doing work on the block and Quinn cook starts jacking shots I'm going to throw my beer at the TV tonight.

[ChicosBailBonds]

It's dismissive of what UW accomplished to chalk the loss up to poor coaching by Cal.

They have had a great run, nothing cheap about it at all.  Used to drive me crazy some of UW-madison's runs were due to broken brackets, but that isn't the case here.

That being said, UK finally grabbed the lead and had some control, but they really crapped the bed in the last few minutes taking the air out.  That was poor coaching by Cal.  Is what it is.

[GGGG]

If UW wins, they would have faced the highest seed possible every step of the way.  Not sure if that has ever happened before since seeding began.

[Spotcheck Billy]

I read earlier that their seed total would be 32, the lowest ever since expanding to 64 teams in 1985. NC has the current best at 33.

[muwarrior69]

Cal blew it even before the game started. In the pre game interviews Bo talked about how his team watched game film and went over the other teams game. Cal said they did not watch any film and just worked on how they play. Basically, Cal believed they would win on talent alone. Kentucky was so used to getting offfensive rebounds and was not prepared to compete with a team that was excellant at blocking out on rebounds. They were out rebounded 15-10 in the first half. There are a lot of coaches in the country that would of taken that team to 40-0, but Cal is not one of them.

I read that too and am really surprised. The really didn't take it to Notre Dame and you would have thought that was a wake up call.

[brewcity77]

My question would be whether Cal's title winning team watched any game film. While I would certainly think you'd want to scout your opponent, if you've won titles by focusing on your game, I could see trying to avoid distraction.

[wadesworld]

I think the UW win hit him harder than most

Nah.  Just typically only really read Hanging at the Al and then specific Superbar topics.  When you go into Hanging at the Al and maybe 5 total threads on the entire first page could even remotely have anything to do with Marquette basketball it's even more annoying than seeing someone point that fact out in all those threads.