College Basketball: 2014 Year in Review

Best Coach of 2014: John Calipari, Kentucky

He would be a candidate for this award every year just for his recruiting prowess alone, but John Calipari is starting to establish himself as the Phil Jackson of college basketball. Calipari’s brilliance in the area of managing egos and personalities rivals Jackson’s wizardry with the likes of Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, Kobe, and Shaq. Extra points should be awarded to Coach Cal because he gets these egos as the age of 18 where they are probably at the most delusional.

At the dawn of the year, the Wildcats were reeling under the pressure of failed expectations. Kentucky’s “best recruiting class ever” was in danger of not even making the NCAA Tournament. Despite all the perceived failure surrounding the team, Calipari regrouped his bunch and led them on one of the most remarkable stretch of wins in NCAA Tournament history. The Wildcats fell short, but Cal’s efforts to get his team to the final Monday night of the season were extraordinary.

Calipari returned this season with his greatest embarrassment of riches to date. The current edition of the Cats is the best team of the “one-and-done” era, and probably one of the best teams of all-time (we’ll know for sure by April). However, it takes a special coach to keep a team of nine high school All-Americans (and ten future pros) happy. Enter the platoon system, Coach Cal’s newest tool to exert dominance over college basketball. By splitting up his two units, Calipari has created two devastating teams under one banner that Dick Vitale recently called the first and second best teams in the SEC. While most coaches would be afraid to implement such a system, Calipari pulled the trigger and then pulled it off. He has since gotten away from his platoons due to the loss of Alex Poythress to a season-ending injury, but the initial plan has created the depth that has the Wildcats looking like the deepest team in college basketball history.