I have a love/hate relationship with this mentality.

[bbncal02]

I get it. Control what you can control. But not studying other teams tendencies, play style, etc. Man, I don't get that.

It reeks of a bit of unhealthy arrogance to me. And to be clear, I'm not putting that on Rob. I'm putting that on Cal. Sure, Cal. If everything goes 100% our way and we play our A+ game, no one can beat us. But, what if we don't? What if we have an off shooting game? What's Plan B?

It infuriates me a bit that Cal relies SO heavily on Plan 1a that when it fails we have no clue what to do. That to me is a recipe for disaster.

Am I overthinking this? Also, I'm no insinuating we don't do film or scouting, it just seems to take a backseat. And I'm not sure about how good that is.

 

[Jeff2Reed]

Calipari thinks he’s clever because he does the opposite of every other coach in the history of the sport. He thinks giving a sht about anything traditional is useless.

And that’s why, without an NBA lockout (rare event), he’s got zero NCAA titles while having the most NBA players in history.

It’s utterly laughable and embarrassing for a D1 coach to carry this Philosophy. It’s stupid, conventional wisdom exists for a reason. Guys with his mindset, passive attitude toward everything that matters, is why everything goes to hell. But a narcissist wouldn’t notice hell happening so.

 

[LexCatnOhio]

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I get it. Control what you can control. But not studying other teams tendencies, play style, etc. Man, I don't get that.

It reeks of a bit of unhealthy arrogance to me. And to be clear, I'm not putting that on Rob. I'm putting that on Cal. Sure, Cal. If everything goes 100% our way and we play our A+ game, no one can beat us. But, what if we don't? What if we have an off shooting game? What's Plan B?

It infuriates me a bit that Cal relies SO heavily on Plan 1a that when it fails we have no clue what to do. That to me is a recipe for disaster.

Am I overthinking this? Also, I'm no insinuating we don't do film or scouting, it just seems to take a backseat. And I'm not sure about how good that is.

John Wooden would prepare for games the same way. He had a philosophy of doing all his coaching in practice and that’s why he wasn’t as animated on the sidelines. He wouldn’t worry about the other teams’ flow because they could change. So he would relentlessly work on their game plan and off/def. I read it in his biography called Wooden. Great book.

 

[CincinnatiWildcat]

On offense this is the correct mentality to have. On defense you need to scout and plan for how the other team wants to attack you.

 

[Jeff2Reed]

I also think going to the final four in 2014 ended up being a net negative. It told Calipari his methods work. A freshman led team who made the final four using these principles. It told Calipari and some of our fans that you don’t have to care conventional wisdom to win. “The old way” doesn’t matter.

It was a rare one off. It didn’t really work then and it doesn’t work now. Taking each game seriously, out working and out preparing others. That’s how you win. I think he’s essentially told us what he thinks. College basketball doesn’t mean anything other than getting guys to the league. It’s sad he’s the coach at UK. If he coaches anywhere else with these philosophies our entire fanbase would be disgusted by him. We already were, before he got here.

 

[Jeff2Reed]

John Wooden would prepare for games the same way. He had a philosophy of doing all his coaching in practice and that’s why he wasn’t as animated on the sidelines. He wouldn’t worry about the other teams’ flow because they could change. So he would relentlessly work on their game plan and off/def. I read it in his biography called Wooden. Great book.

I’ve read it too, and I do not recall him ever saying the coaches and players never prepared for the opponents tendencies. It’s been a while though.

And wooden certainly tried to win each game and never claimed the same things Calipari does. Calipari is the first of his kind.

 

[ArtLaibsGhost]

As far as Wooden goes it didn't hurt that over half of his title teams had once in a generation type players on it.

 

[rob_47]

John Wooden would prepare for games the same way. He had a philosophy of doing all his coaching in practice and that’s why he wasn’t as animated on the sidelines. He wouldn’t worry about the other teams’ flow because they could change. So he would relentlessly work on their game plan and off/def. I read it in his biography called Wooden. Great book.

He also had players that were head and shoulders better than 99 percent of the teams he played against.

 

[ala_kat2]

A few years ago, Cal admitted that he doesn’t watch film on other teams. Maybe his assistants do, but to me that’s not a way to earn almost $9M a year. I can’t even imagine a coach who doesn’t worry about what the opponent will try to do.

 

[ukcatz12]

A few years ago, Cal admitted that he doesn’t watch film on other teams.

You guys overplay every single thing he says. There have been numerous broadcasts this year where the announcers have gone over what the UK game plan is and how Cal told them during the pregame interviews that UK needed to shut down certain opposing players in certain ways because of what the tape showed.

 

[king of cali]

Jerry Tarkanian is another that worried way more about his team than what the other team may do.

 

[LexCatnOhio]

He was a competitor for sure but he said something like if he was different at anything he never mentioned anything about winning. Something like that but Wooden was special. As for his preparation philosophy it was to be the best version of yourself and the rest would take care of itself.

 

[Bluesbrother]

John Wooden would prepare for games the same way. He had a philosophy of doing all his coaching in practice and that’s why he wasn’t as animated on the sidelines. He wouldn’t worry about the other teams’ flow because they could change. So he would relentlessly work on their game plan and off/def. I read it in his biography called Wooden. Great book.

Wooden worked hard every year b/c he was trying to get the UCLA AD to give him a big fat lifetime contract. The UCLA AD was smart enough to never do it to keep him hungry ... smart AD.

 

[Bluesbrother]

A few years ago, Cal admitted that he doesn’t watch film on other teams. Maybe his assistants do, but to me that’s not a way to earn almost $9M a year. I can’t even imagine a coach who doesn’t worry about what the opponent will try to do.

He said after the Wisconsin loss in the 2015 FF that he probably should have watched some film of Wisconsin to prepare. Arrogant pinhead who squanders his way through life and never shuts his Hall of Shame mouth.

 

[KyCatFan]

This is the kind of sh*t that gets us beat every year. Not preparing for your opponent and thinking only what you do matters. Prepare for another early exit. Sure would be nice to have a coach that does the job they are being paid to do and takes everything serious.

 

[IL Wildcat]

Well, it's true that when this team plays their best they're pretty much unbeatable. Even when they are picked to lose, they play their best.

That's not the problem. The problem is getting this team playing with max effort, which is the REAL trick. Play their best, beat Auburn by 20 on the road and knock off Alabama by 25, beat Tennessee in Knoxville. But they've also shown they can lose to almost anyone when the game doesn't go according to plan.

How do you change a game when the original plan isn't clicking? We struggle with that big time. We've watched it happen multiple times. It almost always comes down to not being able to get stops when opposing teams are clicking. We can't seem to turn the tide. That's the issue.

 

[Rockfly78]

Cal has said this since the day he got here. Hard to disagree because it’s worked in the past. The only variable is kids themselves which is interchangeable. Hopefully this is exactly what this particular group needs to hear

 

[Rideordiewildcat]

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I get it. Control what you can control. But not studying other teams tendencies, play style, etc. Man, I don't get that.

It reeks of a bit of unhealthy arrogance to me. And to be clear, I'm not putting that on Rob. I'm putting that on Cal. Sure, Cal. If everything goes 100% our way and we play our A+ game, no one can beat us. But, what if we don't? What if we have an off shooting game? What's Plan B?

It infuriates me a bit that Cal relies SO heavily on Plan 1a that when it fails we have no clue what to do. That to me is a recipe for disaster.

Am I overthinking this? Also, I'm no insinuating we don't do film or scouting, it just seems to take a backseat. And I'm not sure about how good that is.

In other words, I'm not scouting any of these games, so just play your ass off.

 

[TOMCATS1990]

Cal being cocky knowing he can out talent his opponents. He surely has to know he won’t out coach them.

 

[CatsnRoses]

There's definitely an air of arrogance to it. We have so much more talent than you, we can just worry about us is the implicit message.

And maybe at a certain point in Cal's career there was truth to that... definitely not the case these last several years.

 

[Wildcats1st]

That’s the players mentality which is 100 on. Focus on what we can do. It’s up to the coach when “you’re not playing your game” to weather the storms. I’m sure Rob knows this. The problem is Cals capacity to coach his way to wins isn’t promising.

 

[know1]

So our film sessions are essentially a narcissistic Stuart Smalley skit - "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough..."

 

[Fox2monk]

View embedded media

I get it. Control what you can control. But not studying other teams tendencies, play style, etc. Man, I don't get that.

It reeks of a bit of unhealthy arrogance to me. And to be clear, I'm not putting that on Rob. I'm putting that on Cal. Sure, Cal. If everything goes 100% our way and we play our A+ game, no one can beat us. But, what if we don't? What if we have an off shooting game? What's Plan B?

It infuriates me a bit that Cal relies SO heavily on Plan 1a that when it fails we have no clue what to do. That to me is a recipe for disaster.

Am I overthinking this? Also, I'm no insinuating we don't do film or scouting, it just seems to take a backseat. And I'm not sure about how good that is.

It’s good in some ways but the major issue of Cal not winning is not preparing for what the other team does. He handicaps us from the start. It’s hard to play your way when they prepare to stop you and you don’t know how to adjust.

 

[SemperFiCat]

There's probably no shortage of quotes from some of history's greatest coaches, military leaders and tycoons that probably read something like, "not studying your enemy/opponent is stupid". Ya know, in a nutshell. Not knowing what you're going up against is laziness.

 

[Jazzycat]

Making adjustments is Cal’s handicap at times. He certainly did not try to seal off the middle when TAMU was making lay up after lay up. Analytics are being done for a reason. Use them to assess an opponents strengths and weaknesses. Use them to determine your best subbing patterns. Watch film to develop a game plan. Every profession requires analysis, observation, development and strategy. Coaching is no different…

 

[JC CATS]

John Wooden would prepare for games the same way. He had a philosophy of doing all his coaching in practice and that’s why he wasn’t as animated on the sidelines. He wouldn’t worry about the other teams’ flow because they could change. So he would relentlessly work on their game plan and off/def. I read it in his biography called Wooden. Great book.

Sam Gilbert had nothing to do with it

 

[Jeff2Reed]

There's probably no shortage of quotes from some of history's greatest coaches, military leaders and tycoons that probably read something like, "not studying your enemy/opponent is stupid". Ya know, in a nutshell. Not knowing what you're going up against is laziness.

This is so true.

 

[kats23]

Youth sports coaching mentality. And it goes all the way back to 2010 when we just kept jacking up 3’s against WVU.

 

[Mdnerd]

You guys are crazy if you think Cal would be able to watch film and game plan based off of it. People tend to avoid things they can’t do, which is why he doesn’t study opponents. He wouldn’t have a clue what he was looking at.

 

[chroix]

He’s not a coach. He’s a manager.

 

[chroix]

There's probably no shortage of quotes from some of history's greatest coaches, military leaders and tycoons that probably read something like, "not studying your enemy/opponent is stupid". Ya know, in a nutshell. Not knowing what you're going up against is laziness.

Yeah I missed the chapter in The Art of War where Sun Tzu explains how it’s important to ignore your enemy and focus on yourself. Have to go back and reread it.

 

[know1]

Making adjustments is Cal’s handicap at times. He certainly did not try to seal off the middle when TAMU was making lay up after lay up. Analytics are being done for a reason. Use them to assess an opponents strengths and weaknesses. Use them to determine your best subbing patterns. Watch film to develop a game plan. Every profession requires analysis, observation, development and strategy. Coaching is no different…

He doesn't care enough about winning to put any effort into it.

 

[Mdnerd]

He doesn't care enough about winning to put any effort into it.

Not an effort issue at all, it’s an incompetence issue. This is why he needs Anthony Davis to win. He needs players so over the top good, they win no matter what he does. He cannot actually game plan, he does not possess the knowledge and ability.

 

[ukjenning44]

In 2015 he had the team watching the movie Secretariat the night before the Wisconsin game. We know how that ended.
Cal never learns from mistakes and is too arrogant to change.

 

[know1]

Not an effort issue at all, it’s an incompetence issue. This is why he needs Anthony Davis to win. He needs players so over the top good, they win no matter what he does. He cannot actually game plan, he does not possess the knowledge and ability.

What I mean is that winning is not his top priority. Therefore, he doesn't put much effort toward it.

I'm giving him SOME credit that he actually can do some coaching, but I'm saying he chooses not to.

 

[CatsFanIL]

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I get it. Control what you can control. But not studying other teams tendencies, play style, etc. Man, I don't get that.

It reeks of a bit of unhealthy arrogance to me. And to be clear, I'm not putting that on Rob. I'm putting that on Cal. Sure, Cal. If everything goes 100% our way and we play our A+ game, no one can beat us. But, what if we don't? What if we have an off shooting game? What's Plan B?

It infuriates me a bit that Cal relies SO heavily on Plan 1a that when it fails we have no clue what to do. That to me is a recipe for disaster.

Am I overthinking this? Also, I'm no insinuating we don't do film or scouting, it just seems to take a backseat. And I'm not sure about how good that is.

I'm with you, I know what you're saying. But I think context is definitely needed here. He said that on Sunday, there's no reason to be focusing on Oakland yet. Get better at executing OUR offense, OUR defense, OUR actions/sets, and OUR communication

Tuesday: start showing Oakland film breakdown, team tendencies, how we want to execute against their zone. Scout team starts running Oakland's sets/actions to introduce

Wednesday: Execute our offense vs their defense. Matchups are finalized, undestand personnel tendencies for Oakland, and again defend our scout team running their actions. Make sure we know what we want to execute on offense, out-of-bounds

Thursday: Oakland film review, scouting review. Our offensive execution review

 

[WeWant9]

It’s a mentality that has won him a ton of games, it’s also a mentality that has contributed to some costly losses in March.

 

[crestcat]

I guess he wasn’t watching when atm beat us in January because they beat us the same way in March. Didn’t change a thing , it looked like a rerun.

 

[Bluesbrother]

Making adjustments is Cal’s handicap at times. He certainly did not try to seal off the middle when TAMU was making lay up after lay up. Analytics are being done for a reason. Use them to assess an opponents strengths and weaknesses. Use them to determine your best subbing patterns. Watch film to develop a game plan. Every profession requires analysis, observation, development and strategy. Coaching is no different…

"Making adjustments is Cal’s handicap at times." You must be talking about Cal's mid-season "twerks" ... yeah, those don't work.

 

[sk73]

Calipari thinks he’s clever because he does the opposite of every other coach in the history of the sport. He thinks giving a sht about anything traditional is useless.

And that’s why, without an NBA lockout (rare event), he’s got zero NCAA titles while having the most NBA players in history.

It’s utterly laughable and embarrassing for a D1 coach to carry this Philosophy. It’s stupid, conventional wisdom exists for a reason. Guys with his mindset, passive attitude toward everything that matters, is why everything goes to hell. But a narcissist wouldn’t notice hell happening so.

It is common to focus on what your team does best. It is also right to address special situations that the other teams offense or defense may present. So you prepare for the other team but more so, you practice those things that have made you a good team.
John Wooden always said that if a team practices defense more than offense, he wanted to play them. Defense is crucial but without the ball. Offense is crucial but with the variable of having a ball in the mix. You have to practice offense more.