I can think of one for sure, but I won't mention him by name.
It's a common refrain. Here's the issue, in my mind:
Calipari is SUCH a great recruiter (nobody denies he's the best in the business at this), when you compare anything else he does with his recruiting, it falls short. So, people will say, "Cal is a great recruiter but not a good bench coach." And compared to his recruiting, his bench coaching isn't as good. But when you really step back and look at what he's done, you realize he really IS a great coach, too. When he was at UMass, he didn't have 8 MCD's AAs on the team, but he took them to a Final Four. And once he built the program, they were excellent for 2 or 3 years before he finally left for the Nets. Look at the job he did in Memphis also. His early teams were bad but he built that program basically from the ground up and made them a national power, a contender for a title on a regular basis. And again, he didn't have a roster full of top 25 recruits there, either. Yes, he usually got 1,2, or even 3 big recruits each year toward the end, but not like he's had at UK. What he's done at UK is unprecedented.
Some still say, that's all about recruiting, not coaching, but you're crazy if you think talent alone will win. It just won't. You have to be able to coach a team and get them to play defense. I think that's as good an indicator as any that Calipari is a good coach. His teams ALWAYS play good defense. His teams will be in the top 25 of defensive efficiency pretty much every season. This team is an exception to that rule, and that's obviously not for lack of coaching. Elite high school players are NOTORIOUS for not playing defense. He gets these guys to buy in.
He also gets them to be unselfish. Look at last season's platoons. Who else could have pulled that off? To get all those players to go hard for their time on the floor and to put team goals above personal goals? That requires good coaching. We all know Anthony Davis and Kidd-Gilchrist took the 4th and 5th most shots on that title team. Again, that's coaching.
My opinion is that Calipari is the #1 recruiter in the nation. He's also the #1 motivator of elite talent in the nation. And, he's at least top 10 among in-game coaches in the nation. No, he's not the best in game coach, but he's up there. The trouble, as I say, is that everyone compares and critiques Calipari's bench coaching against his other attributes, not against his peers.
Now, put the entire package together- recruiting, motivating, bench coaching, Calipari is right there with Coach K in my mind. I think Coach K is a superior bench coach, and there are others as well, like Izzo and perhaps a couple others. But considering everything, he's right there at the top.
