The guy is so under-appreciated as a team chemistry mechanic, motivator and tactician. He's so much more than the greatest recruiter in history.
Case in point: I'm watching the 2011 Cats in a late-season road game against unranked and very average Tennennee. One week before selection Sunday, and the SEC tournament.
At halftime Kentucky is five points down, after scoring only 22 points in the first 20 minutes. Incredibly, no Cat has more than one field goal. Knight scored on the last possession of the half - his first two points. The whole team looked like a dog's breakfast. Just a mess. And the team had played that way, especially away from Rupp, all winter. Cats were 3-7 on the road at that point.
And yet that team would sweep through the SEC tournament, defeat No. 1 Ohio State and a very good UNC team on the way to falling one shot short of the National Championship, all within days of that miserable first half. That's a remarkable transformation for a team whose three stars are freshmen, and it's credit to Cal. What he did in 2014 was equally extraordinary. A team he's coaching will virtually always have a shot.
Case in point: I'm watching the 2011 Cats in a late-season road game against unranked and very average Tennennee. One week before selection Sunday, and the SEC tournament.
At halftime Kentucky is five points down, after scoring only 22 points in the first 20 minutes. Incredibly, no Cat has more than one field goal. Knight scored on the last possession of the half - his first two points. The whole team looked like a dog's breakfast. Just a mess. And the team had played that way, especially away from Rupp, all winter. Cats were 3-7 on the road at that point.
And yet that team would sweep through the SEC tournament, defeat No. 1 Ohio State and a very good UNC team on the way to falling one shot short of the National Championship, all within days of that miserable first half. That's a remarkable transformation for a team whose three stars are freshmen, and it's credit to Cal. What he did in 2014 was equally extraordinary. A team he's coaching will virtually always have a shot.
