Pardon the idiom, but John Wooden must be rolling over in his grave. Traditionally, college basketball has been about, well, tradition. It’s about banners. It’s about retired jerseys. It’s about legacy. But as we’ve seen ever since the NBA enacted it’s “one year removed” policy, college basketball has simply become a necessity for the one-percenters that need a place to play before entering the NBA Draft. And while college coaches have had to change their strategies while recruiting in this new climate, it was always believed that winning a national championship was still the goal. Apparently that’s no longer the case.
Big Blue Nation, a term predominantly used to describe the fan base of the men’s basketball team at the University of Kentucky, is one of the proudest and most knowledgeable groups in the country. Flat out, they want to win. And anything less than that is unacceptable. Normally that’s the goal of the head coach as well, but in this case, it appears John Calipari has another agenda.
Jon Rothstein: How often do you think about winning a national championship?
John Calipari: Not that much. Look, my whole thing is it’s about players. I make this statement: If we win a national title, I’ll be happy; but if none of my players get drafted off that team, I’d be really disappointed.The greatest compliment paid to me was by Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). He comes up to me and says, “Cal, how many guys you think will leave early this year.” And I said, “Probably five, maybe six.” And he says, “You’re creating more millionaires than a Wall Street firm.” And I go, “Wow.”
And yeah we want to win, but I think if I focus on them more than the winning a national title, they will take care of that. And you know what, we’ll see if I’m right or I’m wrong – give me some time here and we’ll see.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of Coach Cal, but personally I find this very troubling for the state of college basketball. If the goal is no longer to win a national championship, but only to run a year-long NBA pre-draft camp, then what’s the point?
“If he doesn’t win a championsip in the next two years, Big Blue Nation will become very dissatisfied with his tactics,” wrote DimeMag.com reader kyballer312 on the site yesterday. “Kentucky fans love their players, and these ‘one-and-dones’ don’t allow for that to happen.”
Time will only tell if Calipari can both win and send kids to the pros, and it will be interesting to see if Big Blue Nation is okay with simply the latter.
What do you think? Should Calipari’s goal be to win a national championship or to send kids to the NBA?
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