John Calipari named Sporting News college basketball Coach of the Decade
By SDS Staff
Published:
Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari can add Sporting News “Coach of the Decade” to his resume. The publication dubbed Calipari the top coach of the 2010s on Monday.
“No one defined the 2010s in the same way as Calipari, though, nor achieved the same degree of consistent excellence,” Mike Decourcy writes. “Calipari won more NCAA Tournament games this decade than all but five other active coaches did in their entire careers, or 18 coaches in the game’s history. He avoided sub-.500 seasons and first-round NCAA defeats. Kentucky was a single basket away from two more Final Four appearances.”
Decourcy’s article opens with the numbers over the last 10 seasons that illustrate Calipari’s decade of dominance: 305 total victories, 31 NCAA Tournament wins, nine NCAA appearances, seven Elite Eights, four Final Fours and an NCAA championship (ending a 13-year drought). The dominance came while Calipari had to replace 25 one-and-done players over the decade. Calipari acknowledged that constantly remaking the roster takes a toll on everyone.
“The reality of it is, it takes us time,” Calipari said. “It’s hard. It’s hard on the staff. And the best thing I can tell you is when you have an administration that accepts what we’re doing and why, that knows that we care about kids, and that it’s working for everybody involved.”
Big Blue Nation is sure to enjoy the full article which can be found here.
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