Calipari says UK's top goal was to get players drafted, not win title

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per CBS:

Calipari performed a speech and Q-and-A session on Wednesday at Rupp Arena for the Kentucky-based animal crop/livestock/farming/agricultural company Alltech. It held its leadership convention of sorts at Rupp. Calipari spoke, and near the beginning of his speech (audio below), he claimed that getting as many players into the NBA Draft was Kentucky's primary goal this season. It wasn't winning a national title -- it was putting guys into the draft. That was the objective.

"How do we do this? It all starts with players first," Calipari said. "Their dreams become our dreams. Last year we started the season with a goal. You may think that goal was to win the national title! Win al the games! It was to get eight players drafted. 'Well, how can you be about your team if you're worried about players getting drafted?' Well, we kind of work it the other way. What are you dreams? What are you looking for? What are you trying to get out of life? How can we help you with that?"

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...goal-was-to-get-players-drafted-not-win-title

Go Gophers!!
 

How could a 5 star kid w/ $ signs in his eyes not like that. Now if Coach K says the same thing following the Dukies success this year with one and dones, we will be well on our way to a near complete mockery of college hoops elite programs.
 


the donors have to love that kind of talk. They will have to start hanging banners in the rafters with the number of players drafted each year.
 

Love it. Some thought they had the best team in college basketball history, they didn't even have the best team that year. I'm sure he said that hoping that recruits hear it.
 


bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Love it. Some thought they had the best team in college basketball history, they didn't even have the best team that year. I'm sure he said that hoping that recruits hear it.
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Regardless of what happened in the game with Wisconsin you cannot convince me UK wasn't at the very least the second best team to Duke.

That's the thing with single elimination tournaments like this, the best team is very rarely the champion.
 

I think we could do with getting some players drafted. Wouldn't be a bad place to start.
 

What if a player's dream is to play 30+ minutes a game in college? I guess Cal can't make all dreams come true.
 

Strikes me as a convenient thing to say after not winning a championship that most observers expected to be yours, then pushing 7 players into the draft. Molding the narrative to fit reality, I guess.
 




WindyCityGopher said:
Strikes me as a convenient thing to say after not winning a championship that most observers expected to be yours, then pushing 7 players into the draft. Molding the narrative to fit reality, I guess.
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Sums it up pretty well imo. If Cal had been asked this question a few months back, his answer almost assuredly would have been quite a bit different.
 

MRJ said:
Sums it up pretty well imo. If Cal had been asked this question a few months back, his answer almost assuredly would have been quite a bit different.
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I'm sure he would have stated the NC was the goal but his actions didn't indicate that, if his primary focus was winning the NC he wouldn't have platooned like he did, it will be interesting to see how his recruiting changes based on last year, with that many top 20 players on a squad it really puts you in a bind.
 

jovs said:
I'm sure he would have stated the NC was the goal but his actions didn't indicate that, if his primary focus was winning the NC he wouldn't have platooned like he did, it will be interesting to see how his recruiting changes based on last year, with that many top 20 players on a squad it really puts you in a bind.
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Or he could have been so confident (overconfident as it turns out) that his team was so good, it wouldn't matter what kind of player rotations he had. In any case, I'm sure he continue to bring boatloads of one-and-dones for the foreseeable future.
 



BleedGopher said:
per CBS:

Calipari performed a speech and Q-and-A session on Wednesday at Rupp Arena for the Kentucky-based animal crop/livestock/farming/agricultural company Alltech. It held its leadership convention of sorts at Rupp. Calipari spoke, and near the beginning of his speech (audio below), he claimed that getting as many players into the NBA Draft was Kentucky's primary goal this season. It wasn't winning a national title -- it was putting guys into the draft. That was the objective.

"How do we do this? It all starts with players first," Calipari said. "Their dreams become our dreams. Last year we started the season with a goal. You may think that goal was to win the national title! Win al the games! It was to get eight players drafted. 'Well, how can you be about your team if you're worried about players getting drafted?' Well, we kind of work it the other way. What are you dreams? What are you looking for? What are you trying to get out of life? How can we help you with that?"

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...goal-was-to-get-players-drafted-not-win-title

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

I'd place this article in the "Worst Kept Secret in the History of College Athletics" file.
 

jovs said:
I'm sure he would have stated the NC was the goal but his actions didn't indicate that, if his primary focus was winning the NC he wouldn't have platooned like he did, it will be interesting to see how his recruiting changes based on last year, with that many top 20 players on a squad it really puts you in a bind.
Click to expand...

He most certainly shortened his bench in the close games in the tournament.

http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2015-03-21-cincinnati.html
http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2015-03-28-kentucky.html
http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2015-04-04-kentucky.html
 

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