OT: How did Coach Cal only win 1 title at UK?

[azcatz11]

Sorry if this is triggering for Kentucky fans but you'd think he would have stumbled into at least 3-4. Has anyone ever done a deep dive on this? If you look back at the talent he's had in the 15 or so years there it's beyond comprehension. Guys like Maxey & Herro probably don't crack the top 30 recruits he ever had.

Do you blame it on youth advancing in the tournament or the fizzling out of his dribble drive motion offense? Seemed like that peaked in the mid 00's and the lack of 3 point shooting kind of killed him which is ironic

[FarBeyondDriven]

he makes promises to recruits in order to get them to commit. This sometimes gets in the way of winning. He gets too many high recruits which doesn't allow him to settle on a best 5 because he has to give guys minutes in order to get them drafted. Getting guys drafted seems to be his main motivation. He's done plenty of winning in his career and he's gotten his kids paid. It's really hard to win championships with a team full of freshmen no matter how talented. Look at Michigan versus Duke.

[EmpireFalls]

He’s bad at in game adaptations

He often has two or three too many players and persists with the wrong lineups or rotations for too long. This is usually a recruiting decision

He’s had bad luck with injuries

Mostly though - national titles are really, really hard to win. He’s had at least 6 teams who were easily national title worthy - 2008, 2009 Memphis, 2010 Kentucky, 2012 UK, 2015, 2017 UK - only one title.

[HadAnEffectHere]

He's a horrible basketball coach.

KAT shot 8 threes total in college despite having to play next to WCS and the Harrison Twins.

[BigGargamel]

Legendary recruiter, but he's not a good coach. Just collecting a bunch of five stars and throwing them out there doesn't work. Like guy above me said, his main draw is getting guys to the NBA. Well, unless they are big men (Labissiere, Bradshaw, Collins, Ware, Montgomery)

Winning championships is really hard. The tourney can be so random sometimes. Especially if you're a team composed of freshmen, they are inconsistent, so if a couple guys have an off game in a one and done format, that's it.

[SeattleJazzFan]

he makes promises to recruits in order to get them to commit. This sometimes gets in the way of winning. He gets too many high recruits which doesn't allow him to settle on a best 5 because he has to give guys minutes in order to get them drafted. Getting guys drafted seems to be his main motivation. He's done plenty of winning in his career and he's gotten his kids paid. It's really hard to win championships with a team full of freshmen no matter how talented. Look at Michigan versus Duke.

it's possible he's a bad coach, but this is the main reason. even good coaches will struggle to win titles with 4 or 5 freshmen starters. even elite freshmen, the most talented freshmen are dumb, make dumb mistakes and very few know how to win/what it takes to win.

Cal's goal and his recruiting pitch was that he'd get the best one and dones to the league. winning it all was secondary to that objective.

[God Squad]

Honestly, from what I've seen he's a pretty overrated coach. But then again, being the king of OAD causes a lot of turnover from year to year. It's hard to build a quality program with the revolving door of recruits they get.

Coaches I like from what I've seen

Ucon- Dan Hurley
BYU - Kevin Young
Houston - Kelvin Sampson

I'm sure there are many more, but these guys always impress me. They're also schools that don't deal with as much turnover year to year.

[wegotthabeet]

Coach Cal always been about that 1 and done.

[Bank Shot]

It's hard to win when your main pieces are almost always 18-19.

[CptCrunch]

Coach Squid is like a bottom 10 percentile coach among college coaches. He is actively horrible at coaching.