Did you ever try to get a cat to do something for you like come to you when you called it's name? Dogs can't wait to please, they were born to make their masters happy, but not a cat. That's kind of what it's like to coach a basketball team, particularly a basketball team that has a lot of freshmen players, who just got through being stars in high school, and now come together as stars, in hopes of making millions in the NBA. That is what Coach John Calipari faces every year as the Head Basketball Coach at the University of Kentucky.
Coach Cal is a victim of his own success. He has become the top recruiter of talented basketball players in the entire United States. That's great right? That's bad as well, since each year he is confronted with checking these enormous egos at the door of the Joe Craft Center{the practice facility of the UK Basketball Team} and get them to buy in to the team concept, and realize that most of the players that are now your teammates are just as good as you are. And to make it just a little more difficult it has to be done in under six months.
College basketball has changed. No more do you see players coming and staying for four years unless they are not the McDonald's All Americans that have become the prize for the big time programs, There was a time when players could grow and learn in a system that would nurture them into young adults, but now these young lions must come ready made, with not just a jump shot, but real world experience and maturity. Coach Cal has become the gold standard of taking the modern basketball youth and renovating them into a team that is not only good but will likely challenge for Final Fours and even National Championships. A daunting task at best. In Coach Cal's third season at Kentucky he has manged to do just that. However at times I bet Coach Cal thinks it would probably be easier just to herd a bunch of cats.
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