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Zags making 9th consecutive SW16

Yes, the youth excuse is weak. It is annoying to every UK fan whenever Cal says it, which is often. Hence, that is why I said Cal chooses to build his rosters this way, so it is his problem. If you don't want 60-70% of the minutes going to freshmen every yr, build your team differently.

Cal's best ability as a coach is to get 18-19 yr olds to buy in and play for each other, the team, and defensively (outside of this year). To answer your question, no, I do not think other coaches would be able to step in and do that. The emotional/mental immaturity of a team full of 18 yr olds is grossly different then a team full of 21-24 yr olds.

Yep, there are most definitely other coaches that are much better at the Xs and Os then Cal. Wouldn't even try to debate that. But Xs and Os, or drawing up plays, becomes completely irrelevant if the team is checked out, or is not cohesive, or are too busy listening to their handlers, or cannot overcome their immaturity. To his credit, Cal is a master at doing that. I personally don't see any other coaches who would be able to handle that.

And yes, there probably are other coaches who would have had this team beat St. Peter's or Oakland. That doesn't prove anything. There are plenty of coaches who wouldn't have lost to Bucknell, Bradley, UNI, VCU, Wichita St, etc. Cal could have easily stepped in for Self and won those games. Doesn't mean anything one way or the other. One game sample sizes don't prove anything.

Wich St was a top 10ish team by the metrics, VCU was top 10ish by Torvik over the last several weeks of the season and dominated 5 tourney games. And the team that lost to Bradley was way younger than even this year's Kentucky team and far less talented. So no, I don't think Calipari's "easily" winning any of those games.

But I wasn't just referring to the tourney losses. I'm talking the 9-16 season, the NIT year, some of the sub-par regular seasons, etc.

It doesn't make sense to say that other coaches are much better at Xs and Os, yet wouldn't have better results with the same rosters. Or to claim that other coaches couldn't get them to play together. What's the reasoning behind that?
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