Some people like seeing history made, others don't. I tend to be one of those kind of people like seeing history made. Sports fans like history, but usually when it only applies to their team in a positive way. I mean, nobody likes seeing their team make history for having the longest losing streak or for fewest points in a game. Fans want to see their teams make history for going undefeated or winning the most championships. Well, Kentucky fans had visions of winning another college basketball championship while going undefeated at the same time. Some times the best laid plans get wrecked by something that you may not have seen coming.
Kentucky came into the year as one of most heralded teams in recent history with their collection of McDonald's All-Americans, the length, and the possibility that some mentioned even before the team played a single minute on the floor in an actual game. For young players, that is a lot of hype to live up to. Do you young players pay attention to the hype? Of course they do. Any player that tells you differently is lying to you. To his credit, John Calipari has figured out how to manage the collection of talent he has amassed for the Wildcats. People may hate on Calipari, but he gets the talent, and somehow, someway, he manages to coach these kids up to get them to perform at a extremely high level.
History seemed to on course for the Wildcats. They played to the strengths and kept winning no matter the circumstance. They had length more than anybody else, which helped them on the boards, blocking shots, and scoring because they could just over the smaller player. There was a game or two that Kentucky's smallest starter was bigger than the other teams tallest player. That is some serious height advantage to have going into most, if not all, games.
Watching Kentucky multiple times, a couple of things stood out to me. One, the lack of shooters. Besides Aaron Harrison, I didn't really see a guy that could stick a jumper on a consistent basis. They had so much size they usually could dominate in the paint, but unlike, a Wisconsin type of team, who has shooters everywhere, didn't have that luxury and I think that was one of the reasons they came up short in the Final Four.
The other aspect that I saw was that they were not a particular good free throw shooting team. The one thing that I always look at is free throw percentage as a team. That is something that decides/finishes off teams in the last few minutes of a game. If a team knows they can't foul because it's fruitless in terms of keeping the other team off the scoreboard, then you have a weapon you can count on in crucial situations.
At the end of the day, Kentucky didn't make plays when they had to and thus, they are sitting at home watching Duke win the title that they thought they would be winning. Calipari will have another crop of young stud players, but he would be wise to recruit some kids who are shooters and can shoot a good percentage at the free throw line.
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