LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- This time of year, the sports world slows down, and your brain starts drifting toward silly, time-wasting questions.
I mean, watching NFL schedule release videos (check out those of the Chicago Bears, Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, in particular), and the NBA playoffs is fun but isn't going to really generate much audience in the Louisville market.
So you wind up with a column from Rick Bozich talking about Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops on the hot seat (he is). Or you might see me milking two days' worth of stuff out of a single Mark Pope press conference (I will).
So here's what I landed on this morning: Of all the coaches with local ties, who actually had the most rewarding first season?
Who I wound up with might surprise you.
There's no question, Pat Kelsey's first season was a great one. There could be no reasonable expectation that he would walk in here from Charleston and win ACC Coach of the Year right out of the box. Particularly at a program that won 12 games the prior two seasons. On top of that, he brought in good guys who not only played team basketball but embraced the mission of bringing Louisville basketball back.
Every button he pressed was the right one. It almost leaves you wondering how people will react when he finally pushes a wrong one — which everybody does. The only knock on his season was its ending. You'd like to have seen Louisville be more competitive in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But even that, the Cardinals got a bad break with the seeding. And injuries and playing guys a ton of minutes down the stretch had taken a toll.
The same was true for Mark Pope at Kentucky. He probably didn't get enough credit for the job he did navigating all of his team's injury issues last season. He didn't have a first-round draft pick on that roster, playing in the best conference in the country. Yet Kentucky, when the final exam came, still proceeded into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
And then you have Rick Pitino. The former Louisville and Kentucky coach was the toast of college basketball entering the postseason, having won Big East Coach of the Year and most major National Coach of the Year honors. While many of his contemporaries — Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim — have opted out, he is just gaining strength.
Unfortunately, he ran into John Calipari.
And the more I think about it, the more I think Calipari had the most rewarding year of them all. Hear me out. Arkansas struggled. It was plagued by injuries. He never had his full roster — even if (as usual) the guys he had left were still among the best players in America.
But aside from Pitino's wins over UConn, maybe, did any coach have two bigger moments than Calipari?
When he brought Arkansas into Rupp Arena in February, his team was trending to miss the NCAA Tournament. When he left, he had a signature 10-point win over his old school, and some of his swag back. He not only got the Hogs to the NCAA Tournament, but bounced Bill Self in the first round and then dismissed Pitino in an epic, cage match of a second-round game.
He nearly pulled off an upset of Texas Tech in the Sweet 16, on top of it.
Nobody had more moments to savor than Calipari (and you can take this to the bank: he savored them). If you don't win it all, isn't it the moments that you remember the most?
No doubt, everybody has their own thoughts. These are just mine over some coffee here in the middle of May. Yours are welcome.
QUICK SIPS
- In case you missed it, Justin Thomas is playing some of his best golf of the past several years heading into the PGA Championship, which begins today in Charlotte. My update on where he stands.
- I'm not in love with the wall-to-wall nature of the NFL offseason but I do appreciate the creativity that goes into the schedule release videos put together by each team. They understand the assignment in sports — to make it fun. USA Today has a good recap of each team's effort here.
THE LAST DROP
Donovan Mitchell has experienced a good bit of playoff frustration in his NBA career. His teams have never failed to make the playoffs but also have never advanced beyond the second round. I'm a believer that he will experience a breakthrough. But until then consider this. Mitchell is averaging 28.3 points per game in the postseason for his career. Only six NBA players have averaged more:
- Michael Jordan: 33.45
- Luka Doncic: 30.85
- Allen Iverson: 28.73
- Kevin Durant: 29.32
- Jerry West: 29.13
- Lebron James: 28.39
Not bad company. (By the way, Mitchell can't get comfortable in that spot. The three players directly behind him – Devin Booker, Nikola Jokić and Anthony Edwards.)
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