John Calipari – photo by Tammie Brown | East KY Media
There are some promises you just can't keep. For John Calipari, that seemed to be the use of a zone defense.
For most of Coach Cal's career, he's won with tough-nosed, man-to-man defense, so there's never really been a reason to change course. He'd talked about using a zone with this lengthy team and even teased it by using it in a couple of games, but he had never really gone to it with the outcome on the line.
Until Saturday.
Struggling to slow Missouri's high-scoring back court, Calipari added a much-needed wrinkle to his defense on Saturday with a 2-3 zone. It turned out to be just what the doctor ordered in Kentucky's 84-79 victory over Missouri, temporarily slowing down Jabari Brown and Jordan Clarkson late in the first half and allowing UK to build a 10-point halftime lead.
Walter Cornett, of Glendale, Kentucky, is the owner and operator of Walter's Wildcat World. He founded WildcatWorld.com in 1998 making it one of the oldest Kentucky basketball fan sites in operation today.
