Tag: John Calipari

Boxscore and Game Notes: Kentucky vs. Connecticut

Go here for boxscore. — Kentucky finishes its season at 29-9 on the season. Connecticut improves to 31-9. — The Wildcats are 1-3 all-time against Connecticut and 0-2 against the Huskies in the NCAA Tournament. — UK drops to 105-46 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 7-3 in national semifinal games. — John Calipari is…

For Calhoun and Calipari, It’s The Frigid Four

Most of all, I remember the empty orange chair.  Fifteen years have come and gone. Fifteen Roads to fifteen Final Fours. Fifteen shining moments. But that day at the Basketball Hall of Fame there was only the vacant chair.  I was writing then for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, the closest newspaper to the University of…

From boys to men: At the molding of Calipari, Wildcats grew up

John Calipari has been revered as a recruiter, praised as a motivator and lauded for his ability to put kids in the NBA.  Three Final Four appearances and one startling one-month transformation later, maybe it’s due time the Kentucky coach gets the respect for what he really is first and foremost – a really good…

It happened on this day in Kentucky basketball history…

Bill Keightley Bill Keightley passed away on this day 3 years ago.  Here’s a great tribute to Mr. Wildcat.   Also, John Calipari announced on this day, two year ago, he had accepted the job as the head coach at the University of Kentucky.

Calipari eyes elusive national championship

John Calipari, Josh Harrellson

As head coach John Calipari prepares for a historic third Final Four, his first with Kentucky, he has his blinders on and is only looking forward.  If there is one thing he’s learned from his two previous Final Four appearances with Massachusetts in 1996 and Memphis in 2008, and even last year’s knockout in the…

What the world saw was a whole new DeAndre Liggins

DeAndre Liggins did not play in any of the Kentucky Wildcat’s first nine games last year.  He had been a regular player on Coach Billy Gillispie’s 2008-2009 Wildcat team, but obviously something just wasn’t the way new coach John Calipari wanted.  No information was given out by Calipari to explain the lack of playing time…

Calipari’s brilliance has Kentucky in Final Four

John Calipari

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not now.  Maybe last season, when John Calipari had a record five first-round NBA draft picks on his roster. Or a year from now, when he’ll welcome in the nation’s top recruiting class (again) to Lexington.But this was supposed to be a year just to tread water, a bridge campaign…

Deandre Liggins helps shoot Kentucky into Final Four

Deandre Liggins

Maybe now, everyone understands why Kentucky coach John Calipari kept DeAndre Liggins around.  The quiet, unassuming junior forward from Chicago has never been the star, even under former coach Billy Gillispie. Most critics wondered where he would fit into Calipari’s system, one that seems to rely so heavily on one-and-done freshman phenoms.  It turns out…