LITTLE ROCK — If the Kentucky Wildcats don’t win the NCAA national championship, it is John Calipari’s fault.
To be fair, if they do, he should get most of the credit.
Certainly, though, if they don’t sweep by Louisville and whomever Monday night and get rained on with confetti after falling on the floor in a dogpile of joy at the Superdome in New Orleans, it was because of coaching.
If they are crying when “One Shining Moment” plays instead of laughing and pulling on NCAA-supplied hats and T-shirts, it was coaching.
Kentucky is the best team in the Final Four.
With six NBA first-round picks, including national Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year Anthony Davis, the Wildcats could perhaps beat the Charlotte Bobcats in one game.
Calipari has assembled the longest, most athletic team in the country and, even more amazingly, has those athletes playing like a team.
If there are any prima donnas on this highly decorated team, it hasn’t shown so far.
They play their individual games as a team, and that’s hard to accomplish without leadership on and off the floor.
Someday, the names of Anthony Davis, Doron Lamb, Terrence Jones, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marquis Teague, Darris Miller, Kyle Wiltjer and others should hang on a banner above the throng in Rupp Arena.
The Wildcats have an inside and outside game on offense and play great defense.
Three of the five starters have more assists than turnovers and the other two are close. The top six players all average at least 10 points per game.
Obviously, being that good, that unselfish and that focused is supposed to mean good things.
Playing that hard and being that balanced is supposed to mean you are the best and the others the rest.
They avenged their 73-72 loss to Indiana with a 102-90 victory in the Sweet 16 and the only other team to beat them, Vanderbilt, 71-64 in the SEC Tournament championship, was beaten by them twice during the regular season.
Teams like Louisville have tried to slow them down, make the game ugly and even outrun them.
All strategies have failed because this team, and its coach, adjusts quickly and efficiently.
The Wildcats trailed Mississippi State by 13 points at the half in Starkville, Miss., but won 73-64, and it would have been worse if time hadn’t run out.
So the Wildcats should be favored to win and to move into second on the all-time list for championship game appearances, one more than Duke and one behind UCLA.
They should win their eighth national championship and trail UCLA by just three for the most ever.
All the pieces to the puzzle are in place and they were put there by Calipari, who says he doesn’t like one-and-done players but takes all he can get.
Surely he learned from the 2008 championship game, when his Memphis team led Kansas by 10 but he failed to call a single timeout while the Jayhawks rallied to tie it and send it to overtime.
Granted, the Tigers missed four of their last five free throws.
Memphis had set a NCAA record with 38 victories but had to vacate the entire season, including the Final Four. But Calipari not taking a timeout down the stretch has not been forgotten.
If Kentucky wins the national championship Monday night — and it should — it will be 38-2, and unless the NCAA finds something else wrong with a Caliparirecruited team, he will have the record again.
This is a handpicked team. It has been trained for these two games since last October.
No one has really tested or bested the Wildcats this season. They should go down in the Kentucky history book as the best team ever.
It is all on Calipari to win or lose.
Sports, Pages 17 on 03/30/2012