Coaches Gone....

Daily Onions has been watching lots of hoops lately (obviously), and it seems like the last few days we've seen more and more coaches absolutely BLOW UP on their players on the sideline. We're talkin' in your face, dropping F-bombs, dirty looks...ya know, what you would do to someone that did something unlawful...not make a mistake on the basketball court. With all the coaches gone wild incidents lately, it got us thinking, what else are coaches doing this year?

Coaches Gone....

....Wild The leaders in the clubhouse for this one are John Calipari at Kentucky, who had to apologize publicly for cursing out (view the video from 4:45 - 5:00) freshman Terrence Jones in the final minutes of UK's loss on Tuesday at Alabama. Mike Rice of Rutgers doesn't care if you are one of his players or an official, he's going to give you EVERYTHING he's got, for pretty much the entire game.  Not sure how that guy (or his players, for that matter) survives. K-State's Frank Martin can get you two ways, with his screaming and with his scowl. If you had a nickel for every time Frank Martin looked like the scariest man on earth, you'd be rich.

Huggins' casual look helps him get low (Reuters)

....Casual Bob Huggins of West Virginia has perfected the black pants with the black pullover windbreaker look over the last few years. Um, you know West Virginia's colors are Blue and Gold, right? Ok, just checking. Meanwhile, Pat Knight at Texas Texas goes with just a polo shirt, or spruces things up with the polo shirt/sweater vest combo.  I guess when you father is known for his sweater, you need to come up with your own thing.

....Young During Big E Hoops weekend, we saw Bob Morris's Andy Toole (30) roam the sidelines as the youngest coach in Division 1 Basketball. More well-known coaches include Josh Pastner (31) at Memphis, Brad Stevens (34) at Butler, and Jeff Chapel (of Duke fame) at Oklahoma (35). For those of you scoring at home, Jim Boeheim is a spring chicken at 66 years young.

....Lazy This tends to happen at the end of games and more so in the NBA then in the college game. Tie game, 10 seconds left, coach calls timeout to draw up a play.  The play consists of getting the ball to your scorer, clearing out and letting them take a few dribbles, pull up from 15 feet and shoot a fall away jumper with a hand in their face. That's the best you could come up with?? At least give me a ball screen.

Dress for success Jay Wright (Getty)

.....Fancy Which goes to the best dressed man in college basketball, Jay Wright. What is Jay Wright better at doing - recruiting or picking out suits? I say toss-up. Known to have top recruiting classes each season, Wright consistently gets talent from NYC, Philadelphia and NJ. He also consistently rocks three-piece suits and pocket squares. The one of the more unbelievable things about Wright's suits/coaching, is that he never loses the jacket, heck, he never unbuttons the thing. That is impressive. Let's hope the 30,000 plus in the Carrier Dome tomorrow afternoon make things a bit uncomfortable for Mr. Wright, and maybe he has to loosen the tie. Don't bet on it (the tie loosening, that is).

Kentucky Had a Little Lamb

Lamb is shooting 55% from 3 (Getty)

And he just dropped a bomb on Winthrop yesterday. Doron Lamb set the Kentucky record for points by a freshman with his 32 point performance. Lamb is one of three freshman that start for the Wildcats this year, and was probably the least heralded of the three coming into the season. Daily Onions has highlighted Terrence Jones previously, who has put up a measly 18 ppg and 9.5 rpg average eleven games into his college career, including five double-doubles (he's no Rick Jackson though). The other young gun is guard Brandon Knight, who was considered one of the best in recruiting class of 2010.

Kentucky depending on freshmen....sounds familiar.  And for that reason, Daily Onions is staying away. Last year, I was adamantly against Kentucky going far in the tournament. I was a huge John Wall fan, but wouldn't trust DaMarcus Cousins as far as I could throw him (maybe not the best analogy, since Cousins is a house...but you get the point).  So I stayed away, and the the Wildkits, a team ranked #1 for most of the season, were booted from the tourney by West Virginia in the Elite 8.

This year, I see the same. Next year, I see the same. For the third straight time, coach John Calipari (another member of the Daily Onions Don't Trust List) has the top rated recruiting class coming in next year. Odds that Jones, Knight and Lamb are all in Lexington next year are the same odds that (Alert: Non-basketball reference) Matt Dodge's family is inviting Tom Coughlin over for Christmas dinner. Jones and Knight are predicted to be Top 10 picks in June's NBA Draft.

Still smiling despite NCAA violations in his past (AP)

So is that what Calipari has made Kentucky? A one and done school.  Let's give it a shot with a team that depends on 70% of its productivity to come from freshmen. We don't win this year - try it again next year with a predominantly different cast of characters.  I guess so. Remember, at last year's NBA Draft, where five Kentucky players were drafted in the first round, Calipari said it was the best day in UK basketball history. Got it.

Well, maybe he "misremembers" the real history of the Kentucky basketball program. Ya know, some guy named Adolph Rupp, winningest program in college basketball history, 7 national championships, that kind of stuff.

Sometimes I wonder what Calipari's goal is. Prepare kids for the NBA, or win college titles? Two teams (UMass and Memphis) he's taken to the Final 4 have had those records erased from the record books for NCAA violations. I'm guessing maybe it is indeed prepping them for the next level. Is that wrong, not necessarily. In my opinion though, some of Coach Cal has done disrespects the college game, and the Kentucky faithful deserve better than that.