The Wildcats fulfilled everyone’s expectations and won a national championship, John Calipari’s first of his coaching career. Mike Lupica of the Daily News writes that Calipari is a champion thanks to the player of the year: Anthony Davis. Steve Serby of the Post wonders what’s next for Calipari? A call from the Knicks? Serby said that Calipari should decline because he wouldn’t be successful (perhaps lighting a fire). Andy Katz of ESPN already knows what Calipari wants to do next: “I would like to coach an undefeated team, before I’m done with this. Why? Because it can’t be done, so let’s chase that.” Mike Vaccaro of the Post writes about Anthony Davis and his horrible shooting night yet excellent overall game in last night’s championship affair.
I could’ve linked to a hundred different articles this morning but I thought let’s just keep it to the faithful here in New York who I’m sure had one eye glued on to the television set thanks to Coach Calipari who has often been brought up as a candidate to become the next head coach of the Knicks. Its interesting because outside of New York, the Knick job is not a hot commodity and not something that coaches are hurdling over each other to get. Its a terrible work environment run by a tyrant of a boss who would rather run his own ship and thus undermining every person he hires. In my opinion, the GM is probably the worst job but 1A would have to be coach because the GM and coach are joined at the hip in this affair and thus if your owner is pulling rank and making basketball decisions and superseding the plan you have set in place, something discussed and OK’d by the coach, then it throws everything out of whack and most of the time the coach must recoup and rally and try to go about things in a different way.
Successful college coaches don’t make good NBA coaches. Its just fact. Those are two different animals and you are dealing with two different beasts. In the collegiate level you have players aspiring to be pros and paid. In the pros you have 20 year old grown men who no longer have to feel insecure about themselves. They have their money so there is no need for them to listen or conform to the coach. Mind you those that think like that are a minority but the feeling is there that once players get paid that big contract, they feel as though they have accomplished their goal. They are rich beyond their wildest dreams and now can do whatever they would like. Of course paying collegiate players would solve SOME of that though I doubt the payscale would ever get that crazy. The point is, collegiate coaches still hold some leverage over their players. The carrot is still in front of the donkey if you will. I think the Knicks should keep Mike Woodson. It appears as though his team will be overcome by injuries but hey that’s not my decision and it would not surprise me at all to see them switch it all up if it means getting a high profile coach that would help them sell more seats.
But back to college, this Kentucky team had six pro-ready prospects and for the won and done team, they were certainly all looking at first round profile talent. Kansas also has their own prospect heavy team but nothing to match Kentucky’s who’s team Lupica claimed to be its best. EVER. Which is a major accomplishment if you consider their history. Davis and Kidd Gilchrist are still, in my opinion, the only two impact guys I saw on the floor. As much as I love Thomas Robinson, he’s always going to be a secondary/role player because his post game has no polish. He’s a work in progress but his work ethic will help him in the long run. I think Davis could walk on to an NBA team now and help. His wingspan is ridiculous and his ability to get rebounds and block shots are all instinct and those are the things that can’t be taught. When you have a skill set that comes naturally you’re so far ahead of the rest of the players that its almost unfair. Davis needs to see his body fill out and if he wants to keep the unibrow alive (it may be a Samson-like story where if he shaves it off he loses his wingspan) like Michael Strahan kept that gap in his tooth then so be it. I’m cool with a guy who is comfortable in his own skin.
As promised yesterday, here is your Yankee filled post. Michael Feinsand of the Daily News writes about the Yankee starting rotation and how the Michael Pineda question helped answer a more important one prior to Opening Day. Joel Sherman of the Post writes about the Matt Cain deal putting more pressure on the future Yankee rotation to start rounding into form and seeing results. Finally Wallace Mathews of ESPNNY talks about five key questions surrounding the Yanks prior to Opening Day.
As usual, a problem somehow shifts itself into an advantage for the Yankees. Michael Pineda’s elbow soreness allows the Yankees to use the first month of the season as an extended spring training competition of sorts between Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia. In a perfect world, the Yankees would LOVE for Hughes and Nova to lay claim to the final two spots in the rotation. Sabathia and Kuroda have their spots secured and given that the Yankees traded their best prospect for him, Pineda’s spot is also firm. But his decreasing velocity and his inability still to produce a secondary pitch scares the front office and makes them wonder if they truly knew what they were getting themselves into. Pineda, over the first half of last season looked like an up and coming anchor to the Mariner rotation but like most rookies, flamed out in the second half. You can attribute that to the grind of a 162 game season and never having pitched as many innings as he did, against major league competition. But Pineda’s continued struggles this spring and now his shoulder tendinitis has to worry Yankee officials and have them investigate whether this was an issue prior to him coming here although that would mean they ignored the medical which would have shown any damage to any bones.
Sherman’s article interests me because of two things. One, Matt Cain’s deal does indicate the abject fear that even big market teams have on seeing their elite talent go into the open market. Cain’s contract is the highest ever for a right handed pitcher and only drives up the price for one, Cole Hamels who is only 10 months older. Homegrown pitching talent is so hard to find these days and contracts given to guys like this and Joey Votto who got a 10 year $225 million deal himself, go to show you that teams are willing to open up wallets that have been strapped together with masking tape if it can secure their own talent. Teams like the Rays who do so early on in a player’s career because of their ability to identify burgeoning talent and a superstar in the waiting, have a natural advantage but teams like the Yankees who once upon a time had a policy of let’s wait until free agency hits no longer have that luxury. The second point that Sherman made is that the market now is filled with big market teams. The new Dodger contingent would LOVE to make a splash and surround Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp with other all stars especially guys like Cole Hamels (So-Cal product). The Dodger organization is the second most legendary franchise in all of baseball next to the yankees and now have an ownership team that will spend. There are the Texas Rangers who are becoming a major force. Detroit has shown its willingness to spend. Met fans hope that now, with the Madoff trail filed away, they will get back to their greedy spending habits. Its no longer a world that the Yankees can take for granted. Hal Steinbrenner has be resistant to that mode of spending and has made it a point to argue that the Yankees will cut their spending and spend more wisely. Which to any Yankee fan is like a little rich kid hearing that their trust fund just got reduced by a couple million. Its disastrous.
In my mind, Ivan Nova is going to be a good number three starter and even more hope is that Banuelos gets his command together. Betances is still a work and probably another year away from getting a September or mid season call-up. Banuelos should be able to force the Yankee hand this year. Allowing them to have a deep rotation filled with young power arms which of course is a luxury. So it should be interesting to see how the Yankees bring him up. Do they bring him up based on need or do they also follow the Super 2 clock which allows them to delay his free agency which would be incredible considering their reputation and it would go a long way towards showing others that the yankees are serious about curbing their spending. Of course we’ll have to see it to believe it but rest assured it will be interesting to see how the Yankees go about it if those three in the bottom half of the rotation are struggling and Pineda continues to struggle and Banuelos is tearing up Triple A. Should be interesting indeed.
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