Kentucky doesn't get its money's worth out of Calipari

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- When you sell your soul, as Kentucky did to get John Calipari, there are supposed to be riches and fame and rainbows, not an embarrassing butt whipping with the Final Four on the line.

John Calipari could not keep his team from imploding. (US Presswire)

It's not just that Kentucky lost to West Virginia 73-66. It's how the Wildcats lost: whining, complaining, gyrating, crying, flailing and temper tantrum-ing over almost every call the game officials made. One outburst led to a technical foul. They seemed more obsessed over officiating than they were about playing ball.

At one point John Wall was so angry over calls he had to be calmed by DeMarcus Cousins, which is like man biting dog.

The anger soon turned to outright shock as West Virginia shut down Kentucky's shooters and as the Mountaineers made their own baskets. Kentucky was 0 for 20 at one point in the game from 3-point range.

After shock came the outright refusal to admit that the Wildcats actually lost. A good 20 minutes afterward, Wildcat players sat at their lockers with towels draped over their heads. Some had tears in their eyes while others stubbornly refused to give the Mountaineers credit.

"I feel like we beat ourselves more then they beat us," said guard Ramon Harris. He added: "I still think we're the best team in the country, hands down."

At no point in this game did they look it.

This is what happens when blue collar meets white collar. One team, the Mountaineers, played gritty and earthy basketball, relying mostly on calm nerves and defensive rigor. The other, the tradition rich one-and-doners, waited for a bailout. It never came.

The Final Four may be the Final Snore but the Mountaineers are still a great story. Butler will be all Cinderella-y but the Mountaineers should now earn the mantle as America's blue-collar darlings after what can be argued is the most important win in school history.

"Forty-nine states picked us to lose," said West Virginia's Da'Sean Butler. "Obviously we wanted to make everybody upset. We went out there and played our game. We grinded it out. We won. I knew we were going to win ... It was a matter of how we were going to do it." It'll be stated and written that this isn't such a momentous upset since West Virginia is a two seed and Kentucky a one. Yet let's not forget that Wildcat players might go first and second in the next NBA Draft. West Virginia is no slouch but Kentucky is clearly the most physically gifted team in the tournament and they were completely and utterly outclassed. The score doesn't indicate how badly they were beaten.

If you can't see that, you don't know basketball.

In the end, this game came down to an undeniable fact. Quite simply, Bob Huggins outsmarted and out-coached his good friend Calipari. It's an embarrassing truth but it's a truth and this isn't the first time. Huggins is 8-1 all-time versus Calipari. When Huggins was at Cincinnati, he was 2-0 versus Calipari's Massachusetts teams and 5-1 versus Calipari's Memphis teams.

Huggins knew that Kentucky's inside size would be highly problematic so a team that normally runs a more patient offense took more outside shots.

The strategy seemed to totally backfire early. Kentucky took a 16-9 lead because West Virginia couldn't make a basket, going 0 for 16 on two-point shot attempts in the first half.

But Huggins didn't panic and as Kentucky began to self-annihilate, the West Virginia shots started to fall. And fall. And fall. The Mountaineers' eight first-half threes were a season high for the opening 20 minutes.

When Butler got going the entire West Virginia team followed. That Kentucky lead evaporated and the Mountaineers led by two at halftime. Butler finished with 18 points and guard Joe Mazzulla had a career-high 17. The latter destroyed Kentucky by making several easy layups right down the heart of that Wildcats defense.

What did Calipari do to energize his team and slow West Virginia? Nothing. While Rome, Ky., burned, Calipari fiddled. Again, the Wildcats started 0 for 20 from 3-point range, which begs the question why didn't Calipari have the Wildcats go inside and use their size advantage with Cousins once the shooting went cold? It was a huge tactical error.

Kentucky never figured out West Virginia's 1-3-1 zone and as a result the Mountaineers stayed in it nearly the entire game. "The 1-3-1 bothered us," Calipari said. "We tried different things and it bothered us more than I thought it would."

Calipari also did nothing to refocus the Wildcats from officiating to the game itself. These are the reasons why Kentucky got Calipari. But he did zippo. Not a doggone thing.

The Wildcats have three players who will probably declare for next season's NBA Draft. Wall and Cousins are definitely goners. That is an unbelievable amount of talent.

And what do Calipari and Kentucky have to show for it?

They'll be watching the Final Four on television just like the rest of us.