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  • Kentucky basketball notebook: Coach of the Year, looking forward and looking back

    By LARRY VAUGHT

    CLEVELAND — Even though Kentucky is unbeaten and has been ranked No. 1 every week this season, UK’s John Calipari was not named national coach of the year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. Instead, that honor went to Virginia’s Tony Bennett — the day after the Cavaliers were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament.

    West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said annually “there’s a bunch of gys that really deserve to win” coach of the year.

    “What Tony's done at Virginia is nothing short of remarkable. I have said I think with the job that John's done, it's not ... people think it's easy when you have all those players and it's hard because you have a whole bunch of guys that think they can take over a game and you have to get them to play together,” said Huggins here Wednesday.

    “What he's done with them defensively is terrific. I mean, they're really, really good defensively. But I thought John certainly could have won it but I can't say Tony shouldn't have, you know? There's a bunch of guys out there that have done a great job coaching.”

    Kentucky plays West Virginia Thursday night at about 9:45 in the NCAA Midwest Region. Calipari said winning or not winning an individual honors has nothing to do with UK’s goal.

    “This thing that we're doing here for players and coaches isn't about those individual awards. Every one of us has given up stuff so this thing can happen,” Calipari said. “Players have given up stuff and I'm not coaching for Coach of the Year honors.

    “I'm coaching to win ball games and I'm coaching to help players develop and have an opportunity to reach their dreams. If that other stuff happens, fine. If it doesn't, that's fine, too.”

    Looking back:A year ago it was Wichita State that was unbeaten and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament when it lost to Kentucky. Now it is UK that is 36-0 going into Thursday night’s game here with West Virginia with the winner taking on the Notre Dame-Wichita State survivor on Saturday for a berth in the Final Four.

    “The similarities between us and Kentucky? They wear shorts and tank tops and sneakers, and we do the same,” Wichita State coach Greg Marshall joked Wednesday. “I don't know what type hair gel Cal (John Calipari) uses, but he uses something, a little bit of product, I use a little product. His suits are probably a little more expensive.

    “I don't know if there's many similarities other than that. We have our own niche in college basketball, and they have their own niche. He does a wonderful job as well as anyone with their niche. We try to do the same with ours.”

    Calipari remembers the Wichita State game well.

    “That was a heck of a game. That was one of the best college basketball games I've been involved in. Shouldn't have happened that round. I mean, that game should have been a Final Four game or at least a regional final game, but it did,” Calipari said. “We were very fortunate to get out. They missed a shot at the buzzer to win the game.”

    Marshall said Kentucky has “done it very well” this year to stay unbaeten.

    “Obviously they had a couple of close calls and they were able to pull through. Mississippi had them on the ropes. Florida at one time had them on the ropes and I think there was one other game. And we had the Missouri State game last year at their place, which was a big deficit, and we were able to overcome it,” Marshall said.

    “ You have to just concentrate on the next game, what we were talking about earlier. We are worried about Notre Dame. They are worried about West Virginia. They're not worried about Wichita State, I can guarantee you that. They'll be worried about Notre Dame or Wichita State. That's the key, and have fun with it. We had fun with it, we really enjoyed it.

    “I don't know what type of fun Cal is having with his group. I'll tell you what, winning is a lot more fun than losing, so I think they're having quite a bit of good fun.”

    Familiar foes: Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein and Wichita State’s Ron Baker are both from small towns in Kansas and Marlene Stein and Ranae Baker, the two players’ mothers, were basketball teammates at St. Mary of the Plains College, a now-defunct school in Dodge City, Kan.

    Cauley-Stein grew up in Spearville and Baker in Scott City, 100 miles apart. They didn’t play play against other often, but did face off a few times in AAU games. Then last year they met in St. Louis in the NCAA Tournament when Kentucky knocked out the previously unbeaten Shockers.

    Baker has some distant cousins who live in Kentucky and his father was a Kentucky fan when Ron was growing up. Baker he said he was a fan of former UK star Jodie Meeks, but not a Kentucky like his dad who was a Tubby Smith fan.

    Remembering: Wichita State players have tried to forget last year’s loss to UK in the NCAA last year that ended their unbeaten season.

    “We are just focusing on this game right here,” Tekele Cotton said Wednesday as the Shockers get ready to play Notre Dame Thursday. “We lost to them last year and we know that, but we are focusing on this game. We can’t overlook this game. For myself, it took a while to get over thas loss cause it was a tough loss for us. You can look back and second guess all day, but we have just tried to focus on this year.”

    Sophomore John Robert Simon said that loss taught Wichita State the value of several things.

    “I think the biggest thing we learned from Kentucky is rebound. They kicked us on the glass last year and we only lost by two or three points. Rebounding and defending is huge and we learned to focus on those even more after that game and have carried that forward this year,” Simon said.
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