Schedule strength doesn't faze Calipari

Cats entered tournament ranked 31st

By Jerry Tipton / Herald-Leader Staff Writer

Jerry Tipton

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Besides inexperience, the factor most in question about Kentucky going into the NCAA Tournament involved strength of schedule. Because North Carolina, Connecticut and Louisville had down years, UK went into the tournament with its most modest regular-season strength of schedule rating in at least 15 years.

Something to fret about?

UK Coach John Calipari didn't think so. Heading into the tournament, he dismissed the notion that Kentucky will suffer from sticker shock when it faces a more talented opponent than it's used to seeing.

"I don't think it'll hurt us in any way," Calipari said of UK's rating as the 31st toughest schedule, according to collegerpi.com. "When you look at our schedule, you say, 'Wow. They played a good schedule. They took on all comers.' "

The numbers suggest you say, UK played a good schedule. But not the toughest.

Of the four No. 1 seeds, UK played a weaker schedule than Kansas, Duke or Syracuse, according to the Sagarin or collegerpi.com ratings.

Of the 65 teams in the NCAA Tournament, Kentucky's schedule rates almost squarely in the middle in terms of difficulty. Thirty-one teams played a tougher schedule. Thirty-three played a weaker schedule.

Significant?

"I doubt it," said Jay Bilas, a college basketball analyst for ESPN and ABC. "If they played North Carolina and Connecticut at their strongest, maybe they'd be 28-5. So what? They'd still be unbelievably good."

Bilas considered Kentucky the second-best team going into the NCAA Tournament.

NCAA Tournament history and this year's first round suggest there's no need for UK fans to worry.

Of the last 15 national champions, seven had played a worse-rated regular-season schedule than Kentucky's in 2009-10, according to collegerpi.com. Those seven were Kansas in 2008 (No. 63), Florida in 2007 (No. 46), Florida in 2006 (No. 75), Syracuse in 2003 (No. 38), Maryland in 2002 (No. 106), Michigan State in 2000 (No. 37) and UCLA in 1995 (No. 67).

In first-round games this season, teams with a tougher-rated regular-season schedule won 20 games and lost 12. Among Southeastern Conference teams, Kentucky and Tennessee won against opponents with weaker-rated schedules. Vanderbilt and Florida lost.

Vanderbilt's loss to Murray State marked the biggest difference in a game won by the team having played weaker competition. Murray State's schedule rated No. 287, according to Sagarin, and Vandy's No. 45.

Calipari suggested that the way opponents regularly play their best against UK makes a critical difference.

"Us, Kansas and a few other teams, you're going to get everybody's best shot," he said, "and it prepares you."

Fab Five or Kiddie Cats?

With a national championship, Kentucky might become the greatest young team in college basketball history. Or, perhaps, even a title would not allow UK to supplant Michigan's Fab Five as the team to think of when pondering precocious freshmen.

Chris Webber or DeMarcus Cousins? Jalen Rose or John Wall? Juwan Howard or Daniel Orton? Jimmy King or Eric Bledsoe?

Rose, a guard on the Fab Five, passed when asked which team was best.

"It's kind of a Catch-22," Rose said. "If you're me, there's no right answer. If I say the Fab Five, people feel I'm old, bitter and hating on Kentucky. If I say Kentucky, people blow me up on Twitter. 'What are you talking about?'

"I'm a fan of Coach Cal and their team. I'm rooting for them to do well."

The Fab Five advanced to the Final Four as freshmen and returned as sophomores. That's quite a standard.

But basketball aside, Rose rated the Fab Five ahead of UK's freshman-oriented team in terms of social significance.

"We became a cultural phenomenon," Rose said. "Bald heads. Black shoes. Black socks. Baggy shorts."

By comparison, the John Wall dance is pretty tepid stuff.

"Jimmy King and I were talking about this (last week)," Rose said. "In 1992, we were not loved and adored."

The Fab Five were different and, thus, threatening to some.

Rose enjoys how society changed since the Fab Five. He noted the popularity of Kentucky's team as represented by the omnipresence of the John Wall dance.