Tempering Great Expectations: Do We Need Coaching From Calipari?

Should youthful exuberance be tempered with some reality and history lessons for the Big Blue Nation? We might want to consider the fact that this group of Wildcats has not had a really harrowing experience such as this month's tortuous schedule will give them as well as the SEC Tourney and NCAA Tourney lying ahead.

Oh, they are playing well. Maybe too well too quickly, but that is all fodder for the talking heads. "Peaking" at the right time is always desired, but how do we really know if this team has peaked? Factors and stats tell the tale of a team finding itself as the season has progressed, but along the way we had to lose a few parts temporarily. Terrence Jones had to rebound from injury and self-inflicted difficulties as he got his head right and brought his game attitude roaring back to life, just in time to make a few "experts" eat their words as they began to plant the seeds of doubt about his true place with this team.

Marquis Teague has not struggled per se, as much as he has had to feel his way through trying to lead a group of players whos accomplishments and abilities are even more than his own in some ways, and widely ranging and literally bursting at the seams to get out in others. He needed to learn to lead without taking over. He needed to learn how to distribute the ball to 6 places a game and keep everyone happy and involved. His results have been nothing short of spectacular though as the Cats have 5 players averaging double figures, and the sixth is not far from it.

Add to that Kyle Wiltjer's emergence as a lanky and clumsy wingman in a center's body, and Coach Calipari dragging and screaming all along the way to keep them focused and pushing harder and harder, and there is the possibility that they either lose that focus for a short period of time, or they run into a buzzsaw one night and cannot get themselves over the top and get a win pulled out when they really don't play well enough to earn it.

This team is hopelessly and amazingly talented. I don't care if it's Ohio State, Syracuse, or whomever. No one is more talented than the Cats. Calipari has once again assembled a cast of trained mercenaries in the world of college basketball, and I don't mean that in a bad way. These young men understand their roles and they are of singular mind and purpose in executing what they have come to do. From Marquis throwing a lob to Anthony Davis, who with his band of brothers, could end up changing a decades-old addage that winning requires experience, to a myth of epic proportions and pave the way for a new formula to winning it all, to Darius Miller and Doron Lamb simply destroying the morale of a team that thinks they are hanging with Kentucky one minute, and find themselves down by 15 two minutes later, courtesy of a barrage of three point shots. But is the talent, combined with the coaching, combined with all of the stars aligning at once to bring this about enough to prevent this team from making a mistake down the line somewhere? Probably not, Big Blue Nation. And as much as we might want it to be, it might not happen. #8 might elude us once again. We might not be dancing in the streets of New Orleans in early April, I do not know. But I do know that it has been some ride so far, and I do love to ride.

Coach Cal probably has a list of things he can cite as reasons to be worried about what happens over the next few weeks. He could tell us everything that was wrong about the Sportscenter highlights we all watched over the last few days, and he could probably show us the mistakes being made every trip down the court by this team. The problem for the rest of the world of college basketball is that as of right now, they cannot. At this point, Kentucky is 2 pts from perfection. One basket from a destiny reserved for those who acheive pseudo-godhood status. And they may very well not taste defeat again this season. But our expectations must be tempered with reality. Then again, they may change reality this year as well.