Interesting point that has quite a bit of truth in it. I don't think Bazz should get ALL the credit for the title, but I don't think KO had this incredible "pure" coaching run that took us to the title. I think he did a wonderful job motivating our players to play stifling defense (Boat), and had an offense that enabled our three scorers to have some freedom within the half court. But was there really something "innovative" that he did to "outcoach" his contemporaries? Doubling Payne is not an amazing coaching move, imo. It's common sense. We got out big against Kentucky by playing our game and Calipari being stubborn and sticking with his automatic switching on defense. Once DD went out of that game and Calipari made some adjustments, it was an even game with Kentucky having a few chances to take the lead late. Had we lost that game, what would KOs reputation be then? Squandering a 15 point lead in the national championship game... I don't know, I always felt like KO got too much credit in the "outcoached" hall of fame coaches idea when really we had two guards who were simply tougher than everyone else and in particular, one guard, Boat who was going to completely eliminate the opposing teams point guard. KO motivated him to become that, but Boat was the one who took it to the next level. KO can recruit, we know that at this point. He's still evolving as a coach. His substitution patterns, mediocre half court offense, and questionable game management techniques (timeouts) do not put him at the level that many here thought he was. He very well may get there, but he's still very much a work in progress.
