Perspective

Clipped from an article:

quote:

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The four-time SEC Coach of the Year (Bruce Pearl) is one of eight league head coaches to take a school to two-or-more NCAA Final Fours behind Adolph Rupp (6), Billy Donovan (4), John Calipari (4), Joe B. Hall (3), Rick Pitino (3), Nolan Richardson (3) and Dale Brown (2).

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Dale Brown lost his F4 games by 22 and 11. This is a guy who had Shaq on his teams. He did this in 15 seasons.

Nolan Richardson lost the first game in one, then went 1-1 in title games. It took him 17 seasons to make 3 F4's.

Pitino went three times over 7 seasons, losing a semi, then went 1-1 in title games.

Joe B Hall also went three times over 13 seasons, making the title game 2x and going 1-1 in them. He was a Rupp player, assistant, and chosen successor.

Calipari went 4 times, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015 over 15 seasons at UK.

Billy Donovan had a full rebuild on his hands at UF, though not to the degree BP faced at AU. UF had been to the F4 only two years prior. Donovan made a F4 and lost in the title game only four years in, but then had five straight years of losing to lower seeds and exiting early before Donovan's back to back titles with a team that returned completely intact (something that probably won't ever happen again) with the express purpose of repeating as NC's. Once BD got to the F4, he tended to win it, but they had a number of years of losing to lower seeds. Donovan was at UF 19 years.

You know the story on Rupp of course. The point is going to TWO Final Fours is rare for non-Kentucky coaches in the SEC. Only Donovan has done more than BP at a school with a similar history. Donovan was able to build faster in an era where his elite recruiting classes stayed 3 years or longer.

We've been to two F4s with BP in 10 seasons and are a blatant missed call (the VA double dribble of course) and some unfortunate injuries away from title game appearances, with a high likelihood of winning both of them had we gotten there. I can't recall another top team that went this far with critical player injuries. I didn't see much if any tape or braces in the games I watched this year outside of what was on our guys.

Where we're at now is not common outside of UK in terms of SEC. Outside the SEC, there aren't that many more who have done it, and only 13 coaches have made 3 F4's in the entire history of the F4. Enjoy the ride, and hope we maintain things after BP retires.