2011 Kentuckian of the Year: John Calipari

As you can see from our list of Honorable Mentions, this was quite a year in Kentucky. But in the Commonwealth itself, 2011 will probably be most remembered as the year that our beloved Wildcats broke a twelve-year drought and returned to the Final Four. It wasn't easy. The Cats had to survive a 59-57 battle against Princeton just to get out of the first round. Then they had to beat a rugged West Virginia team featuring some of the same players that had eliminated John Wall and co., an Ohio State team ranked number one in the country, and a red-hot North Carolina team who had already beaten them during the regular season. And they had to do all of this without the NBA talent who was supposed to be their starting center, as the NCAA declared Enes Kanter ineligible. They had to do it without any of the freshmen from their 2009-10 team that went 35-3, because all those guys went to the NBA. And they had to do it despite six heartbreaking road losses in conference play, which stuck them with a number four seed.

The coach who led Kentucky through all of these obstacles -- who has in fact restored Kentucky's proudest possession back to its usual position of national honor -- is the 2011 Kentuckian of the Year, John Calipari. Kentuckians first became familiar with Calipari when we battled his over-achieving UMass teams back in the 1990's. These days, for reasons that I don't fully understand, a lot of folks in the national media act as though Calipari is primarily a recruiter who just rolls out the ball at game time. But last season, Calipari showed that he is still very much the hands-on coach who built UMass into a power almost twenty years ago. He took Josh Harrellson, who I couldn't see ever playing more than ten minutes a game, and turned him into an NBA draftee. He took DeAndre Liggins, who I thought was the single stupidest player in UK history, and put him in the NBA. His game plans for Ohio State, North Carolina, and UConn were all masterful, and if the Cats could have made a few more free throws, he would have taken his freshman-laden squad all the way to the title.

Calipari did all of this while under the sort of scrutiny that broke veteran coaches like Eddie Sutton and Billy Gillespie. The Kentucky job was effectively created by Rupp, and Rupp was a man with a vast ego and an enormous desire for publicity. To fill his shoes, you have to want fame and fortune, and you have to care about basketball even more than the fans do. Calipari fits the bill on all counts. He is 75-13 at UK since taking over a team that didn't even make the NCAA's the year before he arrived. He is 41-0 at Rupp Arena. He has two SEC tournament titles and a Final Four banner.

Some people complain that college coaches make too much money. And some have pointed to the fact that Calipari makes roughly $4 million/year for coaching the Wildcats. But if you think about it, that comes to only about $1/year for everyone in the state -- not even counting those of us in the Kentucky diaspora who support the Cats from afar. To me, when you consider how much happiness Calipari has brought to all of us in the last few years, he's an incredible bargain.

Of course, Calipari still hasn't won the national title. We will hope that particular gap in his resume is filled this season. But given how much he's already done for the Commonwealth, he is our choice for the 2011 Kentuckian of the Year.