Coach Cal on his ground-breaking platoon system following the 72-40 destruction of Kansas:
“This’ll all be decided on the court. And I’ve told these guys, it’s not communism. If someone deserves to play more they will play more.
“If someone is playing themselves out of time I’ll deal with that. If one of the platoons is playing so good one game, they’ll play 25 minutes or 30, and the other team’s not, they won’t.
Coach Cal John Calipari at the postgame presser. #BBN #BBNstandup #UKBasketball pic.twitter.com/CLP8vyStMl
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) November 19, 2014
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Coach Cal made a similar statement this October, when appearing as a guest on CBS Sports Network’s We Need to Talk.
“You can’t jumble 10 in-and-out because they will never get comfortable playing with one another. So the only other option is to platoon. But it’s not communism. If a couple guys are playing well, they’ll play longer. If one group is playing well, they’ll play a little longer. I’ve never coached this way. I’ve never done this before.”
In other words, playing time will be earned based upon merit and not to be shared equally. It’s “to each one according to his ability,” not “to each one according to his need.” Coach Cal may or may not be running a de facto NBDL franchise in Lexington. We know for sure that he’s certainly not running the hoops equivalent of an agrarian socialist commune.
Still, in order for this platoon to work, every player needs to be self-less and make some sacrifices.
“Again, what I can’t tell you is the kind of kids we have,” said Calipari. “Couldn’t do what we’re doing – there’s no way – if we didn’t have solid, selfless kids. To do what we’re doing and giving them half a game, playing half a game and accepting it. Unless they allow us to do this, we can’t do it. That showed today what we’re about. You saw the bench cheering the other guys,” Coach Cal continued.
We don’t have subs. We have reinforcements. #2platoons1team — John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) November 17, 2014
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2