Empowering Leadership Fits New Kentucky Coach Calipari

Empowering Leadership Fits New Kentucky Coach Calipari

Kentucky Dribble Drive Offense eBook - $12

Just loved how Memphis coach John Calipari turned over practice to forward Robert Dozier in a move designed to force the quiet senior to take more of a leadership role with the team.

As this article describes, "Calipari left the gym, leaving Dozier on his own to coach."

"He thinks I'm too quiet," Dozier says. "He wanted me to be vocal, get on guys and be more of a leader. I was mad at first, because I didn't want to do it. But I had fun with it. The guys enjoyed it. It wasn't a long practice." The usually subdued Dozier said he tried to get as animated as Calipari, a dynamic, demonstrative speechmaker never at a loss for words. "I had to tone it down," Dozier says, laughing. "There were a lot of people in there."

If you're wondering why, at a Memphis practice, "there were a lot of people in there," it's because Coach Cal opens nearly all of the Tigers' practices to the public.

Retired folks stop in with their grandchildren; a postman comes by after finishing his route. For many elite programs, open practices were long abandoned in an Internet age when word can spread fast to rivals about a team's offensive and defensive schemes or a frustrated coach can show up on YouTube for pitching a fit. Calipari shrugs off those possibilities but notes he keeps some practices closed during the NCAA tournament.

Says Coach Cal: "I don't have anything to hide. You've got people, their lives seem to be this basketball program. They come to practice four or five times a week. They're able to get on the phone and talk to friends about what we're working on."

After his team lost the national championship game last season, Coach Cal was criticized for not having his players properly prepared.

"Either you use an experience to help build you and make you better and stronger, or the experience breaks you," he says. "That experience ... it did nothing except good stuff for us. None of it was bad."

Download the Memphis Offense eBook $12

WHO YOU CALLIN' POPS? Basketball Coaches vs. Metallica

Ever wanted to see Bob Knight, Rick Pitino, Mike Krzyzewski, and Roy Williams dancing around in their boxer shorts? Neither did I. But it is rather hilarious to see these coaching legends relaxed and proves they are human after all. Whitney, I love you. Also, I love how Coach Knight calls it, "The Guitar Hero...."



It's a perfect example of quality NCAA tournament advertising. I've only seen it once, it's hysterical, and I'll remember it. Well done, Guitar Hero people. “Obviously it’s a parody of ‘Risky Business’ that we’ve all seen and kind of imagined yourself doing it, although you can’t tell your players and your family that you’ve imagined doing it,” Krzyzewski told a camerman. “So getting the opportunity to be a part of that is kind of a really cool thing. And then to do it with Coach Knight, and Roy and Rick—that made it even better.”



Guitar Hero Metallica Ad Featuring College Basketball Coaches, and Metallica -