Big Blue Nation and the University of Kentucky recently won its’ 8th NCAA men’s basketball national championship (editor’s note: originally published on April 26, 2012). Head coach John Calipari and his much-publicized dribble drive offense finally got his first national title after a near miss with the University of Memphis in 2008 against the Kansas Jayhawks. Though Coach Cal added to his already spectacular career, the dribble drive did not really add a national championship to its resume.
Defense Wins Championships
All of us sports fans have heard it said that “Defense Wins Championships”. Though that axiom has a lot of legitimacy, it is hard to say whether it is 100% true. Lots of things go into winning a championship. However, I must say that this year, it seemed that I noticed more winning coaches praising their team’s defensive efforts as the main reason for their success. This has gotten me to thinking about my team and whether or not we should emphasize defense even more next year. It probably can’t hurt. Regardless, here are some of the examples that I am talking about when it comes to defense helping a team win a basketball championship.