"Embarrassingly Wrong"

In Saturday's LA Times, sports columnist Bill Plaschke wrote:

One coach runs distinct, detailed, plotted plays.The other coach just runs.

One coach screams at his players to place themselves in the exact formation they practiced the night before in a hotel ballroom in front of two potted plants and a giggling front-desk clerk.The other coach just screams....

If Howland is cast directly from Hoosiers, then Calipari comes from White Man Can't Jump.

When looking for the difference in today's national semifinal between UCLA and Memphis, look no further than the end of the bench. Howland will be the one coaching. Calipari will be the one cheering...

That's perhaps an oversimplification, but at the center of each team is a leader whose heart is in a very different place. Howland is a concocter of plays. Calipari is a collector of players.

I'm picking a now-healthy UCLA to defeat Memphis today because, all things being equal, the play always beats the players.

*Ahem* Mr Plaschke? I realize it's your job to support the home team and all, but is there anything you wanted to say today? Sunday?

The final score in the national semifinal was Memphis 78, UCLA 63, and A Certain Columnist zero.

I wrote that UCLA would win because Howland would outcoach Memphis' John Calipari. I was wrong. I was embarrassingly wrong. I was as wrong as Calipari's hair is stiff...

UCLA's disciplined coaching was also supposed to frustrate the freewheeling Calipari. Oh yeah, did I tell you I was wrong?

I was, however, right about one thing. Yes, this was a coaching mismatch. But that mismatch belonged to Calipari. His NBA style owned the Alamodome, his schemes favored his players better than Howland's schemes suited his players.

Calipari made all the right moves. He called all the right formations. In the end, UCLA legs were so weary that the Bruins missed eight consecutive shots during an aborted second-half comeback attempt.

It was, for Calipari, a first and deserved shining moment.

Thank you. Apology accepted.