John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats are undefeated and on a roll. They’ve taken down three teams that played in the NCAA tournament last March, including blue-blood rivals the Kansas Jayhawks. He should be thrilled, right?

Wrong. Here are a few arrows from the coach’s quiver of recent post-game quotes:

“We were inept offensively.”

“[Terrence Jones] is going to have to play better these next two games.”

“We’re playing like an AAU team.”

Why so sour, Coach Cal?

Calipari is right to bring his charges back to earth as often as possible, because he knows what’s at stake, and understands the brittle nature of the tools he’s using. While rabid fans of the Wildcats are busy posting and re-posting video of Darius Miller’s insane one-handed alley-oop dunk and calling out the Tar Heels, Calipari is looking at numbers that need fixing: 40.6% shooting from the field against the Johnnies; 5 points, 2 boards and 4 personal fouls from starting forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist; a point guard – freshman Marquis Teague - who’s sporting a less-than-stellar 1.3-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. In March, any of these things can be deadly. In December, they are still fixable.

As long as Calipari relies on uber-talented freshmen to power his Big Blue Machine, he’s going to have to be a hardass and a nattering nabob of negativism. It’s so easy to get caught up in a sense of invincibility when you’re young, and a seasoned coach has to know how to inject a little dose of reality into the early-season party. It’s OK to have fun in the now, but you don’t want to suffer a nasty hangover during the Big Dance.

Calipari isn’t a habitually glum presence like Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim. He wins recruits and press conferences with his smile more often than not. He just knows all too well that the cheers of the Big Blue faithful will turn to groans and poor-mouthing at the first sign of weakness from his team. This is a fan base that – for good or ill – expects perfection, or as near to it as college kids can get. Coach Cal gives them the bad news now, in hopes that his kids will not have to hear it on an even bigger stage later. He knows that his youthful charges – six freshmen and three sophomores on an 11-man roster – can go undefeated over the next three months and still be considered a rank disappointment if they flub up one game in the postseason.

“Swag” – that highly entertaining blend of style and confidence that makes basketball fun – is UK’s best friend and worst enemy right now. Calipari didn’t recruit these kids to be mousy plodders, the team’s flashy nature is a reflection of his personality without question. But swag is a pretty fragile thing. It flows like water when things are going well, and can shut off just as quickly when a little doubt enters the picture. With tough games against the likes of North Carolina, Louisville, Florida, Alabama and Vanderbilt on the UK schedule, there will doubtless be some dark moments where swag fails and real guts must come into play. Calipari is trying to find out who has the belly and smarts to grit out the type of wins that lead to a national title.

So, to answer the question posed in the title of this article, it was Calipari himself who micturated in his breakfast cereal. He’s doing the same to the young Wildcats so they’ll learn to hate the taste, and do anything they can to avoid it.

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