I wish Cal had never been hired . Knowing what this program has become , I wish another direction had been taken, and he never stepped foot in Kentucky. I'd love to redo it all over, and see what happened. The 2012 title isn't worth the shit pile he has created.
Calipari
- Thread starter Pulaski Cat Fan
- Start date
Bad, bad, BADDDD take. ALL-TIME bad take.
The last 5 years have been AWFUL- But NOBODY could have fixed Kentucky as fast as Cal did.
One offseason is all it took- followed by 4 final fours and a national title in his first 6 seasons...took us from the gutter (by our standards) to the best program in college basketball, etc.
Nobody could have done what Cal did, that fast.
We had never had a NPOY when he came. Now we've had 2, should have been 3 (John Wall).
We were the coolest program in college basketball for 10 years.
The past 5 years are a completely different story. But this is an all-timer of a bad take to say you wish we had never hired him.
The last 5 years have been AWFUL- But NOBODY could have fixed Kentucky as fast as Cal did.
One offseason is all it took- followed by 4 final fours and a national title in his first 6 seasons...took us from the gutter (by our standards) to the best program in college basketball, etc.
Nobody could have done what Cal did, that fast.
We had never had a NPOY when he came. Now we've had 2, should have been 3 (John Wall).
We were the coolest program in college basketball for 10 years.
The past 5 years are a completely different story. But this is an all-timer of a bad take to say you wish we had never hired him.
I wish he hadn't been hired either. Has done far more harm to the program than good
One title in 2012 isn't worth what Kentucky has become. Uconn has won 3 friggin titles during Calipari's time. Villanova has 2. Duke has 2. Screw his NBA draft picks. It's embarrassing how much meat Cal has left on the bone. Even those early years where marred by choke jobs. West Virginia the first year was awful.
THIS is the correct take.
Cal said this was a 10 year job...he should have left after 10 and called it a day.
This is the correct take without question.
Anyone saying they wish he was never hired at all is an idiot. Plain and simple.
Yes. I should have said it like this, but his whole body of work isn't worth what it's turned Kentucky into.
I agree with you, he’s created a culture here that is awful. Thanks to the nba lockout he was able to win a title but it’s come at an awful cost.
Sitting here watching UConn and seeing the difference in the type of players they have and the coaching approach Hurley takes shows how far we are as a program from being elite.
Sitting here watching UConn and seeing the difference in the type of players they have and the coaching approach Hurley takes shows how far we are as a program from being elite.
U Conn has 3 and looking like 4 after this tournament
Villanova has 2
Duke has 2
All in the time Cal has been at UK. He may have turned it around quick but he has also taken us down just as low when we gave him the money and fame he had always wanted. He has FAIKED not only UK but his own legacy in the process!!
I want go as far as Pulaski, but I feel his pain and can understand why he feels that way.
I am SICK of Cal and how he has taken our program down BELOW so many other programs
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His first five years were magic. We damned near went undefeated in the era of modern basketball. That is just a crazy feat. Had Vegas not intervened I think it would have happened.
The above posters are right. He should have left after ten like the talked about. Now he is just milking money for retirement.
The above posters are right. He should have left after ten like the talked about. Now he is just milking money for retirement.
Mitch giving him a lifetime contract they both should be fired.
Well I see it both ways. If you could go back to 2010 and say Kal would win one title and leave after ten years then it’s worth it. But now where we are as a program knowing he would stay this long and have us where we are and hard telling how much worse it’s going to get, I’d say no thanks.
10 good years. 5 bad ones.
There’s a saying in here somewhere about throwing the baby out with the bath water
Mitch Barnhart is an all-time idiot for giving Cal that "lifetime" contract after Cal's 10th season.
What a dumbass take this is. People on here are getting dumber by the day
In a perfect world. Cal leaves in 2019 for UCLA. UK hires Billy Donovan.....
Well. **** you too hotrod.
I agree. Final Fours are nice, but they are nice footnotes.
Besides the nice footnotes, the man has achieved one title in fifteen years at a cost of one hundred-twelve million dollars. Almost any idiot could have done better than that at Kentucky, and not a single other coach would have trashed our culture so many ways doing it.
Besides the nice footnotes, the man has achieved one title in fifteen years at a cost of one hundred-twelve million dollars. Almost any idiot could have done better than that at Kentucky, and not a single other coach would have trashed our culture so many ways doing it.
No he didn't. The man achieved nothing of note after 2015. He owned the span 2011–2015 pretty well and that was it.
Unless you think we’d have hired Dan Hurley you’d still be sitting here watching UConn make winning national championships look like child’s play. It sucks but everybody else is watching it too.
And you are the leader.
I'm not as enamored with Calipari as a lot are. His tenure, as a whole, hasn't sit well with me. What winning that was done at the front end, doesn't make up for the shit show he has created. I don't like it one damn bit.
But remember when he had that telethon to raise money for the tornado victims? The one where he talked over Mark Stoops the whole time and wouldn’t let him get a word in edge wise? Not just anyone could pull something like that off.
Thats all he wanted to talk about on his coaches show Monday.
We're not even competitive at this point. The difference between us and the rest of the teams left in the tournament is startling. There is no defending Cal at this point.
I haven’t watched 1 min of basketball since our demise. Just seeing the score from my brackets I have done and looking at what’s posted on here. Maybe ole Mitch needs to turn on the TV set and watch just how far Cal has driven this program into the ground. Then maybe the dumb@$$ would reconsider getting rid of the 9 million a year thief…
Bad take.
I would agree that maybe he should have taken Joe B Halls advice and left around his 10 year mark.
I would agree that maybe he should have taken Joe B Halls advice and left around his 10 year mark.
wish he had left after 2015's disaster finish ...
Cal has a lot of faults but COVID and NIL has changed the landscape of college basketball. My girl was a 2018 high school graduate and college athlete. She has been out in the work world for a couple of years. A kid she graduated with is still playing college basketball this year. These are grown men playing against kids. You have to change your philosophy to keep up. She is 24 years old now. Hard for an 18 year old to match up with these men.
So if UK wins #9 next season does mean the last five year are overlooked, especially if he moves into the ambassador position?
If he wins it with starting two or three freshmen and playing all of his freshmen significant minutes he will achieved the impossible ,
If he does that again most likely we will lose in game one f NCAA f we even make it.
Only solution is for Cal and Barnhart to announce publicly are no longer a one and done school and freshmen will not be favored or recruited in the future . Out teams should all be jr, sr and grad students .
The problem Cal and Mitch have for next season is that UK winning #9 is the ONLY WAY that "The last 5 years are overlooked"!!!!
I get completely what you’re saying. And as it stands right now, if he continues to torch this program, we might not ever recover because of the shape he left us in not to mention what other coaches will think when we’re gun shy of paying this kind of lineup again. We just don’t know.
It’s entirely possible, regardless of what the guys who loved Calipari up until last week think, that it was not a good hire in hindsight. They obviously can’t call it in college basketball anyway.
His lows are REALLY LOW and back breaking.
Had he left last year and stepped aside I’d say it was still the right hire. He’s staying and killing our prestige. People are willing to lose the entire season for 3 years just for 1 shot at a final four that might not happen. That’s how you kill your prestige and tradition. You have to DOMINATE EVERY YEAR or close to it. You can’t lose to Tennessee 12 out of 20 and maintain prestige. You cant lose nearly every game to Duke and Kansas and say those games don’t matter. That’s what we’re doing under his leadership.
Sorry, it’s possible it was a bad hire. We’ll see. For all we know the coach we would have had instead of him would have 2 titles right now without the lows. we don’t know.
Like it or not he did win a title here.
And gave us Number 8. If he had t UNC and now freaking UCOnn would be nipping our heel.
I get your point, but we’re in an awful mess that Calipari has created. I’m like the OP, in that I wish he’d never been hired. I despise Caliiari and the contract that Barnhart gave him.
