You're trying to reason with them my man. You're too smart for that.
Unpopular Opinion
- Thread starter Taiza
- Start date
If we had a Athletic director then making the right hire ŵould be no problem but Barnfart did hire BCG before Calipari. With our resources, getting the right guy for the job shouldn't be hard at all. There are much better coaches than Crapapari as far as teaching the game and roster building.
He can recruit but recruits without a plan on how to build a roster, remember his failed position less player formula....yeah that's like his dribble drive offense...failures.
I figured someone should break up the feedback loop.
Ideally the only thing standing in the way of success is Cal's ego and Barnhart's willingness to bend. Keep Cal as the recruiter and program mouthpiece will having offensive/defensive coordinators. Cal has to be okay relinquishing power and ultimate authority for on court decisions and instructions.
It's an avalanche of anarchy at this point. Blue rage has set in. Can take months to subside.
What coaches will exist next year that don’t exist now? Pool will be the exact same. If the contention is there isn’t a better coach to take over then just shut this shit down and give up. We already have for next year anyway by bringing cal back.
That isn't necessarily true fwiw...Whole lot can change with the carousel by next year.
Living in the past. How many missed FFs do you need to see the man can’t coach. Good grief!
Not really. Who is coaching somewhere right now that is just untouchable for us to hire that come next year that could change? Don’t think we are going to go after a fired coach from another program so unless Jay wright gets the itch to coach again every single candidate we want will be employed somewhere. There really isn’t a carousel.
Off the top of my head Billy Donovan. Maybe Jay Wright needs some time to get his affairs together before jumping back in. This is absolutely still an elite coaching job but nobody (outside of this board) was expecting Cal to get fired at the end of this last season.
If things look bad next year people will know what’s coming and good candidates will prepare themselves accordingly. This also gives the administration more time to put out feelers, etc.
Yep Donovan is the main one, but who knows what shakes out in NBA. Deep run in tourney can change things too. May was on no one’s radar at this time last year
Well, your thread title says it all. That's gonna be an unpopular opinion, especially right now while the raw nerve from the loss to Oakland, which caused the raw nerves of the losses to Kansas St and St Peter's to resurface, are still painfully on our minds.
So, one more year. I really have loved Calipari. I don't mind saying so, even at the risk of irritating the masses, but there comes a time when you cut your losses and move on. I would also hate, from a personal and sentimental point of view, for Cal to go out with his tail between his legs having taken his most talented team in 5+ years to a embarrassing 1st round loss to a no-name 14-seed in a game where his team looked helpless to stop what was transpiring. But who made this bed? That's the problem. Cal got us there. I could go into the minutia of bad lineups, bad defense, inability to adapt, stubbornness and pride, worrying about players' feelings more than wins, and on and on, but the bottom line is that Cal got us here. And it's not just a fluke thing. It's a trend- a downhill slide. No SEC-T wins, no NCAA-T wins. Calipari himself, if you had interviewed him on the day he took the job, would have said these results are unacceptable and he probably would have said that he would step down it the program ever reached these depths, but here we are.
If you want the Pollyanna view of this for me, it's this. I truly do hope Calipari gets it done. I hope the team goes undefeated next season and wins it all. I hope he finishes what the 2014-15 team started and picks up with a Final Four win and title number 9. But do I expect it? Not even a little bit. When we get beat down by Duke in November, I probably won't even blink, because that is now expected. When we finish mid-pack in the SEC, ho hum. When we go out in the first round of the SECT again, who will be in shock? When we lose in the first weekend of the NCAA-T, that is the norm now.
So a guy reading a thesaurus saunters into a bar…
The problem is he keeps bringing in the top players but they are freshmen . You can no longer win championships with freshmen . If he stuck the ones that don’t deserve to start or play substantial minutes that woukd be ok .
BYG THATS NOT WHAT HE DOES. HE PKAYS THEM INSTEAD OF BETTER PLAYERS TO NOT BREAK THEIR HEART AND HAS TURNE THIS PROGRAM INTO A LAUGHINGSTOCK.
I FRANKLY WISH HD DID NOT HAVE A BUNCH OV TALENTED FRESHMEN.
THEY CANNOT WIN AND WILL BE GONE IN ONE YEST ANYWAY.
IOWs what’s in it for us fans ?
I don’t disagree with a lot of what you said. Cal is stubborn. And has played favorites to the detriment of the team. And has not fulfilled PR obligations. And has come off as arrogant and pompous to the fanbase.
But at the same time Cal made changes that we wanted this year. We played a more modern offensive style - opened the floor up and shot more threes. Last off-season was a complete shit show and without Huggins going senile and Reeves not being able to transfer out we could have had a miserable season. But most of that was due to Cal and Barnhart being too stubborn to adapt to the new NIL climate and thinking kids would come here just because it was Kentucky. Money talks. Name on the Jersey is a tie breaker but to the average player you’d better at least competitive financially.
We now have a legitimate, administration backed NIL collective in place. Instead of scrambling around trying to plug holes, Cal will be able to construct a roster with the players he wants and fit our needs. Cal has never had teams get sliced up defensively as much as this team did.
A lot of my argument isn’t even from the pro-Cal side but moreso to do with the fact that I’m not convinced that anyone we would hire at this stage in the game would be a drastic improvement. So to burn everything down (yes I know it has to happen at some point), pay a $33 million dollar buyout that puts a dent in our programs operating budget, all for a non- slam dunk hire seems like an emotional, short sided decision. Especially when it’s completely possible Cal rights the ship.
I hear you Taiza. I'm sure we agree more than we disagree. I have nothing whatsoever against you. I really hope you're right. I'm sure at some point I'll be ready to move forward. But I'm gonna struggle being fully invested as long as Calipari is still the head coach. I've been burned too many times, always fully invested and it ends in embarrassment and misery. I just can't keep getting crushed like that when I know it's likely to end the same way again.
Maybe. But how will there be a better hiring pool next year? Wright, Stevens and Donovan will never happen. All the other good coaches will still have pretty large buyouts.
Who will emerge next year in your opinion?
I despise Cal and want him gone but the front runner of Scott Drew would sink us even more imo.
People will position themselves to be available for the Kentucky job if they know it is coming open. Another year gives us time to put out feelers, gives us another $9 mil off that buyout to throw at a big name.
I think Jay Wright could be a possibility under the right circumstances.
FF and title should be the goal but you have to be reasonable. Every season can’t nor will end in a final four. Not even our counterparts (Duke, UNC, KU, UConn) get FF’s or titles every year.
If the next 5 years (pretend Cal is not the coach) ended in
EE
Title
FF
EE
EE
That would he incredible and I’d take it all day every day.
A better hiring pool! How did you come to that conclusion? The home run hire was not available this year but will be next year!
Last edited:
It’s a lot less unpopular off of this message board where people tend to have a lot more fulfillment in their lives.
You do realize with how the buyout works it goes from 6.6 million for 5 years to 6 million for 4 years, correct? So it frees up an additional 600,000 of immediate money. That is peanuts relatively speaking. The buyout, whenever it happens will most likely be negotiated however to a lesser sum and probably paid out in a lump sum.
Trust me, I don't want Scott Drew either. He can not handle this job.
It takes somebody who eats, breathes and sleeps basketball. Understands the traditions, and embraces the expectations. It's a job many can't handle and like Joe B said, its a 10 year job max.
