Genuinely asking.

I'm fully aware of how polarizing MJ is on this board, but personally I haven't followed him too closely in recent years. I've been listening to more postgame shows this season, especially after the losses and big wins, and he's been very open about how Calipari doesn't like him anymore, but what actually happened to make it get that far? Can someone fill me in on the lore?

Let’s lighten the mood a bit……

The talking buffalo is annoying and obnoxious. Agree or disagree?

This KY team was 111th in defensive efficiency the worst KY defense in the Ken Pom era.

“I tripped.”

“I walked into a door.”

“I deserved it.”

If cal is here next year do you think they would try to find a way of not holding madness cause can you imagine the reception calipari will get. He may get booed worse than Kenny Payne did at the yum

On Twitter you got Matt jones saying their is no better coach then Cal available, which is crazy after what’s happened recently. Then even on here you got random people that I rarely have seen on here trying to get people to buy into Cal hiring different assistants. They don’t wanna pay the buy out and got their puppets on board with trying to persuade people on social media into wanting to keep Cal around. SMH

How do we replace the scoring and balance that these three tremendous shooters, who shot 44.4%, 44.7% and 52.1%, respectively, from beyond the arc and provided almost 48 points a game ?? It seems to me that unless there are consistent scoring threats in the Freshman recruiting class, we will simply HAVE to recruit several QUALITY portal transfers to be better next year. With poorer outside shooting, if that ends being the case, we will struggle.

Without addressing who will be coach ... very simply, what kind of roster and personnel do we need to be a better team next year ??

UK's attorneys get their hands on an email from Calipari or his agent after we beat UT in Knoxville to the president of a TV network, accepting an offer to become an ex-coach commentator.

The amount of “ifs” that have to happen to justify bringing back cal is the exact reason why Kentucky needs to move on
- if cal admits he is wrong and has made mistakes. That will never happen, he is to stubborn
- if he tries to improve the relationship with fans. That will never happen as he takes passive aggressive shots at the fans all the time
- if he stops peacocking after wins in games he should of won to begin with
- if he actually makes changes and adapts to modern basketball. That isn’t happening, look at next years potential roster it isn’t happening.
- he got nervous against damn Oakland and St. Peter’s and acts likes the sec tourney is useless and brushes off bad regular season losses.
- cal isn’t changing, the fanbase has been saying it for 5 years now. If cal does this or if cal does that and he never does any of it. But he still has people defending him and saying we need to bring him back. The results will be the same and we will all be in the same spot we are in now this time next year

He disappeared from us.

I’m hoping he is removed as the head coach like most fans. I’d be ok with him moving into his Ambassador position which would let him save a little pride and work on NBA stuff in the background, set up NIL etc. obviously influencing the team or what happens would be solely for the new coach. It might save the University some money, save Cal some pride and possibly allow the fan base as a whole to compromise and meet in the middle. Just a thought.

who's next or is he staying?

and with him our incoming class. Don't laugh it could happen.

…in my opinion is a negotiation and “mutual” separation. I’d LOVE if one of the rumors were true about another team being interested but I find that unlikely. The buyout is probably too great for Mitch to fire him.

But Cal’s ego is the key here. He doesn’t want to be “fired” and I guarantee he still thinks he can coach. If he was straight up fired, (correct me if I’m wrong) but I believe his annual buyout payment would stop if he took another coaching job. But if Mitch offered Cal a lump sum (say 12-15 million) for the two parties to part ways it would accomplish a few things for both sides. It would allow Cal to save face AND it would give him a bunch of money but still get to find another job. It would cut the 30 million+ buyout down for Mitch and allow HIM to save face with the fans.

Frankly everyone comes out looking good in this scenario aside from UK still having to shell out a tidy sum, but with so many fans ready to stop supporting the program, I have to think it would be financially worth it. Anything I’m missing here? Maybe someone smarter than me can chime in…

Check it out.

For us outside of central KY.

Reading between the lines here. Watching the Oregon vs Creighton Halftime show. The guy to the left of Candace Parker said he's been getting "a lot of texts about you Jay, but I know you're not interested". Jay just awkwardly laughed.

I bet that was for UK Lol.

Too bad. What a hire that would be.

Just read a pilgram article and saw where we would owe Cal 556,250 dollars per month through 2029. Where can I sign up for a job like this? Damn fair is fair but that's ridiculous.

Does he do it or have someone fill in for him? If he does, I’m sure we here the following things

We have a great group coming in

There are some guys who need to return

I don’t want the loss to define the season they had

Etc…..

The list of excuses can go on for days and it’s so repetitive now because it’s the same story each time. Tomorrow will tell us if Cal is willing to change moving forward, for the record I think Cal will never change and it’s still best we move on.

Why is it so difficult for Cal to do the things that gives us the best chance to win, when it is so obvious to everyone? The starting lineup consistently limped out of the gate yet he continued to start them. The three R's together were our best scoring threat yet we rarely had them on the court for long stretches. Our bigs were ineffective yet we kept trotting them out there. It goes on and on and on.

Jack Gohlke was lighting us up.. just straight torching us.. and how did Greg Kampe respond? With a no-brainer: "KEEP SHOOTING!"

Yet Cal, in the face of a whole season of analytics - with every coach, talking head, and fan pointing it out - continues to handicap the team with lineups, in game decisions, and a seemingly endless lack of preparation.

It truly boggles the mind.

I keep seeing this worry that perhaps there just isn’t someone out there better RIGHT NOW than Calipari. Why? We were Kentucky long before he came along and we will be Kentucky long after he’s gone. Survived a point shaving scandal, survived a death penalty, survived BCG. Titles with 5 coaches. He needs Kentucky far worse than Kentucky needs him.

And let’s say we do make the wrong hire? We’ve done it before, turned out fine two years later. How many coaches out there that we would *actually* hire could be worse than Calipari since 2020? It’s not exactly a high bar to clear at this point. I just don’t understand the fear.

No particular order:
Tommy Lloyd
Billy D.
Gregg Marshall
Frank Vogel

You call (but know it's a no)
Jay Wright
Brad Stevens

Mitch Barnhart's list:
Anyone and everyone no one remotely wants