An Honest Question From An Outsider On Calipari...

[rucker4]

Hi again folks. Love spending some time each week on your football and basketball board here as I have enormous respect for your fan base's knowledge and professionalism towards me, Mr. Iowa Hawkeye.

Question for you-- to help me sort through all the posts on Calipari-- who clearly is a lightning rod figure now among you all:

If you could point to just ONE thing, what in your opinion is the reason for Calipari's slide? One thing.

Go

 

[CatPhight]

 

[UKBrassowTipIN]

Robic leaving

 

[GuyFromKY]

The lifetime contract. Any other answer is wrong.

 

[shakestheclown564]

Cal being an unfrozen caveman coach who is frightened and confused by modern basketball.

 

[sportspm]

Rick Robic leaving

John Robic

 

[rucker4]

The saddest indictment on Calipari is basketball writer/insider Jeff Goodman was asked what about Calipari going to Texas. His answer was "that would be an atrocious hire by Texas".

I sense many here are hoping Texas will bail UK out by taking Calipari off your hands, but just too many other better options for them at a much cheaper price than Calipari.

 

[Bilrus61]

He is not interested in being the coach of Kentucky basketball.

 

[Untouchables22]

Hi again folks. Love spending some time each week on your football and basketball board here as I have enormous respect for your fan base's knowledge and professionalism towards me, Mr. Iowa Hawkeye.

Question for you-- to help me sort through all the posts on Calipari-- who clearly is a lightning rod figure now among you all:

If you could point to just ONE thing, what in your opinion is the reason for Calipari's slide? One thing.

Go

He has been shown to be a “system” coach who cannot adapt to the changing nature of basketball in the last 15 years. His system on offense requires ball dominant guards who are excellent penetrators and have the ability to create their own shot. His system on defense relies on funneling the other teams players toward a dominant shot blocking big. This UK team has neither the guards to run his offense nor a competent (I love Kingsley but he can’t physically compete in the SEC right now) shot blocking big to properly run his defensive system so we stink and he can’t change. Do you remember several years ago before Golden State’s first title how Charles Barkley would constantly go on rants about how many outside shots Golden State took and how it made it impossible for them to win the title being so reliant on the 3 and needing to shoot a high percentage from 3 for the entire playoffs to win??? Well Cal still thinks and Coach’s that way in 2023 after all his contemporaries: Coach K, Jay Wright, Bill Self, Izzo, etc have accepted that shooting is better across the board then it’s ever been and you need to play 4 guys AT ALL TIMES on the court that can really shoot.

 

[jjsomer]

The biggest reason for his slide is that he is not interested in coaching. Priorities include 1. ending generational poverty, 2. petting his dogs, 3. guaranteed lifetime contract. He gets to enjoy 2 and 3 daily. And, he works on 1 daily.

Does Iowa need a head coach? Please?

 

[FitchandMurray29]

Having to settle for certain players in recruiting/transfer portal instead of getting the pick of the litter. Besides the Duke surge the thing that sticks out is the guards who couldn’t shoot in Hagans, Briscoe, and Diallo. Public backlash forced him to go with shooters even if they were less talented and the talent drop continued to never really get right again(until perhaps next year).

 

[JRS_OH_Cat]

Hi again folks. Love spending some time each week on your football and basketball board here as I have enormous respect for your fan base's knowledge and professionalism towards me, Mr. Iowa Hawkeye.

Question for you-- to help me sort through all the posts on Calipari-- who clearly is a lightning rod figure now among you all:

If you could point to just ONE thing, what in your opinion is the reason for Calipari's slide? One thing.

Go

The loss of assistants Kenny Payne (player development) and John Robic (X and Os guy). They were replaced by recruiters and/or failed head coaches.

 

[Creed Bratton]

The saddest indictment on Calipari is basketball writer/insider Jeff Goodman was asked what about Calipari going to Texas. His answer was "that would be an atrocious hire by Texas".

I sense many here are hoping Texas will bail UK out by taking Calipari off your hands, but just too many other better options for them at a much cheaper price than Calipari.

Goodman hates Cal so I don't think that is any indictment on Cal.

 

[kats23]

That’s the problem…it’s not just one thing it’s a culmination of so much

1. Unable to pick and choose who he wants
2. The game changing offensively and him not adapting
3. One and done fatigue
4. Unable to truly motivate anymore
5. Yes man assistant coaches
6. Losing Robic
7. Portal failure

IT’s everything and it’s been on a slide since losing to Kansas State in 2018. That’s where it began and the cracks in the foundation became more obvious. Honestly, the “earthquake” of Wisconsin in 2015 really broke the foundation but it wasn’t really noticeable. We tried to spackle it in 2017 and really got screwed by a ref. But after that effort failed, there was no repair.

So here we are. We have no choice but to bulldoze the house and start over. The ones who don’t are like grandkids watching their grandparents home. It’s still sentimental. They think it can be fixed. A new house wont ever be as good. But we need to level it and level it fast

 

[3632]

The saddest indictment on Calipari is basketball writer/insider Jeff Goodman was asked what about Calipari going to Texas. His answer was "that would be an atrocious hire by Texas".

I sense many here are hoping Texas will bail UK out by taking Calipari off your hands, but just too many other better options for them at a much cheaper price than Calipari.

Yeah with what everybody has watched the last 3 seasons what is the motivation for someone to pay him a bunch of money for him to leave the cash here? There was a time we had to fight off nba interests and a high end college job. But since the game started changing after the warriors won it in ‘15 he hasn’t shown any potential suitor that he has interest in the elements of what current basketball is. I often joke about him still loving to run whatever they do out of the horns sets like it’s 30 years ago and sure enough last night Jimmy Dykes says ‘that was a dive out of a horn set’ and I couldn’t do anything but chuckle. The guy is just stuck. This season is sort of the final nail in regards to now everybody nationally talking about how antiquated he is. He won’t get hired anywhere this way unless he decides to return to Clarion or something.

 

[Eagles_Ball]

Goodman hates Cal so I don't think that is any indictment on Cal.

Except what Goodman said was dead on balls accurate.

 

[Backer cutter]

Hi again folks. Love spending some time each week on your football and basketball board here as I have enormous respect for your fan base's knowledge and professionalism towards me, Mr. Iowa Hawkeye.

Question for you-- to help me sort through all the posts on Calipari-- who clearly is a lightning rod figure now among you all:

If you could point to just ONE thing, what in your opinion is the reason for Calipari's slide? One thing.

Go

Wisconsin

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

rucker4,
On the brink of being undefeated and winning another NCAA Championship, to lose the way we did in 2015 seemed to take something out of him. And many fans.

Then came the debacle of our last game in 2017. A few seconds separated us from another Final Four. His post-game press conference made it quite clear that he (as do many fans) held those referees responsible for the loss. The rest is history and I won’t re-hash here.

On the brink of another Final Four in 2019, though in foul trouble Auburn managed to escape the last 9:16 of regulation without a single foul called on them. A key player had been injured and the momentum went their way. The game went to overtime. We lost.

We’ll never know what might have been in 2020.

Did Cal’s sideline behavior toward referees cost us calls—and therefore games—at times?

Has NIL influenced the effort players are giving, and team chemistry?

Did the Sharpe incident cause fans to lose trust? To have a good season + Player of the Year and yet lose in the First Round, while Sharpe wouldn’t even play…what sense did that make?

If I had to pick “one thing” it might be an unwillingness to adapt. Cal often says after the final game of the season that he’s “never going to watch” that game tape. But maybe if he did, we wouldn’t have to watch the same ending over and over again.

 

[YardCat]

Lazy and EGO

 

[Dontworryboutit23]

College basketball went from athleticism being one of the main priorities, to now skillset, spacing and shooting being it priorities now. Calipari runs a flex offense and dribble drive which is predictated on beating your man off the dribble in one on one situations of being more atheletic, cal doesn’t get those players anymore, he gets players like Villanova or a big ten team get, you have to utilize floor spacing and run plays to get shooter open when you have teams like this. Zoom action is really popular in basketball know or 5-out Kentucky camps Oscar in the paint and plays non shooters with shrink the court and allows teams to virtually run pack line defense. Basketball changed and calipari didn’t adapt. Also talent is more spread out

 

[DS849]

If I remember correctly. Cal has mostly said this is a "player first" school. I don't remember him saying "team first" or "school first". Maybe the players get confused on seeing something other than their names on the jerseys. I may be wrong.

 

[BCD]

The lifetime contract. Any other answer is wrong.

I regret I can have but one like on this answer.

 

[FitchMields]

Inability or desire to change

 

[cathouse]

Hi again folks. Love spending some time each week on your football and basketball board here as I have enormous respect for your fan base's knowledge and professionalism towards me, Mr. Iowa Hawkeye.

Question for you-- to help me sort through all the posts on Calipari-- who clearly is a lightning rod figure now among you all:

If you could point to just ONE thing, what in your opinion is the reason for Calipari's slide? One thing.

Go

Men-O-Pause

 

[know1]

He has no desire to make the UK program better. His desire is recruiting and taking credit for making kids wealthy.

 

[AzubuikeandFitch]

Hi again folks. Love spending some time each week on your football and basketball board here as I have enormous respect for your fan base's knowledge and professionalism towards me, Mr. Iowa Hawkeye.

Question for you-- to help me sort through all the posts on Calipari-- who clearly is a lightning rod figure now among you all:

If you could point to just ONE thing, what in your opinion is the reason for Calipari's slide? One thing.

Go

NBA fixation

 

[rucker4]

Goodman hates Cal so I don't think that is any indictment on Cal.

Maybe you're right.

With that said, do you think Texas has Calipari circled as their top target?

 

[kywildcat41086]

The lifetime contract. Any other answer is wrong.

End of thread!

 

[rucker4]

Inability or desire to change

Coaches can get stuck in their comfort zones. Much talk of that at Iowa with the football coach Kirk Ferentz.

 

[rucker4]

End of thread!

So you belief the lifetime contract has caused Calipari to be complacent? Lose the desire to win at a big level?

 

[kywildcat41086]

Maybe you're right.

With that said, do you think Texas has Calipari circled as their top target?

Sure hope so sure hope that AD is even more dumb than Mitch and is able to lure that snake out of Lexington!

 

[Creed Bratton]

Maybe you're right.

With that said, do you think Texas has Calipari circled as their top target?

If they are smart I don't think they do but then again they hired Shaka Smart.

 

[kywildcat41086]

So you belief the lifetime contract has caused Calipari to be complacent? Lose the desire to win at a big level?

Yes I think to be honest when he signed that which was in 2019 we haven’t done anything since and we have went down faster than the Titanic. I mean here is what happened since the lifetime contract 9-16 worst season ever in history of Uk , no tournament wins, lost all time wins lead, lost all time tournament wins lead, the worst tournament loss in history to 15th seeded St Peters, and now last night first time we have started 1-3 in the SEC for the first time since 86-87. So I would say very complacent, lazy , and he just doesn’t give a $hit about the UK program.

 

[UKBB4Ever]

Hi again folks. Love spending some time each week on your football and basketball board here as I have enormous respect for your fan base's knowledge and professionalism towards me, Mr. Iowa Hawkeye.

Question for you-- to help me sort through all the posts on Calipari-- who clearly is a lightning rod figure now among you all:

If you could point to just ONE thing, what in your opinion is the reason for Calipari's slide? One thing.

Go

Not recruiting players to UK. You can't win without players. We don't have players. It's Cal's job to get players to UK.

Wheeler couldn't lead a good high school team. The whole team can't guard a good high school team. You could go pick up a good AAU team and they would score 70 points on this UK team.

Last year was bad defense. This is worse. This will be the 4th consecutive year with one first round draft pick from UK. That's just not cutting it at the level UK fans expect.

 

[KyCatFan]

Cal after getting that contract.

 

[BigBlueManSouthCentralKY]

Hi again folks. Love spending some time each week on your football and basketball board here as I have enormous respect for your fan base's knowledge and professionalism towards me, Mr. Iowa Hawkeye.

Question for you-- to help me sort through all the posts on Calipari-- who clearly is a lightning rod figure now among you all:

If you could point to just ONE thing, what in your opinion is the reason for Calipari's slide? One thing.

Go

For years has always put players going pro over our program winning a championship. So not delving out playing minutes fairly, sometimes not starting who deserves to start and basically seems to use the star system a lot to help the 5 five stars realize their dreams in the pro's. Second is his floor coaching. Refuses to play a zone when that is best against some teams I suppose because his five stars will only be playing man in the pro's. Cannot coach his team to play high pressure defense. We play on our heals instead of our toes. For some reason he cannot sign good shooters and if he does many of them lose it when they get here.

Could go on and on and on. Those are a few things off the top. Has been building up for years.

 

[shakestheclown564]

The saddest indictment on Calipari is basketball writer/insider Jeff Goodman was asked what about Calipari going to Texas. His answer was "that would be an atrocious hire by Texas".

I sense many here are hoping Texas will bail UK out by taking Calipari off your hands, but just too many other better options for them at a much cheaper price than Calipari.

While he's not wrong, Goodman also hates Cal & Kentucky and is also extremely ugly. I never trust the opinions of ugly people.

 

[Soupbean]

Stubborness to adapt and change coaching philosophy

Hi again folks. Love spending some time each week on your football and basketball board here as I have enormous respect for your fan base's knowledge and professionalism towards me, Mr. Iowa Hawkeye.

Question for you-- to help me sort through all the posts on Calipari-- who clearly is a lightning rod figure now among you all:

If you could point to just ONE thing, what in your opinion is the reason for Calipari's slide? One thing.

 

[North Carolina Blue Wildcat]

Harder to stay on top than to get there. What’s your motivation when you have it all? I assume he changed his goal to solving generational poverty from winning championships due to championships not being motivational enough to make it a primary goal for him personally.…

For the best of the best in anything, there is always something to chase, someone to chase or it’s you being chased. He’s chased everything he’s ever wanted and made it happen-what more is there left now other than helping others?

You have to be hungry, angry or some combination of both to stay on top..He has it all and has done everything he set out to do and it appears all things basketball is no longer motivating to him.. this I believe is his problem..

 

[Primus agitare lyncas]

He has been shown to be a “system” coach who cannot adapt to the changing nature of basketball in the last 15 years. His system on offense requires ball dominant guards who are excellent penetrators and have the ability to create their own shot. His system on defense relies on funneling the other teams players toward a dominant shot blocking big. This UK team has neither the guards to run his offense nor a competent (I love Kingsley but he can’t physically compete in the SEC right now) shot blocking big to properly run his defensive system so we stink and he can’t change. Do you remember several years ago before Golden State’s first title how Charles Barkley would constantly go on rants about how many outside shots Golden State took and how it made it impossible for them to win the title being so reliant on the 3 and needing to shoot a high percentage from 3 for the entire playoffs to win??? Well Cal still thinks and Coach’s that way in 2023 after all his contemporaries: Coach K, Jay Wright, Bill Self, Izzo, etc have accepted that shooting is better across the board then it’s ever been and you need to play 4 guys AT ALL TIMES on the court that can really shoot.

This. The inflexibility of Cal. That is all. I like Cal as a person. I think he genuinely wants his players to succeed and advance. Yet, he cannot for some reason see his inflexibility as a liability to their success. Multiple NBA first-rounders are not found on consistently struggling teams. Every once in a while a team will have one first-rounder but still suck. Cal's problem is that he wants 7 every year. Guess what? There aren't teams with multiple first-round picks struggling. If he wants that number of players going top round every year, he has to give them a shot to succeed by helping them with plays, zone Ds, and leaving the hot hands in the game.