Borzello, unlike Vitale, Greenberg, Bilas, nails it.

[Smashcat]

“He would’ve entered next season on the hot seat. Another season without multiple NCAA Tournament wins and he probably would’ve been fired at this point next season. The 33 million that they owed him after this past season was probably enough to give him another year. But once you get to the point where your athletic director has to release a statement saying you’re coming back as the coach, it’s kind of hard to come back from that. And he had lost the appreciation of the fan base, I guess I’d say, and like you said it was more than just the Oakland loss. It was more than the Saint Peter’s loss. He had essentially refused to adapt to the changes in college basketball roster construction. He was still going heavy on freshmen, he was going into the portal to get one or two guys,” Borzello said.

“But he was still saying, ‘Okay, we’re gonna win young, we’re gonna win with freshmen, we’re gonna win with McDonald’s All Americans.’ And that hadn’t really worked. And like I said, he was still putting guys in the NBA, but the fan base was saying, ‘Hey, we don’t want to consider a player good when he gets $100 million contract. We want him to win championships at Kentucky.’ And I just think that the final straw for most of the fan base was the Oakland loss… But the loss to Oakland and the press conference after where he said we might go into the portal, we might not, we might be young. I just think some of the faith, or whatever remaining faith, the fan base had in Cal was kind of eroded by that point.”

 

[Fox2monk]

“He would’ve entered next season on the hot seat. Another season without multiple NCAA Tournament wins and he probably would’ve been fired at this point next season. The 33 million that they owed him after this past season was probably enough to give him another year. But once you get to the point where your athletic director has to release a statement saying you’re coming back as the coach, it’s kind of hard to come back from that. And he had lost the appreciation of the fan base, I guess I’d say, and like you said it was more than just the Oakland loss. It was more than the Saint Peter’s loss. He had essentially refused to adapt to the changes in college basketball roster construction. He was still going heavy on freshmen, he was going into the portal to get one or two guys,” Borzello said.

“But he was still saying, ‘Okay, we’re gonna win young, we’re gonna win with freshmen, we’re gonna win with McDonald’s All Americans.’ And that hadn’t really worked. And like I said, he was still putting guys in the NBA, but the fan base was saying, ‘Hey, we don’t want to consider a player good when he gets $100 million contract. We want him to win championships at Kentucky.’ And I just think that the final straw for most of the fan base was the Oakland loss… But the loss to Oakland and the press conference after where he said we might go into the portal, we might not, we might be young. I just think some of the faith, or whatever remaining faith, the fan base had in Cal was kind of eroded by that point.”

 

[uk78]

What is not getting much attention is the news that even before the end of the regular season Cal was exploring the coaching position at Ohio State. Let me repeat, before the end of the regular season!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[NoDef]

What is not getting much attention is the news that even before the end of the regular season Cal was exploring the coaching position at Ohio State. Let me repeat, before the end of the regular season!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cal did the university a huge favor by not waiting on them to fire him. His ego (like most coaches) is huge and he probably didn't want to leave on someone's else's terms, but he could of taken the buyout and rode off into the sunset. I'm glad that he decided to part ways and not hurt Kentucky.

 

[catman15]

Couldn't be more right. If he didn't continuously double and triple down on a system that kept failing it might be different. You can't rely on young guys over and over and then blame youth. Why would we expect anything else? You won't find a post from me bashing Cal or fluffing Cal either way before this but it was clearly not working

 

[Jazzycat]

Not a bash either - he made no adjustments in games, refused to prepare his teams for the opposing players, had no answer on defense or teaching a defense that was successful and always put his philosophy above pragmatism and what worked.

I appreciate everything he did at UK and would have loved to see him retire at Kentucky. When you stop communicating with boosters and isolate yourself from the administration, it is time to move on.

 

[Girthang]

Cal did the university a huge favor by not waiting on them to fire him. His ego (like most coaches) is huge and he probably didn't want to leave on someone's else's terms, but he could of taken the buyout and rode off into the sunset. I'm glad that he decided to part ways and not hurt Kentucky more than he already had.

 

[UKfan215]

Any of the talking heads who are suggesting UK fans were being unreasonable for not accepting the results of the back-half of Cal's tenure here are the ones being unreasonable. Cal wasn't getting UK type results here. We had complete debacles, such as the Sharpe saga. And despite these obvious failings and problems, Cal only doubled down further on his approach, leaving us no hope for the future as long as he remained here. Cal's own stubbornness and inability to adapt and change shortened his UK career, not unreasonable UK fans. He simply wasn't delivering an elite product to match his elite level of pay.

 

[TNCatfanforever]

“He would’ve entered next season on the hot seat. Another season without multiple NCAA Tournament wins and he probably would’ve been fired at this point next season. The 33 million that they owed him after this past season was probably enough to give him another year. But once you get to the point where your athletic director has to release a statement saying you’re coming back as the coach, it’s kind of hard to come back from that. And he had lost the appreciation of the fan base, I guess I’d say, and like you said it was more than just the Oakland loss. It was more than the Saint Peter’s loss. He had essentially refused to adapt to the changes in college basketball roster construction. He was still going heavy on freshmen, he was going into the portal to get one or two guys,” Borzello said.

“But he was still saying, ‘Okay, we’re gonna win young, we’re gonna win with freshmen, we’re gonna win with McDonald’s All Americans.’ And that hadn’t really worked. And like I said, he was still putting guys in the NBA, but the fan base was saying, ‘Hey, we don’t want to consider a player good when he gets $100 million contract. We want him to win championships at Kentucky.’ And I just think that the final straw for most of the fan base was the Oakland loss… But the loss to Oakland and the press conference after where he said we might go into the portal, we might not, we might be young. I just think some of the faith, or whatever remaining faith, the fan base had in Cal was kind of eroded by that point.”

He gets it, the Cal slurping folks know it but are denying it to make UK look bad. They don’t want UK good. They are all Dukies.

 

[bnewt]

What is not getting much attention is the news that even before the end of the regular season Cal was exploring the coaching position at Ohio State. Let me repeat, before the end of the regular season!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just another "me first" move that he told his players not to be. Yet when push came to shove, he pulled a "tubby" and was looking for a job instead of coaching and recruiting. Just another example of his used car salesman 2 faced double talk. To top it off he wanted UK to match Arkansas' offer..........what an over bearing clown. So glad he is gone. Hopefully, the next coach can return UK to prominence and unite the fan base.

 

[bnewt]

Any of the talking heads who are suggesting UK fans were being unreasonable for not accepting the results of the back-half of Cal's tenure here are the ones being unreasonable. Cal wasn't getting UK type results here. We had complete debacles, such as the Sharpe saga. And despite these obvious failings and problems, Cal only doubled down further on his approach, leaving us no hope for the future as long as he remained here. Cal's own stubbornness and inability to adapt and change shortened his UK career, not unreasonable UK fans. He simply wasn't delivering an elite product to match his elite level of pay.

and he was not going to change anything because his arrogance would not allow him to admit that he was wrong

 

[ACTSEAN]

Cal did the university a huge favor by not waiting on them to fire him. His ego (like most coaches) is huge and he probably didn't want to leave on someone's else's terms, but he could of taken the buyout and rode off into the sunset. I'm glad that he decided to part ways and not hurt Kentucky.

I think he was so desperate he relied on a friend, the perfect friend, for this situation to get him out asap.

 

[CatPhight]

Refused to adapt and or surround himself with the coaches and staff support to prop up his blind spots and weaknesses.

Worst situational in-game coach in program history.