If we start "keeping up with the Joneses," it will not end well for us. The NCAA would set up shop in Lexington and spend as much time and money as it took to ruin Calipari and our program for good. There always has been a double standard in the way NCAA "rules" are "enforced." We have historically been on the wrong side of that double standard, and will likely still be there regardless of who is coaching us.
There is a biased perception in the mainstream sports media world that K, Self, and Roy Williams are the "good guys." Good guys who run their programs with "integrity." However, we learned during the past year that, aside from the exploitation of underage hookers and velocity of female bodily fluids against ceiling tiles aspects, most coaches and programs were about as dirty as Pitino and UL had become. Yet, with as much bad press as Cal has received about past scandals, it is now evident that he simply isn't cheating his ass off like everyone else. And it is also evident that, aside from enforcement of rules against peripheral programs, the NCAA has no interest in actually punishing teams on the "right side" of their double standard.
Losing Williamson last year and Wiseman this season are the Anagnorisis Calipari needs to go back to the drawing board and revisit each aspect of the program. He has ample opportunity to figure out a way to do more to keep kids who are moldable and willing to stay. And to find some assistants who can help give us an edge in the technical aspects of the game.
If Calipari refuses to adapt, to deviate from "one and done," losing Wiseman will be the coaching peripeteia that will mark the beginning of his decline here as a coach.
What we are doing now will win plenty of ballgames. But trying to put together championship squads, while at the same time turning over the majority of the roster each season, is too much to ask of any coach. It literally takes lightning in a bottle for that to work, especially when you've got hacks like Higgins also in the mix to derail championship runs.
There is a biased perception in the mainstream sports media world that K, Self, and Roy Williams are the "good guys." Good guys who run their programs with "integrity." However, we learned during the past year that, aside from the exploitation of underage hookers and velocity of female bodily fluids against ceiling tiles aspects, most coaches and programs were about as dirty as Pitino and UL had become. Yet, with as much bad press as Cal has received about past scandals, it is now evident that he simply isn't cheating his ass off like everyone else. And it is also evident that, aside from enforcement of rules against peripheral programs, the NCAA has no interest in actually punishing teams on the "right side" of their double standard.
Losing Williamson last year and Wiseman this season are the Anagnorisis Calipari needs to go back to the drawing board and revisit each aspect of the program. He has ample opportunity to figure out a way to do more to keep kids who are moldable and willing to stay. And to find some assistants who can help give us an edge in the technical aspects of the game.
If Calipari refuses to adapt, to deviate from "one and done," losing Wiseman will be the coaching peripeteia that will mark the beginning of his decline here as a coach.
What we are doing now will win plenty of ballgames. But trying to put together championship squads, while at the same time turning over the majority of the roster each season, is too much to ask of any coach. It literally takes lightning in a bottle for that to work, especially when you've got hacks like Higgins also in the mix to derail championship runs.