Not necessarily. It depends on if he truly embraces new style. If he does he can be great again. Hard to teach an old dog new tricks.
How long will the UK brass be patient with John Calipari?
- Thread starter Catswin9
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Not necessarily. It depends on if he truly embraces new style. If he does he can be great again. Hard to teach an old dog new tricks.
Lol, good God shut up.
Actually, right now going into this season with a talented roster is a good time to define expectations. I hope that the AD has done it in a one on one setting with this coach.
The media hates Cal, they loved Tubby a lot
more. I don’t see UK being the villain if they fire Cal. I see them being neutral or kicking him while he is down.
Cal makes a run or he’s gone after this season. It’s that simple. He needs to win big win the sec and make a final four.
Tubby never missed the tourney here. That's what part of the firestorm was. He also never had below a 20 win season. Cal has missed the tourney twice here. And has had a below win 20 season, albeit a wonky one. Tubby was also gracious with the media and fans. Cal, well, can have moments where he's not. Tubby's downfall was recruiting and it was starting to show. No shame in that. Cal's has been flexibility and stubbornness.
There will not be the same firestorm. Not even close.
No kidding. I can remember when being in the S16 was a GIVEN. And E8's were a high probability. If you lost in the E8 or FF it sucked, but you were usually playing a really good or hot team.
We haven't seen a S16 since 2018. Just....gross.
I personally want him gone no matter what this team does. The reasons have been discussed ad nauseum on here fpr at least 2 years. He needs TO GO after this season
So, if he wins a second national championship this upcoming season, you want him gone?
You fire a HOF coach with a title and one of only two coaches in the history of the game to take three different teams to the final four (implying he's a hell of a coach), you will receive media backlash that's all there is to it. With all that said, it's a moot point, he's not getting fired unless they just miss the tourney. Just too much money for Craft to pony up.
He's not nearly a media darling. He's literally been lambasted by some of the media folks for his lack of performance (and not just UK Media).
In my perfect world, Cal wins his second title and rides off into the sunset.
If you're happy with the product Calipari has put on the floor recently...last 3 years +...then YOU are part of the problem. Expectations at UK should always be high. Like, in the hunt for Final Four every year high. In a world where 'lowering the bar' has become the norm, it is easy to excuse one season of bad performance...then another and another. Next thing you know you have a 9-16 record and early exits from the tournament multiple years running. Mediocrity is a creeping death. It doesn't happen overnight. But, when you become OK with mediocrity, you'll find it's a hard habit to break.
The Kentucky basketball program is in the danger area IMO. Another subpar year with a early exit from both the SEC and NCAA tournaments and the slope gets very slippery, fast.
The Kentucky basketball program is in the danger area IMO. Another subpar year with a early exit from both the SEC and NCAA tournaments and the slope gets very slippery, fast.
This has been said about 3 years in a row now.
My expectations are actually very low for Calipari and he still hasn't been meeting them. Those expectations - to actually 100% coach college basketball to win each game. He gives like 30% into actually winning college basketball and I think that's generous.
I'd be thrilled with that - on both counts.
Last 3 years have been unacceptable....it is never acceptable to miss tourney. It is probably the worst 3 year stretch minus regular season of '22 in my entire life as a fan.
I don't hammer Cal for stuff from '16-'20. I think Rothstein hit the nail on the head with his analysis of that timeframe. Games we won '11, '14, '15 we lost in '17, '18, '19.
We all know it is put up or shit up time. He has proven in the past he can turn stuff around rapidly. Hopefully this is the year.
I don't hammer Cal for stuff from '16-'20. I think Rothstein hit the nail on the head with his analysis of that timeframe. Games we won '11, '14, '15 we lost in '17, '18, '19.
We all know it is put up or shit up time. He has proven in the past he can turn stuff around rapidly. Hopefully this is the year.
I for one am ready for the Cal circus to leave town.
Only time it's acceptable to miss a tourney is with injuries/injury. I don't blame him for the Nerlens miss. Plus we were right off the 2012 title so, that didn't hurt as bad. Nerlens was that team and when he went down we all kinda knew that was game over. But it's still a missed tourney. So....
The rest. All on Cal. And it's put up or shut up time for sure. Last year was truly that, but with the incoming class he got a stay of execution.
If he can't do it this year? I don't think he ever will again.
I just want to win again. If he is winning, totally happy with him.
No. It hasn’t. This has been the season or the make or break point everyone has pointed to
I’m in the same boat. If he wins it i’ll celebrate and be happy as hell. but i’ll also hope that would be enough for him to call it a career. He’s had a great career. But i just don’t trust him to consistently put a contender on the floor anymore. Too many rebuilds and too many “wait till next years” in his 14 years.
I think the rest of college basketball, or enough of it, has figured him out and there’s certain things that he just can’t bring himself to change and that will prevent him from ever being at the top of the sport again like he was for that 10 year stretch from 2006-2015
The team will likely be better this year, but there's more to winning a title than a recruiting class, and for that reason I highly doubt he's winning a title this year. Other teams got better, even more so, AND they have a coach who places their program before anything else, and they know what to do with said talent. His teams have often won in spite of him, due to talent. That ain't changing.
I kinda said it last year, but he's got this class so I wasn't as keen on laying down the gauntlet. This year, it's down. It's put up or shut up time.
This mindset is crazy to me. All I want to do is win. I don't care if it's with Cal or someone else. If Cal shows this year that his approach to offense has changed (which there are strong hints that it will), that he's surrounded himself by the type of people that he needs in order to be successful and he wins it all...why wouldn't we want him to stay? And your second paragraph makes no sense.. If he wins it all, there are still certain things that he just can't bring himself to change and that will prevent him from ever being at the top again? Wouldn't that thought be proven wrong if he wins it all?
There’s more for Cal to prove than just that he can still win a ship. He has to prove that he can still consistently field great teams. You can’t do that in one great season.
Does that mean he has to win it every year? Of course not. Tons of great teams don’t win it. I just need to see some combination of 1 seeds with deep runs, final fours, a title in back to back seasons before i’ll believe we’re better off sticking with him than moving on.
Frankly i’m convinced and have been convivned for several years now that we would be better off moving on. He can’t undo that in a single season no matter how good it is because i’m thinking about the long term and Cal is also 64 years old and not getting any younger.
Pitino had only been here for 6 seasons at that point. only 4 post season eligible. Cal has been here for 14. What an idiotic comparison. This is why idiots in the fan base shouldn’t be given internet access.
Because so far, he has no Edwards, Wagner, Bradshaw, Reeves, Dillingham, or Oscar on next years team. Is he even recruiting anyone?
The bottom line is, Cal got most of his top recruiting targets this year, but his system requires him to have a team full of first rounders/lottery picks, because he's a C- bench coach running an F- offense. do you think he can actually recruit this level of class every year?
The answer is no.
I didn’t realize we went 9-16 in '93, lost to Saint Peters in '94 and had 12 losses in '95 with a 2nd round exit.
Hmm, learn something new every day.
I’m not saying I want him here forever, but the idea of wanting him to move on after winning it all because he doesn’t have it anymore seems odd to me.
No, I don’t think he can recruit to this level every year, but if he wins it all, and shows that his offensive philosophy has changed (which has been one of the biggest issues the past few years), why would you run him out of town? The idea of wanting a coach to leave after he wins a national championship is crazy.
I understand where you’re coming from, but Cal's priorities are still centered around the NBA draft and how many kids he can stuff into the league.
The last time he won a title, he stated "I told Ellen, well, we got that out of the way, so now, lets concentrate on this being about the kids, lets change lives". He can go join the United Way, or a soup kitchen and do more good than getting pre determined lottery picks drafted.
His mindset is still the same and the amount of effort it is taking for Cal to not suck, is just too much for a 65 year old man to sustain, so I would love it if he poured everything he had into this season, then hung it up. That way he leaves on his terms and leaves on top.
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It mostly comes down to politics if winning the championship isnt good enough for some. Those types are the exact types that give us a bad name as a fanbase. "Even if he wins the championship he needs to go". So you have a coach, who bends over backwards to help during any disaster etc, at that point would've won two ships and you don't want him back? LOL
You don't think the 2020 team would have a really good shot at a final 4. Covid year, you have a bug up your ass about this one. Experienced teams were going to dominate. No way to get any simulance of team building is going to take place with a young team. The past 2 years. The chemistry wasn't there and the teams that were put together were 100% on Cal. He's tried to fix all the problems that existed this year.
PJ hits his free throws and we're in another final 4. So no not over the last 6 years has he failed. 2 of the those yes.
