Mitch's failure wasn't just the contract. It was...

[bigblueinsanity]

Allowing calipari to infect and takeover UK basketball. Initially cal made things about him and UK. Then pretty quickly it all became only cal. The last several years cal used the job to gather and promote only himself.

All of the players. All of the pop culture connections. All the most prominent nil relationships. All cal. Nothing about UK.

Of course the contract was a big part of that, but allowing the parasitic treatment of the program is the most inexcusable part of Mitch's failure

 

[jjsomer]

I think you forgot how the 2009 - 2015 years of Calipari were. Calipari could've run for Governor and won. Every competent-thinking fan wanted Calipari to retire here. No one...and I mean no one saw this end coming back then.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

I think you forgot how the 2009 - 2015 years of Calipari were. Calipari could've run for Governor and won. Every competent-thinking fan wanted Calipari to retire here. No one...and I mean no one saw this end coming back then.

Part of being a leader is planning for business continuation. A coaching stint always ends one way or the other. You cannot let a coach completely hijack your program like this.

Granted you hope to not hire any such parasite but when you hire bcg, you sell your soul.

 

[jjsomer]

Just to clarify...this is the best way to end the UK basketball and Calipari relationship. He needs to find another place to coach. The last four years' results are evidence enough of that.

 

[jjsomer]

Part of being a leader is planning for business continuation. A coaching stint always ends one way or the other. You cannot let a coach completely hijack your program like this.

Granted you hope to not hire any such parasite but when you hire bcg, you sell your soul.

I agree completely. Mitch made a lot of bad decisions in hindsight regarding Calipari. I'm just saying that 2009-2015 would have been a really bad look to the fanbase for Mitch had he tried to reign in Calipari's ego. The fans didn't give a second thought to Calipari's obvious personality flaws in those years. A handful did after the Wisconsin loss - and the criticisms of Calipari only grew from there.

 

[North Carolina Blue Wildcat]

Without the massive contract I believe Cal would have worked harder and goals would have aligned more with his prior work. The reality is that the contract gave him free reign to do whatever he wanted with no accountability. He is fortunate that he was under such a favorable contract because he should’ve and would’ve been fired for this dumpster fire he created and burned down.