My bottom line take.

[fredmanthecatfan]

A first round loss.
Change the locks. Announce a vacancy.
No discussion. Have lawyers negotiate a settlement.
Mitch is forced to resign for signing contract.

A second round loss. Mitch calls Cal and invites him to participate in how he leaves. Give him the option to resign with a fraction of his buyout. Let him know that under no circumstances will he coach at UK next season and it will be a cold day in Hell before he gets the full sum of his buyout.

Sweet 16. Encourage him to resign with honor. Allow him to make his case to return. Set specific objectives that must be met if he stays.

Elite 8. Very similar to sweet 16 with a friendlier tone.

Final 4. Good improvement. Now what’s the plan to improve upon that next year? Who’s coming back? How do the new recruits fit in? Are we starting a new roster all over again?

Championship. Keep up the good work coach.

 

[TheDude73]

What about runner up?

 

[Wildcats1st]

A first round loss.
Change the locks. Announce a vacancy.
No discussion. Have lawyers negotiate a settlement.
Mitch is forced to resign for signing contract.

A second round loss. Mitch calls Cal and invites him to participate in how he leaves. Give him the option to resign with a fraction of his buyout. Let him know that under no circumstances will he coach at UK next season and it will be a cold day in Hell before he gets the full sum of his buyout.

Sweet 16. Encourage him to resign with honor. Allow him to make his case to return. Set specific objectives that must be met if he stays.

Elite 8. Very similar to sweet 16 with a friendlier tone.

Final 4. Good improvement. Now what’s the plan to improve upon that next year? Who’s coming back? How do the new recruits fit in? Are we starting a new roster all over again?

Championship. Keep up the good work coach.

This is my feeling that cal will do enough that spineless Barney does nothing. A sweet sixteen or elite 8 is the worst outcome.

 

[ukcatz12]

Let him know that under no circumstances will he coach at UK next season and it will be a cold day in Hell before he gets the full sum of his buyout.

This is not how contracts work.

 

[Dontworryboutit23]

Sweet 16 is probably the worst possible spot, because Mitch will take it as a positive and not do anything

 

[Wildcats1st]

This is not how contracts work.

Well yeah it is. You fire him for cause then make cal sue. The judge will award a partial buyout because a good attorney will find where cal violated parts of his contract.

 

[Wildcats1st]

Sweet 16 is probably the worst possible spot, because Mitch will take it as a positive and not do anything

That man is laying in his bed hoping they make a sweet sixteen right now. They will shove that narrative down our throat.

 

[BGCATFAN2012]

You know it's gonna be crickets from Mitch and Cal will probably have the balls to skip the last press conference.

 

[fredmanthecatfan]

This is not how contracts work.

Obviously I haven’t read the contract, but he has committed coaching malpractice. There has to be something in there that would make it a little less cut and dry.

 

[BStockfan01]

You absolutely have to make an elite 8 minimum. 4 years and 1 secT win and the past 5 years of ncaaT results are unforgivable. Sticking with wheeler for 2 years is also unforgivable.

 

[Rideordiewildcat]

My buddy just text me from Nashville saying this sucks. I said no shit dummy. That's why I'm at home. Don't trust the Calipillar.

Just when you think he's gonna turn into a beautiful butterfly, he's just a slug again.

 

[Skyguyb27]

This is my feeling that cal will do enough that spineless Barney does nothing. A sweet sixteen or elite 8 is the worst outcome.

Cut bait now before he can then. LuL he would be mad af if Mitch did that.

 

[ukcatz12]

Well yeah it is. You fire him for cause then make cal sue. The judge will award a partial buyout because a good attorney will find where cal violated parts of his contract.

You're absolutely crazy if you think Cal can be fired for cause. A judge would rule in his favor in five seconds. I have read the contract, and it clearly defines what "for cause" is and it isn't losing basketball games or making statements about the NBA draft.

 

[G-PIP]

UK is not going to be one of the top teams competing for a title year-in-and-year-out again unless the method of roster construction changes. Other coaches may have figured out a better approach to improve the defense and rebounding than Calipari has this season. For example, you would think a top coach wouldn’t get beat by a middling conference opponent the same way twice. Still, outside of a fluke, I don’t think any coach is likely to win a championship without having multiple really good upperclassmen – probably at least one of which needs to be All-American level - starting and playing the majority of the minutes. History strongly supports this.

But this team – which is a typical Calipari roster - consists of two seniors, two sophomores, and eight freshmen. Reeves is obviously the type of upperclassman needed. But Mitchell has sort of disappeared, presumably due to injury (although he played better tonight), and isn’t a real physical presence to begin with. Thiero has really improved and is a good piece to have this season, but he is still only 19 and maybe a year away from having a major impact on winning consistently. And the situation with Onyenso is similar to Thiero.

Basically by design, UK does not have enough high level upperclassmen to make this team one of the best in CBB. Freshmen in general, and certainly as a group, are not good enough if you intend to compete for titles. It doesn’t matter if you have five starting freshmen who are all 5-stars and projected lottery picks. They make too many negative plays, and not enough winning plays. Their lack of experience, physical maturity and development is going to bite the team in the end. The best freshmen on contending teams are most often role players. For the first time, however, Calipari’s over-reliance on freshman has surprisingly not led to insufficient 3pt. shooting and a lack of dependable offense. Although post scoring is weak, the main problem this season has been the defense and rebounding, which has been due partly to lack of maturity and toughness – again a problem largely related to a freshman dominated roster.

 

[ArtLaibsGhost]

Sweet 16 will give Barney a fig leaf to hide behind to do nothing. IMO only a first round loss will get the job done. Second round and I think Cal stays unfortunately,hope I'm wrong

 

[Rideordiewildcat]

Sweet 16 will give Barney a fig leaf to hide behind to do nothing. IMO only a first round loss will get the job done. Second round and I think Cal stays unfortunately,hope I'm wrong

Good God can you imagine losing as a 3 or 4 seed 1st rd.? After the Saint Peter's debacle, I mean, I would hope if that happened Cow would just say I'm done.

Instead of, young teams make mistakes. They're not machines, I hate losing. Now let's talk about that draft. A chance at history. Whomp whomp whommm...

 

[bippus]

1 SEC win and 1 NCAA win in 5 years. Cal makes apprx 40 mil in 5 years. Is that crazy.

 

[G-PIP]

Good God can you imagine losing as a 3 or 4 seed 1st rd.? After the Saint Peter's debacle, I mean, I would hope if that happened Cow would just say I'm done.

Instead of, young teams make mistakes. They're not machines, I hate losing. Now let's talk about that draft. A chance at history. Whomp whomp whommm...

How can you use "we're the youngest team in the country" over and over as an excuse - especially in March - when you purposely cause that to be the case year after year AND every other college coach and CBB pundit knows that's not a recipe to compete for championships.

 

[IH8BlueDevilsandUNcheat]

were going to lose game #10 this season and 10 or more next season ... its a fact of Cal

 

[TexKat]

Sweet 16 is probably the worst possible spot, because Mitch will take it as a positive and not do anything

Cats won't make the Sweet 16

 

[fredmanthecatfan]

I’m no lawyer. I did just read the contract. Nothing in there about performance. I still think there could be avenues to mitigate the buyout, which isn’t quite as high as I thought, but still ridiculously high.

Anyway, my preference would be for this team to win 6 more games.

 

[BlueSince92]

This is my feeling that cal will do enough that spineless Barney does nothing. A sweet sixteen or elite 8 is the worst outcome.

This. The first and second round plans were on the right track and then suddenly and for no discernible reason we’re hypothetically kissing the man’s ass. He should be automatically out if we don’t make the Final Four. By rights it ought to be a title and I personally would say no thank you if it’s not a title. But I’m a realist and I know a Final Four will save his job. An E8 though? ChatGPT could win an E8 with its own roster at Kentucky. That’s not what you use to try to dig yourself out of a hole this deep.

 

[catben]

Cal will NOT leave unless he gets EVERY PENNY of the buyout.

I HATE IT, but that is where this is headed.

Cal doesn't care anymore about winning. It's obvious when you watch this team play defense. Heck, Cal made Jorts into a decent defender and he can't teach 8 future NBA players how to defend???!!!!!

He has LOST all of the pride in his work that made him a great coach those first 8 seasons. That dude is GONE!!!

So we are STUCK with this CRAPPY coach because Mitch Barnhart gave him that RIDICULOUS contract!!! He needs to be fired!!!

 

[Fox2monk]

This is my feeling that cal will do enough that spineless Barney does nothing. A sweet sixteen or elite 8 is the worst outcome.

That honestly feels like a miracle to me. Cal is so freaking tense and scared he will do his usual 15 different lineups and get us all screwed up.

 

[Fox2monk]

Cal will NOT leave unless he gets EVERY PENNY of the buyout.

I HATE IT, but that is where this is headed.

Cal doesn't care anymore about winning. It's obvious when you watch this team play defense. Heck, Cal made Jorts into a decent defender and he can't teach 8 future NBA players how to defend???!!!!!

He has LOST all of the pride in his work that made him a great coach those first 8 seasons. That dude is GONE!!!

So we are STUCK with this CRAPPY coach because Mitch Barnhart gave him that RIDICULOUS contract!!! He needs to be fired!!!

Exactly! That 2011 teams had like 7 dudes max too and he got them to a final 4.

 

[IH8BlueDevilsandUNcheat]

just get back to me 10 or so years from now, what this team did...

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Calipari: 45 losses in the last four years. About to 46.

For reference, Pitino had a total of 50 losses in eight years here, including those two probation years.

 

[IH8BlueDevilsandUNcheat]

C ... C ... C