He made Kentucky cool again. Probably from about 2000-2009, we were not a cool program. For ten long years, we were a great program, but we were not a program that your average pedestrian sports fan would spend any time talking about.
That changed again with Cal (it was certainly there with Pitino as well). For the last 15 years, I've been a coach, a mentor, a counselor, and a teacher. I've worked with around 2,000 young people in the Chicagoland area. Kentucky was almost always a talking point with the young men who followed basketball. They knew all about John Wall and De'Aaron Fox and Cousins. This year, they talked extensively about Rob Dillingham.
Cal put us on the map with nominal basketball fans. I remember going to the United Center on multiple occasions to watch the McDonald's All-American games that took place between 2011-2017. I'd always wear my UK clothing to the games. I remember running into Chicago urban UK fans, who said they had become UK fans because of the types of players we were landing. This was especially true when I went to watch the 2014-2015 game against UCLA, where UK jumped out to that enormous lead. My friends and I were surrounded by a multitude of diverse UK fan -- some sporting festive UK bling, other conservative in their UK attire, some white, some black, some Latino -- but all of us celebrating the excitement together. We were unified under that UK banner.
Cal did that. He made it happen in ways not even Pitino had.
He also stockpiled our NBA shelves with more NBA talent in a 15 year span than we've have in the history of the program. That will be significant going forward, especially as players like Booker and Fox and SGA continue to become the face of the NBA. The UK brand is still strong.
So I am grateful for Cal. He left at just the right time, before it got too bitter. He reestablished UK's brand and made Kentucky the coolest program in the nation for almost a decade. He stockpiled the NBA with our players, and he gave the next coach a nice head start when it comes to selling the Kentucky brand.
This is how I'll mostly remember Cal. I'm grateful for his run. I'm also grateful that he's gone now. It was time.
Looking forward to the next chapter with all of you,
Son_Of_Saul
That changed again with Cal (it was certainly there with Pitino as well). For the last 15 years, I've been a coach, a mentor, a counselor, and a teacher. I've worked with around 2,000 young people in the Chicagoland area. Kentucky was almost always a talking point with the young men who followed basketball. They knew all about John Wall and De'Aaron Fox and Cousins. This year, they talked extensively about Rob Dillingham.
Cal put us on the map with nominal basketball fans. I remember going to the United Center on multiple occasions to watch the McDonald's All-American games that took place between 2011-2017. I'd always wear my UK clothing to the games. I remember running into Chicago urban UK fans, who said they had become UK fans because of the types of players we were landing. This was especially true when I went to watch the 2014-2015 game against UCLA, where UK jumped out to that enormous lead. My friends and I were surrounded by a multitude of diverse UK fan -- some sporting festive UK bling, other conservative in their UK attire, some white, some black, some Latino -- but all of us celebrating the excitement together. We were unified under that UK banner.
Cal did that. He made it happen in ways not even Pitino had.
He also stockpiled our NBA shelves with more NBA talent in a 15 year span than we've have in the history of the program. That will be significant going forward, especially as players like Booker and Fox and SGA continue to become the face of the NBA. The UK brand is still strong.
So I am grateful for Cal. He left at just the right time, before it got too bitter. He reestablished UK's brand and made Kentucky the coolest program in the nation for almost a decade. He stockpiled the NBA with our players, and he gave the next coach a nice head start when it comes to selling the Kentucky brand.
This is how I'll mostly remember Cal. I'm grateful for his run. I'm also grateful that he's gone now. It was time.
Looking forward to the next chapter with all of you,
Son_Of_Saul
