SEC Coaches give thoughts on Cal and Arkansas
- Thread starter WildcatUKx
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Same things they said about him when he was here at UK.
It would be kind of funny if all those quotes from anonymous SEC coaches were just quotes from Pope.
But that quote from the article pretty much sums it up as far as I'm concerned. The root of all his problems is he just doesn't care. You don't take three schools to Final Fours in three different decades if you're unable to adapt. He just doesn't care enough to do so at this point.
“There’s just no fear now when I see him on the other sideline,” one SEC head coach told Hoops HQ. “The game has changed and he is becoming archaic.” It may be early in Calipari’s tenure at Arkansas, but it’s already feeling like he’s running out of time.
I don’t believe that Mark Pope would ever say anything like that.
Been the case for a while...just look at little Oakland and St. Peters. 😐
No doubt. Oakland's coach made no bones about it leading up to the game. He was giddy about facing cal.
If Cal hadn’t had Welch running offense last season it would have been terrible!
He knew after 1 season he couldn’t handle Cal anymore and bolted..
Absolutely, and it was a good call.
That article gives a solid summation of the situation. Folks here should read it.
It feels oddly vindicating to know the rest of the CBB (well, except for Seth Greenberg) now sees the things we’ve been saying for years.
It takes a bigtime drive, effort, endless energy, extreme focus and a hunger to win in today's college basketball. Cal is tired and the only thing that drives him, is helping families.
Winning college basketball games doesn’t do that. The kids already have their college money, so why play hard and why try to make them play hard, especially when they are talking to the next batch of recruits you are trying to land.
Cal took on way too much while trying to be a boss at UK and it wore him right down.
The part that I don't understand, is his 'I don’t care' attitude. People are paying him big money to win games, not prioriize draft picks. You have to have some serious balls to take the money, take the NIL, ask for more NIL, not put the best coaching staff together, hire your worthless son, hire KP's worthless ass, get rid of Welsh and roll out the same old tired POS system that you know doesn't work.
He knows he's doing this for his own selfish reasons and he knows these people, the fans and the administration are expecting wins, but he refuses to prioritize wins and he continues to make promises to get recruits and he doesn't care. That's what money and narcissism does to guys like this.
Winning college basketball games doesn’t do that. The kids already have their college money, so why play hard and why try to make them play hard, especially when they are talking to the next batch of recruits you are trying to land.
Cal took on way too much while trying to be a boss at UK and it wore him right down.
The part that I don't understand, is his 'I don’t care' attitude. People are paying him big money to win games, not prioriize draft picks. You have to have some serious balls to take the money, take the NIL, ask for more NIL, not put the best coaching staff together, hire your worthless son, hire KP's worthless ass, get rid of Welsh and roll out the same old tired POS system that you know doesn't work.
He knows he's doing this for his own selfish reasons and he knows these people, the fans and the administration are expecting wins, but he refuses to prioritize wins and he continues to make promises to get recruits and he doesn't care. That's what money and narcissism does to guys like this.
2015 really messed with Cal’s head. Then the screw jobs in 2017 and 2019 further embittered him. Then came covid. Then the death of Terrence Clarke. On top of all this, he aged another decade. All of these things together made Cal what he is today… a shell of his former self.
The last 5 years he was stealing money from us, and if not for Arkansas, still would be but now he's just stealing from them. His "helping families" is the ridiculous fallback excuse for his cult and to excuse all his failings. That reason stopped being a thing 10 years ago. When Wall came here or his Memphis teams, he certainly was the only coach who wasn't bullying kids into staying multiple years and good on him for that. But when Kryzewksi adopted the model it changed for everybody and he couldn't make that claim anymore.
It's been a death by a 1000 cuts. I think most of us were (and are) fine with "one and done" so long as it was a symbiotic relationship. If the players and coaches put their all into what was best for the team which is winning games and titles, then we wish you well after 1 year here. But when Shaedon Sharpe happens, mysterious injuries, players talking about just wanting to get their year here out of the way, a coach playing someone who's not deserving to start over another because they're a 5-star and the better player is a 4-star or he's doing favors for a particular sports agent, it wasn't only no longer symbiotic, it had become parasitic.
Zero #1 seeds in nearly 10 year's, 1 SEC title (both regular season and tournament) in the past 8 years, a losing season, the worst 5-year winning percentage since pre-Rupp the last 5-years, the 9th best (or worst) winning percentage against the Top 25 among then 14 SEC schools the last 5-years, the archaic offense, the every year excuse of '"how young" we are, the dismissal of analytics, the mocking of the "bennies", and just the general "don't give a fuk" from statements about not watching game film on opponents, wanting to go home to play with his dog, watching "Little House on the Prairie" , saying " I don't care about the SEC Tournament " to even saying at the end of the last season "what are they gonna do, fire me?" And those are the ones just off the top of my head. Arkansas ignored all that over the six or so years and focused on our players getting drafted and his history before that. We give Mitch a hard time but that Yurachek guy, God love him for being inept and gullible.
It's been a death by a 1000 cuts. I think most of us were (and are) fine with "one and done" so long as it was a symbiotic relationship. If the players and coaches put their all into what was best for the team which is winning games and titles, then we wish you well after 1 year here. But when Shaedon Sharpe happens, mysterious injuries, players talking about just wanting to get their year here out of the way, a coach playing someone who's not deserving to start over another because they're a 5-star and the better player is a 4-star or he's doing favors for a particular sports agent, it wasn't only no longer symbiotic, it had become parasitic.
Zero #1 seeds in nearly 10 year's, 1 SEC title (both regular season and tournament) in the past 8 years, a losing season, the worst 5-year winning percentage since pre-Rupp the last 5-years, the 9th best (or worst) winning percentage against the Top 25 among then 14 SEC schools the last 5-years, the archaic offense, the every year excuse of '"how young" we are, the dismissal of analytics, the mocking of the "bennies", and just the general "don't give a fuk" from statements about not watching game film on opponents, wanting to go home to play with his dog, watching "Little House on the Prairie" , saying " I don't care about the SEC Tournament " to even saying at the end of the last season "what are they gonna do, fire me?" And those are the ones just off the top of my head. Arkansas ignored all that over the six or so years and focused on our players getting drafted and his history before that. We give Mitch a hard time but that Yurachek guy, God love him for being inept and gullible.
Wow.
You have to feel better now that you got that off your chest and in writing. Lot of thought. Some good insights
That's a long and damning list of Calipari's failures. What's intriguing is that if you make a corresponding list of opposites, that is Mark Pope. Maybe someone who's off work today can make us a nice compare/contrast table!
Can't adapt and out dated really hit the nail on the head, and he is too arrogant to change.
Man, when you read this… it makes you realize just how much grace UK fans gave Calipari. And to be sure, he earned it with his results those first 5 years. But by the time he left, he had MORE than worn out his welcome.
Yeah that one hurt and it’s true. It’s why we lost to so many teams that shouldn’t compete with us under him. Teams were never scared no matter who we had on the court.
I don't think it would be BP, they haven't played Arkansas yet and the last two head to head meetings he had with Cal, he got destroyed.
I bet it was Todd Golden.
He hasn't been feared for a long time. The Fox/Monk/Bam squad is probably the last time anyone feared him.
He's aged a decade since April...I'd like to see side by side pictures of his first press conference as a Hog and his latest, after the loss to Mizzou. The man went from (upper) middle-aged to great-grandfather in the course of half a year
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