The light bulbs are finally turning on.

[BigBlueFanGA]

“Arkansas Stock Been Sold”: Pressure Mounts on John Calipari’s Reign as Razorbacks’ NCAA Dreams Falter Amid Criticism

What did basketball analyst have to say about the Arkansas Razorbacks' performance and why John Calipari should be held responsible?

www.essentiallysports.com

 

[BlueBomb]

A slight tangent:

Time heals most wounds. But Cal is a wound that will fester for a long time.

I never thought there would be a more egregious slap in the face than when Pitino went to Louisville. But now Pitino has been welcomed back by many (most?).

But Cal did something that many will never forgive. He dissed the fanbase. He dissed the program. He snubbed his nose at big-money boosters that supported the program financially for decades. He fought with the administration. He bad-mouthed his boss. He called us Basketball Bennies. He preached the player was more important than the University. I could go on.

I'm not sure I'll ever forgive Pitino for what he did, but he at least has always professed love for UK. Cal? Not so much.

 

[Smashcat]

 

[chroix]

He knows the Bennies were right. He’s destroyed his legacy trying to prove us wrong. But he knows.

 

[SemperFiCat]

I wish Cal would've gone to program I hated and destroyed it. I can at least respect Arkansas and their fans. They don't deserve this. Cal at Tennessee or IU would've been a gift from heaven.

 

[Cawood86]

Me personally, not wasting time caring or concerning myself with him or how he does.

He's gone thank goodness. Don't really care what he does or says. Ain't our problem no more.

 

[Bluesnky]

I’m very confused as to why they are playing Aidoo, Brazile, and Z all at the center position. Cal could play Z at the PF spot and one of the other two at center, put Theiro at SF, and then play Fland/Davis/Wagner at the guard positions. He finally has a roster where he could play a very big lineup without anyone playing out of position, but he’s not doing it.

 

[trueblujr2]

The authour of that article said that Cal took four guys with him that were supposed to be at UK. Wagner, Z Thiero and Davis. Pretty sure Davis wasn't set to be at UK before Cal left. He should have listed Fland and Knox as those guys were committed to UK. Davis wasn't.

 

[Pygmy Sasquatch]

ha ha squeal piggies, all the way home

 

[rick64]

CCC stayed several years too long. IMHO.

 

[North Carolina Blue Wildcat]

Cal held the fans and the program hostage for years and tried to convince us we were stupid, that we didn’t understand basketball. Everything was about him, for him, his ego, and his legacy. Had he been able to maintain the humility he showed during his introductory press conference, who knows what he could have accomplished. He lost me several years back with his nonsense, stupid sayings, lack of discipline and direction for the program. I won’t be one of the ones welcoming him back down the road, his condescending approach to leadership doesn’t deserve my support and respect.

 

[SemperFiCat]

Cal held the fans and the program hostage for years and tried to convince us we were stupid, that we didn’t understand basketball. Everything was about him, for him, his ego, and his legacy. Had he been able to maintain the humility he showed during his introductory press conference, who knows what he could have accomplished. He lost me several years back with his nonsense, stupid sayings, lack of discipline and direction for the program. I won’t be one of the ones welcoming him back down the road, his condescending approach to leadership doesn’t deserve my support and respect.

Yep, I've said it for years. Cal is actually a tremendously poor leader. If you've spent a lot of time under strong leadership, you can recognize poor leadership easily. Cal never takes accountability. And what makes it worse, his pride and ego deflect blame to others. And his condescending attitude towards BBN is a defense mechanism.

 

[jrpross]

I wish Cal would've gone to program I hated and destroyed it. I can at least respect Arkansas and their fans. They don't deserve this. Cal at Tennessee or IU would've been a gift from heaven.

Oh God, Cal at Indiana would have been hilarious. Their brain dead fans would have been lauding him as the messiah.

 

[Montana81]

CCC stayed several years too long. IMHO.

Should have been gone after 2021 when he went 9-16. And if that wasn’t enough the Shaedon Sharpe crap should have earned him his walking papers.

 

[Digger-Cat]

Cal held the fans and the program hostage for years and tried to convince us we were stupid, that we didn’t understand basketball. Everything was about him, for him, his ego, and his legacy. Had he been able to maintain the humility he showed during his introductory press conference, who knows what he could have accomplished. He lost me several years back with his nonsense, stupid sayings, lack of discipline and direction for the program. I won’t be one of the ones welcoming him back down the road, his condescending approach to leadership doesn’t deserve my support and respect.

He put himself and certain players above the program and told us to shut our mouths about it.
He prioritized individual accomplishments and goals over winning and he didn't have to, he could have had both.
When you do these things, you become dead to me. I will never welcome him back.
The funny thing is, he keeps trying to tell Arkansas fans and media that he is a players first guy. He said it in his introductory press conference and he has said it in several pressers since then. He knows what he is doing is selfish and wrong, but he's dead set on staying that course. But Arkansas fans are so excited about stealing UK's HOF coach, that they're not paying attention to what he's saying and doing. They'll learn eventually.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

......and this little piggle went wah wah wah all the way home......

 

[bucsrule8872]

I’m very confused as to why they are playing Aidoo, Brazile, and Z all at the center position. Cal could play Z at the PF spot and one of the other two at center, put Theiro at SF, and then play Fland/Davis/Wagner at the guard positions. He finally has a roster where he could play a very big lineup without anyone playing out of position, but he’s not doing it.

Cal is terrible at roster construction. His teams look like Frankenstein’s monster every year because he tries to get the best talent regardless of positions because of this whole “positionless basketball” philosophy he believes in. He puts the biggest, most athletic players on the floor together as much as possible.

Look at Cal’s roster and look at Pope’s roster.

Which coach do you think put the most thought into constructing their rosters?

 

[runt#69]

Cons:

Lack of situational awareness in games leading to :

Not having a team prepared for a good game plan (i.e. - got zone?)

Calling a late game timeout, or call a timeout for any reason, is not something Cal really does.

Habitually sticking with strange in game lineups with strange roster combinations playing on the floor at the same time.

Cals teams perennially have injured players.

Poor roster construction.

Likes to substitute for red hot players during games..... Either it's a brilliant coaching move to "save" his best player for later in the game or..... Nah.... Don't kid yourself.

This list can, and should, go on and on and on. We lived it. I'm tired of it, him, and glad he's gone.

Pro's :

Great recruiter, no doubt he is a hall of fame recruiter....

Is capable of putting together a good game plan and using his best talent effectively.

Bottom line :

Cals teams win IN SPITE of his coaching, oftentimes. His coaching isn't something you typically looked at and said that was the reason his team won the game.

It's no surprise, now that Calipari has left Kentucky, to see the sharks circling him. He's with a lesser program now, he never won a title anywhere other than at Kentucky. It's going to place his coaching under the microscope even more as the season goes along.

I expect him to last a few more seasons, struggling along, rolling the balls out for freshmen talent looking to get to the NBA. But a threat for titles, hardware of any kind at Arkansas?

Not a chance.

These are great times for Kentucky basketball, a resurgence in our program with a Coach that truly cares. And wave goodbye to dealing with Calipari drama.

Now we can enjoy the journey once again !

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

It comes down to what we were saying for years.

Cal is a horrific in-game coach.

He's good at signing key talent, and developing players individually and sometimes it comes together to achieve surprising wins (despite the Frankenstein team assembly), but it will never again yield high-end cohesive TEAM oriented results.

 

[yoshukai]

“Arkansas Stock Been Sold”: Pressure Mounts on John Calipari’s Reign as Razorbacks’ NCAA Dreams Falter Amid Criticism

What did basketball analyst have to say about the Arkansas Razorbacks' performance and why John Calipari should be held responsible?

www.essentiallysports.com

Oh crap , Dickie V is not going to like this!

 

[BlueSince92]

It’s not even just that Cal personally went after the fanbase. He held the program hostage for a long time with that insane buyout——traumatized anyone who cared with the prospect that that abuse could have been guaranteed for another three to five years, plus the implications that went along with that: of eventually having to try rebuilding from the ashes in an era when Kentucky had basically never been anything but a laughing stock in the functional memory of most recruits.

It did not go to that complete extent, thank GOD 🙏🏻. But it did go a ways in that direction and it was at least a good two years that people had a strong and serious set of reasons to stress over that whole worst-case scenario really coming down the pike for us.

That’s just not something that’s remotely comparable to Pitino lifting a finger one time. And it takes an extremely grudge-holding personality to try to lift Pitino’s actual offenses into that category. He’s had some personal sins to repent of, don’t we all if we’re honest. But what he actually ever did to harm or even potentially harm our program is zero.

People will come around on Cal too, eventually. He did things *to* us that will always be eyebrow raising, but eventually our reactions when we think of those will mostly be chuckles. But people really do have sincere and valid emotions attached to things they hold dear, especially this fanbase. It’s going to take a while to work through that. Probably two years at a bare minimum. People who can’t understand that, God love ‘em but they must be dealing with autism or something.

 

[JwUKFan11]

Should have went to SMU. They had enough NIL so that he could still recruit guys that are really good and he could out Talent himself to wins.

But he thought he could actually go to another SEC school, keep all the same staff, and run the same "Offense" and prove that the problem the last 5 years was somehow somewhere at UK.

 

[rick64]

“Arkansas Stock Been Sold”: Pressure Mounts on John Calipari’s Reign as Razorbacks’ NCAA Dreams Falter Amid Criticism

What did basketball analyst have to say about the Arkansas Razorbacks' performance and why John Calipari should be held responsible?

www.essentiallysports.com

Be prepared to be canceled by Dukie V, Seth Greenberg and all the other CCC admirers.

 

[Digger-Cat]

Could you imagine this Ark roster at UK this year? This is the least talented class and roster he has had in many years. It's not even better than our 20/21 team, that team had 3 future NBA players on it. After the talent he squandered last year, how could we get excited about THIS roster + Quaintance, - Aidoo?

Now, after you wipe the puke off your lips, go ahead and focus on Cal's coaching staff. He replaced Welch with Brad. Wow.

KP and Coleman are okay, but who is replacing Orlando Antiqua? Who is going to talk Cal into anything? He has a bunch of yes-men on his staff.

Good luck Arkansas fans.

 

[SemperFiCat]

Be prepared to be canceled by Dukie V, Seth Greenberg and all the other CCC admirers.

I honestly don't care. Everyone knows we're right on this, and Cal simply isn't a good basketball coach. His historic squandering of talent leaves no room for debate. Facts are facts.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

All those years uk fans defended "he just rolls the ball out" quips. Turns out those were mostly right all along.

Robic did the coaching. After he left, Cal really was exposed as a fraud. We would've been fortunate if that was all he did. Unfortunately he inserted his awful attempts at coaching into the equation.

 

[know1]

A slight tangent:

Time heals most wounds. But Cal is a wound that will fester for a long time.

I never thought there would be a more egregious slap in the face than when Pitino went to Louisville. But now Pitino has been welcomed back by many (most?).

But Cal did something that many will never forgive. He dissed the fanbase. He dissed the program. He snubbed his nose at big-money boosters that supported the program financially for decades. He fought with the administration. He bad-mouthed his boss. He called us Basketball Bennies. He preached the player was more important than the University. I could go on.

I'm not sure I'll ever forgive Pitino for what he did, but he at least has always professed love for UK. Cal? Not so much.

Yep. Pitino at least didn't try to hurt the program when he was still coaching it. On the other hand, Cal did a lot to hurt the program while he was the coach.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

Yep. Pitino at least didn't try to hurt the program when he was still coaching it. On the other hand, Cal did a lot to hurt the program while he was the coach.

Fair- although for all his shortcomings, I don't think that Cal ever did anything to intentionally sabotage or hurt the program. I think he was just a terrible in-game coach that made some incredibly bad decisions. That, and his blind loyalty to certain players hamstrung our productivity most games.

 

[know1]

Fair- although for all his shortcomings, I don't think that Cal ever did anything to intentionally sabotage or hurt the program. I think he was just a terrible in-game coach that made some incredibly bad decisions. That, and his blind loyalty to certain players hamstrung our productivity most games.

I think he abolutely did things to hurt the program. Putting the draft and the NBA above the program success is a very intentional way of hurting it.

 

[BC_Wader]

I don't know what these analysts were expecting to see. We've been screaming from the rooftops for years now but everyone thought we were crazy. It's Arkansas' problem now and I'm here for the "told ya so's". Btw, wonder how many Cat fans voted in that article. 76%. Run that poll mid season and it should be closer to 90%.

 

[WeWant9]

All those years uk fans defended "he just rolls the ball out" quips. Turns out those were mostly right all along.

Robic did the coaching. After he left, Cal really was exposed as a fraud. We would've been fortunate if that was all he did. Unfortunately he inserted his awful attempts at coaching into the equation.

I think Cal’s coaching is mostly focused on individual drills and skill development, for what he thinks would be best. It’s why we saw guys regress as the season went on, and the teams lacked any real identity because the main focus was always on the individuals. It was great for Cal’s personal goals of nba picks, but terrible for an actual team concept. If he doesn’t have an assistant to pick up the slack, you see the disjointed mess of the last half decade.

 

[FirewithFire]

I never thought there would be a more egregious slap in the face than when Pitino went to Louisville. But now Pitino has been welcomed back by many (most?).

For me, the thing about Pitino going to Louisville is that I can understand his motivations. He chased the money to Boston, realized that he messed up bad, and tried to recapture what he thought was the best time in his life by going back to the state where he was happiest. Problem was, it was Louisville.

He left the program in a good place. I understand it. Time has passed. I can forgive it.

Cal, not so much. He tried to reshape the entire UK program into his personal legacy machine to feed his enormous ego while gaslighting the Big Blue Nation into believing that is all some kind of philanthropic gesture to help poor black kids. Those same kids would have been millionaires even if they had went to Piss Ant University. In the process he drove this program in the ground.

He is dead to me.

 

[know1]

For me, the thing about Pitino going to Louisville is that I can understand his motivations. He chased the money to Boston, realized that he messed up bad, and tried to recapture what he thought was the best time in his life by going back to the state where he was happiest. Problem was, it was Louisville.

He left the program in a good place. I understand it. Time has passed. I can forgive it.

Cal, not so much. He tried to reshape the entire UK program into his personal legacy machine to feed his enormous ego while gaslighting the Big Blue Nation into believing that is all some kind of philanthropic gesture to help poor black kids. Those same kids would have been millionaires even if they had went to Piss Ant University. In the process he drove this program in the ground.

He is dead to me.

Same for me exactly.

 

[BC_Wader]

For me, the thing about Pitino going to Louisville is that I can understand his motivations. He chased the money to Boston, realized that he messed up bad, and tried to recapture what he thought was the best time in his life by going back to the state where he was happiest. Problem was, it was Louisville.

He left the program in a good place. I understand it. Time has passed. I can forgive it.

Cal, not so much. He tried to reshape the entire UK program into his personal legacy machine to feed his enormous ego while gaslighting the Big Blue Nation into believing that is all some kind of philanthropic gesture to help poor black kids. Those same kids would have been millionaires even if they had went to Piss Ant University. In the process he drove this program in the ground.

He is dead to me.

My feelings exactly. I've always loved Pitino even when he was coaching the Cards. I'm glad he's welcomed back. I was misty eyed when he was there at Big Blue Madness.

 

[Digger-Cat]

Fair- although for all his shortcomings, I don't think that Cal ever did anything to intentionally sabotage or hurt the program. I think he was just a terrible in-game coach that made some incredibly bad decisions. That, and his blind loyalty to certain players hamstrung our productivity most games.

IDK, he knew what he was doing when he decided to go all in on players-first, knowing he didn't have the players to do it.

In addition, he did it for many years and he told UK fans to pipe down even after his player-first crap caused the 9-16 season with some awful losses.

Then, the loss to Saint Peters wasn't enough, he doubled down last year and put 2 players ahead of the team and program. He lost 10 games because he refused to play his best lineup, then he put the exclamation point on it by losing to Oakland.

That's not even bringing up the Shaedon Sharpe BS that never should have happened here.

He allowed KU to catch us in all time wins, he racked up an embarrassing amount of losses to mid-major teams, his record against ranked teams since the 16/17 season ended, is really bad and his records in the champions classic, SECT and NCAAT the last 6 years are awful.

He had so many chances to right the ship, but he stayed the course on his player-first crap and hoped the wins would take care of itself. To me, it's intentional when you refuse to change when given so many chances to do so.

 

[ruppcat]

A slight tangent:

Time heals most wounds. But Cal is a wound that will fester for a long time.

I never thought there would be a more egregious slap in the face than when Pitino went to Louisville. But now Pitino has been welcomed back by many (most?).

But Cal did something that many will never forgive. He dissed the fanbase. He dissed the program. He snubbed his nose at big-money boosters that supported the program financially for decades. He fought with the administration. He bad-mouthed his boss. He called us Basketball Bennies. He preached the player was more important than the University. I could go on.

I'm not sure I'll ever forgive Pitino for what he did, but he at least has always professed love for UK. Cal? Not so much.

I think Pitino has made enough amends to be forgiven.

cal OTOH has yet to make any apology or admission of how bad he left the program.

 

[rob_47]

I’m very confused as to why they are playing Aidoo, Brazile, and Z all at the center position. Cal could play Z at the PF spot and one of the other two at center, put Theiro at SF, and then play Fland/Davis/Wagner at the guard positions. He finally has a roster where he could play a very big lineup without anyone playing out of position, but he’s not doing it.

Because he has to get Billy Richmond and Karter knox some minutes somehow someway.

 

[EliteBlue]

Yep, I've said it for years. Cal is actually a tremendously poor leader. If you've spent a lot of time under strong leadership, you can recognize poor leadership easily. Cal never takes accountability. And what makes it worse, his pride and ego deflect blame to others. And his condescending attitude towards BBN is a defense mechanism.

Yep. Dead on. Easy to be a good leader when things are going well. Leadership gets revealed when things go poorly. Cal’s response was to Gaslight, shut down and dig his heels in, isolate anyone who called a spade a spade, and get defensive, petty and vindictive.

Cal is a marketer and a community organizer….he's basketballs Al Sharpton:..that’s why he was good at the philanthropy side of the job even after he had showed his true feelings and disdain for most the ppl in the state. Honestly cracked me up to watch him go to Arkansas and say “my daddy was a grocery bagger” instead of “coal miner” to try to connect w the Walmart and Tyson chicken University fanbase

 

[Digger-Cat]

For me, the thing about Pitino going to Louisville is that I can understand his motivations. He chased the money to Boston, realized that he messed up bad, and tried to recapture what he thought was the best time in his life by going back to the state where he was happiest. Problem was, it was Louisville.

He left the program in a good place. I understand it. Time has passed. I can forgive it.

Cal, not so much. He tried to reshape the entire UK program into his personal legacy machine to feed his enormous ego while gaslighting the Big Blue Nation into believing that is all some kind of philanthropic gesture to help poor black kids. Those same kids would have been millionaires even if they had went to Piss Ant University. In the process he drove this program in the ground.

He is dead to me.

The thing that made it worse, was there were times each year when we looked like the best team in the country.

That happened many, many times from 09-17 and we all struggled to understand how those teams lost to underdogs in the NCAAT, but we chalked it up to the randomness of the NCAAT.

But the stars aligned here and there the last 6 years and Cal could always point to those games and tell everyone (including himself) that his system works. But the truth is, it's not sustainable. When you have youth + lower rated kids + individual tendencies + a terrible offensive scheme, those stars are only going to line up on rare occasions.

Arkansas fans are in the infant stages of this right now. It might take a few years before they figure it out. They're still high on that KU scrimmage. Poor b*stards.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

I think he abolutely did things to hurt the program. Putting the draft and the NBA above the program success is a very intentional way of hurting it.

The difference is that he didn't do that to intentionally hurt the program. He did it to prop his kids up for success in the NBA. I'm not saying it was right (far from it), but I don't think he was maliciously trying to hurt UK. He just thought he was doing what was right. Even though it was idiotic.