Interesting (and well written, I thought) article saying a lot of what many of our posters are saying, suggesting Calipari's approach has created "middling" UK.
USA Today article on Calipari & UK
- Thread starter G-PIP
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It sounds like he reads this board, to be honest. I thought it was well written and fair.
Someone need to tell Cal, "we can't hide you".
Adapt and win (best option), or move on.
Adapt and win (best option), or move on.
The one part I disagree with is that he won't be fired. I know I'm in a minority here, but if we fail to get out of the first weekend again, I think the odds are that we do move on from him.
When mainstream media begins to report the story -- and not just local media hacks -- Cal's seat gets hot. Real hot. Maybe not hot in the sense that his firing is imminent. But his ego is surely taking a beating now. It's not just the crazy "Bennies." I think he's gone after this season.
By the way: If I was young and musically talented (I am most definitely neither), I would start a band called the "Crazy Bennies."
It's middling, we're middling, Cal has become average. No clue what the hell happened to his coaching brain after 2015 Wisconsin loss, or maybe as many here have said, he was good when the game was different, and covered by extreme top tier talent (best of the best of the best). But man we are a good 50% below where we should be with a supposed HOF coach.
Anyone notice Bill Self or Coach K slack off as they got older and more time in the seat? Nope.
But one should always add a disclaimer when there is a posted article that OP says is "good stuff"...any article is "good stuff" or "spot on" if it aligns with the reader's opinions. It takes a real humble person to say - "yeah, some things I agree with and some I don't, but overall a good article". In other words, an article isn't "good" just because it reverberates your personal opinions, it's good because it looks at all angles and covers all possible viewpoints. We have a lot of folks here with very, VERY strong opinions about Calipari (some tasteless and crass, which is unnecessary)!
Anyone notice Bill Self or Coach K slack off as they got older and more time in the seat? Nope.
But one should always add a disclaimer when there is a posted article that OP says is "good stuff"...any article is "good stuff" or "spot on" if it aligns with the reader's opinions. It takes a real humble person to say - "yeah, some things I agree with and some I don't, but overall a good article". In other words, an article isn't "good" just because it reverberates your personal opinions, it's good because it looks at all angles and covers all possible viewpoints. We have a lot of folks here with very, VERY strong opinions about Calipari (some tasteless and crass, which is unnecessary)!
Cal's team has probably already trademarked that band name.
I think the main difference is in priorities. K was one who looked at his legacy as wins and titles. I really feel Cal looks at his legacy as draft picks. When K and Williams retired, I really did think Cal was going go on another run; instead it was Self who took the ball. 2010-2015 Cal would take the lunch money and beat the brakes off this current version of Cal.
My own head. No inside info at all. I just look at how Cal and Mitch do not have a working relationship, how the "marriage" between Cal and the fans is not good and would be at a breaking point with a first weekend exit. I just do not think the program can sustain another year with a first weekend exit. I do not believe there would be any other option.
There's dozens of ways he and the university can come to an agreement that he's no longer the UK coach, without dealing with the full buyout.
Maybe half the buyout, maybe he leaves for another job, maybe they do try and find a way to terminate, maybe he takes a different role, maybe he knows it's time to step down, etc etc
It probably wouldn’t be portrayed that way. More like a mutual parting of ways kinda thing. Does the buyout reduce or go away if he gets another job? I think there would still be plenty of programs that would take a flyer on John Calipari, albeit for a smaller sum.
It would be reduced. Here is the part of his contract that speaks to this:
Upon Coach's acceptance of any new employment, the University's obligation to pay the full amount of liquidated damages provided herein shall be reduced by the amount of the minimum guaranteed annual salary of the Coach's new position or the reasonable market value of the position, whichever is greater.
i recall Tubby being asked about the fan pressure by a Minnesota reporter when he accepted the position there. He said that fan pressure is always there but when you see a high profile coach leave, it usually has more to do with the AD. And then he said, "And that is all I am going to say about that."
I can honestly see Mitch putting a ton of pressure on Cal at the end of this season. At the very least, there needs to be some changes in the coaching staff. Mitch pressured Tubby to make him leave. Maybe he can now pressure Cal??
I think Brainfart knew dictating who is, and more importantly who is not on his staff, would hasten the endgame with Tubby...
Then dipstick brings in Clyde to in pregnant coeds and Joker to win 2 games a year...he should have been shit canned himself...
You mean the Coach K who whiffed on the ACC title between 2010 and 2022? The Coach K who lost in the round of 64 three times?
Edit: "the round of 64 four times and the round of 32 eight times"
Yep. All long tenured elite coaches go through bad spells. Which is why I haven't been on the fire Cal bandwagon in general. He made some staff and philosophical changes to adapt, so he is trying (took a while). I've been aggravated with him, but want him to figure it out.
I do think he's nearing the end of his rope though, even for me. Figure it out. If you can't, then your not the right guy for the job anymore. It's not the losses for me as much as the trend line and poor March performance. I could deal with the early losses when I knew it was taking lumps to get them rolling in February. Now we lose early and in February.
He has every resource available to him to fix the issues, he just has to identify the problems, then get out of his own way.
'Middling' and 'Mediocre'. Did you ever think you would hear UK Basketball repeatedly associated with either of those words? Multiple years?
Coach k was a shell of his former self his last 7 years . He had the pick of every class and did worse than we did. So yea id say he blacked off
Yep , young teams can be expected to drop some early season games . Some that they shouldn’t. But there better be a pay off at the end of the year.
I would love so much for you to be right. But I believe you will be disappointed. No more than me though.
So, what did he say that you think is off base? I thought he was pretty much right on.
He still thinks Cal can figure things out and right the ship.
Cal is locked into his own death spiral at this point.
I don't think that is completely unreasonable considering that Cal came into a Kentucky program in turmoil and turned it around in a single year. Having said that, I think it is time Cal leaves one way or the other. I doubt I change my mind unless we at least go to an E8 and, even then, I'm not so sure I would change my mind.
Cal doesn't want to figure things out. He thinks he already has. The issue is that his priorities aren't the same as the fans.
Actually, the USA Today is terrible and now has a circulation of 150,000 down from 4 million
But that's print circulation, right? To be fair, people just don't get the paper delivered these days. Still according to Wikipedia, USA Today has the 4th largest print circulation in the Country and approximately 2.6 million readers per day.
That was 15 years ago. You heard Cal in postgames lately? He's lost but won't admit it. He's stubborn and still despises the fans. He doesn't belong here.
Of course he CAN figure it out. If he doesn't, it's not because he "can't", but because he "won't".
Why I said he needs to get out of his own way.
He has made some big changes we thought he needed to make, but time is running out.
I never said anything about if I thought he would or wouldn't figure it out. I still go back and forth. I do hope he does though. I just think he deserved the chance to.
Cal has slipped into mediocracy, refuses to change with the game, lacks the proper skills when it comes to X and O's, by his own admission in the past doesn't work on the basic's of the game like most teams. Has alienated fans and from what I hear big dollar donors.
I always thought Calipari was the best at getting a group of mostly freshmen to play close to their current potential (different than future potential), including most impressively on defense. But that type of roster is just not good enough anymore.
Traditionally, perimeter shooting wasn’t a strength of five-star freshmen (still isn’t). So, Calipari didn’t emphasize shooting. He focused on defense, athleticism (e.g., ability to get to the rim) and measurables (e.g., length). Although it was stated that Calipari ran Vance Walberg’s dribble-drive offense, in truth he only ran half of it – the driving to score at the rim part and not the kicking out to 3pt. shooters on the perimeter part. Again, the reason was this didn’t play to the strengths of his teams.
But 3pt. shooting has now become a must (because more teams now take advantage of the mathematical advantage in shooting 3-pointers). Plus, the best upperclassmen (including Bigs) are not as spread out now with the transfer portal, and are transferring from mid-major and middling big conference teams to contenders.
Calipari has obviously realized the need for good 3 pt. shooting, but he still apparently wants to cling to a roster construction model relying too much on OAD freshmen. If that would work once every 20 years in today’s game I’d be surprised. And even when it did, you’d probably have to sacrifice a really good regular season due to the growing pains.
This is where we disagree. I don’t think Cal can figure it out. For one thing , I don’t think he has the energy. For another, he created the one&done culture where every kid coming in thinks he is going to be a lottery pick and most all leave , even if they shouldn’t. And I think the college game has changed to where the 5* kids aren’t as effective as they were back when Cal had it rolling.
I was reading a while back that UK had given Cal an option in his contract to step back from actual coaching and become an "ambassador" of sorts for the basketball program. In that role he could do what he's really good at - recruiting - and leave the coaching to a new hire. Could be a win-win if his ego could handle that.
I think it’s more than he’s just lost the ability to motivate and less with coaching. Obviously he can coach. I think coached as they age just can’t motivate like the can when younger. Unless you have guys like AD, mkg, etc. you need to be able to motivate
