what I think will happen

[jeff halcomb]

Mitch and Cal will hold a press conference and Cal says next year is his last, "I
love coaching this group of kids". Mitch is on board and says they will make an awesome hire next
year and we should give Cal the sendoff he deserves..... Unless Mitch can find a home run coach now , it
is way too big of a gamble to fire Cal and not make an awesome hire.

 

[bradyjames]

Yeah, we would hate to hire a guy that goes 1-5 in five years of the NCAA tournament. Can’t win an SEC tournament game to save his life. Only thing worse than that would be if you paid him $9 mil a year to do it.

 

[yabbadabbadoo]

Idk but the silence is deafening
Somebody needs to say something about something, right?
Crickets tells me he’ll be back with some bullshit stipulations, promises, or some bullshit of some kind of bullshit.

 

[LmdCat]

Mitch and Cal will hold a press conference and Cal says next year is his last, "I
love coaching this group of kids". Mitch is on board and says they will make an awesome hire next
year and we should give Cal the sendoff he deserves..... Unless Mitch can find a home run coach now , it
is way too big of a gamble to fire Cal and not make an awesome hire.

With all due respect, I am not sure what kind of sendoff you think CCC deserves. He has gotten all that he deserved via his ridiculous contract. As for waiting a year to hire a quality coach, now is the prime time to go coach shopping. No one is looking at this situation with the feeling that he has been mistreated. Most have been laughing and wondering why it has taken UK this long to show him the door. His arrogant behavior doesn't make him worthy of fans' sympathy.

 

[ukcatz12]

it
is way too big of a gamble to fire Cal and not make an awesome hire.

People will get on your for this but it is true. That's not saying I want Cal to come back, but this really is a risk.

You get this next hire wrong and the program really is screwed. The money won't be there to pay Cal's buyout, his replacement's buyout, plus the salary of the next replacement. This exact scenario is playing out at Indiana right now. They can't afford to fire Woodson because they're already paying too many buyouts.

There's a legitimate argument to be made that it's less risky long term to wait one year and see what happens. The buyout would be less and it's another year to see if there's a more sure fire replacement. Nothing can happen next year that would make the next coach's job any more difficult than it would be now.

 

[jeff halcomb]

Well said ukcatz12, my point exactly

 

[CatPhight]

 

[LmdCat]

People will get on your for this but it is true. That's not saying I want Cal to come back, but this really is a risk.

You get this next hire wrong and the program really is screwed. The money won't be there to pay Cal's buyout, his replacement's buyout, plus the salary of the next replacement. This exact scenario is playing out at Indiana right now. They can't afford to fire Woodson because they're already paying too many buyouts.

There's a legitimate argument to be made that it's less risky long term to wait one year and see what happens. The buyout would be less and it's another year to see if there's a more sure fire replacement. Nothing can happen next year that would make the next coach's job any more difficult than it would be now.

If you and the others want him back for whatever the reason, you will have forfeited your right to complain about whatever he does next season. Also, keeping him around as lame duck coach without a named successor would surely harm recruiting. Why would any players want to sign with UK not knowing who was going to coach? It isn't like there is a named successor on the bench who would be recruiting.

 

[jeff halcomb]

Slow down man, just giving my opinion. Many here think it can not get worse but I think it can
if you make a mistake on the next UK coach. I am favor of letting Cal go but you have to have
a coach that can handle the job at UK and those are few and far between. again just my opinion

 

[LXWildcat]

News flash

The same coaches available now will be the same ones available next year….. I just don’t see why we would waste another year on Cal when they could start rebuilding now. The transfer portal would allow any coach to come in and build a decent team. This isn’t 2009 anymore

 

[jeff halcomb]

Disagree my man Timing is everything. If a homerun coach can be had now than do it now and get him here today. I want Cal replaced but not just anybody can do the job.

 

[YardCat]

Idk but the silence is deafening
Somebody needs to say something about something, right?
Crickets tells me he’ll be back with some bullshit stipulations, promises, or some bullshit of some kind of bullshit.

BS promises is all the Wizard of Oz can promise, he has Zero coaching ability but he will throw out different tweaks. 😂

 

[fredmanthecatfan]

The risk of keeping him exceeds the risk of sending him on his way.
With cal, we can really not expect next year to be any better than the past 4 years. The fan base and donors will go from angry to apathetic. Things will continue to get worse and worse and uglier and uglier until we become a has been program.
Blow it up now. Take a bad year or two if need be with new blood and excitement for the future.
We are in route towards a cliff. Staying the course is suicide.

 

[FitchandMurray29]

Regardless of anyone’s feelings about Cal, assuming he believes AJ in the class of ‘25 will come play for him, he is not going to willingly give up that opportunity. He lives to coach number 1 draft picks. AJ would be the best recruit we’ve gotten since Davis imo(DOES NOT mean he would impact winning the same way).

So a restructured deal is definitely possible, but I would say it would be for 2 years instead of 1 imo. If you’re on the Cal merry go round you might as well stay on to get the elite prospects and not just the ones ranked high in weaker classes.

 

[catben]

Cal will NEVER agree to ending his current contract without a full payment of the buyout. That is the holdup here. Cal has Mitch and UK by the _alls!!

Cal is HATED right now by MOST of the fan base and MOST of the UK administration. WHY would Mitch want to parade Cal out for a "Last season" when NOBODY wants that, including Cal???

We either have to find ALL of the money to get rid of him OR bring him back and MAKE HIM fulfill EVERY aspect of his contract!!! No more ducking out of Press conferences, no more VAGUE answers on the status of players, no more "players first", no more "Basketball Benny" comments.

Put a leash on him so tight that he will be MISERABLE for staying!!!

 

[4UK4Life]

Yeah, we would hate to hire a guy that goes 1-5 in five years of the NCAA tournament. Can’t win an SEC tournament game to save his life. Only thing worse than that would be if you paid him $9 mil a year to do it.

The difference though is Mitch wouldn’t get rid of the new guy right away if he didn’t pan out. Billy G had to go overboard before he was canned

 

[BigBlue1992]

The difference though is Mitch wouldn’t get rid of the new guy right away if he didn’t pan out. Billy G had to go overboard before he was canned

Yep and from what I heard Billy G wasn’t fired for wins and losses. He was fired for abusing players, stealing Alex Legion’s girlfriend, etc. I always heard they would’ve gave him another year if not for the off the court stuff.

 

[BIG BLUE GURU]

Slow down man, just giving my opinion. Many here think it can not get worse but I think it can
if you make a mistake on the next UK coach. I am favor of letting Cal go but you have to have
a coach that can handle the job at UK and those are few and far between. again just my opinion

I hear this argument all the time in there isn't anyone available who can handle the riggers of being the UK Coach. Why is it so much harder at Kentucky then places like N. Carolina, Kansas, Duke or any other program? I don't want a coach to be in the community shaking hands or kissing babies. I just want them to focus on the things that will win games. Just coach, recruit and develop.

 

[Dontworryboutit23]

Mitch and Cal will hold a press conference and Cal says next year is his last, "I
love coaching this group of kids". Mitch is on board and says they will make an awesome hire next
year and we should give Cal the sendoff he deserves..... Unless Mitch can find a home run coach now , it
is way too big of a gamble to fire Cal and not make an awesome hire.

It’s also a huge gamble to let him coach another year when that same premise of “ one more year, or this is a make or break year has been said for 3 years now. This fanbase cannot take another year of cal as coach, to many people want a change.

 

[Kyhoward]

“Unless Mitch can find a home run coach now , it is way too big of a gamble to fire Cal and not make an awesome hire.”

There are 351 Division 1 college basketball coaches presently. You are intimating that it would be very difficult to find 1 coach who would be equal to or better than our beloved CCC?

Where is the gamble? What is a “home run hire” and what are the measurable traits that such a coach must have to be considered a HRH? A certain win %, 5+ years coaching Division 1 schools, # of conference championships, Final Four appearances or National Championships, no NCAA violations. — can you be more specific?

You would prefer that UK waits 1 more year and deal with the mediocrity level that CCC has now demonstrated for years, so that one or several HRH’s will miraculously appear on the horizon!

Out of 351 coaches I am sure, for arguments sake, you could eliminate 80% as either not a HRH or not at all interested. That leaves 70 coaches who may have the qualifications. Eliminate guys like Izzo, Self, Few, Matt Painter etc that obviously won’t come to UK plus another 25% and you are now down to 50 coaches who may have the qualifications to be the next head basketball coach. Now the greatest fear that Mitch and/or a hiring committee would face is out of these 50 candidates who could possibly handle the immense pressure that a UK coach would be under once he accepts this job!!! There is only 1 coach on the planet that can handle the pressure and , wait for it, it is CCC, our Hall of Famer! What lunacy for the administration and the fanbase to think that COW has not performed up to the historical standards of the program. I have been wanting CCC gone since at least 2021 but have realized that if CCC is no longer the UK head coach, there is no hope as there is no successor today or in the near future. UK may have to either cancel the program or drop down to Division 2 and hope to compete with the next coach who we know will never fill the enormous void left by the great COW.

 

[LmdCat]

Slow down man, just giving my opinion. Many here think it can not get worse but I think it can
if you make a mistake on the next UK coach. I am favor of letting Cal go but you have to have
a coach that can handle the job at UK and those are few and far between. again just my opinion

Those who are afraid of change become old and stagnant.

 

[Kyhoward]

“Unless Mitch can find a home run coach now , itis way too big of a gamble to fire Cal and not make an awesome hire.”

There are 351 Division 1 college basketball coaches presently. You are intimating that it would be very difficult to find 1 coach who would be equal to or better than our beloved CCC?

Where is the gamble? What is a “home run hire” and what are the measurable traits that such a coach must have to be considered a HRH? A certain win %, 5+ years coaching Division 1 schools, # of conference championships, Final Four appearances or National Championships, no NCAA violations. — can you be more specific?

You would prefer that UK waits 1 more year and deal with the mediocrity level that CCC has now demonstrated for years, so that one or several HRH’s will miraculously appear on the horizon!

Out of 351 coaches I am sure, for arguments sake, you could eliminate 80% as either not a HRH or not at all interested. That leaves 70 coaches who may have the qualifications. Eliminate guys like Izzo, Self, Few, Matt Painter etc that obviously won’t come to UK plus another 25% and you are now down to 50 coaches who may have the qualifications to be the next head basketball coach. Now the greatest fear that Mitch and/or a hiring committee would face is out of these 50 candidates who could possibly handle the immense pressure that a UK coach would be under once he accepts this job!!! There is only 1 coach on the planet that can handle the pressure and , wait for it, it is CCC, our Hall of Famer! What lunacy for the administration and the fanbase to think that COW has not performed up to the historical standards of the program. I have been wanting CCC gone since at least 2021 but have realized that if CCC is no longer the UK head coach, there is no hope as there is no successor today or in the near future. UK may have to either cancel the program or drop down to Division 2 and hope to compete with the next coach who we know will never fill the enormous void left by the great COW.

I hear this argument all the time in there isn't anyone available who can handle the riggers of being the UK Coach. Why is it so much harder at Kentucky then places like N. Carolina, Kansas, Duke or any other program? I don't want a coach to be in the community shaking hands or kissing babies. I just want them to focus on the things that will win games. Just coach, recruit and develop.

I hear this argument all the time in there isn't anyone available who can handle the riggers of being the UK Coach. Why is it so much harder at Kentucky than places like N. Carolina, Kansas, Duke or any other program? I don't want a coach to be in the community shaking hands or kissing babies. I just want them to focus on the things that will win games. Just coach, recruit and develop.

Right Guru,
NC, Puke, Kansas and many more just play basketball because it is good physical activity for young men. Scores and win/loss records don’t matter as long as all have a good time!

 

[LmdCat]

It’s also a huge gamble to let him coach another year when that same premise of “ one more year, or this is a make or break year has been said for 3 years now. This fanbase cannot take another year of cal as coach, to many people want a change.

As I asked earlier, if he remains here one more year while the university looks for his replacement, who would be responsible for recruiting? How many players would commit to a university without a head coach?

 

[Coach Marrow]

Cal brings Payne back, talks of positive changes, promotes new NIL program, recruits a couple of older transfers and we act like everything is ok until we lose 1st games in SEC and NCAA tournaments.

 

[LmdCat]

I hear this argument all the time in there isn't anyone available who can handle the riggers of being the UK Coach. Why is it so much harder at Kentucky then places like N. Carolina, Kansas, Duke or any other program? I don't want a coach to be in the community shaking hands or kissing babies. I just want them to focus on the things that will win games. Just coach, recruit and develop.

If the coach is busy coaching, he won't have time to behave like a Kirby vacuum cleaner salesman. Maybe that was Cal's problem he was trying to do too many unnecessary things.

 

[LmdCat]

Cal brings Payne back, talks of positive changes, promotes new NIL program, recruits a couple of older transfers and we act like everything is ok until we lose 1st games in SEC and NCAA tournaments.

Cal's portal players are typically guys who play below the rim and are not considered threats to his 5-star recruits.

 

[Blueaz]

Idk but the silence is deafening
Somebody needs to say something about something, right?
Crickets tells me he’ll be back with some bullshit stipulations, promises, or some bullshit of some kind of bullshit.

this

 

[moses1uk]

Mitch and Cal will hold a press conference and Cal says next year is his last, "I
love coaching this group of kids". Mitch is on board and says they will make an awesome hire next
year and we should give Cal the sendoff he deserves..... Unless Mitch can find a home run coach now , it
is way too big of a gamble to fire Cal and not make an awesome hire.

That’s goofy . You never announce it’s a one and done for the coach cause that means no one is recruiting the next class

 

[LmdCat]

Most people's places of employment would never allow them to hang around for a year if they were being dismissed for poor performance. They would be escorted out of the building immediately to ensure they couldn't further damage things before leaving.

 

[LmdCat]

Idk but the silence is deafening
Somebody needs to say something about something, right?
Crickets tells me he’ll be back with some bullshit stipulations, promises, or some bullshit of some kind of bullshit.

If he is back, I won't be until he is gone. This season it got so bad that at the end I recorded the games to watch later because watching them live was too stressful. I am not going through that again with him as coach.

 

[LmdCat]

Regardless of anyone’s feelings about Cal, assuming he believes AJ in the class of ‘25 will come play for him, he is not going to willingly give up that opportunity. He lives to coach number 1 draft picks. AJ would be the best recruit we’ve gotten since Davis imo(DOES NOT mean he would impact winning the same way).

So a restructured deal is definitely possible, but I would say it would be for 2 years instead of 1 imo. If you’re on the Cal merry go round you might as well stay on to get the elite prospects and not just the ones ranked high in weaker classes.

Give me a break!! We have heard all of this nonsense before. There were a substantial number of fans who thought the same thing about DJ. The days of winning with freshmen are over. They will never be able to compete with guys who are 23/24 years old. They can't measure up physically or mentally.

 

[gojvc]

Yeah, we would hate to hire a guy that goes 1-5 in five years of the NCAA tournament. Can’t win an SEC tournament game to save his life. Only thing worse than that would be if you paid him $9 mil a year to do it.

Yeah but if you blow this hire you’re stuck with it because we probably can’t pay two buyouts. I want Cal out. But I’d rather keep him one more year than blow this hire.

 

[mbc82584]

Mitch and Cal will hold a press conference and Cal says next year is his last, "I
love coaching this group of kids". Mitch is on board and says they will make an awesome hire next
year and we should give Cal the sendoff he deserves..... Unless Mitch can find a home run coach now , it
is way too big of a gamble to fire Cal and not make an awesome hire.

Loser mentality. You can’t recruit if your coach is on the way out a year ahead of time and cal has done nothing the last 5 years to deserve a farewell tour. Send him to Minnesota like tubby and take a gamble if you have to.

 

[howitis]

So many uk fans are in denial about how bad we are. These last 4 years are in the running for the worst period of ky basketball ever. We could not be in worse shape. We will have a completely new team next year. We are terrible. Face reality. Anything is better than cal

 

[ukfan1622]

People will get on your for this but it is true. That's not saying I want Cal to come back, but this really is a risk.

You get this next hire wrong and the program really is screwed. The money won't be there to pay Cal's buyout, his replacement's buyout, plus the salary of the next replacement. This exact scenario is playing out at Indiana right now. They can't afford to fire Woodson because they're already paying too many buyouts.

There's a legitimate argument to be made that it's less risky long term to wait one year and see what happens. The buyout would be less and it's another year to see if there's a more sure fire replacement. Nothing can happen next year that would make the next coach's job any more difficult than it would be now.

I think people are overestimating the risk.
Like I said in a thread I started Cal is my 7th UK coach since I became a fan.
The only two that did not win a national championship were drunk the whole time.
We don't need an all time great; anybody up to date on the modern game and sober will win big at UK.

 

[Jeff Sykes]

Slow down man, just giving my opinion. Many here think it can not get worse but I think it can
if you make a mistake on the next UK coach. I am favor of letting Cal go but you have to have
a coach that can handle the job at UK and those are few and far between. again just my opinion

I would rather die trying than waste away scared.

 

[ukcatz12]

I think people are overestimating the risk.
Like I said in a thread I started Cal is my 7th UK coach since I became a fan.
The only two that did not win a national championship were drunk the whole time.
We don't need an all time great; anybody up to date on the modern game and sober will win big at UK.

I think people are honestly underestimating the risk. Seven of those titles were 25+ years ago. Back then programs attracted players by themselves. That's no longer the case. It's all about the coach. Kids don't care about titles we won in the '40s or '50s. I think there are a lot of older UK fans that think the program name still means more than it actually does in modern day college basketball. It's a completely different world than it was even when Cal got here.

Tubby never got to a Final Four with his own players. Billy G was a disaster. Cal immediately brought recruits that wanted to play for him, not UK. They would have followed him anywhere.

We still need the right coach. Get the wrong coach while we're still stuck under Cal's buyout and we're stick with him for a while.

 

[ukfan1622]

I think people are honestly underestimating the risk. Seven of those titles were 25+ years ago. Back then programs attracted players by themselves. That's no longer the case. It's all about the coach. Kids don't care about titles we won in the '40s or '50s. I think there are a lot of older UK fans that think the program name still means more than it actually does in modern day college basketball. It's a completely different world than it was even when Cal got here.

Tubby never got to a Final Four with his own players. Billy G was a disaster. Cal immediately brought recruits that wanted to play for him, not UK. They would have followed him anywhere.

We still need the right coach. Get the wrong coach while we're still stuck under Cal's buyout and we're stick with him for a while.

Now I didn't say hire a mediocre or bad coach. But 5/5 sober coaches at UK since I became a fan won national championships. So the math is on UK's side with a new coach as long as he's not a lunatic or drunk.

 

[kywildcatsfannumber1]

We can find cheaper coaches to lose first round games in NCAA and SEC Tournaments along with 10+ loss seasons. That is what Calipari has reduced Kentucky to. People are stuck on Cal as if Kentucky is replacing the same guy Cal was when taking the job in 2009. He has said so himself, it is a 10-year job.

 

[Imafan4evr_]

Unless Mitch can find a home run coach now , it
is way too big of a gamble to fire Cal and not make an awesome hire.

Why? Dude has 1 tournament win since 2019. I’d say there are 100+ coaches in the college game that could meet or exceed that lofty expectation right now.