Will John Calipari change his philosophy? Many fans think he should after what has happened the last two seasons. (UK AthleticsPhoto)
Kentucky basketball fans continue to voice mixed feelings about coach John Calipari and the way the UK season ended. Some are philosophical, some are logical, some are angry. But they all are passionate about their Wildcats.
I’ve had emails, texts, Twitter messages, and calls from a lot of fans since UK’s overtime loss to Saint Peter’s in the NCAA Tournament.
Today I wanted to share what two long-time UK fans shared.
First, ‘Dana Skaggs:
“Fans are mad, but is there anyone you can think of that would handle the extra (boosters, commercials, fame, charities, celebrity) as well as him (John Calipari)? And who doesn’t go to Division I college as a basketball player not dreaming of the NBA?
“Most college students are trying to plan for their careers. He deserves blame mostly for his unbending allegiance to his offense and not making adjustments on defense — but I hope this loss was hard enough on him that he gets it or causes one of his assistants to be assertive and outspoken.”
Fair comments and the sentiment that other fans have shared. Skaggs doesn’t want to fire Calipari, she just wants him to change much like UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart said he did to get UK back to a championship level.
Next, Julie Kidd Burd:
“I recognize what he (Calipari) has done for UK Basketball — the title, the wins. And, yes, he was able to do that with NBA prospects and draftees. He changed after winning that one title. He became bigger than the program. He became more vocal about getting players to the draft.
“The name on the front was just a means to get the player there, and in return there was no loyalty to the program by the player. It truly sickens me that we have become nothing more than a feeder program to the NBA. Does he understand how important this is to most Kentuckians? This is my lasting connection to my grandparents and father ~ the love for this program is passed down from generations.
“And when you try to share your thoughts and opinions, the Cal ‘cult’ jumps completely in on you. It’s divisive much like politics. I just want someone at the helm who coaches for the name ‘Kentucky,’ not for his personal gain and recognition.”
Burd is right about Calipari’s desire to get players to the NBA and help them make life-changing money. She’s also right that the pro-Calipari fans do not want to hear any questions or criticism of the coach and that has divided the fan base more than any time I can remember.
Hopefully, time will heal wounds, BBN will reunite and the unhappiness will go away … but it is not going to happen any time soon.
38 Responses
Response to Dana – I want a basketball coach, not a marketing person who so happens to coach as a hobby.
Response to Julie – I am 63 years old and, like you, connected to UK thru my dad and grandmother listening to Cawood on the radio. I don’t care that Cal has only won a single title during his career. I want players and coaches whose sole goal is to win for the name on the front of the jersey. I want the best team, not a collection of superstar high school players looking to bolt to the NBA.
Larry – The 1998 Champs are the epitome of a team and would have defeated any Cal teams except the ‘12 and ‘15 teams. Anyone thinking that he is going to change next year is dreaming. Afraid we will see declining attendance and interest starting next year. I think Mitch has helped elevate most UK sports but this “lifetime” contract with a ridiculous buyout has UK in a no win situation with Cal holding all the cards
Cal’s used car show has run its course. time to pack up and go. I know a moving company.
I agree with you we should already have 4 ships..it the road jack…
He’s not going anywhere Randy. He’s not walking away from the gold mine he has
Larry your right, it’s time to move on as of this writing St. Peter’s is playing for a spot to go to the final four coming Sunday. Weather I think Cal can put our cats back on top will remain to see, but like most of our cats fans our patience is getting thin.
Payne was the driving force and coach of UK. Look what’s happened since he left. The Program has nose dived, California is a Song and Dance man and Kenny leaving has exposed him for what he,s not. A Head Coach at a D-1 School!!!!
CALIPARY not California, thank you spell check
I just learned that Dontaie Allen has entered the transfer portal. Calipari NEVER gave this kid a fair chance. We all know what Dontaie did at Miss. St. after Calipari was thrown out of the game. Calipari is the one who deserves to be thrown out of UK and let Dontaie stay. I have had enough. F_ck John Calipari. F_ck Mitch Barnhart. F_ck the Univeristy of Kentucky. I am done with all of them. Barry Pritchett, 1978 graduate of the College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.
Good riddance. Our fans still travel to watch KY play.( Explain that please. ) If KY isn’t no 1 or in the final four every year, you explode on the coach. He isn’t the one who couldn’t make the shots in that game. He isn’t the only one who loses players to draft and transfer. Whatever happened to common sense?
My problem with Cal is that players that are pegged 1 and done, get every opportunity, every break, and more leniency on the court that someone like Allen. Cal lost me last year when he "didn’t want to break BJ Boston’s heart" no matter how much it hurt the team or other players like Allen and Fletcher. Boston couldn’t halfway hold on to the ball, couldn’t pass, and couldn’t shoot. No reason for not giving some minutes to other players.
I started paying attention to how he just left players behind when Josh Harrellson was forced into action for UK. Cal stated that when he started working with Josh, he was surprised at how good he thought he could be. That was AFTER Harrellson had already been there a year.
In Cal’s system, if guards cannot create for themselves, they are a liability. His plays are very limited and he is the absolutely worst in the country in designing an in-bounds play.
I think Mitch Barnhart needs to take a lot of heat for being suckered into such a ridiculous contract that it’s impossible to buy our fraudulent head coach out.
Per Julie Andrew’s “ just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down “.
Cal pulls a rabbit out of the hat with next recruiting class, the portal and season and everything is copacetic.
If not, we go back to Broadway “ there’s trouble in River City “.
Time will tell – no sense going crazy – unless you’re my age and still hoping to see #11 on the wall.
Love it paul. A Julie Andrews quote
It’s pretty plain to see now that money don’t buy championships. When it’s tourney time and win or go home situation you’ve got to have your team prepared and do some coaching. Talent only goes so far and at some point a team that is well coached will have advantage with only a few exceptions. Especially now that we have the transfer portal you’ve got to get players and be able to keep them and coach them. With the one and dones you’ve only got them for a short time. Got to be able to keep kids 3 and 4 years and develop them, instead of leaving them on the bench just to watch them transfer to another program where they have more opportunities for success. The last few seasons have been eye openers. Only reason we had decent record this year was thanks to Oscar. He deserved better team around him. And the Sharpe situation has been a joke from the beginning. Cal was able to fool enough fans to get by for a while and I’ve been a supporter of him as well, but times have changed and he’s not good enough of a coach to keep up! UK deserves better.
I hear lots and lots of people defend Calipari by saying, "Who can Kentucky get to replace Calipari?" Does anyone think that Kentucky would have a chance going after Jay Wright or Mark Few?" Two very good coaches that recruit respectively at their current schools and realizes who signs their checks!
Makes no difference BG. Kentucky cannot afford to buy Cal out
I’m glad to see more fans waking up to the fact that cal has turned ky basketball into an nba farm team and his biggest priority being getting kids ready for the nba. He wasnt kidding when he said the goal of the 2015 season wasnt to win a championship, but to get 8 players drafted. His priorities are just different than ours and will remain so until he leaves.
I was one of the biggest uk fans ever but will no longer support uk as long as cal is here and I’m definitely not alone either, as I know alot of fans like me that no longer care.
Cal likes to say kentucky basketball isn’t for everyone…..He was actually honest there because its not for every player and isn’t for a growing number of fans
This is on Barnhart for letting Kenny Payne get away. Wouldn’t pay him enough. We’ll see it when recruiting and games are played.
We need to stop judging Coach Cal, and please remember that he does not operate these players as if they were remote control robots. They are younger men, and their testosterone levels are high. Their energy went in the wrong direction.
Erin, I kind of think the lack of energy is what hurt in the NCAA loss
Of course he doesn’t control individual performances at any given time, but his coaching style during the year has a lot to do with how the team is able to perform during pressure situations as well as decisions he makes before and when those situations occur. When you’ve got a great long range shooter like Kellan Grady, don’t just say work harder to get yourself open! Set screen plays for him with the ball in position to be delivered to him as soon as he comes off the screen like we see other guards do to us.
I wish Ky would have been able to get Matt McMahon fr Murray State to replace Cal.. We lost on that move and LSU won !!!
I think he will do great there Jennifer
Just watched Arkansas and Gonzaga. Got me thinking;
How many players on either of those teams would start for Cal at UK??? Even though both have more players that can get to the basket than UK does and that opens it up for the shooters.
How many would get the chance to start if they were going to need to stay more than 2 years?
When is the last time you have seen Cal make substitutions based on the situational need of a defensive stop? A rebound? Press on an inbounds play? Put in a good FT shooter knowing your going to get fouled? If it has happened, it has been so little I don’t think anyone can come up with a time just off the top of their head.
Cal wants his players to impress the pros so he can spend time in the Green Room. He is not concerned with cutting down nets and hanging banners; especially since he already has one.
He is not concerned with creating a team made up of all the team members. He is only concerned with the ones that can hopefully get him glorified in the NBA. He proved that last year when he said he didn’t want to hurt Boston’s heart.
The scene….2015 Final Four…38-0 Kentucky had Wisconsin on the ropes but after a two successive shot clock violations where the Harrison guard tandem was clearly bumfuzzled, Cal neither calls a timeout, nor substitutes either of a couple of “decent” freshmen named Ulis and Booker to retake momentum. He leaves the Harrisons out there to “figure it out.” They were just kids – I don’t blame them. But they didn’t “figure it out.” Neither did Cal. I believe his quote was something like “I just didn’t ever think we could lose.” From there, the constant circling around the drain has continued. He’ll win games, but he will not excel. He has a higher purpose in his mind – changing the lives of these young men and their families’ lives. Everything else is just noise to him.
Ok. Right off the bat..Who on next year’s team played alot of minutes in this year’s tournament? Because by Cals rationale he can already say " these guys didn’t have alot of tourney experience ".. I’m still stuck on that. Really pathetic excuse.. I’d rather see Buzz Williams than Cal.
Well if they moved the 3 point line back in Halls tenure, he’d dumped it inside. I’m seeing some very poor 3 pt shooting this year and last. Probably bc of the new arc that nobody talks about. Definitely not "NBA" worthy
Bring on Reed. I can atleast cheer again.
UK guards cannot press. How many turnovers did his fav. Guards produce?
Not many. I see better down the road.
And needs a bench after this year’s debachery.
And we know coach just bought a home in Nashville, so if it doesn’t work out he can run back to Tennessee.
Totally a pathetic situation. Barnhart set Ky up for 2-3 years with this clown, and then regardless the cost, he WILL BE GONE!!. Guarantee it. Make book on it. The disgust with him will be unbearable regardless the cost. It will take years for the program to recover from this senseless bamboozle we have witnessed with "THE CLOWN."
Can’t keep lying to these kid’s they are not ready for NBA . It hurts them more by not telling them the truth.
I was 4 years old when the NBA started. I was 8 years old when my Dad, the basketball coach at the Ky School for the Deaf, would take me to the UK BB games. I got Bill Spivey’s autograph and coach Rupp’s. A year or two later I was there talking to Dad with deaf sign language when Frank Ramsey saw me and asked what I was doing and I told him. He took me over to where the team was sitting and had all the team members sign their autographs for me , Cliff Hagan, Bobby Watson, Lou Tsiropolous (sp?), etc. Larry, I gave you those autographs because you were more in touch with UK when I moved away from Kentucky.
I married a girl who turned out to be Ralph Beard’s cousin. Coach Kingsolver would urge me to play defense like Ralph Beard. I was offered a baseball scholarship when I was a sophomore in high school by Harry Lancaster, I played football for UK until I was #31 of the Thin Thirty. Chad Wright tried to get me to on the swim team when I left football. The point of all this is that my heart has always been with U of Ky sports.
I’m not sure Calipari has that love of Kentucky. I know there are probably millions of Ky Fans that love UK like I do which just seems to be more than Calipari’s self made sysyem of Pro BB Player development. Thanks for providing me a place to vent. And thanks to your father, Billy Vaught, who wrote about my teammates and me in Danville all those years.
Claude Hoffmeyer
obby Watson
LV – you have some great followers – most understand the program from inception.
You are right about that Paul
CALIPARI HAS ABSOLUTELY TURNED OUT PROGRAM INTO NOTHING MORE THAN A NBA FARM, AND HE IS NOT IN TOUCH WITH THE FAN BASE WHATSOEVER…
FURTHERMORE, I THINK MITCH BARNHART. SCREWED US ALL BY GIVING CALIPARI A LIFETIME CONTRACT.. COMPLETE. B.S !!
CAL CAN LEAVE ANYTIME HE WANTS
AND MY FEELINGS WONT BE HURT
There is to much money floating around on the odds makers when they have a game scheduled. Not saying anything could have been illegal but look at the amount of money the bookies were out on Kentuckys game. They were a seventeen point favorite. The person that bet on the other team made a fortune. Makes you wonder don`don’t it.
UK has for many years under Cal had as much athletic talent and depth as any team in the country. Given this advantage, how would you have the team play? I would zone press full court with superior athletes with long wingspans. Several advantages for UK – wears on the other team trying to get past half court both physically and mentally, brings in fresh players off the bench to continue the pressure and contribute, and leads to easy baskets (which we need since we cannot shoot). In the second half you would really see this pressure taking a toll on the opponent. You don’t have to press the entire game or even every game, but use it enough so the other team has to prepare. Of course, I am assuming that Can’t Coach Cal could teach a press, which is a very big assumption. We have no offense and few shooters and this would not require any late season “tweeks.” He seems to only recruit athletes anyway and few basketball players so this style of play might work. What am I thinking – Yelling GOOO and RUNNN is much simpler and effective!
If all of the U of K fans wants Mitch Barnhart and Coach Calipari to get the message about how upset and how hurt we all really are . And that we want change now or else then EVERYONE SHOULD BOYCOTT THE FIRST COUPLE OF BASKETBALL GAMES OR SOME OTHER GAME OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT ALONG THOSE LINES OR MAYBE A PARTITION THAT’S SIGNED BY SO MANY UK FANS THAT EVERYONE WANTS CHANGE AND IF SOMETHING ISN’T DONE THEN WE’RE FINISHED BEING UK FANS WHEN YOU HURT THEM IN THE POCKETBOOK THAT’S WHEN IT STARTS TO MAKE THEM WANT TO CHANGE ALL THIS STUFF THAT’S BEING PUT ON THE INTERNET HOW MUCH OF IT DO YOU THINK THAT MITCH BARNHART AND COACH CALIPARI ACTUALLY SEE OR EVEN ATTEMPT TO READ WHAT THE FANS HAVE WRITTEN AND WHAT THE FANS TRULY CARE ABOUT I SAY THEY MAY HAVE READ A FEW BUT THEY’RE NOT GOING TO READ THE MAJORITY OF THEM AND TAKE ALL THIS STUFF SERIOUS UNTIL EVERYONE DOES SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAN WHAT THEY’RE DOING NOW SORRY NOT A FAN ANYMORE OF HIM OF EITHER ONE OF THEM I MEAN YOU OKAY FAN BUT I’M TIRED OF ALL OF THIS WE SHOULD HAVE ALREADY HAD SOME CHAMPIONSHIPS MORE THAN WHAT WE GOT NOW AND GUESS WHAT DUKE’S GETTING READY TO WIN ANOTHER ONE AND LIKE SOME OTHER FAN SAID SOMETHING ABOUT KANSAS HAVING THE MOST WINS OUT OF ALL THE PROGRAMS AND WHERE WE USED TO BE THAT BUT NOT ANYMORE WE WON’T GET IT BACK WE WON’T GET THAT TITLE BACK SO I DON’T KNOW I’M JUST TIRED OF IT ALL WE WON’T BE THE PROGRAM THAT WE ONCE WERE AS LONG AS HE’S THERE AND KEEPS ON DOING WHAT HE’S DOING TO OUR PROGRAM HE’S USING OUR PROGRAM AND OUR NAME IT’S ON THE SCHOOL AND BEEN THERE FOR YEARS TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF IT ON HIS NBA RECRUITING BECAUSE THAT’S ALL HE’S DOING IS RECRUITING FOR THE NBA . WE LOST KENNY PAYNE WHO WAS THE ONLY ONE BRAVE ENOUGH TO PLAY ALLEN AT MISSISSIPPI STATE THAT COACH CALIPARI WAS EJECTED FROM THAT GAME AND RIGHT AFTER THAT WHERE WAS ALLEN . WELL HE WAS BACK ON THE BENCH AND NOT PLAYING VERY MUCH AGAIN AND THEN ALL YEAR THIS YEAR HE HASN’T PLAYED HARLEY COACH CALIPARI HAS HAD IT OUT FOR HIM THE WHOLE ENTIRE TIME HE WAS THERE . AND NOW WE LOST HIM WHEN WE SHOULDN’T HAVE COACH CALIPARI JUST DOES NOT WANT TO ADMIT THAT HE IS NOT A GOOD COACH ALL HE IS IS A RECRUITER AND HE’S A GOOD RECRUITER BUT NOT FOR KENTUCKY HE’S A GOOD RECRUITER FOR THE NBA AND HIS POCKETBOOK BUT HE WILL NOT CHANGE AND HE WON’T BE MADE TO CHANGE AND WE’LL JUST KEEP GOING DOWNHILL..
I would like to say that I am in favor of bringing back Rick Pitino….I don’t care if his personal life fell apart at least he could COACH and recruit!!!! if noit him I’m in favor of a Travis Ford who was part of some special teams at UK and who gets the tradition and what UK basketball really means to UK fans everywhere…. hell, I will help Cal pack his bags and drive him out of Ky
That would sure cause a stir Tom