Some Kentucky basketball fans have become apathetic because of losses the last few years. (Vicky Graff Photo)
During Kentucky’s loss at Missouri Wednesday, a die-hard Kentucky fan sent me a message wondering if I thought UK fans were more upset with coach John Calipari now than they were Billy Gillispie during his tumultuous two years at UK.
At first, I thought there was no way that could be true. Then I kept checking my twitter timeline and text messages and started to wonder if my friend might be right.
I posed that question on social media and between Twitter, Facebook and text messages got over 200 responses to show the unrest in Big Blue Nation now for a coach that won a national title in 2012 and also went to the Final Four in 2011, 2014 and 2015 at UK.
Here are some of the many responses I got — and 90 percent were very “frustrated” with Calipari after the one-sided loss at Missouri.
J.D. Shelburne — “Not that bad but bad. I can’t tweet what I really think. I don’t want it in the newspapers in the morning.”
Eric Gilbert — “So many of the people I’ve heard talk about the program just don’t seem to care anymore — personal connection has eroded. So, perhaps, more angry during Gillispie’s tenure but currently more apathetic in the Calipari era.”
Stephen McQueary — “I feel Kentucky is not feared anymore. The crowd last night was Missouri’s largest in years. Blue got in but nowhere the numbers like before.”
Darren Phelps — “I still watched every game during the BG (Gillispie) era & cared. Why invest time watching UK now as a fan? We’ll underperform, Cal will make excuses & we’ll have 8-10 new players next year. Rinse & Repeat.”
John Vinson — “I think the Billy G situation is completely different. Billy had no real strong resume, and hadn’t done anything during his time at UK. Cal has established history and a lifetime contract. Hard to be angry when you know nothing can be done. Feel more apathetic than upset.”
Kevin Meuth — “It is time that the press holds Cal’s feet to the fire and start asking him the tough questions and make him answer them instead of settling for the flip answers that he gives. And it is time for Mitch (Barnhart) to step up and tell us what his opinion is about this and if things don’t change what he plans to do about it.”
Cynthia Strunk — “I may be more discouraged today than I was after the loss to end last season.”
Jim Wise — “BBN will ruin any coach who comes to Kentucky! The negativity is suffocating. By far the most ridiculous comment I keep hearing is that Cal doesn’t care. He cares more than any of us.
“I hated Billy, I don’t hate Cal. I just think he needs to find some players who can play on the big stage. Just making some shots would change the whole conversation.”
Rob Gorley — “I think we were all too optimistic coming into this season based on what we saw in the Bahamas. The fact is, the core of this team is the same group that lost to St. Peter’s in the first round last year, so why would we expect that much more from this team? The coaching staff certainly hasn’t changed much. UK is just an average basketball team and it will be a miracle if we make the NCAA Tournament this year.”
Mac Yocum — “First and foremost, UK ‘fans’ are a huge part of the problem. Al McGuire was sooo wrong when he called them the most knowledgeable. Passionate maybe but not knowledgeable. My son is on staff at a high level mid major. No one runs an offense like they did 40 years ago that continually resets. They run sets with one or two actions in them. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Turnovers, missed open shots, missed free throws all fall solely back on the players. Coaches don’t throw the ball away or commit idiotic fouls late in the shot clock.
“Cal’s best teams had a center that wasn’t a vacuum. Cousins, Davis, Towns, Cauley-Stein all understood when to pass it out and the didn’t bring the ball down like Oscar (Tshiebwe) does. That’s on the kid. UK ‘fans’ truly need to just stop with the foolishness.”
Jimmy Winfrey —“There was still hope that Billy G would be fired and we would move on. People have no hope that Mitch will do what’s right and fire Cal ASAP before he utterly destroys this program.”
Mark Whitaker — “It definitely has to be more disappointing. Billy Gillespie was never that great of a coach. John Calipari is an outstanding coach who has had a lot of success at Kentucky and everywhere else that he’s been and a coach who we all know can even be better but ever since he’s gotten that last contract at Kentucky it’s almost like he is lackluster and doesn’t put effort or care anymore. And I understand it’s a team effort, so obviously the players are to blame as well, but as the mediocre years stack up year after year, it has the fall on his shoulders eventually.”
Jeremy Kemble — “I’d say more fans are upset now. We have the highest paid coach, coming off a losing season just a couple years ago, then to the worst loss in the NCAA Tournament, to getting the Player of the Year back, and have an offense as bad as this, with the most experienced team he’s had since being at UK.”
Mike Dowd — “More angry now. This is supposed to be a Final 4 team. Billy G. never had this kind of talent.”
Don Leigh — “Tubby’s legacy was his high character and he was a good humanitarian. Billy wasn’t yet ready to think about having a legacy. It’s just hard to imagine that presently, anyone with such an established stellar resume as JC (Calipari) and the huge ego would allow their legacy to become so permanently tarnished.”
Douglas Tillett — “Getting there. He keeps saying we will get better but now we are in conference and we are getting worse.”
Kevin Wilder — “Much more angry. We’ve only got about 78 basketball seasons in our lives and Cal’s screwed up the last 6. Start a go fund me to finance firing Cal and next fire Barnhart for giving him a lifetime contract. This is pathetic.”
Rodney Shelton — “I think more angry during the BCG (Gillispie) era. But I think there’s more frustration and disappointment now. At least that’s how I’d describe my emotions.”
5 Responses
The answer to your question is "no".
Billy G. was the wrong man for the job to begin with and should have never been hired.
Cal was the right man at the time, but Ky basketball has never been the same since the 2015 season. Would not be disappointed if Mitch would appoint a search committee to
find the right coach to replace Cal. Need a new coach.
I’m more upset now because it’s impossible to fire Cal with his buyout.
For me, I knew Billy G. was the wrong person for this job, so I was just waiting for him to be fired. With Cal, I have just completely stopped caring or even half way paying attention. Right now, I can’t even tell you who they play next or when and don’t even care.
I don’t know the jersey number of a single player on the team and that is a first in my lifetime.
I haven’t seen Cal make the necessary changes for several years, and don’t see it happening anytime soon. He already knows more than everyone else and I think he actually believes that.
Cal may be a great person and may really care, but he is too prideful to change; run zone every now and then, run actual plays when inbounding the ball, run some curls to open shooters, the center should always look to pass the ball out if he is not open. When your team continually comes out starting slow, you need to figure out why.
Larry, the 2015 loss to Wisconsin was tragic enough and then when asked about it, Calipari said he didn’t want to take away Andrew Harrison’s heart. Then, Calipari proclaimed he was more focused on getting kids into the league than winning championships. He was hired in the hope that he would guide UK past UCLA in national titles…he never embraced that BBN mandate. He has been open in his irritation with the SEC tourney and equally vocal about not wanting to play in preseason holiday tournaments…he said the travel was too disruptive to the players. Yet he is willing to play in London, New York City, and Vegas. The lack of titles is the original reason for the Calipari revolt, but the double digit season losses and losing first round games in the NIT and NCAA is what has everyone in an uproar now. Calipari has not helped himself at all with his cuteness with the press and blaming his players. The lifetime contract, the $10 million yearly salary, and the $50 million buyout have us equally disgusted with Barnhart. Today, teams we used to dominate are dominating us with no end in sight. We have lost hope with Calipari changing and getting this right. Why should he? UK has made him the richest coach in America whether he wins or not. It is going to take Dr. Calipouto getting involved with this before anything changes. Here’s a thought…maybe the academic side of the University is tired of UK being known for basketball instead of academics? Are they sitting back letting Calipari destroy this program beyond the point of making a comeback? I don’t have the answers, I just know that this is a very sad time, not to mention embarrassing, to be a Kentucky basketball fan.
You should have asked UK fans the same thing after KY beat Tennessee in Knoxville!