John Calipari has had a lot of tough times this season. (Vicky Graff Photo)
After Kentucky’s loss at Georgia Saturday, several Twitter comments were aimed my way about John Calipari’s recent coaching resume.
“I am not calling for anyone’s job but can we as Kentucky fans admit there are many, many coaches who could do what Cal has done over the last three years for half the pay and no lifetime contract,” one person asked.
Then came this question.
“Tubby (Smith) got shown the door for a lot less than we have witnessed the last three seasons. Thoughts?”
A friend texted me during WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk pointing out that Tubby Smith won 70 percent of his games the last three seasons but that Calipari has won only 61 percent the last three years. He also noted that Billy Gillispie won 60 percent of his games in his two seasons at Kentucky.
Gillispie was 18-13 in 2007-08 when UK made the NCAA Tournament and 22-14 the next season. That’s a 40-27 mark in two years and he was fired for that and off-court issues.
Tubby Smith went 28-6 in 2004-05, 22-13 in 2005-06 and 22-12 in 2006-07. That was a 70 percent winning percentage for three years and 64 percent mark his final two years before he left under pressure for Minnesota.
Calipari went 9-16 in 2020-21, 26-8 in 2021-22 when UK lost in the NCAA Tournament first round and is 16-9 this season. That is about a 61 percent winning percentage the last three years but a 70 percent mark (42-17) the last two seasons.
Sporting News columnist Mike DeCourcy had quite a few Twitter exchanges with UK fans after the game who were blasting Calipari.
“Kentucky has signed three of the top four prospects in the 2023 recruiting class and there are actually people out there calling for a coaching change. Real people. It’s unfathomable,” DeCourcy tweeted.
“Pushing out a coach with 3 top-4 recruits on the way is taking the risk of burning the roster to the ground to prove a point. It’s like firing a coach for not making the Super Bowl and then tossing the Pro Bowl quarterback with him.”
Want more from DeCourcy?
“So the fact he made four Final Fours in the 2010s doesn’t matter, but the fact he missed in 2013 because his best player (Nerlens Noel) blew out his knee does? OK, I just wanted to get that straight,” DeCourcy responded to one UK fan.
He also brought up how many injuries Kentucky has dealt with this year. Oscar Tshiebwe, Jacob Toppin, Cason Wallace, Sahvir Wheeler, CJ Fredrick and Lance Ware have all missed games due to injuries. Damion Collins missed games after the death of his father.
Only Antonio Reeves and Chris Livingston have played in all 25 games.
“Go through the top teams and see how many have as many players with games missing from their stat lines. The teams that are successful are mostly healthy,” DeCourcy tweeted.
“There are many reasons this team isn’t achieving. I’m amazed how few are considering the issues with health. There isn’t a team in college hoops that could excel with their absences, and I’m convinced Oscar isn’t healthy. Because drop like his is unprecedented.”
But this zinger from DeCourcy best makes his argument for not understanding the frustration some UK fans have who want Calipari gone.
“The coach who has won 800 games and made six Final Fours can’t coach. This is the level of logic being presented,” DeCourcy said.
Still, if Kentucky does not work some magic these next six games, the Calipari criticism is only going to intensify.
4 Responses
Calipari has been his own worst enemy. It all started with the "Players First" credo. He openly admitted that he was more focused on getting players into the NBA than winning championships. He was brought here to lead UK past UCLA in national championships won and has failed miserably. Then came the kneeling during the national anthem. Next, he became cute, almost flippant with the press and in his post-game comments. Then he brazenly played his "pets" even when they played poorly because he didn’t want to hurt their draft prospects. He has lost games that cost us SEC titles and national titles. Kansas now is the all-time winningest program in men’s college basketball. He has delivered a first round NIT loss and a first round NCAA loss as a number 2 seed. He coached the home loss to lowly South Carolina. He is only 1 – 7 against Quad 1 foes this season, and all of those losses, with the exception of Michigan St., were real asswhoopings. He will most likely finish this season with a losing record. He has won only 1 national championship and at a minimum, should have won at least 2 more. These are the nails in Calipari’s coffin, but he produced the nails and the hammer to drive them in. The Thumb Rule in college basketball is when you stop winning, you stop coaching. It’s time for Calipari to take his "talents" somewhere else. Will there be a struggling transition in having a new coach? Most likely, yes; but it is time to work through that and bring respect and prominence back to Kentucky basketball.
It matters not to me what Mike DeCourcy or anyone else says in an attempt to defend this fraud. He is the highest-paid coach in the college game, but his loyalty and priorities do not place the UK basketball program at the top of his list. That has been the case since the day he arrived in Lexington. For him, his #1 priority is the list of NBA draft picks that he has been able to pat on the back as they pass through this program for a few months only due to the NBA 1 year removed from high school rule. He (and Sharpe) even found a way to short cut the NBA’s own rule without ever stepping onto a court for a single second to play in real games.
The result has been a long list of failures that have damaged this program to its core as Barry itemized in his fine post.
As for the records of the other coaches, Ten Loss Tubby had to go because he had taken the program from the top to mediocrity. His slide from the top to mediocrity occurred much the same as Calipari’s slide.
However, Gillispie was run out of town for entirely different reasons despite the improvements he made through mid January of his second season. I have always wondered what caused a team that has won 16 of 18 games to suddenly start losing 8 of its last 11 games. I think Gillispie and his team learned that the powers that be had already decided to show him the door and the rest of the season mattered for nothing.
Calipari’s situation is more analogous to Tubby’s, and Calipari’s record is worse than Tubby Smith’s record in his final 3 years.
The last 3 years, Tubby’s teams ended their seasons ranked #9, #24, and #13. Calipari’s last 4 years have ended with teams ranked #29, #49, #6, and #44. (Rankings per Pomeroy). The Calipari version of mediocrity is deeper and more damaging that anything Tubby Smith inflicted on this program.
It is time for Calipari to resign and move on.
When you have to dig deep into a coach’s past to find the good it’s obvious their time has passed.
I hate how KY fans get called out for stating the obvious decline of our once great program.
With everything Nick Saban has accomplished he would not be safe at Alabama with 3 seasons similar to Cal’s last 3.
If he missed bowl games 2 out of 3 seasons with a loss to popcorn state sandwiched in between, he would be shown the door.
Especially if he was outspoken about the importance of the NFL draft (calling it the greatest day in Alabama football) and getting players drafted.
Now Alabama is the number one team in college basketball and they’re a football school. Not a basketball school like us as Cal himself likes to say.
They evidently have a great AD. Barnhart settles for mediocrity for far too long before making any type of move. I know he backed himself into a corner with Cal’s insane contract. But this isn’t the first time he has settled for underperforming in many of our sports.
I don’t know if he’s just lazy or intimidated by all the coaches that work for him.
He doesn’t have a lifetime contract with a large buyout. Firing of him would be a good start to getting things back to where they should be.
Bear Bryant won two titles, then went eight straight years without a bowl win (0-7-1), then won two more. Also it was 13 years between those titles. A coach can’t do that today. There are way too many crybabies in the world today.