John Calipari says part of his job is to prepare players for the rest of their lives. (UK Athletics Photo)
John Calipari has a lot of NCAA Tournament victories but none in the last three years when Kentucky lost in the first round in 2022, did not make the tournament in 2021 and had the tourney cancelled by COVID in 2020.
Kentucky faces Providence and former UK player Bryce Hopkins Friday night in Greensboro, N.C., in a first-round NCAA Tournament matchup. UK, a six seed, is a slight favorite but the pressure is all on UK, a preseason top five team, after last year’s first round exit as a No. 2 seed.
“You know what disappoints me is three years ago — that’s not 100 years ago, that’s three — we could’ve won the national title and they canceled the season,” Calipari said. “What happened last year, first time in my career. First time in my career and you know what, hurt like hell.
“But you move on, and you move to the next. For me, this has got to be a ball, because they are going to feed off of me.”
Calipari said media members and others were trying to “talk” UK out of the NCAA Tournament earlier this season when the Cats were struggling. Now he’s trying to “talk” his players into not feeling any extra pressure because of the Saint Peter’s loss in 2022.
“If I have to listen to ‘you gotta win’ because — I know you won 9,000 games, have been to Final Fours and you got an 80 percent (winning record) — ‘but last year you lost do you feel …’ They gotta see me saying, ‘He is loose and ready to go,’ because they’re gonna feed off of me.
“And I’m excited about it. I’m excited for these kids that where they are and me knowing individual players, not just one, where they were and what we had to do to keep bringing them along. And now here they are.”
Calipari insists he has seen growth in his players despite the team’s 21-11 record and early SEC Tournament exit.
“That’s what we do here. Getting them prepared for the rest of their life and what they want to do. It’s been a good run and a learning experience,” Calipari said. “You learn sometimes, when people show you who they are, believe them. Believe them. And what I would say in all this stuff, that by overcoming this, I told them there’s nothing you’re gonna go through that will be like this. And you did it.
“So when anything hits you, you’re gonna say, ‘Dude, you should have been through the ’23 season.’”
Calipari then pointed out the good and bad of UK fans — again.
“We got the greatest fans. They travel, they’re into it. No one has the fan base that we have. And the other side of it is we got the greatest fan base. It’s really intuitive and passionate. You got a small portion of them that are really aggressive,” Calipari said.
“That’s all part of being at Kentucky.”
10 Responses
Cal is going to be so nervous and tight it’s not going to be funny.
No way he’s not feeling tremendous pressure to win this game and will be in full panic mode.
Is Bryce Hopkins the first Calipari victim (transfer) to have a chance to beat a Calipari UK team?
My how those typos can change things, Larry did you mean, "John Calipari wants to make sure players see him lose for NCAA play"
That is what this old mind read the first time I saw it. 🙂
Ouch Professor
If Hopkins has something like a 20 pt. and 7 rebound game and the Cats win, the only thing you will hear is the crying about his stats. It won’t be praising the Cats for winning. It will all be about Hopkins and how Cal cut him loose. There’s been a lot of whining since 2016 in this country and it has infected the BBN. SMH
Jim I think if Kentucky wins that will be the story
Been a decline in the UK basketball program since 2016 too
Truth
Yes make sure players see you put on an act.
His act has worn so thin that his fraud has been exposed