John Calipari talked to Chris Livingston and Antonio Reeves during Sunday's NCAA tourney loss. (Vicky Graff Photo)
If you have ever watched or heard Paul Finebaum on his radio/TV show or any SEC Network/ESPN show you know he does not mince words.
He’s affiliated with the Southeastern Conference and his show airs each week day on the SEC Network and he shares daily information about SEC teams. But he will not hold back when he senses something is not right and he didn’t hide his feelings about the Kentucky basketball program after Sunday’s NCAA Tournament loss to Kansas State.
Finebaum has a regular guest appearance on WJOX Radio’s “McElroy and Cubelic In the Morning” and Monday the conversation certainly included another early NCAA loss for UK, a preseason top five team that lost 12 games this season.
“Kentucky has become irrelevant, you’re right, Greg (McElroy),” Finebaum said. “We get all excited about them every year, because they’ve got the No. 1 recruiting class coming in, which they do again.
“In November, they were the No. 4 team in the country. They had to fight to get into the tournament in February, which they did. Then they laid another egg. To the elite college basketball world, getting knocked out in the Round of 32 is a failure.”
It’s a failure to most of the Kentucky fan base as well. That’s why Finebaum said it was so important for UK to reach the Sweet 16 this season after losing to Saint Peter’s in the first round in 2022.
“Just to wash away the stench of the last couple years,” Finebaum said. “There’s no way you can look at this season as anything other than a failure.
“And there’s no way you can look at John Calipari’s career as saying nothing but the clock is ticking loudly.”
29 Responses
The alarm has already sounded but we’re stuck with him because of his huge buyout.
For me as a KY fan that makes me dislike Cal even more. Because he won’t walk away and we can’t fire him.
Barnhart needs to be fired.
I was just thinking the same thing. Can’t blame cal. He got the best deal for himself that he could . It’s the people that gave it to him that should be held responsible.
This is just a Opinion based on what I have noticed throughout the years with Kentucky since the 70’s.
I have heard nice things about Cal his his domain but there are many I feel for because I see how the fans want something to be proud if in this State.
I have never liked Barnhart’s hiring and decision making process. How can a man male 8.5 million/ year and tell The BBN that his players are more important than all the people who give up vacations and save money all year to go to Tournaments only to use one ticket out of 3 day event. Many fans can’t afford season tickets or even a one game with the family in Lexington. Cal may not have meant what he keeps saying but he should tell his players in private what they mean to him and vice-vera. Without the BBN there would be no Cal. He needs to remember who pays his Salary.
That’s right Kentucky fans put him there. However, who was it that ran Tubby out of the state of Kentucky??? Ding.. ding .. that’s right Kentucky fans. Then what did they do ? Oh wait !!! The hired a drunk who was a waste. You all piss and moan when you win and you piss and moan when you don’t win. Seriously, what other coach is out there that could fill Cal’s shoes? There are only two… Jay Wright and Billy Donvan. Donvan won’t leave pros unless you pay him more than what he’s making now. Jay won’t leave to take over due to fact you all can’t get either without losing out on millions. You all need to quit pissing and moaning and support a team that has potential and will get better. I’m in a Cat’s fan but you all need to quit pissing and moaning.
I agree. How do you give a guy a lifetime contract and he’s only gotten one championship under his belt??? Why did you give him a lifetime contract , off of the number of top recruiting classes he can get???? Even though I despise Duke, even Coach K didn’t have a lifetime contract and he had 5 championships. It doesn’t matter how many #1 recruiting classes he brings in, they have yet to bring in multiple championships and that’s what we’re used to in KY. I agree: Barnhart needs to be fired.
That might have been biggest mistake Barnhart has made but at the time I don’t remember a lot of fan uproar over it
Agree 100%. No coach has done so little with so much as Cal. But we already know he cares nothing about winning games or conference championchips or nat’l championchips. He is an NBA agent that uses Ky for his base. NOTHING more. That will NEVER change. His teams get outcoached and outplayed every year. They have been outrebounded in every game except 5.
Not a fan of Paul all he does get paid spew his opinion not actual facts. But he could be right on this one.
Disagree that they "laid an egg". They barely lost to a higher seeded, and higher ranked team. PF gets more notoriety when he bashes UK than if he did the same to Georgia.
Everybody in the country who follows college basketball is aware of the repeated failures of Kentucky basketball and John Calipari. We have failed to win anything since the loss to Wisconsin by the 38 – 1 team. Most know why we lost that game. Calipari defended that loss by saying this is a players first program. That should have been our wake up call and we failed to heed it. We lost the year before in the championship game for the same reason to UConn who had one good player. The John Wall team lost to West Virginia who was playing their 3rd string point guard. There are 3 national titles lost due to Calipari’s inability to put the interest of the University ahead of his own personal aspirations for his pet players…and we should have had at least 1 or 2 more since Wisconsin.
Now, teams who have better coaches, have learned that Calipari’s teams are soft, entitled, and will let go of the rope when things get tough. They have learned that Calipari is a one trick pony on offense and defense. They know he favors his pets even when they play badly, which often has led to chemistry issues for our teams. In short, they have learned how to beat us…not just on the road, but also in Rupp Arena. They have learned that Calipari does not have his team ready to play at the start of the season and that he will make excuses for the multiple early losses each year. He recruits OAD kids who are supposed to be the best, yet lose to teams with juniors and seniors. He makes excuses for that too. He has an excuse for everything and nothing bad is ever his fault. Non BBN fans and coaches want Calipari to stay just where he is. They have learned that he is the weakest link in a chain of weak links and they are exploiting it and loving the hell out of it!
And that brings us to the crock of shit that we are mired in today. Any other Kentucky coach would be and has been fired or was pushed out the door for such poor performance. Adolph Rupp, Joe Hall, Eddie Sutton (he got railroaded by our own administration), Tubby Smith, and Billy Gilespie all were fired or forced out of being our coach for results that failed to meet BBN standards. Rick Pitino is the only coach who left on an upward trajectory and even he lost a national title to Arizona for refusing to play the Anderson kid (Rick thought he was a great enough coach to win without him). Now we have a coach who has a ridiculous buyout clause in his contract that makes him unfireable even when it’s justified. Calipari is so arrogant and selfish that he will not walk away from coaching here unless he has another job in the bag, like Texas. Thank you Mitch Barnhart for being so stupid as to give him that contract.
Even with the public outcry for his head the last 2 years, Calipari knows that he holds almost all of the cards. Until we start throwing actual sticks and stones, Calipari has shown that words alone are not going to make him give up $10 million a year or the cushy $1 million per year job he has waiting for him if he can hold on for 5 more years.
I am 66 years old and I fear that we are becoming the next Indiana. I am afraid that I will not live long enough to see us become relevant in college basketball again. We will never be the winningest program again, will never catch UCLA in titles won, and will almost certainly get passed by Duke, North Carolina, and Kansas in that race in time. I have bled blue all of my life and now my basketball heart is on life support and the doctor who can save me (Dr. Calipouto) can’t perform the operation due to his hands being tied.
I know that all of you Calipari lovers, and there are fewer of you every year, are screaming…wait until next year! We will be a pre-season top 5 team for sure, we will lose 3 or 4 games before SEC play starts, lose another 7 or 8 games in conference play, be a first round loser in the SEC tourney AGAIN, and be a first weekend casualty in the Big Dance, if we make it to the dance at all. Then repeat this process 3 or 4 more times when our program becomes dead and buried. Thank all of you Calipari lovers for your role in that. History has taught us that most great empires are not defeated by outside forces, but fall due to the decay from with in. We thought the hiring of John Calipari was going to be our salvation. It turned out to be a Trojan horse bringing an executioner to our midst.
The sad thing is that we see this train wreck coming and can’t do anything about it. John Calipari will be forever remembered as the man who killed Kentucky basketball and Mitch Barnhart will be forever known as the dumbass who gave him that lifetime contract. I can only hope that Calipari reads this (yes, he does keep up with what people are saying about him) and pray that it strikes the one decent nerve that he has left in his narcissistic coaching body and moves him to step down. But as I said earlier, that will only happen if he has a job like Texas already lined up. Hook ’em horns!
Spot on. Same things I’ve been saying since the Wisconsin loss. Same excuses every year. Same issues every year, no matter who is on the roster and on the floor. Time for many (although fewer each passing year) to stop not only making excuses for Cal, but stop accepting his repeated ones. I’ve wished for so long, for the media, to ask hard, accountable questions to him at press conferences etc. The media needs to quit lobbing soft ball pitches at him.
I AGREE 100% WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAID !!! AND I THINK WE WOULD BE BETTER OFF IF CALIPARI JUST LET ALL OF THE COACH’S BENEATH HIM COACH THE GAMES .
Thank you. I’m 60 and share your opinion 100% and everything you said I share exactly with you. He is nothing more than an NBA agent that uses KY for his office. Nothing more. He continually gets outcoached and his players get out played because they haven’t been coached by a basketball coach.
He couldnt coach a defense if he had to and is a pathetic X’s and O’s coach– not sure he even knows what that means. I cant stand looking at him or listening to him anymore
I truly wish Cal would just leave. That way people would realize Calipari isn’t making them miserable. They were just born that way. There is NOT ONE good coach that would come here. They would not put themselves or their family through what Cal has to deal with. If I were a parent of a top prospect, no way would I let him go to Ky. Brooks and Wheeler are two perfect reasons why. Narcissistic crybabies!
Good coaches will line up to take the job after seeing the type of recruits that want to play at UK.
I’m sure other coaches would love to keep Cal at UK as long as possible so they can chalk up easy victories over us.
Other coaches probably talk amongst one another about what a terrible game coach we currently have.
He is the worst ai have seen in my lifetime.
A drunk BCG could out coach Cal.
He actually had a better winning percentage over his 2 seasons than Cal’s last 3 with a WHOLE lot less talent.
Jim, you sound like a Louisville fan.
I agree with you. nobody in their right mind would want to coach here at Kentucky with the fans that bitch and complain from their lazy boy. I don’t think alot of people ever played highschool basketball because there are days when nothing falls and others when you can’t miss a shot. Hopefully you don’t have 2 or 3 player have a off shooting night like against Kansas State.
I heard this same moronic line after Joe B. Hall and after Tubby Smith.
It was nonsense then and it is nonsense now.
Cal should have been fired the night he and the team took a knee during the National Anthem 2 yrs ago.. And apparently he believes he can do as his players do. One and done. One NCAA championship and done.
When they started kneeling and Ca l started talking about his white privilege I stopped watching. ( dont know why I can’t type Ca l above ??????)
That is what "they said" when it was time for tubby smith to go.
Fear of the unknown is no excuse to tolerate this train wreck for one more day.
Time to go,same shit year after year.What people don’t understand is they pay him to win,KY will win games but the fact is we deserve better.atleast a elite 8.I understand you can’t win every year but this is not KY ball.
I believe in ky be coaches but something has to change
It’s not the coaches fault. He’s done his job. He’s coach the guys all year.done what needs to bo done.the rest lays on the player’s doing there job. CALkeeps coaching on the side during a game.if they don’t come together an play as a team..that’s what hurts them.i been a wildcat fan for a lot of years.the coach can only teach them so far.but the player’s got to work together.
Ronnie he should teach them to work together, right?
Everyone overlooks the fact one the SEC coaches are much better and are recruiting much better …the best team he had in recent yrs was the Nick Richards team COVID year and do i need to remind ppl of Billy Gillespie what a collosal mess up that was ….and as you’ve seen there is much difference between the blue blood schools and the non blue blood school in the tourney. Kentucky Wildcats fans are sounding like the Miami Hurricane football fans now
Sorry i meant isn’t much difference*
If Paul Finebaum wasn’t affiliated with the SEC, he would be fired for his scathing comments about Kentucky. This is the same Kentucky team that was preseason top 5 and lost 12 games this season. Clearly, they’re irrelevant. Greg McElroy agrees.
It is because paul is on the SEC Network that he is talking about Kentucky. Plus I think his opinion is one you share