Former Villanova coach Jay Wright said NIL incentives have made it almost impossible for John Calipari to win with young teams today. (Vicky Graff Photo)
CBS-TV sports analyst Jay Wright won two national championships during his coaching tenure at Villanova and probably understands the challenges UK coach John Calipari faces better than most.
Wright, though, had a warning for Calipari and Kentucky basketball after the 80-76 loss to Oakland in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, UK’s third straight disappointing NCAA tourney.
“No. 1, personally for (Calipari) he loves Pittsburgh,” Wright said on CBS. “He takes pride in being a Pittsburgh guy. So being there in Pittsburgh, this really hurts him personally. I understand and I feel for him.
“No. 2, the era of taking these young freshmen and trying to play against older players is over. I think he did a phenomenal job with these guys all year getting them to be as successful as they were. You can see they’re playing against grown men.”
That was evident in the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen when there were only three true freshmen among the 80 starters and only 14 sophomore starters.
Wright said Kentucky will have “far better pros” than any player on Oakland or probably most players in the NCAA field.
“But they’re not as good college basketball players,” Wright said about UK’s freshmen. “At this point in their career, they’re not as disciplined as the guys from Oakland. It’s not (Calipari’s) fault.
“It’s that they’re 18-years-old and they’re in this era where everyone’s telling them how great they are, ‘Just show up in college and you’re going to win.’ It doesn’t happen that way. And the more the guys stay in college because of NIL, it’s gonna be tougher for young teams like this to be successful.”
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As my kids used to inform me when I spoke the obvious, "No Duh, Dad!"
I say now, "NO DUH, JAY!!!"
Jay Wright joined a growing list of Sports commentators who finally have decided to speak the truth about what the fraud has done to this program.
Add Wright to the list that includes other talking heads like Seth Greenburg, who after this season’s collapse in March feels free to speak critically about the fraud. The reality is that a former or active coach very seldomly, if ever, speaks critically of another coach in public.
However, these statements by Wright signal that the little boy’s finger stuck into the dike cannot hold back the deluge that is coming. These formerly blind defenders of the fraud are trying to distance themselves from the fraud before the complete levee that protects the fraud and his defenders collapses and drowns them all.
I don’t believe for one minute that the loss to Oakland was the trigger for these critical public comments. I believe the likes of Wright and Greenburg (and others speaking truthfully now) have been aware of the fraud’s destruction of the gold standard for a long time despite their past disparaging comments about fans who dared to criticize this fraud.
I don’t see how having older players will help Calipari. Last year, he had one of the oldest teams he’s ever had at UK along with the best rebounder in the country and he still couldn’t win. Cal is so intent in making young guys rich with one year in college that he will sacrifice anything and anyone to achieve his goal. I have no doubt in my mind that Burks would have been a much better player for this team than what Edwards proved to be had he been given a chance. If nothing else, Cal could have used Burks to push Edwards to playing better, and who knows, he may have ended up with two players that could cause fits in the tournament. I also think Thiero could have done much more if given the minutes he needed. Cal’s coaching style doesn’t seem to work anymore, no matter the age or makeup of the team.
About 1 year ago, I made the following posts at Vaught’s Views about the history of the NCAA tournament performance of teams that reach final fours and actually compete for national championships. Here are 2 links for those posts.
https://247sports.com/college/kentucky/board/296/Contents/pretournament-ranking-and-ane-values-201448813/?page=1
https://www.yoursportsedge.com/2022/12/28/what-does-it-take-to-make-the-final-four-and-win-championships/vaughts-views/johnmorgan/
This year is no different from the history.
If a program strives to compete for national championships, that program must be in the top 6 at the end of the regular season.
UK has fallen from these ranks.
In my opinion, this program will not return to those ranks again UNTIL this FRAUD is LONG GONE, and when HE IS FINALLY GONE, it will take years for a real coach, focusing on the health and viability of this program will bring UK back into those ranks year to year.
The dismantling of the UK basketball program is now complete.
AND he’s messed up and has 6 high profile freshman that are expecting to play this upcoming season.
Agree with Coach Wright except ‘it’s not calipari’s fault’.
He builds the rosters. He typically gets the players he is going after.
He hasn’t been able or hasn’t been interested in retaining veteran players. For years we’ve watched older players, who are better right now, sit on the bench while future NBA players struggle to figure it out – all while watching their draft stock fall. Eventually those older players see the writing on the wall and transfer out.
A coach concerned about winning and putting the best product on the floor for the fans (and their hard earned money) would not operate that way.
A coach who prioritizes putting players in the NBA over winning is not really a coach, are they. Mentor maybe. Agent. But not a coach.
Wanting to develop players into pros and change lives is an admirable thing to do, but most of his players drafted into the NBA were going to get there anyway. If anything, it feels like he’s hurt the players draft stock at least as often as he’s helped. I’d love for some of the stat gurus on this site to pull together the data on where players were projected to go when they came in vs. where they actually ended up.
How many players who came in not projected as pros got drafted? How much has HE really done?
‘I can’t do it for them’. ‘They have to do it themselves’. So he lends them the facilities and gives them a spotlight. That’s it? That’s his contribution to their success?
One last thing regarding playing against grown men in college. If that is the issue then why do we destroy teams full of grown men who have played together for years in the preseason but fall apart as the season progresses. That would also appear to be his fault.
This isn’t new. This isn’t just this year. This goes back well before NIL, the portal and Covid.
Shawn You are speaking the Truth! Young or Old it doesn’t matter! When You are the coach that has a kid that was supposedly the best, set on the bench and not use him shows the goal is not winning championships but helping the kids go to the pros! That stunt alone should have sent Cal packing!
Our own coach sabotaged our program.
The money-wasting AD who needs to be fired AND investigated NOW along with the malicious arrogant co-criminal fraud who has robbed UK of millions.
The Kentucky Bureau of Investigation should check into every UK dollar handled by &/or received by the AD &/or the fraud, including via contracts AND every dollar in and out of their personal bank accounts (including the Cayman Islands & other such havens for illegal funds) until the skeletons of thievery are uncovered.
Too much money has been wasted by the AD to not have any accountability.
While investigating those 2 crooks, it would be wise to do the same with every administrator and UK Board of Trustees member who has endorsed &/or remained silent during all these years of secret and ridiculous contracts, starting with the secret Tubby extension.
If even ONE DOLLAR has been mishandled (stolen?) or unaccounted for, the dog DEEPER until firing and prison time are fully justified.
There is NOT ONE REASON why an investigation into the fraud and his personal banker minion AD should not be investigated. If they are innocent (LOL!!!), let it be proven.
The Professor has been calling out the fraud for the declining BB program for years!
It is no longer debatable. It is in the record books that the fraud is a LOSER and UK needs to get rid of him before he causes UK to forfeit games just as he did at UMASS & Memphis,!
Wow.. I didn’t know that
When it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, but smells like dead fish…like it did at UMass and Memphis…you know something is amiss. That’s been the story of Calipari’s coaching career. After Billy Clyde, we were so desperate that we looked the other way when we hired the FRAUD. This was the time to move on from the FRAUD but Calipari must have something on Barnhart. The University will want to hush this up, but I have a feeling that the NCAA boys are already looking into this.
But King CALcified won’t get punished. Our program and fans will be the ones with penalties and suffering.