OT: - John Calipari to return as Kentucky men's basketball coach | Page 2 | The Boneyard

OT: John Calipari to return as Kentucky men's basketball coach

Travelman32 said:
I get feeling upset, and refusing to buy tickets and merchandise, or even sending letters to the AD. But some Kentucky fans are insane, absolutely bonkers. They've been known to send death threats to refs who "wronged" them, tried to review bomb a business of a ref who "wronged" them (and targeted the wrong business at that), and were on Coach Cal's lawn planting "for sale" signs to the point where cops had to be called to the scene to protect his property in the aftermath of the Oakland loss. They maliciously targeted Saul Smith for no real reason. I mean imagine hating a player on a team you claim to root for to THAT extent. People complain about Philly fans but Kentucky fans give them a run for their money. Uconn fans can be brats sometimes, spoiled, but Kentucky is another level. As a coach you need to be experienced and have very thick skin to go to Lexington.
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I thought some of our fanbase were fanaticals
 
I have said it before and will again but I really believe the best backbone a team can have is 4 star recruits after their freshman year. Having a backbone of juniors and sophomores who will be role guys or second round picks in the nba is the key to national championships and that is the oppposite of what Kentucky does
 
Wonder what it takes for him to recover? Im assuming a first weekend exit likely gets him canned. Is he ok if he makes the second weekend next year? Or does he need to make the Final Four.

Also, is there any chance hes ok with getting canned or even trying to get canned? Itd be a ton of $$ to not do anything.
 
Cal's 65 and loaded. He's fat and happy. His staff is a bunch of his guys like Antigua and Chin Coleman and Bruiser Flint (he's got 5 assistant coaches on his staff!) who can't collectively coach their way out of a paper bag, nor do they seem to have much interest in working at it. Antigua makes a million bucks a year just to sit next to Cal and hang out. I have a college friend from Lexington who's a diehard BBN guy and from what he tells me the program is in a state of complete dysfunction. Every aspect of it. From on the court stuff to their NIL collective to agents threatening to pull kids from the team and Cal bowing down to them. (It makes you appreciate what we have at the moment - culture matters, as does an absence of it.)

So Cal can give all the soundbites he wants to about cancelling trips to the Caribbean to work on defense and "grinding" and everything else but it seems - to me - that unless there is a total overhaul of every aspect of the way he does business - including the guys that sit next to him on the bench - we could be in for another very entertaining season of Kentucky basketball. I just can't imagine him having the fire to actually do the work at this point.
 
Just saw part III of the Rex Chapman story on YTube and he mentioned Kentucky booster offered him $700,000 in the 80's to return to Kentucky for one more year. Now that is a fanbase that puts some serious emphasis on winning. If the squid doesn't get it done next year they will pony up money to get rid of him.
Makes me wonder what type of bag of cash Alabama type football teams (so many good player) will need to pony up each year for players. Won't be able to get Scam Newton for a small church donation.
 
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Kentucky fans are apoplectic. Word is Joe Craft offered the money for the buyout and somehow Calipari convinced Barnhart to keep him. It's a major mess down there.
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
Cal's 65 and loaded. He's fat and happy. His staff is a bunch of his guys like Antigua and Chin Coleman and Bruiser Flint (he's got 5 assistant coaches on his staff!) who can't collectively coach their way out of a paper bag, nor do they seem to have much interest in working at it. Antigua makes a million bucks a year just to sit next to Cal and hang out. I have a college friend from Lexington who's a diehard BBN guy and from what he tells me the program is in a state of complete dysfunction. Every aspect of it. From on the court stuff to their NIL collective to agents threatening to pull kids from the team and Cal bowing down to them. (It makes you appreciate what we have at the moment - culture matters, as does an absence of it.)

So Cal can give all the soundbites he wants to about cancelling trips to the Caribbean to work on defense and "grinding" and everything else but it seems - to me - that unless there is a total overhaul of every aspect of the way he does business - including the guys that sit next to him on the bench - we could be in for another very entertaining season of Kentucky basketball. I just can't imagine him having the fire to actually do the work at this point.
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Yep, Calipari plays the kids the amount he does based on promises he makes to AAU coaches/handlers and he won't break those promises in fear of the handlers turning on him in the future.

It's insane they're keeping Calipari.
 
Stew Crew said:
Benedict's the last person to ask. UConn tried to get out of paying Ollie $10 million and ended up paying him almost $14 million.
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Simpsons Thats The Joke GIF
 
Travelman32 said:
www.espn.com

John Calipari to return as Kentucky men's basketball coach

Despite another early exit from the NCAA tournament, Kentucky coach John Calipari will return for a 16th season, athletic director Mitch Barnhart said Tuesday.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

I know Big Blue Nation was in an uproar after Oakland, will be interesting to see how fans treat the news or if they will follow thru and not buy tickets or support the team anymore as many claimed they would do. Will Coach Cal have a nice bounce back season next year? Luckily one less p2 team that up and coming schools have to worry about regarding their coach being ....poached.

I would think an article like thus might signify a hot or at least warming seat and he's reaching the end of his chances.
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LOL!! Kentucky hoop stuck in purgatory!!!
 
WhereistheDove? said:
I’m sure they will, but that program requires a significant cultural change as far as preparation, accountability, attention to detail, and the standard to which players in that program are held. I’m VERY skeptical Cal is going to be able to change his stripes there even with an older team. That has never been his MO. He’s always been a personality manager.
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Yeah, he seems like enough of an old school coach that he expects the kids to do the things they need to do, but that's just not the world we live in at this point. I'm sure you can recruit kids that fit that mold, but they're not the easy one and done talents that Calipari wants.
 
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HuskyHawk said:
Cal can coach. Thats not the problem. He just doesn’t know how to build a team for this era. If he’s smart he may bring in a new assistant to help with that. The portal has made it nearly impossible to win playing a very young team.
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I kinda disagree. I’ve never noticed him do anything to make a difference except negatively.

Admittedly I despise him, but any of his great teams were insane groups of talent that he lets play out of a motion offense that lets them do whatever they want. He yells a lot. I don’t see any difference making coaching.

I think BigErn nailed it - he’s never really been an incredible x and o guy, but now he’s just recruiting as much talent as possible and letting the talent run the show.

If he gets lucky and the pieces fit right, with good on-court leadership, they’ll be a good seed. But he’s not winning big spots with his coaching acumen, ever.
 
According to ESPN, Cal has the #14, 15, 24, 39, 46, 71 ranked players signed for 2024. They have 15 players on the roster right now - 8 frosh, 4 sophs, 1 senior, 1 5th year, 2 grad students. Assuming the 1 senior player leaves, along with the 3 5th yr/grad student, that puts them over the limit. Has there been any chatter about the portal?
 
BRS24 said:
According to ESPN, Cal has the #14, 15, 24, 39, 46, 71 ranked players signed for 2024. They have 15 players on the roster right now - 8 frosh, 4 sophs, 1 senior, 1 5th year, 2 grad students. Assuming the 1 senior player leaves, along with the 3 5th yr/grad student, that puts them over the limit. Has there been any chatter about the portal?
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I'm sure a number of freshmen will leave even if they are not projected to go very high.

Reed Shepard and Rob Dillingham are projected lottery picks so I'm sure they are gone.
 
I am not at all convinced that the Squid is a good coach
Look at his last 4 years - one 2nd round appearance
Yeah he had some success when he was recruiting (and the powers to be were paying the kids$) 5* exclusively and few others were. There was no Portal before 2019.
Trying to teach 5 kids who never had to worry about playing high level D in HS/AAU is not easy.
The guy can recruit but 1 NCAA title in the past 13 years with all the talent he's had? Doesn't smell like a coaching star.
 
gtcam said:
I am not at all convinced that the Squid is a good coach
Look at his last 4 years - one 2nd round appearance
Yeah he had some success when he was recruiting (and the powers to be were paying the kids$) 5* exclusively and few others were. There was no Portal before 2019.
Trying to teach 5 kids who never had to worry about playing high level D in HS/AAU is not easy.
The guy can recruit but 1 NCAA title in the past 13 years with all the talent he's had? Doesn't smell like a coaching star.
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He's an even worse coach now that all players can be paid.
 
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Inyatkin said:
He's likely lost it, but the idea he could never coach is a huge overreaction. Those UMass teams were legit, much as I hated them
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Yep, he was definitely really good 30 years ago and even 10 years ago. His built in advantages are gone which is making it really hard for him to win at the best job in college basketball.
 
superjohn said:
Yep, he was definitely really good 30 years ago and even 10 years ago. His built in advantages are gone which is making it really hard for him to win at the best job in college basketball.
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Having a relevant coaching styl and philosophy is a fickle thing. The best stay flexible with the times. That's why Calhoun is a legendary coach and Cal will never be better than "very good."
 
Stew Crew said:
Benedict's the last person to ask. UConn tried to get out of paying Ollie $10 million and ended up paying him almost $14 million.
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Yep, that's why I want Kentucky to ask AD Dave how to do it. If he can increase the payout from $33 million to $40 million, Kentucky may be broke for a generation.
 
ScottCT said:
They are stuck with him it's so hilarious. It's like he has that entire program hostage.
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As we use to say about an incompetent manager who not only survived multiple purges but somehow even got promoted
“?He must have pictures “
 
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In this tournament, how many winning team player post game comments have sited the contribution of the team as a whole being the reason they advanced? Filling a team with a bunch of elite talent who don’t play together as a unit is not a recipe for success in today’s college game.
Duke’s post season performance has significantly dropped off since they’ve gone the one and done route.
Castle is arguably the 4th best contributor on our team (Castle vs Karaban) yet he is expected to be one of the top 5-7 players taken in the draft.
That’s the humble talent you want to recruit and, fortunately for us, that’s what Hurley and Company do.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Cal can coach. Thats not the problem. He just doesn’t know how to build a team for this era. If he’s smart he may bring in a new assistant to help with that. The portal has made it nearly impossible to win playing a very young team.
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“Cal can coach”

The guy who didn’t foul at the end of a National championship game with the reasoning of “they’re good at free throws” is not a good coach. He’s a personality manager. A glorified AAU coach
 
It would have been hard to replace Calipari this year. Now, the AD can do a bunch of research to figure out who should replace him next year.
 
AntG168 said:
“Cal can coach”

The guy who didn’t foul at the end of a National championship game with the reasoning of “they’re good at free throws” is not a good coach. He’s a personality manager. A glorified AAU coach
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You can believe what you want, but a prep school coach friend of mine goes to these guys camps, meets most of them etc. He thinks Cal is a good coach and fun and interesting guy. It shouldn’t be hard to imagine that he’s subject to the whims of Kentucky. Like Brian Cashman is probably very smart but has to spend stupidly on players because that’s the direction he’s given.

The Kentucky job is a curse unless the guy taking it can convince the boosters they are idiots (they are).
 
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