LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — At Kentucky, John Calipari won better than 77% of his games and kept his sneakers planted firmly on the chests of Louisville and Indiana.
But in 15 seasons Calipari won one national championship.
He recruited in ways that made Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and entire conferences drool, essentially getting any player he considered worthy of the demanding task of playing for Kentucky.
But in 15 seasons he won one national championship.
He scheduled the best of the best, promoted like Don King and convinced the world that Lexington was the epicenter of college basketball.
But in 15 seasons he won one national championship.
If you’re looking for reasons to explain the jarring events of the last 18 hours as we await official confirmation that Calipari is walking away from the final five seasons on his UK contract to coach Arkansas, those six sentences work.
John Calipari did many remarkable things at the University of Kentucky, creating a Lexington legacy that will intimidate some candidates to replace him.
The SEC titles, The NBA Draft picks. The Champions Classic. The countless (and often overlooked) fundraisers for people in need in Eastern Kentucky, Haiti and elsewhere.
But Calipari was absolutely working well beyond his expiration date. That came at least two years ago. Maybe earlier.
The Kentucky basketball job is no different than the Notre Dame football job. It’s an 8-to-10 year gig. If you’re not producing at the absolute highest level after your first decade on the job, it’s time for you to be going, going, gone.
And Calipari had long stopped producing at the highest level of college basketball — or even the highest level of the Southeastern Conference.
Three other SEC programs — Alabama, Auburn and South Carolina — have made the Final Four since the Wildcats last appeared on the final weekend of the season.
Not good enough. That’s not what Nick Saban was doing with Alabama football.
Since Anthony Davis stood tall in New Orleans and gave Calipari his one shining moment in 2012, three other bluebloods (Duke, North Carolina and Kansas) won national titles. Villanova won a pair.
Don’t look now but UConn is positioned to win its third NCAA championship in 11 seasons and sixth since 1999 if the Huskies can handle Purdue Monday night in the championship game in suburban Phoenix.
Danny Hurley has shown you can win big by rebuilding a team that lost three starters. Imagine that.
And if UConn fails, Matt Painter will take the trophy back to Purdue with a collection of 3- and 4-star recruits who have never considered college basketball an obligatory one-season annoyance on their way to the their first NBA contract.
Imagine root, root, rooting for team like that again, Kentucky fans.
You know the entire list of when things started going wrong for Calipari. Blowing the 2015 perfect season in the Final Four loss to Wisconsin because of his stubborn loyalty to upperclassmen like the Harrison Twins as well as his hesitancy to increase the tempo and fully embrace the three-point shot.
Believing in the folly of Skal Labissiere in 2016. Losing to Louisville and falling short of the Final Four with DeAaron Fox, Bam Adebayo and Malik Monk in 2017.
Burping against Bruce Weber and Kansas State in the 2018 Sweet Sixteen with NBA MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and PJ Washington. Going down to Bruce Pearl and Auburn in the 2019 Elite Eight even though the Tigers lost one of their top players to a knee injury two days earlier.
The remarkably terrible losing season in 2021. Saint Peter’s. Another NCAA Tournament loss to Kansas State, this time in 2023 against a coach in his first season as the head man.
The closing credits will roll over the confident grin of Oakland guard Jack Gohlke. (Timeout. I need to go back and check the spelling on that last name. Gohlke’s 15 minutes of fame are over, you know.)
What if I told you that a slow, one dimensional Division II player who could only make three-point shots stuck 10 of those shots over Calipari’s armada of first-round NBA Draft picks and knocked the 3-seed Wildcats out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round?
That will be the tease for the ESPN documentary one day.
That will also likely serve as Calipari’s post-script.
Joe B. Hall could not have survived that. Tubby Smith could not have survived that. Billy Gillispie could not have survived that. John Calipari should not survive that.
Exit Lexington. Enter Fayetteville. Arkansas is the program of Eddie Sutton, Nolan Richardson as well as Tyson Foods and Walmart money.
It is also the program of John Pelphrey, Stan Heath and Mike Anderson. This should be fascinating, an energizing moment for Calipari, who could begin a fresh challenge at an age (65) when John Wooden was retiring.
But for Kentucky, it’s time for a change, a different voice, a different approach, a different vibe. It’s been time.
Time for Kentucky basketball to stop believing in the fantasy that NBA Draft night is the most important day on the basketball calendar.
Time for Kentucky basketball to find a coach who understands that the wisest way to build a winning team in this era is with a mixture of veteran players and precocious young talent.
Time to stop complaining about the state of the practice gym, fussing with the athletic director and ducking media obligations.
Time to retire the worn out list of excuses: We’re young. This is hard. They’re not machines. We’re everybody’s Super Bowl. Blah, blah, blah.
John Calipari did many great things at the University of Kentucky. He also won one national championship and passed his expiration date several years ago.
This looks like a change that should work for everybody, several years overdue.
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