CRAWFORD | Pressure rests on Calipari, not Kentucky's players, entering NCAA Tournament | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Kentucky coach John Calipari has done everything he could do to reduce the pressure facing his young team as it heads into the NCAA Tournament tonight against Oakland.

On Sunday after the draw, he suggested people talking about pressure on his players are “not fans of this program.”

“My job is to get them free and loose,” he said.

And toward that end, if appearances on Wednesday at the team’s public shootaround are any indication, he has succeeded. There were smiles and little games. There was the annual half-court shot competition. Walker Horn was the Wildcat who made the shot, by the way. Calipari missed the backboard.

And Calipari is missing, still, when he talks about the topic of pressure. In recent weeks, I’ve sampled the postgame rants after losses by Kentucky fans. I’ve year to hear any real raging against players. But there has been great dissatisfaction about the way they’re organized and deployed.

Kentucky’s Walker Horn (22) waves to fans, as his teammates celebrate, after he made a half-court shot during an NCAA Tournament practice session in Pittsburgh’s PPG Arena on March 20, 2024.
ERIC CRAWFORD

Heading into the NCAA Tournament, nine years after the program’s last trip to the Final Four and five years since its last foray beyond the first weekend, the pressure is on Calipari, not any of the young players who make up his roster.

Do we think Justin Edwards or DJ Wagner or Aaron Bradshaw or most of the rest care that Kentucky couldn’t get past St. Peters? Do we necessarily think they should? No. They were going to prom when all that happened. It’s not their burden to carry.

Most fans I hear from don’t lay that weight on current Kentucky players, nor do they seem to think that that Kentucky’s absence from the second weekend since 2019 should be a factor in how players in 2024 are judged. Calipari is making a straw man argument.

“This ain’t about me,” he said. “This is about these kids. So, that’s the reason I try to take all the pressure off them.”

At the SEC Tournament, asked about recent struggles in the event, Calipari reminded people of how much his teams had won in the event in the past. And that’s true. It hasn’t been forgotten, either by the media or fans.

Kentucky's Justin Edwards (1), Tre Mitchell and DJ Wagner try to disrupt Ugonna Onyenso as he shoots a free throw during an NCAA Tournament practice session in Pittsburgh's PPG Arena on March 20, 2024.
ERIC CRAWFORD

But the counter to that argument is, you’re the highest paid coach in the college game, with a roster full of future NBA players. How about a few postseason wins now?

For Kentucky, it’s time. And fortunately for Calipari, this could be the team. It never hurts to have the best players, and Calipari has some of them – though not all of them. He has one of the most devastating offensive teams in the nation. All season, it has had one job – to get itself into position defensively to win in March.

So far in March, it has given up 89.3 points per game. In Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Calipari said, “Someone from Pittsburgh -- yinz don't play very good defense. That will be your question to me. At times, yinz do play good defense, and there are other times you're like, what are you thinking? But I'm loving coaching this team. I mean, this practice today -- and all I'm telling them is you make sure I'm having as much fun as you. So we'll see. And there's no guarantee in this tournament.”

I don’t know what that means. I did make out “sometimes they do play good defense.”

I do know this – it’s time for Calipari to get a team back to the weekend in the NCAA Tournament that matters. He doesn’t need to get to the Final Four necessarily. But he needs to get back to the place where fans can dream about it. This run of first-weekend futility needs to stop, and this team is capable of doing that, even if it doesn’t always play like it.

Kentucky coach John Calipari listens to a reporters question during an NCAA Tournament press conference in PPG Arena in Pittsburgh on March 20, 2024.
ERIC CRAWFORD

I also know this – and it’s a sidebar to Cal’s earlier comment on players and pressure. Coaches used to be able to say, “These are college kids, lay off them.” And, in fact, that’s what Calipari seems to be saying now.

And, yes, they are college players. But they’re also professional players. They’re making money, and fans have donated money to get them to Kentucky. And if you take the money, you also take the pressure. And the criticism.

A lot of these Kentucky players are making more money than most of the fans who cheer for them. If rumors of a payroll approaching $5 million are accurate, it’s a lot more money.

I know they’re young people. But this is the real world. So, while I don’t feel like the fan base is putting undue pressure on them, even if it were that would be fine. It’s what you sign up for when you become a pro.

And as much as Calipari says he wants to take the pressure off of them, he knows that in the end, whatever happens is up to them.

“I think I got a good team,” he said. “But they're going to have to go perform.”

The pressure, it’s not always fair. We can all agree to that. But it’s also not entirely fair that Calipari makes more money to coach basketball than professors do to train doctors. So, you know, fairness is pretty well out the window.

What he has going for him is that he has a team of great players, who are immensely likable and fun to watch. Whatever happens, they’ve given people their money’s worth this season. The less comfortable question is whether he has. And that’s a question that will be answered in the next couple of weeks.