John Calipari before his lifetime contract:
305-71 overall (.811)
23-4 SEC Tournament
31-8 NCAA Tournament
John Calipari since his lifetime contract:
105-52 overall (.669)
1-4 SEC Tournament
1-3 NCAA Tournament
Immanuel Quickley just isn't talked about enough. His last 15 games (since the loss to Ohio State on Dec. 21):
21, 17, 18, 18, 21, 23, 11, 21, 12, 13, 20, 19, 15, 23, 18
Whether he takes another job or retires, there will come a day when John Calipari is no longer the head coach at Kentucky and on that day, I'm willing to bet it will be then and only then that a certain segment of the fanbase will realize how good they had it.
For the "only one championship" crowd, make sure you add this to John Calipari's scorecard:
– Only $1M for Haiti (2010)
– Only $1M for Hurricane Sandy (2012)
– Only $1M for Hurricane Harvey (2017)
– Only $5M for western Kentucky (2021)
– Only $2.5M for eastern Kentucky (2022)
Everybody is piling on John Calipari right now but the fact that he *still* has the most NCAA Tournament wins of any coach since 2010 despite missing the tournament twice and not winning a game since 2019 really speaks to how absurd the first half of his Kentucky run really was.
The fact that Kentucky had zero opt outs and three players who have already announced they're transferring out of the program play and contribute in its Citrus Bowl win says a lot about the culture Mark Stoops has built.
April 5: Devin Askew enters transfer portal
April 30: Nolan Hickman asks for his release
May 12: TyTy Washington commits to Kentucky
May 17: Sahvir Wheeler transfers to Kentucky
Looking back, this 6-week period changed the entire trajectory of UK's 21-22 season.
Only 23 players in Kentucky basketball history have recorded 300 rebounds in a season. Oscar Tshiebwe has 241 at the halfway point of the *regular* season.
Happy birthday 🐐!
🐐 National Champion
🐐 National Player of the Year
🐐 Final Four MOP
🐐 National Freshman of the Year
🐐 National Defensive Player of the Year
🐐 First Team All-American
🐐 SEC Player of the Year
🐐 SEC Defensive Player of the Year
🐐 Olympic Gold Medalist
In Oscar Tshiebwe ALONE, Kentucky now returns:
21.8% of its points
37.8% of its rebounds
38.2% of its blocks
25.9% of its steals
26.3% of its made free throws
27.6% of its free throw attempts
Reed Sheppard is getting all of the headlines and rightfully so but Rob Dillingham scored 7 points over the final 4:24 and Adou Thiero scored double-figures for the fourth time in his last six games.
Tyler Herro went from not being a McDonald's All-American to not being good enough to play at Kentucky to starting every game for UK to SEC Newcomer of the Year to lottery pick to NBA All-Rookie Team.
At No. 3 nationally, 2022 will finish as John Calipari's lowest-ranked recruiting class of his 14 at Kentucky and the first not ranked No. 1 or 2. Read that again.
You can't blame John Calipari for recruiting Shaedon Sharpe. You can't blame Shaedon Sharpe for leaving. How this was handled from a PR perspective is a completely different story.
There was a distinct segment of Kentucky fans that couldn't forgive John Calipari for *only* winning one national title.
Now, there will be a segment that will never forgive him for wasting Reed Sheppard, Rob Dillingham and a team that had breathed life into a listless fanbase.
Can we talk about how bad the goaltending call vs. Ugonna Onyenso was? They reviewed it and still got it wrong. The ball was still on the way up and was not in the cylinder.
If you get rid of John Calipari, you lose your No. 2 recruiting class and virtually every player on the roster. But if you hire the right coach who can attract NIL dollars, it's never been easier to rebuild an entire roster in one offseason.
The "Fire Cal" folks are broken beyond repair but that doesn't mean John Calipari can't be held accountable at some level when he's making $9 million a year working on a lifetime contract.
The bottom line is this: If John Calipari wins a title in 2010, 2011, or 2014, he has so much more rope with Kentucky fans. If he goes 40-0 in 2015, he’s a god. Some fans will never forgive him for leaving at least one title on the table until he wins another one.
When this all started, Kentucky fans wanted to flex by buying the 2-time defending national champions' coach. When it was over, they flexed by filling up Rupp Arena to welcome home one of their own.
I remember some years back John Wall saying something to the effect of, "If you can't get your own shot, don't come to Kentucky because Cal isn't going to run anything for you." I believe this still holds true.
Will get overshadowed by the play of Dontaie Allen, but how about Devin Askew? Had 11 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals in his first SEC game. Just has gotten steadily better and better over the last several weeks.
It feels like John Calipari has really found something with the portal. I think he understands he can now have a blend of talent and experience and I have to think this is the formula he uses going forward.
Not trying to pile on or take a shot here, but listening to Dan Hurley talk about game-planning and preparation stands in such stark contrast to what we hear from John Calipari.
Kentucky fans should be extremely appreciative for everything John Calipari has done. He picked up the program when it was stranded on the side of the road in 2009. But he's taken it as far as he can. And that's okay.
If the NCAA has more or less said Sunday's results don't really factor into its seedings, doesn't the SEC and others owe it to its teams and players to move its conference championship game to Saturday?
Whew, this quote from John Calipari to
@JasonKingBR
. Wonder which school(s) he could be referencing? 🤔
"We don’t get all the best players. There have been other programs that have gotten better players than us. But they don’t look the same in the NBA as our guys look."
This offseason, Kentucky will have added:
– A 2,000-point scorer (Kellan Grady)
– The SEC assist leader (Sahvir Wheeler)
– An All-Big 12 performer (Oscar Tshiebwe)
– A career 47% 3-point shooter (CJ Fredrick)
– Two projected lottery picks (Daimion Collins, TyTy Washington)
That loss is about as sickening as it gets and will sting for a really, really long time.
– missed FG
– blocked PAT
– safety
– Barion Brown tripped up on would-be KO return TD
– Dane Key TD wiped out on penalty
– two fumbles
Kentucky fans have been conditioned to believe that recruiting an overwhelming amount of talent is the only way to win. More than one way to skin a cat.
The fact that Kentucky was able to hold off Michigan for 4-star defensive tackle Deone Walker is the definition of big boy football recruiting. Wolverines did everything in their power down the stretch.
It's one thing when you say you don't care about the SEC Tournament and you go win it anyway. It's another when you say you don't care about the SEC Tournament and you've lost 5 of your last 6 games in an event a large number of Kentucky fans plan their vacation around.
Against Louisville since 2010, Kentucky is:
– 11-2 overall
– 7-1 when both teams are ranked
– 6-0 at Rupp Arena
– 4-1 when Louisville is ranked in the top-5
– 3-1 as the lower-ranked team
– 3-2 at the KFC Yum! Center
– 2-0 in the NCAA Tournament
I still think as bad as the last several years have been, the majority of Kentucky fans still love John Calipari and want him to be the one to fix it. I just think they’ve lost the faith in his ability to do so.
It didn't cost $33 million, but Tubby Smith got ran out of town for a lot less. But then again, Kentucky's standards were a lot higher then.
There were fans *bracing themselves* for a first round loss to Oakland. Just stop and think about that for a moment.
I'd be willing to bet that a crowd-funding initiative to buy out John Calipari's contract would out-draw the La Familia NIL collective Kentucky just launched.
Body-slammed at the rim: nothing
Flop on a 3-pointer: foul
Aside from bogus charges and offensive fouls, the inconsistency is the worst thing about college officiating.
It's easy to bag on Penny Hardaway but it just proves that it's really, really hard to win with freshmen even when those freshmen are really, really good. Another testament to what John Calipari does on a yearly basis.
Terry Wilson as Kentucky's starting QB:
– Won twice as many games (16) as he lost (8)
– 1st to throw for 3,000 yards, rush for 1,000
– 2nd to win at Florida, Tennessee
– 3rd to pass for 20 TD, rush for 10
– 4th to rush for 1,000 yards
– 8th all-time in total offense
"We talk about banner behaviors all the time. We talk about assignment No. 9.
@CoachTubbySmith
is one of these guys that gets to walk in this room and he gets to point up there at this banner."
🗣️
@CoachMarkPope
It felt like John Calipari opened up the offense after the loss to Notre Dame but as the season went on, slowly started tightening the screws back toward what he was more comfortable with and the floor just got smaller and smaller.
When Davion Mintz declared for the draft on May 3, Kentucky needed him back just to have one capable point guard on its roster. By the time he announced his return Thursday, it now gives UK one of the best backcourts in all of college basketball. That's a heck of an offseason.
Is John Calipari above reproach? No. Was this year unacceptable? Yes. But consider this: Even if North Carolina were to win it all, Kentucky will still end the season with the most tournament wins (31) and Final 4s (4) since 2010 despite missing the tournament altogether twice.