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Kentucky fans are not the only ones who feel UK basketball has not met expectations the last five years.
Coach John Calipari feels the same way and said there were “no excuses” for the Cats not meeting that standard in recent seasons, including this year when UK lost to Oakland in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“Have had better weekends, hurting. Our team, players and staff, their families, we’re all hurting. I’m hurting for them, but I’m hurting,” Calipari said Monday night on his radio show when Tom Leach asked him how he was doin . “I’m hurting for our fans. I know many fans out there are hurting. No one is hurting more than me right now.”
That’s what a first-round loss in the SEC Tournament and then a quick exit in the NCAA will do after the coach said a month ago he had a “team built for March.” That used to be true but not now as UK is 2-8 in its last 10 postseason games — and has been favored in all 10 games.
Kentucky has not been to the Final Four since 2015 when it went for the fourth time in five years under Calipari who led Kentucky to the 2012 national title.
“We have a standard here. I said early on, they don’t put Final Four banners up, only national championship banners. My standard is we’re playing to play deep into the NCAA Tournament and compete for national titles, win national titles,” Calipari said.
“I wanted this job knowing that was the case. I love this job knowing that was the case. I’ve never left this job. That is what the standard is for me.”
Calipari said the standard was not changing at Kentucky and “we’re chasing what we chase here, which is championships.”
He talked about the standard several times perhaps to let UK fans know he felt their disappointment after saying that the loss to Oakland should not “define” this team after Thursday’s loss.
“There is a standard here. And it’s a high standard. If you play or coach here, you’ve got to know what that standard is and love it, relish it. It’s hard. And also if you lose a game, I mean, our fans are engaged but they’re also engaged when you lose,” the coach said.
Calipari made it clear he was committed to getting UK back to that standard and doesn’t want to coach anywhere else. He talked about doing “something special” at Kentucky.
“I talked about the standard, that is the standard that I believe in, that I think we can do. That standard of national titles has been here, from coach (Adolph) Rupp on. The only thing that I’m saying to all our fans, you know I’m gonna work. I’m gonna work for this state, work for this program and this university,” Calipari said.
“Really work for these young people. And that’s my commitment. I’m not changing, 24/7, let’s go. Whether it’s recruiting, all the stuff that we’ve got to do, that is the commitment that I give to the fans and I haven’t changed.
“This is like wearing a coat, it never goes away. But I love it, this is what I want. This is what I wanted, this is why I never left. This is it. Now it’s, let’s come together and let’s go do something. Let’s do something special, we can do it. We’ve done it, let’s do it again.”
17 Responses
His comments sound like a guy who knows he better produce and not just draft picks.
Cal talks alot.
He’s lieing. He never has or never will work for winning games.
He needs to go.
Lol he’s very slick. I would love for him to retire from Kentucky and go out on top but I just dont think it will happen unless we retain alot of the players off of this years team like we did in from 2014 to 2015. We had a deep class and alot players came back and that set up the platoon system and a 38-1 season. One of the things that irritate me here is you have to wait for every players decision whether they are returning or going pro. Players like Bradshaw, Thiero, Edwards, Wagner,Big Z and Ugo are definitely players that if they played for South Carolina would all come back and enjoy playing and getting better together. Kentucky players think if they are the 8th man on a college team they are good enough for the league. Bottom line is Dillingham Gone. Edwards Gone. Wagner 50/50 Sheppard 50/50 Bradshaw 50/50 Big Z 50/50 and Ugo 50/50. Burks transfer? Hart transfer? Idk its going to be interesting to say the least.
Get ready for another season of " we’re young" "they aren’t machines " blah blah blah .. " I like my team " etc etc..might wanna hold back on the " we’re built for March " ..
Cal would make a great liberal politician. He can smooze a crowd without teleprompters. It’s getting to be the same old rhetoric instead of old style roundball. As is the way of the current times, money seems paramount.
Mr. Dunaway , you have explained exactly what John Calipari is.
That is exactly what this fraud is. He sees himself as a liberal social justice warrior.
He has no committment to this program or the fans. Everything this fraud does is to advance the NBA interests of a bunch of premadonnas who will get their with or without ever wearing a UK uniform, yet he boasts without end how HE DID THIS OR THAT.
BS.
How do we know he is lying, his lips are moving.
Time for Barnhart to act in the interests of the program, something he has been unforgivingly lax about for too many years.
Right on the mark!
Lips moving… he is lying!
Never cared a thing about UK, the state of Kentucky & did all he could to damage players born & raised in KY!
When Coach K and media members were all raving about how great Sheppard was, the fraud could only reply with some comment about a turnover – anything he could find that was negative. Sheppard was so good he finally had to keep on playing him, even after a short stint a few games when he limited his minutes. Too many eyes could see what the fraud was doing, so he was forced to play Sheppard. But Burks did not have the support Sheppard had, so Burks hardly set foot on the floor during games. Maybe Burks agent was not sending money to the fraud and Burks was the one who suffered!
He does remind me of a slick politician.
Larry, I would like to send you an eCard that I know you would enjoy. Is there an email address that I can use?
yes at larryvau@gmail.com
Even now– Cal is hinting that he could get Reed to come back just to boost his own agenda! I have seen nothing that makes me think that he really cares about anyone or anything but filling up his bank account and playing Cal the King! He is not going to try to get Reed or Dilly to come back because they are his NBA bragging rights which does matter to him! He never got over losing his NBA job. Why does no one even consider Rick? He had every right to leave when he did and I cannot understand the haters. No one blamed Billy Donovan when he left. I know that he messed up in Louisville but he is still one of the best coaches that ever lived.
Rick left UK BB in the best condition any coach has ever done.
If the AD at that time (CM Newton or Barnie) had any integrity in him, he would have fired TLT and hired Pitino within hours of his Boston Celtics resignation.
There may not be ANY COACH other than Pitino who could rapidly lift UK back to prominence.
Calipari has done screwed the pooch. Time for him to go. OH, where is Jimmy, Jimmy???
Real Cat fans here Larry esp. the professor. He’s a stat machine. 16 years of bs. Good at first, bad at the end. Hire a former WildCat. Get it started with Mark Pope from BYU
Yea, REAL CAT FANS here who just make too much damn sense and who get chastised for having the gnards to call it out. At this point, u do really almost have to start wondering are there bigger factors in play with all of them that we don’t have any idea about. We would probably all be just sick if we really knew all the real truths behind the scenes. I am already sick over the last 5 days, but even more so about the way everything has been handled. It amazes me how Barnhart can go right out and do what’s right for the women’s program with what seems to be a really good hire for them based on what I have read so far. A really good get for the ladies and I very much hope they get their program rolling again. Ol CALLIE boy better watch out–the new women’s coach may make KY A WOMENS BBALL SCHOOL!!! hey I say, go for it–nobody will be cheering harder for them than me! But Mitch can’t do the same for the men’s bball program. This season and this loss here was the one–if that, and the last 4 yrs’ body of work don’t get u fired from KY, u won’t ever get fired. The Fraud will be here for as long as he wants to be. He’s running it all. CAL JUAN DON—not to be confused with CAL ONE AND DONE. It seems everybody snoozed on what CAL pulled as soon as the team got back from Pittsburgh–he does what he does best when things go south–he RAN. Bolted for New Jersey and hid out for the weekend with his phone turned off so Mitchy couldn’t get hold of him. If that were any other program after a loss like that, the coach would have been in the AD’s office on Fri, the very next day once he and the team’s plane landed and they got back into town. There would have been required immediate attention brought to the matter and ordered so that day by the AD to the coach. Not Cal and Mitch. That’s the problem with those two and the president: they all live isolated in their own little bubbles away from real life and real ppl. They are completely out of touch with society at large and with the people surrounding the program who have interests and money tied into it. Those are the people who are being screwed more than anybody. I wish they would wake up and see what is going on here. CAL made sure to get of town and be unreachable until Mon when he knew he had to do his last radio show of the season–so he made sure not to come back until time to do the show almost as if he was daring Mitch to "fire him AFTER he puts himself back in the public eye with the media and the KY people again". He knows the athletic dept would be chastised and look bad for firing him after he came back and made interactions with media and fans again. So he comes back and does the show Mon, so that drags it out until Tues. There again, how does Mitch not DEMAND a face to face meeting by at least Mon night? But it should have been on Fri to begin with. But the Fraud is too slick! He’s 5 steps ahead! He knew exactly what he was doing. The fact Mitch allowed this to drag on for now 5 days is an absolute travesty, and it just shows the complete lack of transparency and accountability going on in the entire athletic program, but more specifically, with CAL. No wonder he says the things he does and operates the way he does–full autonomy. Either theyre all in cahoots together like u guys talked about earlier, or Mitch has allowed CAL to take his "u-know-whats" over time, so it’s CAL who calls ALL the shots. Knowing Mitch’s personality, I could see him being scared to death of CAL and scared to death of offending him or holding him accountable and terrified of standing up to him and telling him here’s what I expect at KY as the AD and as YOUR BOSS!!! Clearly, something is definitely not right within their entire "bubble", I’m gonna call it—because as coach at KY, u just don’t string together the worst reg season in KY history (9-16), and the two biggest NCAA upsets in school history in the first round, sandwiched around a second round loss, and one NCAA and SEC tourney win apiece in a 4-yr period and keep your job. Along with the countless other record lows that have been set here under CAL’s watch: a losing record against top 25 teams going back maybe as far as 2016, losing the NCAA all-time wins lead, no SEC reg season or tournament championships in a 6-yr period, not to mention all the ungodly losses to horrible teams, alot of them at home, losing 3 straight games in Rupp for the first time in the history of the building. And u realize we r not even talking the 9 years since a Final 4 and 12 yrs since a natl title. All these CAL-LOVERS on here talking about KY fans’ unrealistic expectations—is what I just laid out unrealistic? When u are just trying to get out of the first round of the NCAA tournament and win a reg season SEC title, or a conf tourney title, and have a winning record against top 25 competition? U think thats too much to ask at KY? If it is, then we are not KY anymore. I give up on the entire athletics dept after this now–this was the most realistic and justifiable opportunity to do the right thing, and 80%-90% of the country agrees with it, and this tournament loss with the kind of team he had this year coming on the heels of the last 3 year’s results, was the most glaring example yet of the patterns and the trends and the consistent direction that CAL has taken this program. This was the best opportunity and most justifiable time for Mitch to do the right thing. And I agree with something else I heard Matt Jones say: Mitch Barnhart doesn’t want to be the guy who fired John Calipari at KY. He doesn’t want that on his legacy. And I believe that 100%. And it shows in the actions, or rather IN-ACTIONS, of the last 120 hours. If it was going to happen, it would have already happened. U don’t wait until today. So I agree with that, but I also now fully believe unfortunately this has more now to do with big money and big politics, and we have the WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD in charge right now for the game to be going in that direction–a guy who is ALREADY about big money and big politics–and has been the entire time he has been at KY and for his entire career too. There is a reason that trouble erupted out of every program he was at AFTER he left–and again, that’s what he does, he runs and leaves the program and the people behind to deal with the fallout of a dying program. Everywhere he has been, he has left the place in ashes. And he will do the same thing here–just u wait. When the time comes that he decides to go, there will be immense fallout. Those investigations you guys were talking about, they’re coming eventually. But by then it will be too late. It will be UK who pays the price for all of the Fraud’s sins while the KING–CAL JUAN DON–rides off into the sunset with a victory cigar in his mouth saying "look at me. I made a generation of kids and their families rich. I am the CAL JUAN DON". and since my original billboard idea didn’t work, Im gonna try for another one: a blue and white UK billboard with the new women’s bball coach’s face on it, and a caption that reads: UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY–WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SCHOOL