"It Will Never be This Good Again"

[Joneslab]

This is an opinion held by some about the Calipari era. Matt Jones talked about it last night on the postgame show.

It's a really hard thing to talk about obviously because none of us can tell the future. But just on a gut level: do you agree?

[J.Jennings]

I agree. The whole Cal era is going by so fast and when he does leave, it will take a coach like Brad Stephens or someone of that caliber to continue to recruit and keep Kentucky in the hunt year in and year out to Cal's standards.


Enjoy while we can....

[Lighthouse]

I agree. There's an excitement surrounding this Kentucky team that is different from others. Whatever it is should be their name that will set them apart forever. Because they shoot so quick,maybe that name would be "Quick Draw," or something along that line. Last night they destroyed A&M not only with offense, but with real good team defense. The sky's the limit.

[BJD]

This is an opinion held by some about the Calipari era. Matt Jones talked about it last night on the postgame show.

It's a really hard thing to talk about obviously because none of us can tell the future. But just on a gut level: do you agree?

I wouldn't agree with hardly anything said by a dookie.

Will it be this good again for whom?

The golden era of UK basketball was Rupp. He changed the game. He put UK basketball on the national map. We are the winningest basketball program in the world because of Rupp. He built this foundation. He still have the best winning percentage of all time. And he always will.

Fans of age during the Hall era thought it was bad. Hindsight tells us that was a pretty damn good 13 years. The Sutton era was over before it started. The Pitino era was fantastic even though it wasn't that long. Part of the reason people believe it was so magical is because Pitino kept telling everyone how great he made things.

The tubby era? I certainly hope I never live through that again with UK basketball. From the top of the mountain to irrelevance in college basketball. A generation of UK fans lost.

The BCG era was just like the Sutton era, over before it started. Then comes Cal. The perfect coach at the perfect time. Social media as it is now and a guy that plays to that.

We may face some down times but UK will always come back because of what Rupp built. We have titles with 5 different coaches. We are not like the schools that made their mark under one man.

I hope geration from now they look back on this and say it was pretty damn good but the way it is now is unbeatable.

[Joneslab]

^ I think I agree with that but I also think it's a lot harder to sustain than simply putting a guy in there and giving him the keys to the castle.

You don't win anything just because Adolph Rupp was here. It takes ingenuity, skill, and an avalanche of hard work.

Say Cal suddenly leaves after this season; you look around at the coaches who would be available and it's really hard to find anyone that really jumps out. There are a few contenders but there's no Calipari sitting out there who would probably be interested if the call came.

[Dwight Schrute]

Success is definitely generational. We probably thought the same when Pitino left - it took us 12 years to get back to the level he had us at with Cal. The problem is that guys like Calipari and Pitino only come around every so often, and getting them to your school is tough. Alabama will have a similar drop off when Saban retires, and they'll come back to earth.

The next guy is going to take heat from the fans the way Tubby did. It won't be fair, but statistically we're unlikely to hire another Cal after this.

[BJD]

^ I think I agree with that but I also think it's a lot harder to sustain than simply putting a guy in there and giving him the keys to the castle.

You don't win anything just because Adolph Rupp was here. It takes ingenuity, skill, and an avalanche of hard work.

Say Cal suddenly leaves after this season; you look around at the coaches who would be available and it's really hard to find anyone that really jumps out. There are a few contenders but there's no Calipari sitting out there who would probably be interested if the call came.

It is because of Rupp. he set the standard that the fans demand. barney would never had hired Cal. He passed on him once and he wouldn't have hired him the second time had his hand not been forced.

That's also the reason the UK football is UK football. There is not a demand for excellence from the fans.

Of course we would have a down period if Cal left now. There's no one out there like him.But we won't stay down.

[BJD]

Success is definitely generational. We probably thought the same when Pitino left - it took us 12 years to get back to the level he had us at with Cal. The problem is that guys like Calipari and Pitino only come around every so often, and getting them to your school is tough. Alabama will have a similar drop off when Saban retires, and they'll come back to earth.

The next guy is going to take heat from the fans the way Tubby did. It won't be fair, but statistically we're unlikely to hire another Cal after this.

It's ludicrous to say the heat tubby got was unfair.

I hope UK learned the lesson to never hire a coach for UK basketball that hasn't taken a team to a FF previously. UK is too big a job to hire a guy that doesn't have a roadmap already .

I know Cal won't be here forever. My real hope is that Barney has moved on before we have to replace Cal.

[Dwight Schrute]

Regarding Rupp: he had some good teams afterward, but his success came in the span of a decade. Kentucky has had success because of the coaches it has hired since Rupp.

UNC had success because of the work Roy Williams (and some academics showing ingenuity). IU has sucked for basically two decades because they haven't had the right coaches. UCLA has had only flashes of success since Wooden because they haven't hired the right guy.

Kansas has been good consistently for thirty years because they've had good coaches.

Rupp won't mean a thing to us after Calipari retires if we hire another Billy Gillispie.

[Matt Dillon]

Never say never. No one is irreplaceable.

[Dwight Schrute]

It's ludicrous to say the heat tubby got was unfair.

I hope UK learned the lesson to never hire a coach for UK basketball that hasn't taken a team to a FF previously. UK is too big a job to hire a guy that doesn't have a roadmap already .

I know Cal won't be here forever. My real hope is that Barney has moved on before we have to replace Cal.

Some of it was. The stuff at the end was completely justified, but people wanted him fired two years after he won a national title. Statistically he has one of the better winning percentages we've ever had.

[BJD]

Some of it was. The stuff at the end was completely justified, but people wanted him fired two years after he won a national title. Statistically he has one of the better winning percentages we've ever had.

I gave tubby all the credit in the world for the 1998 title. I argued against the people that said it should be Pitino's win. As time went on I saw those people were right. It was foretelling in the fall of 1998 and the Myron Anthony blow up. But tubby had the faith of the fans at that point. We did not know then that was how he operated all the time.

By 2000 it was obvious that tubby was completely wrong for UK.I started posting in 2000 that tubby would never get to another FF in his career. Not here, not anywhere else. I named him 7-UP, never had it, never will. How's that prediction look now? I got banned at almost every UK website, including this one under both it's names, for dissing tubby.

The man put playing his son ahead of the good of the university. How much worse does it get? Then he lied about another player's illness so he could justify the continued playing of his son. That's OK at Podunk U. It's not at UK. You don't see Cal playing Brad major minutes. And you won't. UK had never had a coach lose 10 games in back to back seasons before tubby. He followed a 9 loss season in 99 with 3 consecutive 10 loss seasons. 39 losses in 4 seasons. Then he had a 3 consecutive 10 loss seasons a second time. In his 10 year career here he had double digit losses 6 times. And one of those streaks he did with the number 1 recruiting class in the country.

I don't remember the year but we got totally embarrassed on national TV by Kansas. This was well into his career here. And he got paid around $30 million for his troubles here. Unfair? Yes, that part certainly is.

[justafan]

Will UK basketball falter when Cal leaves? Depends on your definition of falter. Will the one-and-done hype take a hit @UK, probably - depends on the next coach's system/attitude.

I think if UK makes the right hire a coach without the baggage (ala BCG) will succeed at UK. Will they go to 4 FFs in 5 years? No telling, even improbable (thats the case everywhere with every coach, the improbable part). Will they go the the NIT, also improbable, again minus the baggage....

Cal is the perfect storm - he's marketing his system *at UK*. He wasn't able to do that at Memphis. He's benefiting from UK tremendously. I won't begin to guess who's benefiting more, Cal from UK, or UK from Cal - but its a nice fit. There's a reason he left Memphis for UK and it wasn't just money.

[Joneslab]

Saul was a good deal better than Brad.

Saul was sort of a Julius Mays type. Solid player but never should have been the starting point guard here.

Tubby had four teams that were what I would call Kentucky caliber. His best team IMO was the 2003 team but it had some bad luck at the end with Bogans' injury. Though I'm not sure Kentucky wins that game even if Bogans is 100%. Dwyane Wade was superhuman that day.

At the end Tubby was just okay. Not the program-destroying tyrant BJD says he is, not the clipboard genius others claimed he was.

Just in the middle. And it's definitely possible that Kentucky could end up with another in-the-middle coach if Cal leaves.

This is why I always say we take a lot of things for granted with Cal. The Final Fours for instance...it's become fashionable on UK boards to dismiss the Final Fours completely. Within the last week I've seen people say "I'm in this for the championships" as a dig at Cal.

And that's true of all of us. But watch what happens when the Final Fours go away and we're left with a coach who struggles to get there. That has happened in the recent past at UK.

I don't worry about Cal leaving. You can't worry about things that are out of your control. But I think in some ways he has achieved something rare and unusual at UK. I won't say it will never be replicated, but all the stuff he does--from the recruiting to the way he deals with the media to the promotion of the program--has never been seen here.

[J.Jennings]

Let's just be clear, who can step in and relate to the younger player in today's generation and urge them to come to Kentucky? Cal recruits better than perhaps anyone who has ever done it, maybe Coach K, but that's it.