The Official Keeping Up With Calipari Thread

[Lighthouse]

Totally agree. Multiple final four appearances and a national title is objective evidence.

Cal did all that because he had superior talent. AD and the talent on that team won the NC. Can anyone point to anything Cal accomplished on his coaching alone at any school? I stick to my opinion.

[DA#23]

Each of those 4 Final Four teams had different rosters, one won the championship and another almost ran the table. Not to mention taking UMass and Memphis to final fours.

He could coach at one point, then later on he could coach well enough while the other facets of the job remained elite, and then there’s that third period of the last 4-5 years where he just plummeted.

There’s basically three distinct periods in Cal’s career, and the first two were HOF worthy. It stinks that things turned out like they did, but don’t let that cloud the memory of the successes he did have. There were some awesome games during his first 8 years here.

[Joneslab]

I think the preparation and scouting was just so much more on point until 2020.

Then: the staff changed. Cal got older. The portal rules changed. The sport got older.

A lot of factors. But he’s absolutely not the coach now he was when you saw him when that ‘20 team went to Florida and won before the world shut down…and that team didn’t have an Anthony Davis.

[KentuckyWild2020]

We are finding out how bad Cal always was as a coach. When the talent dropped and his team needed coaching help, the W's dropped too.

Agreed 1000% percent

[KentuckyWild2020]

Cal did all that because he had superior talent. AD and the talent on that team won the NC. Can anyone point to anything Cal accomplished on his coaching alone at any school? I stick to my opinion.

Exactly, he has always coat tailed off NBA 5 star talent or playing in a very weak conference. UMASS was different but the game was different, he never adapted..

[KentuckyWild2020]

Totally agree. Multiple final four appearances and a national title is objective evidence.

Over 50 NBA draft picks, the Buffalo Bills of the 90's.He underachieved and most of us was fools to believe even though deep down inside we all knew it was wrong.


One thing I can tell you that's common for most long time UK fans. We know the difference between well coached organized orchestrated Kentucky basketball versus AAU garage junk street basketball 🏀

We didn't become who we are by accepting anything less than spectacular. Organizations like Boston(Celtics Redsox)Yankees Lakers 49ers Dodgers all demand excellence, we are no different, titles matter..

[KCKUKFan]

We will have to disagree. I think Cal was not a very good bench coach.

You don't turn UMass or Memphis into national title contenders and win as many games as he has if you were never a very good bench coach.

He just got old and refused to adjust.

[EKYCat]

Over 50 NBA draft picks, the Buffalo Bills of the 90's.He underachieved and most of us was fools to believe even though deep down inside we all knew it was wrong.


One thing I can tell you that's common for most long time UK fans. We know the difference between well coached organized orchestrated Kentucky basketball versus AAU garage junk street basketball 🏀

We didn't become who we are by accepting anything less than spectacular. Organizations like Boston(Celtics Redsox)Yankees Lakers 49ers Dodgers all demand excellence, we are no different, titles matter..

Yeah, I get it. As I said, I’m more than glad he’s gone but to say he’s never been a good bench coach isn’t accurate. As you said, he didn’t adapt. Game passed him by. But the guy, back in the day, could coach. He is totally cooked, now.

[Lighthouse]

You don't turn UMass or Memphis into national title contenders and win as many games as he has if you were never a very good bench coach.

He just got old and refused to adjust.

That he did. I have no idea how good you would be as a coach but, if you had the talent Cal had at every school, you just might be in the HOF. He could recruit.

[George]

That he did. I have no idea how good you would be as a coach but, if you had the talent Cal had at every school, you just might be in the HOF. He could recruit.

Every coach who makes it that far also has good players. I seem to recall quite a few guys from Pitino’s teams who went on to play in the NBA.

[Joneslab]

Getting good players and keeping them together and focused is a major part of “coaching” at the college level.

Post-COVID there’s still an emphasis on getting good players, as always, but the age of the sport and the glut of analytics has made pure coaching (aka “bench coaching”) super important. Back in 2010-2015 I’m not sure a system coach like Pope could succeed like he has here in year one.

[KentuckyWild2020]

Yeah, I get it. As I said, I’m more than glad he’s gone but to say he’s never been a good bench coach isn’t accurate. As you said, he didn’t adapt. Game passed him by. But the guy, back in the day, could coach. He is totally cooked, now.

After he came back from the NBA, his true on court coaching skills diminished in my opinion,he was better before that on the sidelines.

I assume being in the NBA and letting players do there things it carried over with him back to college. Yes he racked up wins at Memphis with good players in a weak conference and was able to take recruiting to another level at Kentucky racking up wins with 5 star talent.

Obviously he's done something right over the years,been great at faking it til you make it..

[Joneslab]

After he came back from the NBA, his true on court coaching skills diminished in my opinion,he was better before that on the sidelines.

I assume being in the NBA and letting players do there things it carried over with him back to college. Yes he racked up wins at Memphis with good players in a weak conference and was able to take recruiting to another level at Kentucky racking up wins with 5 star talent.

Obviously he's done something right over the years,been great at faking it til you make it..

In fairness he didn't just rack up wins in C-USA with Memphis. He was a three pointer away from winning a title for Memphis. You don't accomplish something like that if you can't coach.

And just as an aside, I wouldn't knock "racking up wins with 5 star talent." As noted above, every coach is looking for 5 star talent. Mark Pope's gonna have a few roll in next year. That's what the head coach at Kentucky should be doing. Problem with Cal is that making future phenoms and their families rich became all he was really interested in.

[EKYCat]

In fairness he didn't just rack up wins in C-USA with Memphis. He was a three pointer away from winning a title for Memphis. You don't accomplish something like that if you can't coach.

And just as an aside, I wouldn't knock "racking up wins with 5 star talent." As noted above, every coach is looking for 5 star talent. Mark Pope's gonna have a few roll in next year. That's what the head coach at Kentucky should be doing. Problem with Cal is that making future phenoms and their families rich became all he was really interested in.

Man, Dean Smith, Rupp, Williams, Self... all those guys!!! All they do is win with talent! 🤣

[KentuckyWild2020]

In fairness he didn't just rack up wins in C-USA with Memphis. He was a three pointer away from winning a title for Memphis. You don't accomplish something like that if you can't coach.

And just as an aside, I wouldn't knock "racking up wins with 5 star talent." As noted above, every coach is looking for 5 star talent. Mark Pope's gonna have a few roll in next year. That's what the head coach at Kentucky should be doing. Problem with Cal is that making future phenoms and their families rich became all he was really interested in.

TRUE....

And to keep it all the way real, besides Rick Pitino maybe Billy Donovan, Cal was the only coach I wanted at Kentucky. I wanted Cal before they hired Gillispie but that didn't happen. Even going back to the UMASS days, Cal was that one coach I did not want to face, he had my full respect. Still I believe his NBA stint changed the way he did things, he figured out the best players win games and his method to the madness changed.

Anyways, doesn't really matter now. Even if Cal was still on top of his game, he's pushing 70 and change needed to be made for our program moving forward, glad it's all working out so far..