Cal at arky

[South jones]

The hogs looked impressive today with a win over a good TT team. CAL has 4 starters from last years team, I don't think he EVER had that at UK, HE was
too obsessed with recruiting and playing a team full of freshmen.
How different would things have been if he would have had the mind set to retain and develop a lot of our past players?

Lord I'm glad he's gone

[EKYCat]

Times were different when he first signed on at UK. I’m glad he’s gone too but I won’t discount the fact he went to 4 Final Fours and won a title. He was on the leading edge for a while and then the game changed and he didn’t.

I do fully expect them to run us out of the gym when we go down there though.

[SportsFan]

The hogs looked impressive today with a win over a good TT team. CAL has 4 starters from last years team, I don't think he EVER had that at UK, HE was too obsessed with recruiting and playing a team full of freshmen.
How different would things have been if he would have had the mind set to retain and develop a lot of our past players?

Lord I'm glad he's gone

That's WHY he's gone. He became lazy. He cared more about easy recruiting (the guy who would be ahead of you will be turning pro this year), and easy coaching (put the "best" players he could get and let them play).

I think Cal was enamored with Michigan's Fab Five, and really wanted to be the first coach to ever have an all-freshmen starting lineup to win a national title. As a result, Cal became his own worst enemy... because he refused to change and put the university's success ahead of his own personal whims and desires.

We practically begged Cal to be the version he is now at Arkansas the last half dozen or so years he was here. The only reason he's doing it now is because he has something to prove to UK and college basketball fans in general....too bad he didn't have this current attitude when sorry a$$ Mitch gave him that ridiculous lifetime contract.

[TrueblueCATfan]

I guess he decided to change his ways

I loved Coach Cal..I still do but it was time for him to move on

[South jones]

I liked cal also but I'll never forget when he stated winning the national championship was not his priority but his main mission was putting players in the NBA. At that point I was done with him

[KentuckyWild2020]

The only reason he's doing it now is because he has something to prove to UK and college basketball fans in general....

Exactly

[blueheretic]

Sounds like some folks want to be Arkanasas fans. lol

[BJD]

I liked cal also but I'll never forget when he stated winning the national championship was not his priority but his main mission was putting players in the NBA. At that point I was done with him

That is why Cal needed to go. The players first thing was not program first.

I can’t fault him for it. He said it the day he was hired and never wavered from it.

Cal never got lazy. People like to say that for bias confirmation.

UK should always have a program first coach because the program is UK.

Pope is certainly program first. But you can’t just have a cheerleader in the position either.

But this thread is about Cal. I don’t have any ill will to Cal. He did great things here. He stayed true to his stated mission of being players first and UK benefited from that. He just needs to do it somewhere else.

We did have many players stay more than one year under Cal. Lamb, TJ, Miller, the twins, Poythress, WCS, Ulis, PJ, Quickley, Hagans, Oscar, Brooks. Just to name a few off the top of my head.

That was with no NIL except for Oscar.

If Cal was still here more players would stay because of NIL. But Cal would still be focused on the players over the program and he would still have worn out his welcome.

UK needed to move on from Cal and he did us another favor by leaving.

It’s not on Cal that UK hired the wrong replacement for him.

[Clevenger32]

Sounds like some folks want to be Arkanasas fans. lol

90% of the negatives about Kentucky basketball come from the Calapari fans not UK fans. Unfortunately a large portion of the fan base that are on social media had only known one coach at Kentucky and only knew Kentucky basketball through him. How sad and what a shame.

[Matt Dillon]

That is why Cal needed to go. The players first thing was not program first.

I can’t fault him for it. He said it the day he was hired and never wavered from it.

Cal never got lazy. People like to say that for bias confirmation.

UK should always have a program first coach because the program is UK.

Pope is certainly program first. But you can’t just have a cheerleader in the position either.

But this thread is about Cal. I don’t have any ill will to Cal. He did great things here. He stayed true to his stated mission of being players first and UK benefited from that. He just needs to do it somewhere else.

We did have many players stay more than one year under Cal. Lamb, TJ, Miller, the twins, Poythress, WCS, Ulis, PJ, Quickley, Hagans, Oscar, Brooks. Just to name a few off the top of my head.

That was with no NIL except for Oscar.

If Cal was still here more players would stay because of NIL. But Cal would still be focused on the players over the program and he would still have worn out his welcome.

UK needed to move on from Cal and he did us another favor by leaving.

It’s not on Cal that UK hired the wrong replacement for him.

I feel the same way about Cal as I do Stoops, I appreciate the good things he did while he was here but, for me, he tarnished his UK legacy by staying too long. I definitely disagree with your last statement. I feel like coach Pope did as well as anyone could have reasonably expected last season considering the situation he inherited. There's still a lot of bb left to be played this season and ample opportunity to have a fine season. It's much too early to write him or the season off in my opinion.

[SportsFan]

Cal never got lazy. People like to say that for bias confirmation.

That's your opinion and one that we will have to disagree on.

In terms of recruiting, you may be right. In terms of coaching, I have a tough time remembering many brilliant plays he drew up or time outs he called at the right time or any in-game or halftime adjustments he made. Oh, he'd yell... and yell and yell...but in terms of strategy, he just wasn't bringing it like he did earlier in his tenure/career.

Even when it came to press conferences he was mailing it in and sending assistants to take his place.

[bucsrule8872]

Revisionist history.

We remember Cal always having brand new teams every year and never having any retention, yet it just isn’t true.

In 2010-11, Cal had Miller, Liggins, and Harrellson returning. All three were starters much of that season.

In 2011-12, we returned Miller, Lamb, and Jones as the core of a Final Four team.

In 2014-2015, Cal brought back three starters, the Harrison twins and Dakari Johnson, plus part-time starter WCS. Also returned a Junior Poythress, a guy that was a starter his Freshman year.

In 2015-16, Ulis, Poythress, and Lee were back.

In 2018-19, Cal had Washington, Richards, and Green back.

In 2019-20, Cal had Hagans, Quickley, Richards, and Montgomery back.

In 2022-23, Cal returned NPOY Tshiebwe, plus Wheeler, Toppin, and Frederick (all Seniors).

Cal’s problem wasn’t “being young” or lack of retention, it was execution. It was passion. It was laziness on Cal’s part. It was lack of incentive to do what it takes to win.

If Cal does anything with this Arkansas team, it will be because he is motivated to show BBN that he isn’t the clown we thought he was. Cal’s a “told you so” type. He’s a narcissist and he is now motivated to show us and all of his critics that it wasn’t his fault UK fell apart while he was at the helm. He’s motivated now. He wasn’t at UK at the end of his tenure.

[blueheretic]

Cal grew complacent. I don't know if that counts as "lazy". It happens with many of the coaches who win a Natty. It happened with Tubby. I wasn't old enough to pay close enough attention to Hall. I could see with Tubby in 1999 that he'd never do it again.

They think that THEY were the key component to the win. They calcify in their opinions, strategies and tactics. Coaches are never the key component to a win. They are the orchestrators. They take a group of players, coaches, talents and skills and mold them into a winning team. As soon as they forget this, they become irrelevant. Some never realize it and, instead, believe that they hold some magic elixir like Ball Line D or The Triangle or "the dribble drive". Call it whatever you want. If you aren't nimble-minded enough and adept enough to adapt strategies and tactics to players, talents and skills, you're going to fail.

The best adapt to changing talents, strategies and environments and go on to win several championships - Rupp, Coach K, Roy, Bobby Knight, Calhoun and Wooden. Others get that one and believe that they contain within themselves all that is necessary. They forget that they had assistants and players who played key roles. This was Cal. Cal suffered from the hubris of arrogating to himself all credit for 2012. If it weren't common, there'd be more coaches out there with multiple championships. There aren't many. There are two win coaches as well out there but about half of them seemed to have won twice with the same team and then never got close again. I'd include Jay Wright in that group except there is one year in between his Natty's and he retired soon after his second. Who knows if he would have adapted and been back again. Time will tell if Danny Hurley will adapt or if he believes that he was the sole arbiter in the fate of UCONN basketball. Donovan seems to have failed to adapt to changing landscapes as he never again made it back to a Final Four after his two championships.

Even Rupp calcified and refused to adapt later in his career which limited his ability to continue to compete for Championships. Rupp had that arrogance as well. He didn't adapt to a new era of recruiting wherein players and parents expected to be romanced by the Head Coach and, then, he didn't adapt swiftly enough to integration. Those were both huge failures and, from all I've read, it was straight arrogance. "I've always done it this way and I'm not changing." Rupp refused to go to the homes of players from what I've read. That was the greatest recruiting failure of his latter years.

Top NCAA Men's Basketball Coaches by National Championships:

• Bob Knight (Indiana): 3 titles
• Jim Calhoun (UConn): 3 titles
• Roy Williams (North Carolina): 3 titles
• John Wooden (UCLA): 10 titles
• Mike Krzyzewski (Duke): 5 titles
• Adolph Rupp (Kentucky): 4 titles

Other Coaches with Multiple Championships (2 Titles):

• Denny Crum (Louisville): 2 1980, 1986
• Billy Donovan (Florida): 2 - 2006, 2007
• Henry Iba (Oklahoma State): 2 - 1945, 1946 (went on to two more Final Fours 1949 and 1951)
• Ed Jucker (Cincinnati): 2 - 1961, 1962 ('63 Final Four)
• Branch McCracken (Indiana): 2- 1940, 1953
• Rick Pitino (Kentucky/Louisville): 2 - 1996, 2013 (Still Active)
• Dean Smith (North Carolina): 2 - 1982, 1993
• Bill Self (Kansas): 2- 2008, 2022 (Still Active)
• Phil Woolpert (San Francisco): 2 - 1955, 1956 (Bill Russell = enough said)
• Jay Wright (Villanova): 2 - 2016, 2018
• Danny Hurley: 2 - 2023/2024 (Still Active)

[blueheretic]

Revisionist history.

We remember Cal always having brand new teams every year and never having any retention, yet it just isn’t true.

In 2010-11, Cal had Miller, Liggins, and Harrellson returning. All three were starters much of that season.

In 2011-12, we returned Miller, Lamb, and Jones as the core of a Final Four team.

In 2014-2015, Cal brought back three starters, the Harrison twins and Dakari Johnson, plus part-time starter WCS. Also returned a Junior Poythress, a guy that was a starter his Freshman year.

In 2015-16, Ulis, Poythress, and Lee were back.

In 2018-19, Cal had Washington, Richards, and Green back.

In 2019-20, Cal had Hagans, Quickley, Richards, and Montgomery back.

In 2022-23, Cal returned NPOY Tshiebwe, plus Wheeler, Toppin, and Frederick (all Seniors).

Cal’s problem wasn’t “being young” or lack of retention, it was execution. It was passion. It was laziness on Cal’s part. It was lack of incentive to do what it takes to win.

If Cal does anything with this Arkansas team, it will be because he is motivated to show BBN that he isn’t the clown we thought he was. Cal’s a “told you so” type. He’s a narcissist and he is now motivated to show us and all of his critics that it wasn’t his fault UK fell apart while he was at the helm. He’s motivated now. He wasn’t at UK at the end of his tenure.

MOTIVATED CAL!