1 hour ago, futurecoach said:

So once again it is not possible for him to be as bad as all these areas as you seem to suggest and still be as successful as he has been in his career at all places he has coached. Let’s stop acting like he had rosters full of NBA talent everywhere he went. That was not the case at Umass or Memphis and he still won at a great clip. He has to be better at coaching at many more areas than you would like to give credit for. If he was only really good at recruiting alone, he wouldn’t have had the success he has had at all places. 

How much success has he had the last 4-5 years??!!  The recruiting falloff uncovered a lot of short falls in Cal

As I said, yes he’s had success, BUT, if he was as good an in game coach as you like to harp on here he would’ve easily had 2 more banners, there’s NO WAY the 2010 should’ve lost to WVU, his coaching in that game was horrible!!  There’s NO WAY the 2015 team should’ve lost, his in game coaching in that game was worse than the WVU game!!  The KSTATE game???!!!  What in the world was he thinking defensively???!!!  Do I need to go on because I definitely can

UCONN!!!  Robert Morris??!!  Seriously???

 

11 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

How much success has he had the last 4-5 years??!!  The recruiting falloff uncovered a lot of short falls in Cal

As I said, yes he’s had success, BUT, if he was as good an in game coach as you like to harp on here he would’ve easily had 2 more banners, there’s NO WAY the 2010 should’ve lost to WVU, his coaching in that game was horrible!!  There’s NO WAY the 2015 team should’ve lost, his in game coaching in that game was worse than the WVU game!!  The KSTATE game???!!!  What in the world was he thinking defensively???!!!  Do I need to go on because I definitely can

UCONN!!!  Robert Morris??!!  Seriously???

 

Show me where I said he was a great in game coach? All I have said is he must be better in that area than some of you all want to give credit for, considering the success he has had everywhere. Or if he is truly has a grade of a D as an in game coach like you said. Then he must be pretty dang good in all other areas to have had the success he has had in his career,  even before having rosters full of nba guys at UK. 
 

Now when bringing up games. In that case in no way should UK have beat the top overall seed in OSU in 2011. No way they should have beat UNC in the elite 8 that year. In 2014 no way he should have beat the defending champs and coach Pitino in the Sweet 16, when Pitino had the majority of his championship roster back. While Cal lost a key player in the game in WCS. No way should UK have beaten Wisconsin in the final four of that year either. 
 

It’s very easy to point out games they shouldn’t have lost. Yet always conveniently forget the games they probably shouldn’t have won. That for this program final fours and a runner up appearances in years they probably shouldn’t have been there. 
 

These last couple of years after Covid though were bad, so no argument there. Definitely was time for a change. Just pointing out he simply could not have had the success he had had throughout his whole career at all college stops, if he was as bad at coaching as some of you always like to say. 

12 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

How much success has he had the last 4-5 years??!!  The recruiting falloff uncovered a lot of short falls in Cal

As I said, yes he’s had success, BUT, if he was as good an in game coach as you like to harp on here he would’ve easily had 2 more banners, there’s NO WAY the 2010 should’ve lost to WVU, his coaching in that game was horrible!!  There’s NO WAY the 2015 team should’ve lost, his in game coaching in that game was worse than the WVU game!!  The KSTATE game???!!!  What in the world was he thinking defensively???!!!  Do I need to go on because I definitely can

UCONN!!!  Robert Morris??!!  Seriously???

 

You are giving these opponents absolutely no respect. 

You're going to some pretty great lengths to discredit Cal. It's pretty wild to watch honestly. 

48 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

Now when bringing up games. In that case in no way should UK have beat the top overall seed in OSU in 2011. No way they should have beat UNC in the elite 8 that year. In 2014 no way he should have beat the defending champs and coach Pitino in the Sweet 16, when Pitino had the majority of his championship roster back. While Cal lost a key player in the game in WCS. No way should UK have beaten Wisconsin in the final four of that year either. 
 

It’s very easy to point out games they shouldn’t have lost. Yet always conveniently forget the games they probably shouldn’t have won. That for this program final fours and a runner up appearances in years they probably shouldn’t have been there. 

Great points. 

13 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

You are giving these opponents absolutely no respect. 

You're going to some pretty great lengths to discredit Cal. It's pretty wild to watch honestly. 

Yep. 2010 WVU was a #3 seed and UK, while strong and should have won, was deeply flawed. And people have a lot of revisionist history with the 2015 Final Four matchup. UK was 38-0 (an amazing feat in its own right), but they had avoided multiple losses through the season with some clutch play. #1 seeded Wisconsin had the national player of the year and I believe was only a 4.5 point underdog going into the game. This wasn't Tyson vs Buster Douglass.

And like futurecoach, I am not a fan of cherry-picking games to fully make an argument for Calipari's greatness or shortcomings; the career resume speaks for itself. Is he the greatest coach of all time? Obviously not, and the amount of people saying as such is zero. He had a multiple-year run where he held the belt - or was at least on the shortlist - as the best in the business. That is a status more than 99% of coaches never ascend to.  

But, Calipari is no longer with the UK program. Onward and (hopefully) upward.

2 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

You are giving these opponents absolutely no respect. 

You're going to some pretty great lengths to discredit Cal. It's pretty wild to watch honestly. 

Not accurate, those were obviously really good teams to get that far, I’m talking about his in game coaching when I say they shouldn’t have lost THAT game to them

And I’m not really trying to discredit Cal, just an honest opinion based on what I’ve seen. Cal did a LOT of good things at UK, including in the community, but Colin Cowherd is probably the best (or top 2) talk show hosts going today and he calls Cal Caliponzi 

Welcome to Arkansas Cal, TCU will be just one of the losses he takes on a regular basis!!

Love it glad they lost!

From press conference after Cal and Arkansas lose the third straight SEC leave game two of them at home. So typical Cal. 
 

https://www.facebook.com/TheHawgTalk/videos/2036328170151381/

1 hour ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

From press conference after Cal and Arkansas lose the third straight SEC leave game two of them at home. So typical Cal. 
 

https://www.facebook.com/TheHawgTalk/videos/2036328170151381/

Definitely not a good start for Cal in SEC play with Arkansas. What’s really crazy is this is the second straight year, and third time in last 4 years that Arkansas has started 0 and 3 in conference play. So even with their previous coach they for some reason always start conference play off terribly. 

Suey nation is going to eat him alive, donors are going to balk and Arkansas will dissolve, just isn’t going to work.

Hopefully, Coach Cal can turn things around. I know many people love rooting for the demise of others, but the only crime he committed at UK was hanging around a few years too long. Had he left in scandal or taken the easy way out like Tony Bennett or Jim Larranaga then I might feel different.

His over the top ego was tolerable when he was winning, but the way he constantly talked down to the fan base turned many of us off before the covid issues hit. I do cheer for his demise because of that.

Cal's run at UK up to Covid was really fun.  Similar to Pitino's time at UK, except it felt like UK was the place to be for top talent under Cal.  He was also very good to our state, which doesn't get mentioned enough.

But, as bugsy said, he stayed too long.  And he might be staying too long in coaching, period.  As I said when he left here, the game has passed him by.  I don't understand why or how, but that's what it seems to me. 

I don't understand the animosity directed his way, though.  Not for someone who had the program where he had it for about a decade.  I do believe it has turned me against our fan base, to the point that I don't care as much about the program overall.  I do wish Pope the best, because he's an absolute class act.  But our fans...a significant portion of them...yuck.