PITTSBURGH — The question Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart must now answer is both simple and complex: What is the price of a program’s dignity? What’s the point in banishing a Hall of Fame coach who can’t bring back the magic or even offer a coherent theory as to why? Will the Wildcats be willing to pay him anything if he wins more than one NCAA tournament in the last four years, for example? And John Calipari’s obscene $33 million buyout on an albatross “lifetime” contract? Is it too much?
After Calipari’s recent postseason disaster, an 80-76 South Division loss to No. 14 seed Oakland, which had never won in the NCAA Tournament, difficult questions that were previously unfathomable must be asked. It stopped happening. Little things matter, but the fact that the former Division II product came off the bench and sank 10 3-pointers and scored 32 points against No. 3 seed Kentucky adds further insult to incompetence. Just do it. Calipari assembled the most talented, most exciting, and most beloved roster in years, but never won a postseason game. It’s not an SEC tournament game. It’s not an NCAA Tournament game.
In the end, there were no important matches. Calipari had Reed Shepard, the nation’s best freshman, who was genetically engineered to bring maximum joy to Kentucky fans, but wasted what was likely his only season in Lexington. Calipari had a fifth-year senior, Antonio Reeves, who scored more points than any player he has ever coached at Kentucky, including one to give the Cats a chance on Thursday night. They scored over 27 points, but they wasted it. He had Rob Dillingham, the most sensational microwave scorer in the country, but lost a ridiculous 10 games.
“Everyone loved watching this team and I loved playing for this team,” Shepard said after the game, sobbing. “It’s a shame it’s over.”
Former National Player of the Year Oscar Tshibwe, who looks and sounds much the same, was completely shocked and devastated after the past two March meltdowns under Calipari. Calipari became the most prolific rebounder in modern college basketball history, winning one game in the SEC tournament and one in the NCAA tournament before losing to No. 15 seed St. Peter’s in 2022. There was a time when it seemed ridiculous to say Calipari didn’t achieve among the many talents he enjoyed at Kentucky. This is because at the time, “not achieving” meant that only seven people remained in the Elite 8. They reached the Final Four four times in their first 10 seasons, but won only one national championship.
He doesn’t say that’s his current definition of failure. He’s gone four years without winning his SEC title, but this year he’s No. 1 in his rookie class and has the best 3-point shooting team in program history this blue blood has ever had. It turned into the second most humiliating NCAA tournament loss I’ve ever experienced.
“I wanted to go further,” Dillingham said. We weren’t ready for that. I feel like we have the deepest team in a while. Any player, in any position, can dribble, pass, and shoot. It’s a nice thing to say, but it should have been done. I definitely should have gone deeper. ”
Deeper means any depth. Despite being a team full of offensive talent, they have zero postseason wins. However, they were unable to defend the fence post. Or the night when the player who made the most 3s in the tournament and just eight two-point tries all season clearly wanted to shoot from one sweet spot on the floor Thursday. Kentucky frequently obliges. This was the violent clash that everyone had expected. Except for Calipari, obviously.
“My heart really hurts for them this time, because in other years you’d play to the max and lose a game and be like, ‘Hey, hey,'” Calipari said. “(But) I really felt like this team could have done more. I just thought we had a team that could make something happen.”
He had that team. He did little to them. Victories over the top four seeds in this NCAA Tournament, North Carolina, Tennessee, Auburn and Alabama, were ultimately just a tease. This could be possible, but it’s not.
The unacceptable outcome isn’t the only reason it’s time to seriously consider parting ways with the 65-year-old Calipari. In some ways, it is even worse that he cannot accept responsibility for his failures or identify their causes. What went wrong this time?
“We made some big mistakes today too at important times. We had a really young team and when you look at where those mistakes came from, they were freshmen,” Coach Calipari said.
Hogwash. In the face of obvious changes in college basketball, Calipari made a clear and defiant choice. While everyone else has grown super old, Calipari remains as young as ever. This season, he played with five freshmen at times. And it’s no coincidence.
“When it comes to talent or experience, I go with talent,” a proud Calipari said at the team’s media day in October. “And talent usually understands that.”
However, that wasn’t the case. Calipari had the oldest roster in history in 2022, but failed in the first round. At Lexington, players change every season. Over the past four years, there has been more than a ton of staff turnover. The common denominator is the program’s $9 million-a-year guy. Maybe he can take some of the responsibility too?
Asked what he could have done to help those players Thursday night, Calipari said he should have called a timeout sooner. He probably went to a box-and-one defense a little earlier, he said.
“But in hindsight when I’m coaching, if you did something and won this game, you’re a genius. And if you didn’t do that, you… That means they are the bad guys,” he said. “As I said earlier, I thought preparation was necessary.”
That’s highly debatable. And the possibility that there was a mistake at the top is ignored. Here another pressing question arises. If Kentucky can’t or won’t pay the buyout, what happens next if Calipari returns for a 16th season? If anything were different, what would it be? A calm Barnhart declined a request for an interview after the game.
Late Thursday night, Calipari said what no one in Kentucky’s jaded fan base wants to hear right now: “We have an unbelievable group coming in,” the nation’s No. 2 ranked freshman, a five-star freshman. He said that this was due to an increase in the number of people. . As if I hadn’t learned anything.
He was asked if his recent postseason failures will affect his roster construction philosophy.
“That’s a good question,” Calipari said. “I’ve done that with young teams throughout my career and it’s going to be hard to change that because we’ve helped so many young people and their families. I don’t think we’re just saying, ‘Okay, we’re here.”’ We don’t recruit new students. ”
He admitted the match “made a difference for us”. All of a sudden, it got really old.” But the change wasn’t sudden at all. “We might add a few older players to complement us,” Calipari said. However, you can also say that it may not be necessary.
Probably not, if some of these incredibly talented freshmen actually come back for a change. If somehow the Shepherds come back for a second season. That seems unlikely, but if there’s any hope Calipari can salvage from the wreckage of this season, it’s that.
And tell this guy: His players love him, believe in him and protect him. They are among a rapidly decreasing number of people who even try.
“Coach has none of that,” Sheppard said, sobbing again. “Coach isn’t out there playing games. He’s not out there taking shots. He’s not out there guarding. He’s not out there doing anything. They got us ready for the game and we couldn’t stop them. That’s not true of any coach, I don’t care what anyone says. We have the best in the world. I have a coach.”
But now the question Barnhart has to ask himself is how many other coaches might have accomplished more with less than Calipari was given, and it might be worth knowing. This means that it cannot be done.
(Photo of John Calipari and Reed Shepard: Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
