Mark Wiedmer
At some point over the next 24 hours, if not much sooner, University of Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart is going to sit down with basketball coach John Calipari and either blow up the program _ Cal’s lifetime contract included _ or give the Hall of Fame coach at least one more year to win an NCAA Tournament game or two.
Before Thursday night’s startling loss to 14th seeded Oakland, the notion that Cal might be coaching his last game at UK would have been unthinkable.
But in the 72 hours or so since, a different atmosphere has descended on the Big Blue athletic department, A sense of uncertainty and unrest.
Or as Matt Jones, the highly connected and informed head of Kentucky Sports Radio, noted in a Saturday Tweet: “There is a sense of nervousness with everyone around the program (because) no one is really sure where Barnhart’s mind is right now on it. I am told the University leadership is supportive of whatever he decides. I think we know something by Monday, if not before”
This is already a public relations nightmare. Whether Barnhart cans Cal or keeps him, he’s made Cal’s future employment front and center for all the whole world to watch. And if he doesn’t part ways with him at a cost of $34 million, what next? What will recruits and their families think? What will current players and staffers think? What should fans think?
Will a 65-year-old Cal announce next year will be his last, as Mike Krzyzewski did at Duke before his final season, creating a sort of uncomfortable farewell tour through a lame-duck season. While Coach K hand-picked his successor in then Blue Devils assistant Jon Scheyer, that wouldn’t be the case at UK. Barnhart will unfortunately pick Cal’s successor, the same Barnhart who once hired Billy Gillispie to replace Tubby Smith.
The dysfunctional relationship that has always been just under the surface between Barnhart and Calipari will now be obvious, the tension palpable, every loss going forward now a Q&A with Barnhart, Cal or both about his job status. What’s the over/under on losses that cement his ouster? Does a Sweet 16 in 2025 save him. An Elite Eight? A FInal Four?
How does a team, a coaching staff, a fanbase navigate such a season? Should they? After all, as one fan noted on social media Sunday night, whenever Cal leaves, under whatever circumstances he leaves, the future recruits and current players will likely scatter and move along. That’s just life. The program will suffer growing pains. Guaranteed. It happens in every program when there’s a change at the top and someone from the outside takes over, which is certain to happen at UK if Cal departs.
But isn’t some perspective in order, too?
Wasn’t this the most fun, exciting and enjoyable Kentucky basketball season in years, filled with electric play on the court and numerous examples of a close-knit bunch of kids who loved each other and supported each other off the court?
As the face of the program, Reed Sheppard, the son of Kentucky royalty in mother Stacy Reed Sheppard, who starred for UK’s women’s team, and Jeff Sheppard, the MVP of the 1998 Final Four, said after the Oakland loss, “None of this is on any of the coaches. I don’t care what anybody says. We have the best coach in the world. And we’ve got the best coaching staff in the world. How much we learned from them this year. They prepared us for the game. We had some bad turnovers. And we didn’t make shots. (Cal) can’t shoot the ball for us. He got us open shots. None of this is on Coach.”
But even if the Oakland loss should fall squarely on Calipari, so must the win at Auburn, the lone time the Tigers lost at home all year. And the win over top-seeded North Carolina in Atlanta in December. And the win at SEC regular-season champ Tennessee two weeks ago. All these were seen as major victories at the time, and Kentucky was viewed as an underdog in each of those games, sometimes by as many as eight or more points.
Cal orchestrated those wins and allowed the freshmen to play the kind of free-flowing, 3-point prolific offense that the Big Blue Nation fell in love with.
Depending on who leaves and who returns on this team _ Sheppard foremost among them _ there’s every reason to believe Kentucky could be better next year under Cal and much better equipped to deal with the pressure of March Madness.
This is not to say the fans or Barnhart or the administration shouldn’t demand better than a first-weekend exit from the NCAA Tournament each of the last three years. This is Kentucky, after all, the winningest program in college basketball history, with the second most NCAA titles (8) to UCLA’s 11. Cal went to four Final Fours his first six seasons. He hasn’t been to one over his last nine. For nearly $9 million a year, UK is right to expect more. Much more.
For starters, Calipari needs to quit whining about being young. He chose that path. Yes, it once worked perfectly when the youth were named John Wall, Brandon Knight, Anthony Davis, Karl Anthony Towns and the like, the top players in their class. But he won with a lot of lesser talents, too, until COVID came along and made all the rosters older, wiser and more mature.
Cal's strength has always previously been to alter his style in any given year to his talent. The players dictate the style, especially on offense, not the players conform to a past style of play.
Second, after long being known as one of the bet defensive coaches in the country, Cal's defenses have been awful of late, ranked 118th in the country by the end of this season. That has to change for Cal's Cats to return to the nation's elite.
Yet he must also be praised for recognizing this team had shooters and drew up an offense that became the best 3-point attack in the country. with Rupp Arena sounding louder than it had in nearly a decade.
As we’ve seen throughout this NCAA tourney, the SEC may have also been a bit overrated this year. Just look at Auburn, Florida, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Auburn, first-round losers all, right along with UK.
Tennessee and Alabama are in the Sweet 16. They might keep going. Or they might be gone by next weekend. That’s March Madness. This year. Every year.
But a public university in a state that’s hardly overflowing with money doesn’t need to pay $34 million for its Hall of Fame basketball coach not to coach. To borrow one of Calipari’s favorite sayings, what Kentucky’s program needs is a tweak or two, not a tear-down.
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Email Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@mccallie.org