John Calipari coached at the University of Kentucky for 15 years. During that time he won a national championship, won nearly 80 percent of his games, went to the Final Four three other times and only missed making the NCAA tournament twice. It was a damn good run. He was the second-best coach in Kentucky basketball history post integration behind Rick Pitino. On the plus side Calipari had his stint running an NBA franchise into the ground prior to his stint at Kentucky.
And how did the majority of fans greet their former coach when Arkansas traveled to Lexington to play the Kentucky Wildcats? With boos. Others wore Calipari Clown shirts.
Stay classy Lexington.
I can understand being frustrated with John Calipari. In many ways he is a victim of his success. The guy brings in highly regarded players and underachieves expectations many years. His pollyannish response to failure tends to rub people the wrong way. He doesn’t appear to be the most proficient coach in terms of offensive scheme. His teams rely more on superior talent as opposed to strategy or grit. His best years were a fairly long time ago.
Earlier this year I wrote this might be the most talented Razorback basketball team of the last 25 years. And even with the loss of freshman sensation point guard Boogie Fland that is still the case. Yet Arkansas is 14th in conference standings.
There are reasons fans get frustrated with John Calipari as head coach.
On the other hand, his former players seem to stay intensely loyal to Coach Cal. Former Kentucky player Reed Sheppard, who played all of one year for Calipari, was walking around in an Arkansas shirt and Kentucky pants prior to the game. Both of Sheppard’s parents are Kentucky basketball royalty.
After Sheppard caught hell from a number of fans on social media, he explained Kentucky is my school, but Calipari was my coach. That is pretty loyal to a coach you spent one year under.
Kentucky Gambler
John Calipari walked out the door last year at Kentucky and immediately found a soft landing spot at the University of Arkansas. It makes me think about Dolly Parton. She covered this well in her 1975 song Kentucky Gambler. A man walks out on his four kids and a wife in Kentucky and ends up in gambling in Reno. The Kentucky Gambler starts out hot, before losing it all. Lady luck leaves the gambler and he ends up broke longing for home.
Ok, let’s hope that isn’t how this turns out for Cal at Arkansas. It probably will. Rare is the sports career that ends with the participant in the midst of a winning streak.
But we can dream
On Saturday night, Cal was the one with the hot hand. He brought his one and six in conference play team into the lion’s den as a ten-point underdog and the smart money was on the Razorbacks getting rolled. But that was not to be.
Calipari responded. And his players responded. All of his players. Except Jonas Aidoo. And the vaunted Big Blue fans started leaving before the game was over.
Maybe this year’s Hogs will not be able to build on this win. Nothing thus far in the season suggests they will. But it’s not out of the realm of possibility, just yet. The Razorbacks have 10 games remaining in the regular season. Half at home, half on the road. Every game save one is against a likely NCAA tournament team.
More than likely Arkansas will finish a few losses on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble. Fans and players will look back at losses to Oklahoma at home and LSU on the road and think it all could have been so different.
How does that old saying go? For a living dog is better than a dead lion. The Razorbacks are still a living dog. Hopefully, they can stay that way just long enough to sneak into the NCAA Tournament.
For now we can just enjoy the moment and listen to more Dolly Parton.