Explaining why John Calipari will not change if he returns to Kentucky

Kentucky suffered another early exit in the NCAA Tournament this year, falling to Oakland in the first round on Thursday. Since then, there have been plenty of discussions about John Calipari and his future in Lexington.

There’s no guarantee that Calipari will be back for the 2024-25 season, but if he is, most believe he needs to make some changes. That includes ESPN analysts Jay Bilas and Seth Greenberg, who discussed that topic on Saturday.

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However, Matt Jones of KSR believes that if Calipari does come back, he won’t make any tweaks.

“He believes that the way he plays is the way you should play,” Jones said on Pardon My Take. “I mean after the game today, he said, ‘We had a lot of freshmen do things they have never done before.’ But you watched the game. They ran a zone, and Kentucky couldn’t get any shots open.

“I mean listen, Oakland should’ve won by more. They missed 11 free throws. I’ll even say we got the good side of the whistle. I think we got some good calls. So it could’ve been worse.”

Jones added that there’s no one on the Kentucky staff who can convince Calipari to make changes.

“There’s no assistant. He won’t listen to him. You know, listen, how many 60 (something) year old guys do you know that change?” Jones asked. “Cal’s in charge. People can say whatever they want, he’s still going to do what he wants to do and that’s a good way to lose your grip on success.”

Oakland beat Kentucky 80-76 on Thursday, with Jack Gohlke leading the way. The senior scored 32 points, while knocking down 10 3-pointers in the upset.

Matt Jones was asked on PMT if John Calipari might bring in a high-profile assistant to help, but he doesn’t expect that to happen, either.

Jones feels that John Calipari needs to change some things with his approach, but he is doubtful Calipari actually will.

“[Nick] Saban is the example of what Cal should do. Cal would never bring in a Lane Kiffin kind of guy to be an assistant. He would never do that. But Saban is the most successful coach of all time and had the humility to say I need help with this. I need to bring this guy in for modern offense. Cal won’t do that,” Jones said.

“Listen, when dudes get a certain age, they do not change. And the ones that do are special. Saban, [Mike] Krzyzewski did that.”