John Calipari shares what he still wants to accomplish at Kentucky

Of course John Calipari wants to win national championships. Who doesn’t?

Fans are convinced the Kentucky basketball coach isn’t putting his best effort into making his team the perennial powerhouse it was for his first nine seasons in Lexington. Kentucky has had awful luck in the postseason as of late, and people are failing to realize all the good he’s doing for the kids in his program at the same time.

Since 2019, Kentucky has won one NCAA Tournament game. Calipari has seen seven of his players go drafted since then as well. His mission has always been to change the lives of his players for the better. In that case, he has never failed. Just ask the 27 former UK stars that are on NBA rosters today.

“When I think about my journey, here’s this kid from Moon Township, Pennsylvania, that has the ability to change lives for families as he competes for national titles. Sometimes we are better than others, and others are better than us, but by the end of the year, we’re playing our best basketball,” Calipari said, via Fox Sports. “I would like to get the Da’Aaron Fox‘s, Malik Monk’s, and you go down the list of great players we’ve had. That’s why this recruiting class is important to what we’re trying to do.”

Calipari has compiled yet another No. 1 recruiting class filled with four Five-Star Plus+ recruits and Kentucky will undoubtedly enter the 2023 season with incredibly high expectations. He always makes sure that commits know just how hard it is to play for him. As he says, Kentucky is not for everyone.

“What moves me is going into a home, looking at the home, and saying to a family, ‘We can do this if we work together. I’m not promising you anything,” Calipari said. “This is really hard here at Kentucky. If you’re built for this it’s really rewarding. My job is to make you uncomfortable. You know, every game that we play is somebody’s Super Bowl. Every practice we have, there are scouts here. Do you really want that?'”

Playing at Kentucky means suiting up in front of 20,000 rabid fans inside Rupp Arena on a random Tuesday against insert team name here. It means traveling to any town and packing the place out just because they want to see you lose that bad. It means being criticized by millions of people for doing something as minor as missing a free throw. Not everyone can do it. Not every coach can sit in John Calipari’s seat, either.

Still, one title in 13 seasons hasn’t kept fans happy with the trajectory of the program. Big Blue Nation has a right to feel the way he does, but it’s not for a lack of effort.