John Calipari upholds high expectations for Kentucky basketball in NCAA Tournament

Kentucky has long since been one of the premier programs in college basketball. There is an expectation that the Wildcats make deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. That was true before John Calipari became the program’s head coach and it will be true long after he is gone.

At SEC Media Day, John Calipari was asked if expectations need to change because several SEC teams had early NCAA Tournament exits. When Calipari asked the reporter who he was referring to, they listed Alabama and Auburn before Calipari cut them off and said, “You can say it, Saint Peter’s beat us. It happened,” before crediting St. Peter’s and answering the question.

“First of all, I really didn’t think someone would ask me the question about Saint Peter’s. But let me say this: They were like my UMass teams,” John Calipari said. “They were undersized, tough as nails, skilled, had a coach that had a swagger. Shaheen [Holloway] did an unbelievable job. They beat us in overtime.”

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“We had a heck of a year last year. I thought we kind of maxed out. We got injured at the end, lose to them in overtime, and basically, for me as a coach, dealing with it, because my teams usually would advance and hadn’t been — but I had to worry about my own team, for mental health and not going in dark places and meeting, sitting and hugging. I mean, that was ridiculously hard for our guys, because we did have a good year. We had a bad finish,” John Calipari said.

“I would say we’re all judged by how you do in that tournament. I’ll give you an example. We went to Kansas and beat them pretty good. And they won the whole thing. We were like, what’s happened? This is crazy. Attack me, attack my kids and all this. It’s a one-game shot. I wish it was best of three; can we change it? But it’s not best of three; it’s a one-game shot. So yes, we will be judged.”

What John Calipari is suggesting is that anything can happen in a one-game format. That, of course, is what makes the NCAA Tournament so exciting. However, Calipari says that if you want a fairer outcome, you’d play some kind of series like the NBA Playoffs.

So, a coach, especially a high-profile one is going to be judged on NCAA Tournament success. However, in a good conference, you might end up beat up by the time you get there or be dealing with other issues because of scheduling.

“But let me tell you, to get seven, eight teams in, you’re judged for your year, and we need to keep getting six and seven teams and eight teams in this thing, nine teams when we add some other people. Then we’ve got to figure out how do we do that. How do we not just beat each other up, how do you not put a schedule together where you add Gonzaga and Indiana and there’s Michigan and all the teams that we’re playing, I guess,” John Calipari explained.

John Calipari thinks these games help. That is unless it ends with injuries for your team that impact you throughout the season.

“The other side of it is, if you play those teams, does it better prepare you to advance in the NCAA Tournament. My teams have always played hard schedules. In a normal situation, it helps. Sometimes you have an injury or two, like we did, and it kind of screws up your plans.

“Did that answer your question? No. That’s okay.”