Why there could be hesitation for Kentucky to move on from John Calipari

The John Calipari at Kentucky situation won’t go away at this point and his future is a hotly debated topic.

With a first round exit at the hands of No. 14 seeded Oakland, many think Calipari should be gone. However, it might not be that easy, according to On3’s James Fletcher.

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He discussed Calipari’s situation on Andy Staples On3.

“In this conversation of bluebloods, things for Calipari have heated up because he’s not in a position where anyone he loses to, you think, ‘yeah, that loss makes sense,’” Fletcher said. “When you can’t make sense of the results, that’s when the coach starts to get in trouble.”

Kentucky is basically backed into a corner regarding Calipari.

“(Matt Jones of KSR) basically said they need to make a decision,” Staples said. “They were a little surprised. It sounds like the Kentucky administration was a little bit surprised at how angry everyone was and how many people are out on Cal and they have to choose now … The buyout, it’s $33 million. It sounds like a ton of money. It is a ton of money.

“But if things break the right way, it’s not that much because he has an offset. He can get another job. And it’s also not due a bunch of front. It’s all due in equal installments still pointing … So it’s a doable thing for an SEC program that has a lot of money. The question is do they want to do it?” 

Going through a coaching change like this one could be costly in more ways than one.

“I don’t know if a lot of people understand how coaching changes,” Staples said. “At Kentucky, where you think about it, Calipari has been the coach there since 2009. Mark Stoops has been their football coach too since 2013. They have not been on the coaching change roller coaster nearly as frequently as people who follow other schools so like how coaching changes work now. 

“It’s not the same, because I saw a lot of well if you fire Calipari, all the recruits are gonna leave and like, of course, a new coach is gonna want to bring his own players anyway.”

John Calipari could very well be back at Kentucky

If Kentucky doesn’t make a move on Calipari at this point, it could be seen as a surprise.

“Yeah, and the discourse with Kentucky has been floated out there,” Fletcher said. “It’s been talked about a lot for me when I hear that the administration was surprised, or the fans’ reaction when I hear things like they’re considering it over a long period of time. They’ll have a decision in the next few days. That tends to suggest to me that there is a real hesitancy to pull the trigger on anything.” 

If there’s hesitancy, it could very well lead to Calipari’s return.

“Which then suggests to me that John Calipari leaving Kentucky is not the most likely outcome here,” Fletcher said. “If you’re talking about what we think Mitch Barnhart is going to decide in the coming days, because at the point that you start putting in qualifiers, I think that’s when you start to show what your opinion is on different things. So when there is this kind of discourse, when people are back and forth with it, that tends to suggest to me that the guy who has not only a big bio, but a long history with that team going all the way back to 2009. 

“That sounds to me, like a real hard conversation in the office where it’s understood that this is the year that you better get it done. And I know that’s gonna make a lot of Kentucky fans roll their eyes because that was supposed to be this year. That was what the fan said the expectation for this season was, you get it done this year, or else, with this group.”