It's Time to Let John Calipari Go

The NBA Draft night (or nights now) is John Calipari’s time to shine. For the first decade of his time at Kentucky, he propped that night up as a showcase of UK’s greatness as much as the actual wins on the court. And because the wins on the court were so significant and plentiful, fans were accepting of Cal’s NBA Draft obsession. Obviously, the last few years of his tenure soured things on that front. But the fact that many UK players were still being drafted but the wins didn’t match that only furthered fans frustrations with Cal. That was only amplified on Wednesday night with Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham going in the Top 8 of the draft and both receiving pretty universal praise as future NBA producers. And Cal was right there for the high fives and hugs as always.

The response online was pretty expected from this fanbase. How could we lose to Oakland with those two guys? How could those guys come off the bench? Misused, poorly coached, etc etc etc. But at this point, the same ol’ criticisms of Calipari and his tenure at Kentucky have grown old. No matter what happens in relation to UK world, we have far too many people that continue to want to throw a Calipari connection or jab at it. Every time Mark Pope does something, it’s highlighted as something Calipari didn’t do. Every time Pope didn’t land a recruit, it’s pointed out Cal would have gotten them.

From where I am standing, it’s time that this fanbase lets John Calipari go.

CAL’S POSITIVES WON’T BE MATCHED

Let’s first address those Calipari lovers who continue to hold strong that pushing Cal out was a bad call. The things that John Calipari did very well are not going to be matched by Mark Pope. Cal’s recruiting run throughout his tenure, but especially his home run rate from 2009-2019 was unparalleled. But it also highlighted Cal’s overall approach to roster construction. Mark Pope is not trying to construct the same roster. His recruiting classes are not going to be #1 each and every year. Calipari was also great at promotion, at least in the earlier years. It bordered on arrogance many times but that was something fans clamored for at that time.

Mark Pope doesn’t seem to have that kind of personality. But let’s not forget that Calipari’s personality was adored, until it wasn’t. That kind of larger than life character eventually wore this fanbase down. We should not expect, nor demand, that Mark Pope be anything but himself. If he doesn’t roll into an opponents gym with cocky one-liners, that will be fine. If he isn’t front and center at every NBA draft, that will be fine. But what the Cal lovers can’t do is hold Pope to any standard you may have had with Calipari.

CALIPARI’S NEGATIVES SHOULD NOT SET POPE’S GOALS

Now for the Calipari haters. There are still fresh wounds for many fans for the how the last 5 years have gone. Plus, how the Calipari tenure ended wasn’t exactly the smoothest transaction in school history. A lot of fans will pretty much forever dislike Cal. That’s fine. Lots of fans will forever hate Rick Pitino too. But there is no longer a point in driving home all of Cal’s faults. Yes, he badly mismanaged this last team. Yes, his attitude towards fans was disgraceful since 2020. He certainly lost all grip on control of the SEC and many coaches dominated him in big games.

But what does that all matter now? There is no longer a point in rehashing all of his faults. It is time to move on. John Calipari may or may not do well at Arkansas. My gut says he will have the same issues there as he did here. But either way, that era is over. And it only hampers the current Pope era to continue to bring him up now.

1998 ALL OVER AGAIN?

There are not a lot of similarities between Rick Pitino leaving in 1997 and Calipari leaving in 2024. But one similarity is that many fans have serious doubts as if the program can ever reach the heights that it did in the prime of those two coaches. Can Mark Pope bring UK back to 2010-2017 levels? Same questions were being asked of Tubby Smith upon his hiring. But Tubby brought UK to the top right away and made the program in the image he wanted, not trying to mirror what Pitino had done.

My hope is that our fanbase will allow Pope to make this program how he wants, without a comparison to Calipari. I hope he can bring in the #12 recruiting class and fans won’t melt. That we can go an NBA Draft without a player selected and there not be questions. I hope Pope can lower the arrogance a notch or two and UK won’t be questioned as the gold standard. I hope that Pope is given a fair shake to win games how he wants and hopefully, win them when they matter most. But the only way we can truly do that is to let the previous guy go.