John Calipari accepts responsibility, evaluating "everything" this offseason

John Calipari understands the results of the past two seasons are unacceptable. You can’t consider yourself the gold standard of college basketball and then go on to follow the worst season in Kentucky history with the school’s worst NCAA Tournament loss in history. You just can’t, end of story.

It hurts. Kentucky’s loss to No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s had Calipari laying in his bed all day on Friday trying to figure out how and why it happened. The players are clearly hurting, too.

“We’re all grieving,” Calipari said during his final radio show of the season Monday evening. “I mean, shock, bewildered, anger, despair, this is part of grieving. My concern — yeah, for the fans, but also for these young people. The joy they brought to all of us.”

The loss would hurt with any team, but especially one as likable as this group. It became one of Calipari’s favorites throughout his time in Lexington, just as it was for many UK fans.

“You think about people saying, this is one of the most fun teams to watch, one of my favorite teams ever here, all that kind of stuff. And then ending the way it ended. I mean, devastating,” Calipari said. “But it’s not going to take away the joy I had coaching these guys. The fun that they brought to us and the staff. You think about Rupp Arena at the end of the season, you think about — we ended up top-five. Think about that. And then to end that way.

“Not my most talented team, but they were talented. Had more talented teams, but this became a fan favorite. They fought like crazy, they never gave up on a game, they were great teammates. And you know what? They started the year as unknown. None of us knew. They did it and put together the kind of year they had, and then this ends this way. It could have ended one game later or two games later, it would not have mattered. This was one of those teams.”

The goal was to get back to full strength, just get by however you can until TyTy Washington and Sahvir Wheeler returned to the lineup. Get this team cruising the way it was against North Carolina, Kansas and at home against Tennessee. Play like that, and you’ve got yourself a real contender.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, they never got back to that level, full strength or not.

“We all thought, I thought, if we could get to playing like we were mid to late January, early February, the way we were playing then,” Calipari said. “You’re talking about a month ago, a month and a week ago or whatever. We could do it. But it didn’t happen that way. In this tournament, that’s the kind of stuff that happens. …

“I’m so fond of this team and feel so connected with this team and what they were able to do. When you look back, I wish I had the answers when those kids came back from injury, to get us back to where we were. Understand when it was those games you’re talking about, we were as good as anybody in the country. The injuries hit us and we survived. How Kellan (Grady) and Davion (Mintz) did it without breaks in 40 minutes, you know, that may have worn them out. But we did it and we survived it and I thought we were going to be fine. And then that one game hits you.”

Now it’s about doing whatever it takes to make sure that one game never happens again.

“Our team wins, I’m always going to give them credit. Our team loses, I’m always going to take responsibility like I did here. It’s hard to talk about. I mean, our teams have always performed late in the year. So I’m like, you’ve got to go back and look over everything and evaluate everything like I do every year. I’ll have to do that and I’ve started that process.”

It starts with building a roster that can hit its stride in March like Calipari’s best teams have done. Maybe that means changing up his offense or defense, maybe it’s practice habits, maybe it’s preparation technique. Maybe it’s all of the above.

Whatever it takes to get back to that level of success, that gold standard.

“What I try to do every year (is make sure) we’re one of those teams, we’ve got a chance,” Calipari said. “What we’ve done most years has been that team. Historically, and this is not just at Kentucky, my teams played their best in March. We want to get back to that. And if there’s stuff we could do different, I’ll look back and look at practice. You know, we practiced a little bit longer because I felt we needed it. It’s not something that I’ve done, but I felt we needed it because we weren’t up to snuff in what I thought we needed to be. So there are things that I’ll evaluate. I always do.

“Winning a national title, Final Fours, lose in the final game, where do we evaluate? How do we take stock in everything we’re doing throughout the whole program? Where do we need to go with everything to be what we want to be?”

Calipari always stresses that you have to be “built different” to play at Kentucky. On that same note, you have to be “built different” to coach here, as well. It isn’t easy to respond after following up the worst season in program history with the worst postseason loss. He knows that.

But that’s what he signed up for. It’s a challenge he’s prepared to take on.

“I’ve said in the past, this isn’t for everybody. You know, it’s not for every coach,” Calipari said. “You’ve got to be willing. You lose a game, lose a game like this, and there’s going to be a piling on. Can you take it? Because if you can’t take it, you can’t be here.”

If you’re frustrated as a fan, that’s fine. Calipari understands. He knows the situation he’s in and the uphill battle he’s facing, the pressure that’s on him to get it fixed. He hit reset on the coaching staff and roster last offseason in hopes of getting things right. And for much of the season, it looked like things were.

Now he has to bring that same resolve — even more so, frankly — into this offseason.

“We’re like every year, adjustments, let’s go,” he said. “I appreciate all the fans. I mean, we had fans after the game that were crying and consoling our players. Now I imagine there were other people mad and angry, and you have that right. You have a right, we’re Kentucky.

“I have the resolve just like I did last year to say, ‘I can’t wait, it can’t come soon enough. I’ve got the same resolve. You know who gave me that resolve? This team I just coached. As much as I want to be down — I was under those covers a couple of days. So as much as I want to be angry, as long as I want to be in despair — I told you I was for a little while. It is now, ‘All right, it happened. It stinks. It’s even worse than stinks. Now, where’s the resolve?'”