PITTSBURGH — The query Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart should now reply is so simple as it’s sophisticated: What’s the worth of this system’s dignity? What’s it price to expel a Corridor of Fame coach who can neither recapture the magic nor ever provide even a coherent idea as to why? What would the Wildcats be keen to pay for, say, multiple NCAA Match victory within the final 4 years? And is the obscene $33 million buyout in John Calipari’s albatross of a “lifetime” contract an excessive amount of?
Arduous questions, beforehand unfathomable questions, should be requested after Calipari’s newest postseason stunner, an 80-76 loss within the South Area to 14th-seeded Oakland, which had by no means received a sport within the NCAA Match. The particulars hardly matter, however a former Division II participant coming off the bench to bury 10 3-pointers and rating 32 factors towards No. 3 seed Kentucky solely provides insult to incompetence. Calipari simply took essentially the most proficient, most fun, most beloved roster he’s had in years and didn’t win a single postseason sport with it. Not an SEC event sport. Not an NCAA Match sport.
Ultimately, not a single sport that issues. Calipari had the nationwide freshman of the 12 months, Reed Sheppard, who was genetically engineered to convey Kentucky followers most pleasure, and squandered what may effectively be his solely season in Lexington. Calipari had a fifth-year senior, Antonio Reeves, who scored extra factors than any participant he’s ever coached at Kentucky — together with 27 extra on Thursday night time simply to offer the Cats an opportunity — and wasted it. He had Rob Dillingham, essentially the most sensational microwave scorer within the nation, and misplaced 10 freaking video games.
“Everybody liked watching this group, and I liked enjoying for this group,” Sheppard mentioned after the sport, between sobs, “and it sucks it’s over.”
Former nationwide participant of the 12 months Oscar Tshiebwe seemed and sounded virtually precisely the identical, completely shocked and devastated, after the earlier two March meltdowns underneath Calipari, who took essentially the most dominant rebounder in trendy faculty basketball historical past and received one SEC event sport and one NCAA Match sport and misplaced to No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s in 2022. There was a time when it appeared absurd to say Calipari underachieved with the hordes of expertise he’d loved at Kentucky, as a result of again then “underachieving” meant going to seven Elite Eights and 4 Last Fours in his first 10 seasons however solely having the one nationwide championship.
What he wouldn’t give for that to be his present definition of failure. He’s gone 4 years with out an SEC title and this 12 months, he turned a No. 1 recruiting class and one of the best 3-point-shooting group in program historical past into the second-most humiliating NCAA Match loss this blue blood has ever suffered.
“We needed to go far,” Dillingham mentioned, “however we simply didn’t make the most of the second. We weren’t prepared for it. I really feel like we acquired the deepest group in a very long time. Each single participant, each single place, we are able to all dribble, cross and shoot. It’s good to say it, however we should always’ve pulled by way of. We undoubtedly ought to’ve gone deeper.”
Deeper implies any depth in any respect. Zero postseason victories with a group overflowing with offensive expertise. However they couldn’t defend a fence submit — or a man who got here in with essentially the most made 3s of any participant within the event and solely eight 2-point tries all season, who clearly needed to shoot from one candy spot on the ground Thursday night time. Kentucky steadily obliged. This was the fiery crash everybody noticed coming. Besides Calipari, apparently.
“This one, I’m actually hurting for them, as a result of different years you max out and also you lose a sport and also you’re like, ‘Geez,’” Calipari mentioned. “(However) this group, I actually felt, might have achieved a lot extra. I simply thought I had a group that might do some stuff.”
He did have that group. He did little or no stuff with them. Wins over North Carolina, Tennessee, Auburn and Alabama, all top-four seeds on this NCAA Match, had been finally little greater than taunting teases. That is what may very well be, however received’t.
Unacceptable outcomes aren’t the one purpose it’s time to suppose severely about parting methods with the 65-year-old Calipari. His incapability to just accept duty for the failures — or determine their trigger — is in some methods even worse. What went mistaken this time?
“We made some crucial errors at crucial occasions once more right this moment,” Calipari mentioned, “and when you may have a very younger group and also you have a look at the place did the errors come from, they had been freshmen.”
Hogwash. Calipari made a transparent and defiant alternative within the face of an apparent shift in faculty basketball. Everybody else went tremendous outdated, and Calipari went as younger as ever. He performed 5 freshmen collectively at occasions this season. And never by chance.
“For those who ask me expertise or expertise, I’m taking expertise,” a chest-puffing Calipari mentioned on the group’s media day in October, “and the expertise often figures it out.”
Solely it didn’t. Calipari additionally had his oldest roster ever in 2022 and flopped within the first spherical. The gamers change each season in Lexington. The workers has turned over a ton within the final 4 years. The frequent denominator is this system’s $9 million-a-year man. Possibly he might shoulder a smidge of the blame?
Requested what he may’ve achieved to assist these gamers Thursday night time, Calipari cited a timeout he ought to’ve referred to as sooner. Possibly gone to the box-and-one protection a bit of earlier, he mentioned.
“However in hindsight while you’re teaching, for those who did one thing and we had received this sport, you’re a genius — and for those who don’t do it, you recognize, you’re the dangerous man,” he mentioned. “Like I mentioned, I assumed the preparation was what it wanted to be.”
That’s extremely debatable. And it ignores any risk that errors had been made on the prime. Which brings us to the opposite burning query: If Kentucky can’t or received’t pay the buyout, if Calipari returns for a sixteenth season, what then? What, if something, can be completely different? A stone-faced Barnhart declined an interview request after the sport.
Late Thursday night time, Calipari mentioned the factor no person in Kentucky’s fed-up fan base needs to listen to proper now, that “we’ve acquired an unbelievable group coming in,” extra five-star freshmen, the nation’s No. 2-ranked recruiting class. As if he’s discovered nothing in any respect.
He was requested whether or not the latest postseason failures will influence his philosophy on constructing rosters.
“It’s a very good query,” Calipari mentioned. “I’ve achieved this with younger groups my complete profession, and it’s going to be exhausting for me to alter that, as a result of we’ve helped so many younger individuals and their households that I don’t see myself simply saying, OK, we’re not going to recruit freshmen.”
He did acknowledge the sport has “modified on us; abruptly it’s gotten actually outdated,” though that shift hasn’t been sudden in any respect. “Possibly add a pair older guys to complement,” Calipari mentioned. But in addition, “we could not want it.”
Possibly not if just a few of those extremely proficient freshmen really got here again for a change. If by some means Sheppard and others returned for a sophomore season. The possibilities of that appear slim, but when there’s any hope for Calipari salvaging one thing from the wreckage of this season, that’s it.
And say this for the person: His gamers love him, imagine in him, defend him. They’re amongst a quickly shrinking quantity who would even strive.
“None of that’s on Coach,” Sheppard mentioned, sobbing once more. “Coach isn’t on the market enjoying the sport. He’s not on the market taking pictures the photographs. He’s not on the market guarding. He’s not on the market doing something. They ready us for the sport and we didn’t — we couldn’t — cease them. None of that is on any of the coaches, I don’t care what anyone says. We’ve got one of the best coach on the planet.”
However now the query Barnhart has to ask himself is what number of different coaches may’ve achieved extra with lower than Calipari has been given, and what it is likely to be price to seek out out.
(Photograph of John Calipari and Reed Sheppard: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Photographs)