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Published Dec 29, 2020
How much blame belongs to Calipari?
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Justin Rowland  •  CatsIllustrated
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Managing and orchestrating an unprecedented amount of roster turnover on an annual basis has often been one of John Calipari's strengths but it has caught up to him this year, as the Wildcats are off to a 1-6 start with six consecutive defeats.

How much blame belongs to the Wildcats' head coach, on the small and large scales? And how much can be chalked up to unlikely circumstances?

The Cats Illustrated staff goes to the roundtable to discuss.

Jeff Drummond: John Calipari frequently talks about accountability when it comes to the players in his program, and I'm sure he believes that the same thing should be applied to himself. That hasn't been consistently expressed during this ghastly 1-6 start, however, as the UK boss has lashed out at players, fans, and media alike. That's a dangerous road to go down, especially pointing a finger at BBN and bringing up the "true fans" label.

Ultimately, Calipari has created the scenario that has led to 1-6. Kentucky should never be in a scenario in which it is putting a completely new team on the floor. Guys like Ashton Hagans, EJ Montgomery, and Johnny Juzang should all still be in this program, and in-state talent like Taveion Hollingsworth (Western Kentucky), Kyky Tandy (Xavier), and CJ Fredrick (Iowa) could really be helping the Cats at this point. There's no excuse whatsoever to be in this position, and Cal has to own that.

It's going to be interesting to see what moves -- if any -- he makes moving forward. Kentucky might be at a bit of a crossroads right now. Even before this disastrous season, there was a large segment of the fan base that had become disenchanted with UK Basketball. The one-and-done culture, the inability to get to know players over the years, the loss of a huge rivalry game like Indiana or trips to events like the Maui Invitational, and the pathetic home scheduling have all taken their toll. Many of those fans reluctantly accepted those things because the end result was UK making deep runs in the tournament and playing consistently in the Final Four. That's not happening anymore, so patience is wearing thin.

This year will mark the sixth straight without a Final Four appearance and will end with UK having won only one national championship over a 23-year period. Calipari has frequently referred to the program as "the gold standard." For that to be true, he's got to hang another banner at some point in the near future. It's hard to see that happening with this current approach. Adjustments are needed to get back on the elite path.

David Sisk: There is no doubt that John Calipari deserves blame for a 1-6 start. The question is how much of it falls at his feet. This is not a talentless roster that he inherited. He is now in his twelfth year at the helm of the program, and he has molded this team around his philosophy of one and done, roster turnover, and creating a feeder system into the NBA.

When it works (and most of the time it has) there is not much of a public outcry. But when this proud program has a team that not only looks like it is not going to make the NCAA Tournament, but may not go .500 then it hits the fan. 2020 has been a perfect storm for failure. This unit is more inexperienced than usual. Only Keion Brooks returned from last season, and he has yet to step onto the floor this season. So the things Calipari needed to happen have not happened. No schedule of the needed creampuffs that a young team needs to work out the kinks and build confidence. No boot camp that generally leads to improvements before league play begins. There is also the issue of player's mental health due to quarantining that all college coaches are trying to manage. That may be more of an issue at Kentucky because of youth than most places. But just as with a football team that misses tackles, fumbles the ball, and kicks errant filed goals. The players are to blame as well. It seems like everybody might have missed the mark on prospects like Terrence Clarke and B.J. Boston. It is a head scratcher that someone with the shooting reputation of Boston can't get open enough. I also wonder if this stage is too big for Olivier Sarr. It reminds me of free agents in the past who thrived in the small markets and bombed with the Yankees because they succumbed to the pressure of the bright lights.

However there are noticeable miscalculations in the roster makeup that have to fall back on the man in charge. Why was there no proven point guard coming into this season? There were doubts about Devin Askew at that spot, and Davion Mintz was a shooting guard at Creighton. I think both players are making great strides, and Mintz is actually my favorite player on this team. However, both are being asked to do things that are outside of their wheelhouse. But the main problem comes back to youth and unproven talent. When factors start working against a team the more obvious it becomes. Balancing a total roster overhaul in a smaller window of success is all the more difficult, especially with this type of scheduling, and that leads to the bigger issue. There has been frustration in Big Blue Nation with the constant revolving door of players. Yes, this is the gold standard for young men who want to amass nine digits of cash. But does that really help the program in the long run? This is Kentucky? Does the program need that to attract top high school talent? The multi-year maximum contracts are great, but that doesn't mean that a one-and-done player achieved maximum results in his one season in Lexington? Many would like to see the development of a player into a third and fourth season in which they enjoy solid college careers.

Certainly one-and-done's aren't discouraged from being a part of the program by the fan base, but it doesn't need to be the dominant part. Let's go back to Askew. The one and done culture has also created unrealistic expectations among fans. Presently if Askew struggles out of the gate it is an indictment of his ability because the gauge is how good a player can be in just one season. In the past players like Dirk Minnifield, Wayne Turner, and others were measured by how they could develop and how effective they could be over a career. In fairness, if this team got to play a typical schedule of mid and low-majors there would be some wins and fans might feel a lot better about things. But a college coach once told me it is important that a team finds a way to get old. This team is definitely not that, and much of the blame is going back to the coach who assembled it.

Travis Graf: John Calipari does deserve some pretty tough criticism for this season. For someone who “revamped the offense after watching the NBA all summer due to no recruiting”, the ‘Cats offense is the same as it has been for years and is the least productive since he’s been in Lexington. Calipari put together a roster without a true point guard and currently has a bunch of wings who aren’t good at any one thing in particular. This is the worst roster construction he’s had at Kentucky.

The program’s lead man gets paid lavishly for his duties and he’s earned that over his tenure here. At the same time, the program has paid him over $45 million since its last trip to the final four. Calipari calls Kentucky the “gold standard”, but it hasn’t lived up to those expectations since 2015. Sure, Kentucky could have made it to two final fours in 2017 and 2019, but ‘almosts’ don’t count here. Calipari isn’t paid for almosts. The thing is, the fans should be pleased with elite eight appearances. That means you were right there at the end, but losing to Indiana in the round of 32, having your heart ripped out against North Carolina on buzzer beating fashion, losing to Bruce Weber in the sweet 16, choking away a huge lead against Auburn in the elite eight, plus not getting closure on last season has taken a toll on the fan base.

Not only are the heartbreaks and disappointments taking a toll, but when you have Kentucky’s third least talented roster of his tenure (2020) return ONE player to the current roster, you’re pushing fans away. It’s not fun for them. They don’t get to know the players unless they’re obsessed with them during the recruiting process. They understand it when elite players leave, but now you’re having players leave to go undrafted and to transfers. When he first arrived, players would return to get a lottery grade, then it was return to get a first round grade, now players return just to get a two-way contract. You can’t build a program like that.

System continuity is big. You have to have players who are cool with being — and groom players to be — college players. Not everyone is a pro. Players like Johnny Juzang, Jemarl Baker and EJ Montgomery aren’t the best players, but they’re familiar with the system. The never have to be your top scoring options, especially early in their careers, but they’ll get better over time. A player like Baker can go from your 10th option as a freshman, to 8th, then 6th, then a top five option as a senior. He’s never going to be an NBA player before he’s an upperclassman. Find and identify players who are comfortable being in this role. Not everyone has to be a part of the machine that is Kentucky’s one and done system.

Lastly, I had a great conversation with a Cats Illustrated member the other day. They said something that I wholeheartedly agree with. The best thing Cal and Barnhart can do at this time is appease the fan base. Get new uniforms, play in preseason tournaments and start camping out for Big Blue Madness again. Right now, that’s what will reel the fan base back in, not a new crop of five star freshmen.

Justin Rowland: In terms of the issues specific to this team I would say Calipari is responsible on two levels. For constructing a roster without a point guard and with so many issues, but also for creating the issues that made that construction more likely. However, the second criticism has to be placed within a fair context. That strategy has produced a decade of very good results for Kentucky, with only a small number of exceptions.

It's extremely difficult to have to go out and find a new point guard almost every season. That's part of Calipari's revolving door approach. It's very hard to win without valuing the three-point shot and recruiting to it. That's a result of Calipari recruiting length and athleticism over guys who can shoot better in college. Kentucky is not recruiting the very best of the best coming into the college game right now. We know they're going to Duke or elsewhere, with some exceptions.

Then there was just the issue of some guys being overrated. Everyone expected Sarr, Clarke, and Boston to be better than they have been. I don't fault Calipari so much for that, but he put two score-first wins together without any offensive context around them so that's a problem specific to this year.

Here's the problem. You have no idea who is going to stick around for next year's team. As the losses pile up and the criticism mounts it's not clear who will want to stick around for that atmosphere again. There's only so much high school talent he can recruit to fix the issue. He's probably going to be relying on recruiting players to stick around or maybe getting transfers to fix this problem in one year, and it's not easy to do that when the program's momentum is gone. Kentucky is probably not going to be in the tournament this year and you can't have those kinds of struggles two years in a row at Kentucky.

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