Cal's Staying At Kentucky

Well BBN, you can’t always get what you want. Especially when what you want comes with a $34.968 mil price tag. And especially when what you want is to throw down that much paper for the privilege of running your legendary head coach into the chipper.

That $34.968 mil is of course is the buyout for one John Calipari, should Cal be removed without cause from leading the Big Blue Nation. And it’s obviously a big reason why Cal isn’t going anywhere. But it’s not the only reason. And it’s not the reason I think Kentucky just made the right move keeping him.

Clearly Kentucky had no interest in paying the dude nearly $35 mil to go away. And I totally understand why they had no interest in paying the dude nearly $35 mil to go away. If you’ve paid any attention to the reporting over the last week, it really didn’t seem that sweaty for Cal in the end. Cal wasn’t as close to the guillotine as Big Blue Nation was assuming. Or hoping.

Because even before his meeting with AD Mitch Barnhart yesterday, our guy Matt Norlander was reporting that the focus of their conversation would be “significant program improvements, not necessarily separation.”

As per usual my dude was dead on because there will be no separation. So BBN, you can consider it not a divorce.

There will be no new Kentucky head coach this offseason. And I agree with that decision. And not just because I really like the dude.

Lexington, you know I wouldn’t do you like that. I might like Cal, but Lex Vegas, you know I love you too. I wouldn’t try to tell you that a dude who wasn’t up to the big job should stay in the big job just because he and I go way back. If I thought he wasn’t the right dude to lead the Big Blue Nation, I would tell you. I would be the first to tell you.

And I’m telling you the opposite. He’s still the guy for this gig. He is still Kentucky basketball. He still runs talent through that town like no other coach in no other town in America… and don’t even try to deny that Kentucky fan.

You can act like it doesn’t matter, you can act like all you care about is the bottom line of how far the team gets in the tournament, but the reality is Cal keeps a world class talent pipeline flowing through Rupp Arena. And that pipeline is still flowing. And that shouldn’t be something to take for granted. Considering almost every other program is jealous of that pipeline.

Obviously, the man can still recruit. And obviously, there are some other tweaks and other adjustments he needs to make as he gets older and the game rapidly evolves around him. 

If you listen to what he and Mitch Barnhart are saying, they’re saying he’s open to those tweaks and adjustments. He wants to do the deep work. He wants to continue to evolve as a coach and grow the program. He’s still fired up. He still cares. He still wants to be there. And he’s listening to the feedback. 

This is not a situation where some legendary old head is holding a program hostage long after he’s lost his magic. And won’t change or evolve or listen to outside input and is just happy driving the program INTO THE GROUND. That is not Cal. That is not even remotely close to Cal.

The big problem for Cal, and I addressed this last week, but the problem for Cal is that the Oakland loss was completely unacceptable. Big Blue Nation, you don’t want to accept that loss and I haven’t blamed you for that… again, because it was unacceptable. That can’t happen. You shouldn't accept that loss and neither should Cal.

That cannot happen and that especially cannot happen two times in three years. It's incredibly hard to justify going four years as the Kentucky head coach with one NCAA Tournament win to show for it. Especially this time through, when you had you crazy talent and talking up how your team is built for March. Cal appeared on this show and said this, just a few days before the whole season went up in flames, again.

Exactly, let's go, let's prove it. You are coaching Kentucky, you better be built for March and you better be ready to prove that every single year. And that's the part that's missing right now. And that's the part that has to improve. Period. Full stop. No qualifier.

If he gets knocked out by a 15 seed again, that will be the end. He won’t survive three first round exits in four years, nor should he survive three first round exits in four years. 

If Cal gets knocked out on the first two days again next year, I’ll fly out to Lexington just so I can pick my dude up and drive him back to the airport myself. I would do that for you, BBN. But it says here that’s not going to happen again.

As long as he owns that failure, and I don’t care what Giannis or anyone else says, they failed, but as long as he owns it and doesn’t point any more fingers and does the hard work on himself and his program, then bringing him back is a no brainer. 

Let me just remind you that even with his recent struggles in March, this man has the fifth-most wins in NCAA Tournament history. Here’s the list of coaches who have more NCAA Tournament wins: Coach K, Roy Williams, Dean Smith, Jim Boeheim. That’s it. 

Just remember BBN, that’s who you’re talking about when you get your pitchforks out. And also remember that’s who you’d have to replace. We all understand that a lot of you are out on Cal… but who do you get to come in and pick up where Cal left off? Who are the actual candidates that could legitimately believably be an improvement on Cal?

These are tough questions. These are questions the Kentucky athletic department had no interest in paying almost $35 mil to try to figure out. And deep down BBN, I know you all struggled with that question too over the last week. Admit it.

Admit it BBN, you’re more split on this that you’re letting on. Even your NBA alumni are divided. Boogie Cousins and Rajon Rondo had a little debate on their Bully Ball podcast. Remember, Boogie is the only one of these two that actually played for Cal and check out his argument for why it was the right move to keep him.

He’s pretty fired up. He’s pretty impassioned. And I know that Rondo disagrees, but I think it’s hard to disagree with the point Boogie is making. It’s just gonna be hard for anyone else to fill Cal’s shoes and for anyone else to maintain Cal’s standard.

And clearly the Athletic Department also agrees. Or at least they don’t want to pay $35 mil to find out if they can fill those shoes. And I’m with them on that logic.

Sorry BBN, but it’s for the best. You guys don't all have to turn into a bunch of John Chaney's about it, because that's never the answer. Neither is crashing the BBN message boards with all your smack. You didn't get your way this time, but you will get your if this dude can't start producing better March results very soon. As in immediately, starting next year. And that's all you wanted in the end anyway, right BBN? I’m not saying it’s not broken.  It is.  But I still beliee he's the guy to fix it; and given what he’s accomplished there I KNOW he deserves another chance.  Keep Cal was the right move.  Not because he and I go way back.  But because it was the right move