In an hour-long appearance on his weekly radio show Monday night, Kentucky coach John Calipari did not sound like a man whose job is in danger after a fourth consecutive season without making the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. He did, however, sound like a man who understands that the recent results have not been good enough for the Wildcats program he guided to seven Elite Eights, four Final Fours and a national title in his first 10 seasons.
“I’m gonna work,” Calipari said. “That is a commitment that I give to the fans. (Expectation) never goes away, but I love it. This is what I want. This is what I wanted. This is why I never left. And now let’s come together and let’s go do something special. We can do it. We’ve done it. Let’s do it again.”
He said he has not yet met with athletic director Mitch Barnhart since the season-ending loss to No. 14 seed Oakland in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last week, but he plans to as early as Tuesday.
“We do it every year,” he said. “I was on the plane back (with him). He’s hurting like the rest of us, and I look forward to hearing his thoughts, how we can be better.”
One thing Calipari plans to discuss with his boss is roster construction. He leaned heavily back into five-star freshmen this season and a young team struggled to defend and handle tough, veteran teams.
“Having this program in today’s environment, it’s a little different now,” Calipari said. “How do you continue to do it with freshmen — what do they have to look like physically — and how do you bring in some transfers out of the portal? I like the combination of both. We just gotta get the right transfer who understands what this is. We got to keep coaching these young kids. We probably got to use the summer a little bit different, because where all this has gone, we got to get more physicality, more time in the weight room.”
Calipari was also planning individual meetings with players who “cried their eyes out” after the loss, first to comfort them and then to discuss what their plans are for next season.
“If someone says to me, ‘I’m coming back,’ I’m saying in under eight months, we got the first game of the year and let’s go,” he said. “Because I want this taste out of my mouth.”
“Our team, players, staff, their families, we’re all hurting,” Calipari said to open the show. His phone was shut off for two days after the loss.
“I’m hurting for our fans and I know many fans out there are hurting, but I want to say no one is hurting more than me right now,” he said. “We have a standard here. I said early on, they don’t put Final Four banners up (in the practice facility), only national championship banners. My standard is we’re playing to go deep into the NCAA Tournament and compete for national titles and win national titles. I wanted this job knowing that was the case. I loved this job knowing that was the case. I never left this job. That’s what the standard is for me.”
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(Photo: Jordan Prather / USA Today)
Daniel Miller is a sports fanatic who lives and breathes athletics. His coverage spans from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis for sports enthusiasts.
