NFT: John Calipari

I'm not huge into college basketball so I'm not in tune with Calipari's reputation...but what I saw from him after the game last night seem to jive with many of the opinions I see here.

It was an awesome game and I thought ND played really well...I really thought they were going to pull it out but Towns just beasted over them in the second half. Great game, though.

it's not his job to assuage ND or it's fans. His job is to keep his teams confidence high. If he doesn't win this tournament he's going to get killed. That said he's a dick.

But he was criticizing his own team. Then Said nd played great. He didn't say we almost beat ourselves or say nd had no effect. He also congratulated nd first when he addressed the crowd! I guess I just relax and enjoy watching his teams and just bball in general. How he coaches or gets one and done players (like duke) has no bearing on me. Giants losses used to put me in a funk. I can't control the outcome. I wish tho!!!

lmao. "that said" :)How many coaches lose gracefully? Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing. VL

I didn't think that much of it. Yeah, he said his team didn't play well, which kind of dulls the credit due to ND, but he acknowledged that ND played really well. And I don't think it's unfair to say they'd had other games where they were tested just as much, considering they've had an OT and a double OT game. Like Torrag said, it's tourney time and he's always coaching - if he wants to motivate his team by having them hear him publicly say they didn't play great, so be it. It's not like he refused to give ND credit.

and everything is a platform for him. If a reporter asks him a question, his answer is not really directed at the reporter, but rather certain people who may hear the answer. He knows how to say what he wants to say in order for the people he is actually addressing (his players, top recruits, his fans) to hear it as he intended.



A coach has two main jobs: coaching the basketball team for optimal performance, and recruiting to get the best possible kids in order to coach them into the best possible team. Calipari is a very good coach, but a masterful recruiter. Fans can see what makes a great coach based upon how a team is playing on the court (whether it's an adherence to a style, or managing a team chemistry), but we never get to see the masterful recruiter plying his trade because it is behind closed doors.

He doesn't really care that much if the media or if fans of other teams take kindly to his words. They are not his intended audience.

He is very goo at what he does and it rubs people the wrong way. Part of that is envy that he's getting the acclaim and success that he is; part o that is frustration from a sneaky suspicion that he is not doing everything above board (or at least was pre-Kentucky), but there wasn't concrete, tangible evidence to tie him to such behavior.

I root for him to fail because of a lot of the things above. I don't trust that he's on the up-and-up and so it's frustrating that thus far he has been cleared. I also don't like the way that Kentucky is unapologetic as pit-stop for kids to go to the NBA without a legitimate intention to go to college. But if those are the rules in place from the NBA, why should Calipari apologize for it?

season. Any validity to those rumors?

He fails to give credit to the fact that one of the reasons they are not playing well is the other team. The arrogance of assuming that the reason a game was close was due to an off night by his team, is why he is so disliked

He got out coached and lived to tell about it. The reason his team didn't play well as he said was because Notre Dame is every bit as good a team as Kentucky and was able to match them point for point until Notre Dame's Coach made what I thought was a huge tactical error in the last minute of the game. By playing it the way he did he only gave his team one possession in that last minute when he could have had two and the ball last regardless of the situation. That wasn't Caliparis doing . It was Mike Brey.

Calipari heaped praise on ND and their effort. Just watch the press conference. Watch his comments at halftime on TBS where he credited ND for a great effort...

But, hey, it's the PC world led by a rabid PCers trying to filter everything down to box answers in this asinine attempt to make a vanilla world...

I was watching the interview with my wife. She's a basketball fan and a kindergarten teacher. She asked, "was he being a he jerk in that interview?" My response, "absolutely"

I didn't see his press conference after the game. But his halftime interview was interesting. He uttered what he said right after the game on the court. They didn't play well. Saying Notre Dame is a great team and that his guys didn't play well is as backhanded a compliment as you can give a team.

He's been criticized in the past as not being a great X's and O's guy and it really pisses him off. Let's face it, he had so many interchangeable parts at his disposal. Like a hockey team. He could run so many different players out there until he could find what works. Notre Dame did essentially with five guys all night.

He's arrogant and very sensitive. Can dish it out but is very quick to get defensive.

...some of them coaching at a very high level.

In comment 12209084 montanagiant said:

Quote:

He fails to give credit to the fact that one of the reasons they are not playing well is the other team. The arrogance of assuming that the reason a game was close was due to an off night by his team, is why he is so disliked

I remember him saying that he failed to adjust to some of the things ND was doing. But no one cared to listen to that.

Why should Cal, UK, or anyone tell a kid to stay in school when millions of dollars are available in the nba? And btw, many of Cals players have finished their degrees and Cal has even encouraged former UK players that didn't play for him to come back and finish.

hes gotten older now, and he seems like he learned alot. If he came knocking to coach your team would you say no?

He told the truth, Kentucky didn't play well. They made stupid turnovers, missed free throws, and played pretty bad defense at times.

It doesn't matter what Cal says. The haters are always gonna hate him.

Being in 4 out of the last 5 final 4s doesn't help. I'm enjoying it though...

so this is a serious, simple question:

Is what he said true? Did they not play as well as they usually do?

That ND played very well

it is a travesty the guy has never gotten dinged for the way he's left other programs in shambles and that UK signed up for him knowing his past, I have little to no respect for either of them.

In comment 12209906 montanagiant said:

Quote:

That ND played very well

And he gave ND credit multiple times. People just wanna cry because they don't like him.

yesterday but I didn't think anything of his comments. The two things don't have to be mutually exclusive - a team can play poorly and the opponent still play well. I guess it could be perceived as a backhanded compliment, to me it was more his being disappointed with his team's effort/execution.

that the coach praised the other team - who lost - but did so in a perceived backhanded fashion?

Do some of you set specific blocks of time aside in the day to actively search for things to get offended about? If you don't like the guy, so be it. There are a lot of reasons to not like him, but I don't understand why anyone would be upset at this, unless you just hate the guy and wish everyone else did also.

His Kentucky final fours will eventually be vacated just as his UMass and Memphis final fours were.

But this is one case where the coach won the game. ND absolutely had that game, but Calipari took it away.

Going Offense/Defense with Towns at 4 minutes while ND left August out there, clinched it. ND should have gone O-D too and used their back up center to hack Towns into smitherines. Instead August was out there playing a defense that remnded me of the Giants seconday. Plus coach totally lost control of Grant at the end. Bad shot selection and leadership in the last 2 minutes was all it took to lose. They weren't desparate, but played like it and lost. Calipari kept his game going. Sorry. I don't like the guy, or his ilk, bu he won that game.