At Kentucky, it was time for Cal to go

Back in 2009, when it appeared likely that John Calipari would become the basketball coach at Kentucky, I called a newspaper friend who had been covering him at Memphis.

“You can have him,” were the first words out of his mouth.

I suspect Kentucky fans would tell Arkansas fans the exact same thing.

Don’t get me wrong, Calipari did some great things at Kentucky. He won a national championship. He took teams to four Final Fours. Calipari returned Kentucky basketball to college basketball’s upper echelon in a six-year run I’d stack against almost any other basketball blue blood.

But it was time for Cal to go. UK was never going to pay the $33 million buyout in the coach’s “lifetime” contract, but there was a growing sentiment among the administration and especially the fan base that Calipari’s tenure here had extended beyond its expiration date.

Start with Cal’s personality. It’s not built for a long run in the same space. When things are going great, Calipari’s non-stop swagger and shameless boasts are fodder for celebration. Cal is Cal. He’s always going to be Cal. When things aren’t going well, those personality traits don’t go over quite so well. Calipari’s sales pitch had not only grown tired here but less than credible.

And things were not going well. The 9-16 record in the 2020-21 covid season. The first-round NCAA Tournament loss to No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s in 2022. The No. 6 seed and second-round loss to Kansas State in 2023. The first-round loss to No. 14 seed Oakland in 2024.

The recent slide did not sit well with a fan base that had long ago grown weary of Calipari’s oneand-done recruiting strategy and “players first” focus on their professional careers rather than hanging banners in Rupp Arena. Popular Big Blue Nation complaint: “Cal should remember he works for UK, not the NBA.”

The word out of Fayetteville is that Calipari friend and Arkansas booster John Tyson, head of Tyson Foods, has promised Calipari $5 million annually in name, image and likeness money to entice freshman recruits and veterans in the transfer portal to become Razorbacks.

Whether Calipari can take advantage of those financial assets is far from a sure bet. Since 2015, and especially since 2019, the coach has been at least a step behind the changing trends in his sport, stubbornly clinging to building a roster around flashy young talent in a game where experience and continuity are being rewarded. Look at every national champion since 2016. Look at the two programs from Monday night’s NCAA Tournament title game.

Meanwhile, Calipari’s UK job trajectory harkens back to something his friend and predecessor, the late Joe B. Hall, said. No UK coach should keep the job for more than 10 years was Joe B.’s opinion. Even for a coach as well-suited to all the demands — on and off the court — as Calipari, there came a point where his relationship with the media, administration and important supporters of the program showed a separation was in the best interest of all parties.

It will be difficult for any coach to match Calipari’s record his first 10 seasons in Lexington. The last five, not so much. That’s not all on Cal. In the rapidly shifting landscape of college athletics, merely changing coaches does not guarantee future success. The quicker UK figures out what additional changes are required to meet the moment, the quicker it can return to the top.

So how will the Calipari era be judged in the Kentucky basketball history books? Down the road, the glory years of 2010 through 2015 will overshadow the downturn of 2021 through 2024. As did Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith, Calipari brought the championship trophy back to Kentucky.

Yet I suspect there will be a large section of BBN that will remember the multiple No. 1 recruiting classes and overabundance of NBA talent and believe Calipari should have done more. Much more. They’re not wrong.

And they’re not all that sorry to say, “You can have him.”