[Hoot Gibson]

Calipari has won one title by recruiting more talent than anybody else during the period he has coached Kentucky. I think that the list of coaches in this country that could have done as well with less talent is a long one. Calipari's contract is the problem. Kentucky tied its hands by giving him the most lucrative contract in the NCAA with a huge buyout clause for no good reason. It does not really matter if there are 2, 5, or 50 coaches who could do better, Kentucky's options for signing anybody else to coach the 'Cats are very limited.

NBA franchises knew that Calipari was a mediocre coach when Kentucky extended his contract and most NCAA ADs would not have considered matching the terms of Calipari's old contract. Kentucky, or the state government, needs to clean house in the UK athletic department. Calipari has been operating an NBA farm program at UK. He was hired to win titles and he has won only one in 11 years, despite signing the best available talent of any coach during that period. 

UK is a longshot to make the NCAA field this season, which will hurt recruiting in the future. How well would Calipari fare with the 10th or 20th best recruiting class in the country? Is he capable of teaching current team members to play fundamentally sound basketball before next season opens?

Tubby Smith won 76 percent of his games at UK. John Calipari has won 79.4 percent of his games. Calipari is on pace to lose far more games this season than Tubby lost in his worst season at UK and Tubby never failed to earn a trip to the NCAA tournament. The current UK team is in danger of being Calipari's second UK team to miss the NCAA tournament. In fact, the current team is at risk of not making the NIT field.

To paraphrase your friend , Lindsey Graham, " I say give me ten(actually I'll settle for three)coaches who would have done better. Just as no one provided Lindsey with a single documented case of what he was asking for, I haven't heard anyone mention a single coach who could get the top talent that Cal gets here and would be able to match his 8 of 10 winning percentage.  Not only does he get the top talent , he gets them to buy into a system that puts UK in a position to vie for a title every year(this season being an exception). 

As far as only one title in 11 years, anyone that knows the college basketball game knows that there is quite a fair amount of luck involved in winning a title, once the post-season begins.  Cal could easily have three or four in those elevens years with just a little luck.  Rogue official John Higgins was not Cal's fault in the UNC Elite Eight loss. Cal was good enough to lead UK to 38-0. Frank Kaminsky wasn't Cal's fault. Just a good night for a senior-laden Badger team. Btw, Higgins called that game as well.  

Who else would have most certainly won more than 80% and more than one national title???

Calipari has not won more than 80 percent of his games. My point is that Kentucky is stuck with him, no matter how many better options may be available.

The loss to Wisconsin was not bad luck, it was bad coaching. It was the result of Calipari refusing to put his best five players into the starting line up. It was the result of not awarding Devin Booker and Tyler Ulis the starting positions that they had earned by mid season and allowing the big, slow Harrison twins too much time on the court. Wisconsin controlled the tempo and that was the key to their win. Booker, who is probably the best 3 point shooter ever to played 19 minutes and had zero 3-point attempts. Ulis played 17 minutes.

John Calipari is paid an annual salary of $8.5 million/year but the worst part of his contract is the $25 million buyout clause. IMO, the contract was one of the worst ever signed by a D1 basketball program.

I don't think it is possible to predict who would have won more games than Calipari has won but his record does not exactly tower above most of UK's former coaches. Based purely on coaching ability, any of the following might have done better, given the built in recruiting advantages that UK offers. I am sure that I have missed some lesser known coaches, but this is a good start. I have also included estimated salaries for each coach listed to give you an idea of what kind of bargain Calipari's current contract is.

NCAA Coaches

Mike Krzyzewski. Duke ($8.98 million)
Bill Self, Kansas ($4.48 million)
Jay Wright, Villanova ($4.4 million)
Roy Williams, North Carolina ($4.04 million)
Tony Bennett, Virginia Tech ($3.025 million)
Frank Martin, South Carolina ($2.95 million)
Bruce Pearl, Auburn ($2.7 million)
Mark Few, Gonzaga ($1.78 million)

NBA Coaches (all better than Calipari was as NBA coaches, some much better)

Gregg Popovich, San Antonio ($11 million)
Doc Rivers, Philadelphia ($10 million)
Nick Nurse, Toronto ($8 million)
Rick Carlisle, Dallas ($7 million)
Billy Donovan, Chicago ($6 million)
Steve Kerr, Golden State ($5 million)
Brad Stevens, Boston ($3.6 million)
Erik Spoelstra, Miama ($3 million)
Michael Malone, Denver ($2 million)
Quin Snyder, Utah ($2 million)
Mike Budenholzer, Milwaukee ($2 million)

Hoot, I feel exactly the same way about Calipari as you. You put down exactly what I am thinking but in a more articulate manner. 
As far as the Wisconsin game, I will add the Calipari started sitting on the ball with only a six point lead with about four or five minutes to go, going away from the faster pace that got UK the lead. This led to consecutive shot clock violations. 
As far as coaches who are better than Calipari, I agree with all except Bill Self. I would replace him with Tom Izzo from Michigan State and Chris Beard from Texas Tech. I also believe Chris Mack at Louisville is a better coach than Calipari. A.W. Hamilton at EKU could be potentially better than Calipari. It's hard to tell until he moves to a bigger school.

I did not put a lot of time into the list. I am not a Bill Self fan but his record over the past five years was good enough to put him fairly high on the list that I used as a rough guide. I agree with Mack. In reality, some of the best college coaches work for mid majors and just have not received the national exposure yet that a deep tournament run would give them. 

I also left some pretty good NBA coaches off of the list. I am not sure how well he would have done at UK but I love watching Mike D'antoni coached teams. Steve Nash is in his first head coaching job, but I would be tempted to take a chance on him as a head coach.