[Strikeout King]

Cal has been offered a life time extension with UK. This includes an ambassador role after his retirement.

I hope all you UK fans are happy now. Guy can't coach. Sure he gets talented players but pushes/talks them out the back door once the season is over. I don't see how people can settle for elite 8's or sweet 16's. I want national championships.

The only good I see out of this is if the one and done rule gets changed and players have to stay 2 years in college.

[Spud6]

You honestly would want another coach? Think about how hard winning a national championship is. We have been playing basketball at Kentucky since they used peach baskets and we have 8 titles to our name and Cal has one and always has us in the hunt. I agree when we play a superior coach we normally come out with a shorter stick but look at Coach K. Has potentially 1,2,3 in the draft at one point and doesn’t even make the final four. Do you think he should be fired? He hasn’t made the final four in how many years and look at the talent he’s had.

[inspiron]

You honestly would want another coach? Think about how hard winning a national championship is. We have been playing basketball at Kentucky since they used peach baskets and we have 8 titles to our name and Cal has one and always has us in the hunt. I agree when we play a superior coach we normally come out with a shorter stick but look at Coach K. Has potentially 1,2,3 in the draft at one point and doesn’t even make the final four. Do you think he should be fired? He hasn’t made the final four in how many years and look at the talent he’s had.

I totally agree! I remember all too well the Billy G years. Happy UK did this because from a business sense, fan base, and athletic standpoint it all makes perfect sense. UK basketball rakes in probably more than all the programs combined (uneducated opinion), us as a fan base has a competitive team almost every year excluding one(even tho we may not like the outcome), and the athletes have more chance to better themselves by getting paid for their talents quicker than 95% of universities out there. I’ll never forget the excitement I felt when that Jet landed at bluegrass airport because I knew we had landed a coach that could handle our program and still feel more prouder than ever you are still that guy. Kentucky has too many 9 million dollar coaches sitting on the couch with their opinions on what is best. I don’t claim to be one of these and never will; even though I’m just as passionate/critical as the next. I didn’t choose that profession and 99% of UK fans didn’t either because the success rate to go through the ranks and to get to a program like ours is almost impossible. That is why most of the ungrateful fans will get up in the morning and go to their regular jobs while thinking they know the pressures that come with the job. I applaud you coach and got that same feeling today when I heard the news as I did when I seen the jet land. Keep fighting and keep doing your thing. We’ll get one again and then all UK fans will tip their hat in respect!!!! Go Cats

[UKisN1]

Cal has been offered a life time extension with UK. This includes an ambassador role after his retirement.

I hope all you UK fans are happy now. Guy can't coach. Sure he gets talented players but pushes/talks them out the back door once the season is over. I don't see how people can settle for elite 8's or sweet 16's. I want national championships.

The only good I see out of this is if the one and done rule gets changed and players have to stay 2 years in college.

Short term memory. Hall couldn't do it. Sutton, Gillispie weren't close. Pitino could. This man gets respect from his players and the community. We are in the talk for the championship every year. Give me a better 10 years anytime in our history.

[Demarcus ware]

I agree all those other coaches couldn’t do it. BUT BUT 25 NBA first round picks and DUKE/UNC only had 27 combined during the same time period and we still only have one title??? This is UK, we don’t play for Elite 8’s and sweet 16’s. 4 years without a final four now and think of the talent we’ve had. My goodness we lost to a team of white boys from Wisconsin with our roster being so packed we had to platoon to get playing time for them all.

[Wildcatk23]

Lol you guys are crazy man. COACH K just lost with 3 top 10 draft picks. He has 5 titles in 40 years . 1 ever 8 years per day. The greatest modern college coach of all time . What else do you people want ?

[Strikeout King]

My issue with Cal is he's always pushing kids out the door instead of couraging them to come back. Sure it's hard to pass up that kind of money. Cal won a national title with experience. He relies on freshmen that have never played 1 minute in the NCAA tournament.

Are you all fine with sweet 16s and elite 8's? That's all we're gonna get while Cal is here unless the one and done rule gets changed.

[Strikeout King]

Kentucky has had more one and done turnovers than any other team.

[Demarcus ware]

Hagans is a turnover machine. Every time he dribbles in traffic he makes me a nervous wreck lol

[Cat Daddy]

I'm not the biggest Coach Cal fan in the world, but he doesn't deserve to be fired, or ran out of town at this point. With that being said, I don't agree with the lifetime extension. What if we go another four years without a final four or championship, then do we still want him another six years? Once again, Mitch panicked when UCLA came calling, and Cal used it to his advantage, by getting a 10 year contract, which will probably be worth close to ten million a year. We already had him under contract until 2024, so why would you not wait two or three years and then re-evaluate him, before giving an extension. During that time if UK went to a final four or won a championship, I would be all for a lifetime extension and most UK fans would as well. What happens if we fail to make the tournament or we get beat out of the round of 32 or the sweet sixteen over the next four years, then what happens? Another question one has to ask, "How does Cal adjust when the one and done era is over?'' At the end of the day, I hope everything works out for the best, but if things go south, UK is going to have one hell of a buyout. GO Cats!!!

[king360]

Cal has been offered a life time extension with UK. This includes an ambassador role after his retirement.

I hope all you UK fans are happy now. Guy can't coach. Sure he gets talented players but pushes/talks them out the back door once the season is over. I don't see how people can settle for elite 8's or sweet 16's. I want national championships.

The only good I see out of this is if the one and done rule gets changed and players have to stay 2 years in college.

Asked this question in another thread. Who would we hire to replace Cal that would do any better? lol

[Hoot Gibson]

Asked this question in another thread. Who would we hire to replace Cal that would do any better? lol

Over the next 10 years, we don't know who might become available, so I would put Brad Stevens at the very of the list. It is extremely stupid for UK to give any basketball coach a 10 year contract.

As for who might UK hire that more capable of coaching a team to a national title, the list is long. Did you not just witness Bruce Pearl take a much less talented team than Kentucky to the Final Four without their best big man? I personally would not want UK to hire a coach with a shady background like Pearl, but leaving two different programs with vacated Final Four appearances was not a disqualifier for Calipari.

In addition to Stevens, Tony Bennett would be a great hire for any major NCAA basketball program.

Calipari has done an admirable job at UK and I do not advocate firing him, but UK granting anybody what is essentially a lifetime job is absolutely crazy. He is already the highest paid college coach in history and he has one one NCAA title - the same as Tubby Smith, Rick Pitino, and Joe Hall did before him.

Calipari is not paid the highest salary in the game to put UK in the conversation for a national championship each year - he is paid to win titles at a higher rate than lesser paid coaches from every other basketball program win titles.

[AnswertheBell]

BBQ doesn’t hold a light to Cal at Memphis.

[Wildcatk23]

Over the next 10 years, we don't know who might become available, so I would put Brad Stevens at the very of the list. It is extremely stupid for UK to give any basketball coach a 10 year contract.

As for who might UK hire that more capable of coaching a team to a national title, the list is long. Did you not just witness Bruce Pearl take a much less talented team than Kentucky to the Final Four without their best big man? I personally would not want UK to hire a coach with a shady background like Pearl, but leaving two different programs with vacated Final Four appearances was not a disqualifier for Calipari.

In addition to Stevens, Tony Bennett would be a great hire for any major NCAA basketball program.

Calipari has done an admirable job at UK and I do not advocate firing him, but UK granting anybody what is essentially a lifetime job is absolutely crazy. He is already the highest paid college coach in history and he has one one NCAA title - the same as Tubby Smith, Rick Pitino, and Joe Hall did before him.

Calipari is not paid the highest salary in the game to put UK in the conversation for a national championship each year - he is paid to win titles at a higher rate than lesser paid coaches from every other basketball program win titles.

Lol listen . You mentioned Bruce pearl taking Auburn to the final four . Tell me how many other final
Fours does pearl have ? Sweet sixteens . College basketball coaching is 50 percent recruiting. We seen the players Billy G brought , it takes more than the Uk name to bring top talent .

[king360]

Over the next 10 years, we don't know who might become available, so I would put Brad Stevens at the very of the list. It is extremely stupid for UK to give any basketball coach a 10 year contract.

As for who might UK hire that more capable of coaching a team to a national title, the list is long. Did you not just witness Bruce Pearl take a much less talented team than Kentucky to the Final Four without their best big man? I personally would not want UK to hire a coach with a shady background like Pearl, but leaving two different programs with vacated Final Four appearances was not a disqualifier for Calipari.

In addition to Stevens, Tony Bennett would be a great hire for any major NCAA basketball program.

Calipari has done an admirable job at UK and I do not advocate firing him, but UK granting anybody what is essentially a lifetime job is absolutely crazy. He is already the highest paid college coach in history and he has one one NCAA title - the same as Tubby Smith, Rick Pitino, and Joe Hall did before him.

Calipari is not paid the highest salary in the game to put UK in the conversation for a national championship each year - he is paid to win titles at a higher rate than lesser paid coaches from every other basketball program win titles.

Brad Stevens has the Celtics in a position to win the east almost every year. Doubt he’d leave that. And honestly I rly like Bruce pearl but just because he made a final 4 doesn’t mean he could cut it at UK. Porter moser from Loyola Chicago made a final 4 last year. Would you hire him if we got rid of calipari? Lol

[Granny Bear]

You honestly would want another coach? Think about how hard winning a national championship is. We have been playing basketball at Kentucky since they used peach baskets and we have 8 titles to our name and Cal has one and always has us in the hunt. I agree when we play a superior coach we normally come out with a shorter stick but look at Coach K. Has potentially 1,2,3 in the draft at one point and doesn’t even make the final four. Do you think he should be fired? He hasn’t made the final four in how many years and look at the talent he’s had.

It's a double standard. I've heard numerous comments about how Cal's plan isn't working anymore and he should either be terminated or find a different game plan. Then, two of Duke's team members made the all conference nominees and are slated for the NCAA. Coach K is being praised for this success. Yet, both teams were eliminated at the exact same time in the tournament.

And more, the commentators aren't even trying to hide their bias. I am so sick of having them in my ear during a game. They are the ones that need a lesson in performing THEIR jobs!!

[Hoot Gibson]

Lol listen . You mentioned Bruce pearl taking Auburn to the final four . Tell me how many other final
Fours does pearl have ? Sweet sixteens . College basketball coaching is 50 percent recruiting. We seen the players Billy G brought , it takes more than the Uk name to bring top talent .

Cal is a great recruiter, no doubt about that but he is also living proof that top talent only takes a team so far. Great coaches at top basketball programs know how to take advantage of an opponent's weaknesses. Kentucky enjoyed a huge inside advantage against Auburn and Calipari failed miserably to exploit that advantage.

You are right about Bruce Pearl's record in past NCAA tournaments, yet he recruited and coached well enough to take an out-manned team from a football school to the Final Four at Kentucky's expense. When was the last time that Calipari beat a team with better talent than he had? Which happens more often, a Calipari team losing to a team with inferior talent or a Calipari team beating a team with more talent than his team?

Calipari was a mediocre NBA coach. If you don't think Brad Stevens could recruit talent to Kentucky, given his record at Butler and Boston, then you have not been paying attention. If Billy Donovan wants to return to coach a college team after a successful run in the NBA, he would also find recruiting talent to UK pretty easy.

Giving Calipari a 10 year contract is a huge mistake. There was no way that he was going to leave UK for UCLA and short term extensions to make potential recruits comfortable in committing is all that UK should ever sign with a basketball coach. Hopefully, Coach Cal will not put the program on cruise control through retirement.

I can live with UK losing to a more talented team, but it is tough to watch UK lose big games to teams like Wisconsin, West Virginia, Auburn, and Robert Morris.

[Hoot Gibson]

Brad Stevens has the Celtics in a position to win the east almost every year. Doubt he’d leave that. And honestly I rly like Bruce pearl but just because he made a final 4 doesn’t mean he could cut it at UK. Porter moser from Loyola Chicago made a final 4 last year. Would you hire him if we got rid of calipari? Lol

I wouldn't fire Calipari, but if I were negotiating a contract with him, I would not remove the incentive to win by agreeing to lucrative lifetime contract either.

[Hoot Gibson]

It's a double standard. I've heard numerous comments about how Cal's plan isn't working anymore and he should either be terminated or find a different game plan. Then, two of Duke's team members made the all conference nominees and are slated for the NCAA. Coach K is being praised for this success. Yet, both teams were eliminated at the exact same time in the tournament.

And more, the commentators aren't even trying to hide their bias. I am so sick of having them in my ear during a game. They are the ones that need a lesson in performing THEIR jobs!!

Duke lost to a #2 seed. Kentucky lost to a #5 seed who they had beaten by 20+ a few weeks earlier and who was playing without their one of their two top players.

I agree that Duke under performed this season, given that they may have the top 3 NBA draft picks on their roster, but UK's loss to Auburn was the result of a poor coaching performance, IMO. Duke lost to a high ranked team coached by another future HOF coach.

[Granny Bear]

I coached basketball for 20+ years and I have my superstitions.

One of those is a belief that it is difficult to beat the same team 3 times in the same season. This tournament highlights unusual piques, and I believe Auburn was playing their best in recent weeks. They also won over Tennessee. They may be considered the Loyola of 2019.

[Theherm]

I'm happy with the extension. Cal deserves to finish out at Kentucky.

[FoSho]

Should have hired Chris Beard from TX Tech to a lifetime contract immediately after the Title Game.

[pjdoug]

Calapari ain't the best in game coach but he is the best coach we've had since Rupp. Some of you should get on the Gillespie wagon. He made it to the national championship game

[Hoot Gibson]

Calapari ain't the best in game coach but he is the best coach we've had since Rupp. Some of you should get on the Gillespie wagon. He made it to the national championship game

Why would anybody jump on the bandwagon of a coach who reached the NCAA Junior College Championship game who has a record of 31 vacated wins, when we already have a coach with one national championship and two vacated Final Four appearances? A great program like UK deserves at the very least, a sober coach who is saavy enough to cheat, win, and avoid NCAA sanctions.

Calipari is not the best coach UK has had since Rupp. Rick Pitino was. I would rank UK's coaches:

1. Rupp
2. Pitino
3. Hall (tie)
3. Calipari (tie)

I don't recall UK ever failing to win an SEC title with three first round NBA draft picks on its roster under Rupp, Pitino, or Hall.

This year's UK team finished the season as no better than the fourth best team in the SEC and will most likely lose three players to the first round of the NCAA draft.

Pitino's 14-14 record during his first season at UK and the speed with which he rebuilt Kentucky's program was one of the greatest stretches of coaching in NCAA history. UK reached the NCAA tournament during every season that they were eligible.

BTW, RIck Pitino's winning percentage at UK was better than Calipari's has been despite the fact that the program was on probation for the first 2 of the 8 years that he was UK's coach.

I am not a Pitino fan, but he was one of the elite NCAA basketball coaches in the history of the sport.

[pjdoug]

Why would anybody jump on the bandwagon of a coach who reached the NCAA Junior College Championship game who has a record of 31 vacated wins, when we already have a coach with one national championship and two vacated Final Four appearances? A great program like UK deserves at the very least, a sober coach who is saavy enough to cheat, win, and avoid NCAA sanctions.

Calipari is not the best coach UK has had since Rupp. Rick Pitino was. I would rank UK's coaches:

1. Rupp
2. Pitino
3. Hall (tie)
3. Calipari (tie)

I don't recall UK ever failing to win an SEC title with three first round NBA draft picks on its roster under Rupp, Pitino, or Hall.

This year's UK team finished the season as no better than the fourth best team in the SEC and will most likely lose three players to the first round of the NCAA draft.

Pitino's 14-14 record during his first season at UK and the speed with which he rebuilt Kentucky's program was one of the greatest stretches of coaching in NCAA history. UK reached the NCAA tournament during every season that they were eligible.

BTW, RIck Pitino's winning percentage at UK was better than Calipari's has been despite the fact that the program was on probation for the first 2 of the 8 years that he was UK's coach.

I am not a Pitino fan, but he was one of the elite NCAA basketball coaches in the history of the sport.

I was obviously being sarcastic. I would choose Slick Rick to coach a tight game, but Calipari is the best coach at UK since Rupp. numbers don't lie. it's laughable that fans bash Calipari for305 wins, seven elite eight's and four final 4's out of 10 years.

[Hoot Gibson]

Calapari ain't the best in game coach but he is the best coach we've had since Rupp. Some of you should get on the Gillespie wagon. He made it to the national championship game

I was obviously being sarcastic. I would choose Slick Rick to coach a tight game, but Calipari is the best coach at UK since Rupp. numbers don't lie. it's laughable that fans bash Calipari for305 wins, seven elite eight's and four final 4's out of 10 years.

You're right about the numbers not lying but the numbers say that Pitino did more in the six years that he coached following UK's probation than Calipari has done. Unlike Pitino, Calipari does not coach his players up. His success depends primarily on his recruiting ability, whereas although Pitino was not quite the recruiter that Calipari has been, he didn't need to be.

In his 10 seasons at UK, Calipari has won 81.1 percent of his games. In 8 seasons at UK, Pitino won 81.4 percent of his games. In the 6 seasons that followed UK's probation, UK won 85.9 percent of its games under Pitino.

Only in Pitino's first season, a season in which UK was on probation with a roster depleted through the transfer of UK's two best players and NCAA imposed scholarship limits, did Pitino lose more than 4 SEC games. Calipari has lost 5 or more SEC games in 5 of his 10 seasons as UK's head coach.

In the 6 non-probation years, Pitino only failed to reach the Elite 8 once and he never failed to advance past the first round of the tournament. In those 6 seasons, Pitino's UK teams won an NCAA Championship and were runners-up once. Calipari has done the same in 10 seasons.

Calipari has recruited better than Pitino did but has done less with more talent. In 3 of his 10 seasons at UK, Calipari has lost 11 or more games. In his 6 non-probation seasons, Pitino's worst record was 27-7.

Pitino is the second best coach that UK has ever had and Calipari is a distant third, at best.

[pjdoug]

You're right about the numbers not lying but the numbers say that Pitino did more in the six years that he coached following UK's probation than Calipari has done. Unlike Pitino, Calipari does not coach his players up. His success depends primarily on his recruiting ability, whereas although Pitino was not quite the recruiter that Calipari has been, he didn't need to be.

In his 10 seasons at UK, Calipari has won 81.1 percent of his games. In 8 seasons at UK, Pitino won 81.4 percent of his games. In the 6 seasons that followed UK's probation, UK won 85.9 percent of its games under Pitino.

Only in Pitino's first season, a season in which UK was on probation with a roster depleted through the transfer of UK's two best players and NCAA imposed scholarship limits, did Pitino lose more than 4 SEC games. Calipari has lost 5 or more SEC games in 5 of his 10 seasons as UK's head coach.

In the 6 non-probation years, Pitino only failed to reach the Elite 8 once and he never failed to advance past the first round of the tournament. In those 6 seasons, Pitino's UK teams won an NCAA Championship and were runners-up once. Calipari has done the same in 10 seasons.

Calipari has recruited better than Pitino did but has done less with more talent. In 3 of his 10 seasons at UK, Calipari has lost 11 or more games. In his 6 non-probation seasons, Pitino's worst record was 27-7.

Pitino is the second best coach that UK has ever had and Calipari is a distant third, at best.

I agree that Pitino is a better in game coach, but he ran off to Loserville to chase prostitutes. Some of you complain about Calapari wasting talent.Other coaches couldn't get as much talent and win as many games. I'll gladly take another Calapari decade over Gillespie or Hall.

[Randi-carol.napier]

Love coach cal!

[pjdoug]

Love coach cal!

:Thumbs:

[CoachMills]

I hope he stays as long as he coaches.