[jetpilot]

Tourney time isn’t a “crap shoot”. It’s crunch time. And in crunch time winners win and losers make excuses and go home.

It's crunch time but a lot of good teams will bow out earlier than expected. There's skillful play but there's also some luck involved in winning a national title. We see that every year.

LOL. And the harder a team works and the more well-coached they are, the luckier they get. SMDH

[Old School Hound]

Because of the debacle that ensued in losing a 4-point lead with 37 seconds remaining, I think something that is being overlooked is when the game was REALLY lost. With 1:10 remaining in the first half , Reed hit a jumper to put us up 41-31. Over the next 1 min, 10 sec of the first half and the first 1 min, 32 sec of the second half, FLA scored 11 points and KY score ZERO points. In that span of 2 min 42 seconds, UK relinquished a 10 point lead in favor of a 1-point disadvantage. We've seen that story play out before. Gotta close out halves much better!!!

[Cactus Jack]

^^^Barnes has won more games than Calipari the last 6 years and the two teams are 5-5 the last 10 games so there is that...

Calipari has been to six Final Fours, Barnes has lucked into one while essentially playing at home and beating a five and seven seed to get there.

There's no comparing the overall success that each has had throughout their career.

[Old School Hound]

In all due respect to Rick Barnes, and he's had some nice seasons at UT and UT but his postseasons haven't been great. Calipari easily eclipses Barnes' success over the course of their careers, especially in postseason runs. Not even the most ardent Cal critics besides , maybe, the few here who never got past the taking the knee thingy, would want to exchange Cal for Rick Barnes.

[jetpilot]

Because of the debacle that ensued in losing a 4-point lead with 37 seconds remaining,  I think something that is being overlooked is when the game was REALLY lost.  With 1:10 remaining in the first half , Reed hit a jumper to put us up 41-31. Over the next 1 min, 10 sec of the first half and the first 1 min, 32 sec of the second half, FLA scored 11 points and KY score ZERO points. In that span of 2 min 42 seconds, UK relinquished a 10 point lead in favor of a 1-point disadvantage. We've seen that story play out before. Gotta close out halves much better!!!

The game was REALLY LOST when they couldn’t hold a 4 point lead with 20 seconds left in the game

[jetpilot]

^^^Barnes has won more games than Calipari the last 6 years and the two teams are 5-5 the last 10 games so there is that...

Calipari has been to six Final Fours, Barnes has lucked into one while essentially playing at home and beating a five and seven seed to get there.

There's no comparing the overall success that each has had throughout their career.

In all due respect to Rick Barnes, and he's had some nice seasons at UT and UT but his postseasons haven't been great. Calipari easily eclipses Barnes' success over the course of their careers, especially in postseason runs. Not even the most ardent Cal critics besides , maybe, the few here who never got past the taking the knee thingy, would want to exchange Cal for Rick Barnes.

You’re making stuff up. I’m past the idiotic disrespect for the flag and national anthem thing. It’s all about the state of UK basketball. SUBPAR, MEDIOCRE, UNACCEPTABLE.

[jetpilot]

^^^Barnes has won more games than Calipari the last 6 years and the two teams are 5-5 the last 10 games so there is that...

Calipari has been to six Final Fours, Barnes has lucked into one while essentially playing at home and beating a five and seven seed to get there.

There's no comparing the overall success that each has had throughout their career.

I don’t care about what Cal did 10 years ago. I’ll repeat it for you. Barnes has won more games than Cal the last 6 years and the teams are 5-5 over the last 10 games. That means the guy you guys say is no good has his UT program AT THE SAME LEVEL OR HIGHER THAN CAL’S UK program AS OF NOW.

SUBPAR, MEDIOCRE, UNACCEPTABLE

[jetpilot]

THE STATE OF THE UK BASKETBALL PROGRAM ON 2/3/2024 IS SUBPAR, MEDIOCRE AND UNACCEPTABLE.
THE BUCK STOPS WITH THE HC JOHN CALIPARI.

The excuses on here are mind numbingly dumb.

[jetpilot]

Because of the debacle that ensued in losing a 4-point lead with 37 seconds remaining,  I think something that is being overlooked is when the game was REALLY lost.  With 1:10 remaining in the first half , Reed hit a jumper to put us up 41-31. Over the next 1 min, 10 sec of the first half and the first 1 min, 32 sec of the second half, FLA scored 11 points and KY score ZERO points. In that span of 2 min 42 seconds, UK relinquished a 10 point lead in favor of a 1-point disadvantage. We've seen that story play out before. Gotta close out halves much better!!!

“The game was lost in the first half” is without a doubt the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life.

SUBPAR, MEDIOCRE, UNACCEPTABLE

[Cactus Jack]

^^^Barnes has won more games than Calipari the last 6 years and the two teams are 5-5 the last 10 games so there is that...

Calipari has been to six Final Fours, Barnes has lucked into one while essentially playing at home and beating a five and seven seed to get there.

There's no comparing the overall success that each has had throughout their career.

I don’t care about what Cal did 10 years ago. I’ll repeat it for you. Barnes has won more games than Cal the last 6 years and the teams are 5-5 over the last 10 games. That means the guy you guys say is no good has his UT program AT THE SAME LEVEL OR HIGHER THAN CAL’S UK program AS OF NOW.

SUBPAR, MEDIOCRE, UNACCEPTABLE

My point was that I think Rick Barnes is an overrated coach. I've never seen someone who has accomplished so little over so many years get so much love.

He took his first D1 head coaching job in 1987-- he's closing in on 40 years at major D1 programs. He was the head coach of the University of Texas (you know, just the biggest brand in all of college sports) from 1998 to 2015. He coached Providence for six years, taking over after Pitino had just led them to a Final Four.  He began at Tennessee in 2015 and is still there today. And he has one Final Four to his name. One (and we've been over the circumstances of that fluke trip ad nauseam now).

Sorry, but there are plenty of coaches that you could give those type of opportunities and it's hard to say that they'd come out worse. X's and O's, and Billy Gillespie runs circles around him. Billy. Gillispie. The guy who offered Dakotah Euton a scholarship. That Billy Gillispie.

Coaches who've been to as many Final Fours in a quarter of the time: Bruce Weber, Kevin Ollie, Porter Moser, Frank Martin, Greg Marshall, Jim Harrick, Paul Hewitt, Mike Davis, Tom Crean, and John Brady. I like Frank Martin, but what are all of those guys doing now? Do you hear of big time programs clamoring to hire them or are casuals discussing how great they are?

Yet somehow, Rick Barnes gets a pass because he hangs around in the conference standings and isn't scandalous. Absent some type of epiphany, I'm probably going to go to the grave thinking he's a poor strategist and terrible bench coach in games that count. Forget everything else, just give me one Tennessee or not-2003 Texas team he's had (over the past two plus decades) that's overachieved in the tournament and I'll shut up.

This is not "Cal's past six years have been mediocre". This is "Rick Barnes is not the example you want to use for a great coach because he is precisely the definition of mediocre".

[jetpilot]

^^^Barnes has won more games than Calipari the last 6 years and the two teams are 5-5 the last 10 games so there is that...

Calipari has been to six Final Fours, Barnes has lucked into one while essentially playing at home and beating a five and seven seed to get there.

There's no comparing the overall success that each has had throughout their career.

I don’t care about what Cal did 10 years ago. I’ll repeat it for you. Barnes has won more games than Cal the last 6 years and the teams are 5-5 over the last 10 games. That means the guy you guys say is no good has his UT program AT THE SAME LEVEL OR HIGHER THAN CAL’S UK program AS OF NOW.

SUBPAR, MEDIOCRE, UNACCEPTABLE

My point was that I think Rick Barnes is an overrated coach. I've never seen someone who has accomplished so little over so many years get so much love.

He took his first D1 head coaching job in 1987-- he's closing in on 40 years at major D1 programs. He was the head coach of the University of Texas (you know, just the biggest brand in all of college sports) from 1998 to 2015. He coached Providence for six years, taking over after Pitino had just led them to a Final Four.  He began at Tennessee in 2015 and is still there today. And he has one Final Four to his name. One (and we've been over the circumstances of that fluke trip ad nauseam now).

Sorry, but there are plenty of coaches that you could give those type of opportunities and it's hard to say that they'd come out worse. X's and O's, and Billy Gillespie runs circles around him. Billy. Gillispie. The guy who offered Dakotah Euton a scholarship. That Billy Gillispie.

Coaches who've been to as many Final Fours in a quarter of the time: Bruce Weber, Kevin Ollie, Porter Moser, Frank Martin, Greg Marshall, Jim Harrick, Paul Hewitt, Mike Davis, Tom Crean, and John Brady. I like Frank Martin, but what are all of those guys doing now? Do you hear of big time programs clamoring to hire them or are casuals discussing how great they are?

Yet somehow, Rick Barnes gets a pass because he hangs around in the conference standings and isn't scandalous. Absent some type of epiphany, I'm probably going to go to the grave thinking he's a poor strategist and terrible bench coach in games that count. Forget everything else, just give me one Tennessee or not-2003 Texas team he's had (over the past two plus decades) that's overachieved in the tournament and I'll shut up.

This is not "Cal's past six years have been mediocre". This is "Rick Barnes is not the example you want to use for a great coach because he is precisely the definition of mediocre".

I agree with everything you say about Barnes. So what does it say about Cal that Barnes now has his UT program equal to or above Cal's UK program?

[Cactus Jack]

I agree with everything you say about Barnes. So what does it say about Cal that Barnes now has his UT program equal to or above Cal's UK program?

I'll preface by saying it isn't apples to apples because Cal has a lot of prior success that Rick Barnes doesn't (Final Fours at multiple schools, an impressive stretch of Final Fours and a title at Kentucky), but it's definitely concerning. We're now in mid-February and the season isn't trending in the right direction and the wheels could fall off quickly.

Another early exit in March and it's probably time to start evaluating some very uncomfortable options. Biggest hurdle will be that Calipari's contract is an albatross and even if you can afford to get out of it and hire the replacement that you want, you're probably still taking from other parts of the budget (read: football) and have no margin for error if you needed to buy out the replacement a few years down the road.

[jetpilot]

I agree with everything you say about Barnes. So what does it say about Cal that Barnes now has his UT program equal to or above Cal's UK program?

I'll preface by saying it isn't apples to apples because Cal has a lot of prior success that Rick Barnes doesn't (Final Fours at multiple schools, an impressive stretch of Final Fours and a title at Kentucky), but it's definitely concerning. We're now in mid-February and the season isn't trending in the right direction and the wheels could fall off quickly.

Another early exit in March and it's probably time to start evaluating some very uncomfortable options. Biggest hurdle will be that Calipari's contract is an albatross and even if you can afford to get out of it and hire the replacement that you want, you're probably still taking from other parts of the budget (read: football) and have no margin for error if you needed to buy out the replacement a few years down the road.

What part of where Barnes has UT today and where Cal has UK today isn't apples to apples?
I don't care what Cal did a decade ago.

[Cactus Jack]

What part of where Barnes has UT today and where Cal has UK today isn't apples to apples?
I don't care what Cal did a decade ago.

Cal has shown that he's capable of getting to the Final Four and winning it all. Barnes hasn't. Cal has taken an 8 seed further than Barnes has ever been.

Technically, in the past 10 seasons, Cal actually has a Final and a Final Four-- one of those 10 tournaments was also canceled due to COVID and another wrecked entirely.

If we're just using the past three to five years, a Round of 32 loss to Kansas St., an upset by 15-seed St. Peter's, failing to qualify for the tournament, and a narrow Elite Eight loss to Auburn isn't the greatest.

I don't know how you can conclusively say how they would have ended the 2020 season that was canceled, but they were #29 in KenPom's rankings, the #1 overall seed in the SEC Tournament, and had lost 6 games when everything was shut down. Even assumimg a loss in the first game of the SEC Tournament, there's no way that they're worse than an eight seed (more likely at least a #4 considering they'd beaten Michigan State, Louisville, & Texas Tech, and lost to Ohio State in OT-- all teams ranked ahead of them). Assuming the worst case (a loss in the round of 64) leaves them with 8 losses total. Barnes' Tennessee team was 17-14 and 68 overall in KenPom's rankings that season, btw.

I said before the season started that Cal should have a chance with the class that he had coming in. Not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater because we had a really rough time during COVID (which disproportionately effected young teams and teams with great home court advantages) and some mediocre finishes, but I don't like how this season is trending either. Another finish outside of the Elite Eight might not be enough to pull the plug, but it probably is enough to warrant some very tough conversations.