[Hoot Gibson]

IMO, no coach has brought as much talent to Lexington on an annual basis as John Calipari has and yet, in 13 seasons he has won the same number of NCAA titles as Tubby Smith won in 10 years - one.

Calipari's best days are clearly behind him. He is the second highest paid NCAA basketball coach and he has not been earning his keep. Few college basketball coaches have ever achieved less with so many great athletes.

As the following list shows, UK has had two great college basketball coaches in the past century and John Calipari was not one of them. If Calipari keeps coaching long enough, he will likely fall below Tubby Smith and possibly below Joe Hall in winning percentage at UK.

Adolph Rupp 82.8% (4 NCAA titles in 40 seasons)
Rick Pitino 81.4% (1 title in 6 seasons eligibility - ineligibe first 2 seasons because of NCAA penalties)
John Calipari 77.8% (1 title in 13 seasons)
Tubby Smith 76% (1 title in 10 seasons)
Joe Hall 74.8% (1 title) in 13 seasons)
Eddie Sutton 69.3% (0 titles in 4 seasons)
Billy Gillispie 59.7% (0 titles in 2 seasons)

I personally do not want to see Calipari fired because of the cost of getting rid of him and his lifetime contract. Besides, Mitch Barnhart needs to go first so that he has absolutely no say in hiring the next UK basketball coach. Barnhart should have been fired after he hired Billy Gillispie, allowed Gillispie to coach for two years without signing and contract, and then paid him to go away.

Instead of punishing its athletic director for hiring Gillispie and then hiring and later signing Calipari to a lifetime contract, UK recently extended Barnhart's contract through the 2025-2026 school year and gave him a very generous raise.