[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.