John Calipari's "Best" Coaching Days are Behind Him

In somewhat of a shocking move, John Calipari is leaving Kentucky to take the men's head coaching job at Arkansas. I thought this was a joke article when I first read it on Monday. I thought there was no way Calipari was going to leave Kentucky for a lesser college basketball job.

First off, that is no knock on Arkansas. Arkansas was a power in the early 90's. I can vividly remember Corliss Williamson and the 40 minutes of hell pressure that team played with. They were fun to watch. Nolan Richardson was a great coach. He ran a full on press defense and his teams ran up and down the floor. They were relentless. But that was over 20 years ago. Hell, it was damn near 30 years ago. Arkansas has had a few "deep" tourney runs since then, but nothing ever compared to the 40 minutes of hell team that was dominant.

On the other side, Kentucky has always been solid. There were a few down seasons, but those were outliers. Kentucky was a perennial top 25 team. They were usually a 4 seed or better in the tourney. They made runs deep into the tournament. They won a title with Anthony Davis. Calipari recruited his ass off while at Kentucky. He still may do the same at Arkansas, as far as his recruiting prowess, but wins and long tourney runs will be tough to come by. He will have to return to Kentucky to play them every year. Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida were all tourney teams. Hell, Tennessee was an elite eight team. Alabama was a final four team. The SEC is tough, and Arkansas is not immune to that toughness.

I have also always said that while he is an elite recruiter, maybe the best ever, Calipari is not a very good X's and O's coach. He seems to do less with more than most other coaches. Calipari is always bringing in 5 star players, but he has not been out of the first round in three of his last four tournament appearances as a head coach. Oakland torched him with threes this tourney, and he never made a proper adjustment. While at Memphis and UMASS he could never adapt to beating the best of the best. He had a title in the palm of his hands while at Memphis, but due to his lack of adjustments, Kansas was able to come back and win in overtime. Mario Chalmers was unstoppable due to Calipari deciding to never guard him. He coached Marcus Camby, quite possibly the best college center ever, while at UMASS, and they made the final four once. That appearance had nothing to do with Calipari's coaching. It was all due to Camby's brilliance in college. I think he is going to find it as hard as ever at Arkansas. He doesn't have the resources he had at Kentucky. He doesn't have the cool city he had at Memphis. He has way bigger expectations than what he had at UMASS.

This is all a very confusing, very tough move from Calipari. I look at this like Nick Saban walking away, but Saban retired. Calipari still wants to coach, just at a lower level. I almost think he is bored and wants a more difficult spot to recruit in. But, the SEC is going to recruit just as hard. The Big 10 is expanded, thus making recruiting harder. UCONN is the best of the best and he will have to compete for the best talent with them. The ACC still has Duke and UNC, which are still pretty damn good at recruiting and have younger coaches. This is a head scratching move. I really don't get it. He will bring a bunch of more viewers to Arkansas games, but I do not see him reliving the glory days of Nolan Richardson. In fact, I don't think he will even get close. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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Kentucky, and John Calipari, Make Another Embarrassing Exit from the NCAA Tournament

I was going to write about something different today, but after that horrendous Kentucky-Kansas State game last night, I have to give my take.

First off, the Nevada-Loyola Chicago game was great. It was back and forth, both teams blew double digit leads and it came down to one final possession. Michigan steamrolled Texas A&M. I, obviously, watched that game intently, and I was able to relax with about 8 minutes left. Lets hope that carries over to tomorrow. And the FSU-Gonzaga game was pretty much not in doubt at all. FSU really did whatever they wanted to against Gonzaga. But, the Kentucky-Kansas State game was something else. 

Kentucky, at least on paper, had the easiest path of any team left to make the final Four. They had also, up until last night, looked like they were playing their best basketball all year. It looked like it was finally starting to click for all the freshman. Then last night happened. I wasn't watching the game too closely, more checking on the score time to time from my phone. I was kind of shocked the first time I checked to see that KSU was up 13-1. That was surprising. I thought though, it was early, Kentucky can come back and they are primed for a Final Four run. And, when I checked back a little later, KSU was only up 4 at the half. I still didn't tune in because I figured that Kentucky would pull away. Well, that did not happen either. Every time I checked the score from there on out it was close, but very low scoring. I'm actually kind of glad I didn't watch the game because it sounds like it was a lot like most games this tournament.

This year's tournament games have been pretty rough, and the low score made me think that this was a rough game too. I went to sleep with about 7 minutes left in the game still thinking Kentucky would find a way to win and face off against Loyola-Chicago tomorrow. Well, when I woke up my phone told me a different story. Apparently the game was pretty wretched the rest of the way and KSU won ugly, which is what they have done all tournament long. And to make matters worse, apparently Kentucky wouldn't shake hands with KSU after the game. I know that it is crummy to go out the way Kentucky did, especially when most thought they were a near shoe in for the Final Four, but come on. You have to, at the very least, shake hands with your opponent. That is good sportsmanship that is taught from the age of 3 all the way up to the professional ranks. That is low class, and I fully put the blame on John Calipari for that. I see that Calipari has tried to backtrack and say some nonsense today, but it is too little too late. He showed horrific sportsmanship, and he got beat.

This is not as nearly as big as UMBC beating Virginia or Buffalo beating Arizona, but this is right up there, as far as big time upsets in this tournament filled with upsets. Before the tournament started Kentucky and Calipari were griping about their seed and the region they were put in. The four teams ahead of them were Virginia, Cincinnati, Tennessee and Arizona. Well, all four of those teams lost during the first weekend. Hell, Virginia was done after their first game. Cincy blew a 22 point lead in the second half. Tennessee got beat on a last second shot against Loyola Chicago and Arizona got blown out by Buffalo. So, Kentucky had it made in the shade. They were clearly, at least on paper, the best team left in their region. Every media member and writer that I read or listen to were sure they were going to the Final Four. I picked them to get to the title game. And, they absolutely blew it, and I still can't believe it.

I do not think it is a case of the freshman not living up to the hype because they had just won the SEC tournament and 2 games in the NCAA tournament. What I think happened was, Kentucky expected to win because they heard everyone saying they were going to win. They bought into their own hype, and you cannot do that come tournament time. It is single game elimination. You have to play well enough, or you are going home. And it doesn't have to be pretty, as long as you win. That was how KSU played last night, from what I have read. They didn't care how they won, they just wanted the win.

Now I think comes the question of Calipari being a choker in the tournament. He has only won one title. He hasn't been to that many Final Four's. A few of the Final Four's he has been to have been taken away due to violations. And his recent teams at Kentucky, while they constantly make the Sweet Sixteen, they never seem to push through. He has not been able to recapture what he had with Anthony Davis. He has had super star NBA players blow through Kentucky in one year, and all he has is one title. That's great that he has one title, but with names like Boogie Cousins, John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, Tyler Ulis, Devin Booker, the list can go on and on and on, come through there and you only have one title, I don't know. Maybe Calipari, who I kind of like, isn't the greatest basketball coach. He is a hell of a recruiter. But, maybe the X's and O's part is a bit too much for him.

This is an embarrassing loss, and it now means that either KSU or Loyola Chicago is going to the Final Four. That statement should speak volumes about how not great this tournament has ben. No disrespect, but either an 11 or an 8 seed is going to the Final Four. Ouch. This should leave a very sour taste in Kentucky fans mouth for a long, long time. They should have easily won that game, but they blew it. That is rough.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on all the internet.

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The Rockets and Kings are Coachless and Uncoachable

If this was on fire, it would represent the Rockets and Kings

As it happens every NBA season around this time, coaches are being fired and hired. It always goes on during the playoffs and, more often than not, it's usually smaller named coaches taking jobs. Guys like Kenny Atkinson taking the Nets job or Earl Watson taking the Suns job. See, not that big of names. Sure, Thibodeau took the Timberwolves job and, to a much lesser extent, Scott Brooks took the Wizards job, but that's about as splashy as it gets this time of year. And yeah, Luke Walton took the Lakers job, which is a potential disaster worse than taking the Knicks job, but most teams wait until after the playoffs, or during the finals to really get into their head coaching search.

Two such teams currently searching for a coach that I want to talk about today are the Rockets and the Kings. Let's tackle the Rockets first. This team is an absolute dumpster fire. This team has absolutely no chemistry. James Harden is becoming a world class prima donna. Dwight Howard needs to leave that team as fast as possible, and, he's not really that good anymore. The other starters, guys like Terrence Ross, Corey Brewer, Patrick Beverly and Donatas Montejunas need to try their best and get out of there because Harden is no fun to play basketball with. Also, Daryl Morey needs to be let go. He put this team together through analytics nonsense and they are a complete mess because of him. Morey was the one that figured pairing Howard and Harden was a good idea. This was the guy, and I totally agreed with him at the time, that thought bringing in Ty Lawson was a good idea. This is the guy who trades away picks and young players with the "win now" attitude and it has not worked out. Sure, they miraculously made the Western Finals last year, after the Clippers epic collapse, but they got outworked, outplayed and outclassed by the Warriors. And the true James Harden showed up. The guy that shrinks the bigger the moment gets. The Rockets are a total mess. Even their interim coach, JB Bickerstaff said he'd rather be an assistant than the head coach of this team. Bickerstaff has been with this team for a long time, got his chance to be the head coach after they fired Kevin McHale 11 games into the season, and he looked and acted like he hated every single second of it. I would too if I were him. The coach of the Rockets is basically just a figure head that has to deal with players that aren't as good as they may think. Nowhere is it truer than the NBA where the coach, for all intents and purposes, doesn't matter. The only coaches that demand the respect and attention of their players are Gregg Poppovich and Steve Kerr, other than that, none of you guys really matter. If I were a coach at any level, be it high school, college or the pros, I would not touch that Rockets job with a ten foot pole. They are going to lose a lot of players, mainly Dwight Howard, and the new coach will have to deal with all the nonsense that comes with James Harden. Harden is uncoachable and that team is going to get blown up. The Rockets will be a rebuilding project, and an established coach will not touch that job. The Rockets may have to dip into the college ranks and we all saw how well that worked out for Fred Hoiberg and Billy Donovan. Sure, Donovan won 55 games, but he has Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant at his disposal and his "coaching" didn't really play any part in their success. And Hoiberg, the Bulls, with all the talent in the world, didn't even make the playoffs in the East. So, good luck to whichever low end NBA assistant or college coach that takes that Rockets job, it's going to be tough.

Then, there is the Kings vacant head coaching job. They have reached out to some big name guys. Guys like Kevin McHale, Mark Jackson and Stan Van Gundy, but they all seem to be turning the job down, and they all seem to turn it down for one reason. That one reason is Boogie Cousins. First of all, I love Boogie Cousins the player. I think he is a wonderfully skilled big man. He can play in the low post and run the floor with equal success. He is definitely a once in a lifetime good to great low post player, but he clearly has a very bad attitude problem and he is un coachable. Not one single coach that he has had in the NBA seems to last longer than one and a half season. Hell, if he had stayed at Kentucky more than one year, I bet he and Calipari would have ended up having problems. Calipari may be the one guy that can coach him, but he isn't leaving Kentucky for a NBA rebuilding job, so those rumors need to stop. I love love love Boogie Cousins, but I totally understand why all these coaches are turning down the job. I mean, George Karl, who made it work with strong personalities like Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton, couldn't reach Cousins. From the start, Cousins did not like Karl. Before they even met, he was down on Karl for some past accusations. It was a broken marriage from the jump. There have been other head coaches, but the only one that seemed to work, Mike Malone, was inexplicably fired after one season and 11 games into his second season. Malone was making it work, but Cousins went down with an injury and the Kings lost a couple of games in a row. That was enough, according to the front office, to fire him. It was a joke that Malone got fired so quickly when it seemed he was turning that team around. But, that's another problem with this franchise. The front office thinks that the team is better than it actually is. Vivek, the new owner, is an idiot. He is the one pulling the trigger so quick on coaches. He is the one that keeps drafting players that play the same position over and over again. One year he takes Ben McLemore, the next year he takes Nick Stauskas. One year he drafts Boogie Cousins. A couple of years later, he takes Willie Cauley-Stein. Vivek also said, on live national television, he wanted his team to play five on four so they could get quick fast break points because that's what his fifth grade daughters team did, and they were good. He compared an NBA team to a fifth grade basketball team. That's insane. No coach worth their mustard should touch this job with a ten foot pole as well. The Kings are a mess akin with the Rockets. The only selling point in the Kings favor is the fact that they will get a decent draft pick, but who really cares, that's just more rebuilding.

These two jobs are not good jobs. I don't think anyone with any sense is wiling to take either one of these jobs because these jobs are a stomping ground. There is no success to be had at either spot. Yes, the Rockets have James Harden, but he plays no defense, he is a ball hog, he holds the ball for 20 of the 24 second shot clock and he is a prima donna. The Rockets won't have much else going into next season. And yeah, the Kings have Boogie and Rondo, but what coach in their right mind really wants to deal with those two headaches. As I said, I love Cousins, but I would not want to deal with Rondo at all. He is past his prime and he may be a crazy person and he is too big a headache.

While other teams will fill their vacancies with relative ease, I think the Rockets and the Kings will have a long, tiring and troubling time trying to fill their head coaching jobs. Both teams are dumpster fires and no coach with a good head on their shoulders will give those jobs a second chance. Those jobs will be filled by lower level assistants, college coaches, or more likely, a crazy person.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He coaches pre K basketball and is ready to be called up by the Kings or Rockets. He fully expects to be fired in less than a year, like any other big time NBA coach would be. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.