Besides 2012 last time I watched UK hold up the national championship Rookie Dirk Nowitzki was being drafted soon after I believe. Its been a drought in titles for the UK standard. I really believed Cal would get at least 3 titles here from his hire date in 2010. After 2015 till now I was convinced more and more every year that it ain’t happening under this system & cal coaching. Next season is a big question mark as well. Time to make some big adjustments.
Besides 2012
- Thread starter Patriot202
- Start date
You expected three titles from 2010-2015? There was potential for it happening but are your expectations realistic?
3 titles for Cals whole time at UK is what I expected from the beginning. Its been over a decade now.
So you still expected them despite losing faith after 2015? Again realistic expectations? Just trying to follow the logic you spelled out in the OP.
Should've hung one up in 2015. Just flat out blew that year. That one still stings. Really not sure if it's not still affecting this program.
Math is good - you should learn it...
Prior to Cal UK had 7 titles in 71 years - that's one every 10 years. Cal won in 2012, per the "Kentucky Standard" you mention, he really isn't due another until around 2022. With 1 title in 10 chances so far, he's pretty much right on target.
And keep in mind that that 1 per 10 year average is a bit skewed by Rupp winning 3 in 4 years. UK went 37 years from 1959 to 1995 with only one title under four different coaches.
I always figured Cal would get at least two titles at UK. The second one is seeming like a long shot at the current rate. If he can change his approach, I do think he can still get that second one- but that is a big if.
I always figured Cal would have 5 titles in his first 10 years and he only had 1 and this makes me real upset.
LOL dude. When cal got here I believed he would get at least 3 here for his whole career here. After 2015 I started to believe it wasn’t likely happening under this system I WAS WRONG & CHANGED MY MIND. Now I’m fully convinced it ain’t happening. & shoot yeah 2010 to 2015 could have gotten 3 just in that time.
Wall cousins Bledsoe Patterson
Knight, T Jones lost in FF
2012 Won
2014 stacked
2015 super stacked.
Lets be honest, Cal has had the talent to win at least 2 more titles can't get the job done.
ok. That is much clearer. Was just trying to understand the two conflicting statements.
What coach can’t this be said about? It kind of takes the opponent out of the equation right?
I do got to say that whenever I see UCONN mentioned, I get sick to my stomach. Crazy to think they basically kept us from getting two titles.
Kentucky is the gold standard in our sport. It’s been that way throughout the history of our game. It’s one of the reasons I dreamed of one day coaching here. The biggest goal I have – and we all should have – is to make sure Kentucky remains that way. There will be some who will attack me, attack the program, attack the approach, and some will even say, “He only talks about the NBA.” But I can only tell our fans it’s similar to what Frank Sinatra once said: Our best response … is massive success.
Are you aware that you can win an NBA championship with an ALL UK ROSTER in the NBA right now ? That’s how much talent has been here in the past decade!!
Most players in the NBA!!
ONLY DAVIS & GILCHRIST have rings at UK
2015 UK bench was a top 10 team in my opinion.
one and done is a completely different time then back then.
Should have at the very least hung up one more title banner for 2015. You could also make the argument for 2010 and 2017 but in 2010 we shot ourselves out of the game and we got royally screwed by one official in 2017. If Cal wins at least a title in at least one of those seasons, the perception is different.
Really a lot of coaches can't say this, I would say only one other coach has had this much talent, and that would be Coach K and since he won his early ones he has flopped as well.
Two would have been little short than expected but ALOT better than one, I could deal with two.
from 2010
Duke has 2
Uconn 2
Villanova 2
Go back just one season to 2009 UNC has two
Cal and Dean Smith are the most underachieving College Basketball coaches of all time with the talent they had!
All of them besides unc* 09
Won it in a 3-5 year span as well.
just saying not like it was completely unrealistic for the teams UK has had.
Are you aware that you can win an NBA championship with an ALL UK ROSTER in the NBA right now ? That’s how much talent has been here in the past decade!!
Most players in the NBA!!
ONLY DAVIS & GILCHRIST have rings at UK
2015 UK bench was a top 10 team in my opinion.
one and done is a completely different time then back then.
I'm not disputing there was a lot of talent, I'm only disputing this in you're opening post...
That's just not true.
And Cal certainly isn't the first coach to not win a title with a team capable of it.
Rupp '66, '70
Hall '75, '84
Pitino '92, '93, '97
Smith '03, '05
I don't really buy into the whole 2015 doomed us theory. I think it has more to do with the following things.....
1) Elite guys figured out they could go to OK St, LSU or some of these other places and still get drafted in the top 3-5 picks and that they didn't need Cal or UK to do that.
2) Cal is not able to keep guys around who should stay and it has eventually gotten us to the point that we are returning less than 10% of our scoring, rebounding and assist from the previous season.
3) We have lost some assistant coaches who were more vital to the development of the players skills and the cohesiveness as a team than we realized.
4) Cal has been exposed as a guy who has to have superior talent to win at a high level. It's like the old saying "It's not about the x's and o's it's about the Jimmie's and Joe's". Well when there isn't Jimmie's and Joe's and your x's and O's are subpar it's a combination for a 5 win season.
I believe the standard & expectations have went up a notch. No coach in UK history has had the elite level talent Cal has had. In my opinion Calipari has had the best overall talented teams & players of any UK coach in history.
just look at all the McDonald’s AA’s, NBA lottery picks & NBA max contracts, the talent produced in the past decade didn’t happen back then. It’s a new era.
My emphasis. And I'll dispute that.
Rupp from '48-'54 had a similar parade of elite players. Of course he won 3 titles with them and likely would have won a 4th but the NCAA disallowed graduate players in '54, probably primarily to prevent just that.
Last edited:
I know you said not disputing the talent but this talent changes a lot of expectation. This is new level.
Next season will make 10 years since that title and 7 years since a FF. But, yea, everything is just fine according to some.
Math can be used in funny ways though. If you want to continue your line of thought, from 96-2012 we won one every 5.67 years. You're also ignoring the recruiting quality during any of the time periods. No UK coach has ever recruited at the level Cal has. It would be perfectly fair to expect better results with better recruits.
Exactly the talent level cal has had its overwhelming compared to any coach at UK.
Rupp did recruit very well but it was much more regional then which limited who you signed.
Well, at least since the '48-'54 years I mentioned. But you're still missing my point. Maybe Cal should have multiple titles with the talent he had, but it was not the UK standard when he arrived. That was the only issue I had with your OP.
Looking back - and I will quickly admit this is not a thorough analysis - who are the coaches who have a multiple year run of outstanding talent and won more than one NCAA title with it? I'm not counting teams like Florida and Cincinnati that won back-to-back titles with much the same players. I can only think of three:
Adolph Rupp from '48-54' - 3 titles/3 FFs - arguably could be 4/4 given the undefeated '54 season*
John Wooden from '64-'75 - 10 titles/11 FFs
Denny Crum from '80-'86 - 2 titles/4 FFs
So maybe the right conclusion is that Calipari is an outstanding recruiter, but is not a Rupp, Wooden or Crum.
*UK declined to participate since the NCAA in a last minute move declared some of UK's players ineligible due to graduate status.
Last edited: