Victim of Culture

University of Kentucky exposed for idiots they are

Cruel title?  Well, perhaps slightly inaccurate.  Not all of the University of Kentucky, but those in the Athletic Director’s office?  Yeah, they’re idiots.  They’re the ones involved with the hiring of basketball coach John Calipari.

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports put it very succinctly when he wrote:

Then there’s a redacted relative of a redacted player (Reggie Rose, Derrick’s brother, according to a source) getting away with some free travel (on the team charter, according to a source) which means Calipari’s second Final Four banner at a second school could be coming down.

…Now Kentucky has its dream coach and its worst nightmare all at the same time. They can wash away their frustrations of defending what did or didn’t happen back in Memphis with visions of clipped nets in the springs to come. That’s what the Memphis fans used to do too.

They sure do have their dream, and the fans of Kentucky have themselves to blame as well.  I feel comfortable in blaming the fans because I am one.  Like many I grew frustrated with Tubby Smith.  He won his one championship the year after Rick Pitino left, and his tenure was downhill from there.  Smith was a capable coach, but a horrid recruiter for the most part.  He got UK to the NCAA tournament each season, but he wasn’t getting them much of anywhere once there.

So, UK and its boosters pushed him out the door and brought in Billy Gillispie.  Again, another capable coach, but there was apparently some bad blood between the coach and the athletics department from the start.  More importantly, it probably just wasn’t the best fit, but the square peg and round hole never were given time to adapt to one another.  The idea that a coach could take bad recruiting classes and turn a team around in two years is far fetched at best.  Building a program takes time and patience, and patience is something UK basketball fans lack.

Then like a beacon in the night there stood John Calipari, coach of the University of Memphis.  He seemed like the golden child sent to deliver UK from its self-imposed banishment to the NIT.  He had two Final Four appearances, and the recruiting chops that Tubby Smith so desperately lacked.  It was destiny calling, and the Wildcats answered.

Except, not everyone who comes knocking is destiny, and quite often they’re just vacuum salesmen who plan to dirty your carpets and run away with your cash.  Enter John Calipari.  His stink and this incident won’t ruin Kentucky basketball.  No, fans should be more worried about what he plans to do there.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  Fool me thrice?  Welcome to Kentucky!

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