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Thank You John Calipari

Republished By Plato
Republished By Plato

Date:

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Already this offseason, there have been plenty of coaching changes in college basketball. The most notable was John Calipari leaving Kentucky to take the job at Arkansas. As a Kentucky fan, there were plenty of mixed emotions when this happened. At the end of an era, it is only right for me to say thank you to a coach who brought so much joy over the years (and some pain).

Early Years

I have been a Kentucky fan my whole life, following in the footsteps of my older brother and grandpa. My early years, Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith led the program. I was too young to understand the success and what the program was all about, although Tubby was one of the nicest people in sports that I had ever met. My family “broke” into Memorial Coliseum when I was five. My two older brothers walked around and saw some players getting some shots up in the summer. A second later, Tubby came out and shouted at them for messing around. He then saw us and took the time to talk to us. After telling him that I was a big UK fan, I immediately ratted out my second oldest brother for being a fan of another program. Tubby graciously talked about how the Cincinnati Bearcats had a good program as well.

Things started going poorly for Tubby near the end of his tenure. I still followed the team religiously (even with the loss to Michigan State in the 2005 tournament breaking my heart). Some of my favorite players of all-time came from these times, including Rajon Rondo and Chuck Hayes. I named my dog after Rondo. My grandpa was in hospitals and nursing homes for the last few years of his life. I always made sure to call him when Kentucky was playing (which was a wild turn of events after I was afraid of him for the first several years of my life. To be fair he smoked a pipe, had brain surgery that left his head looking like Frankenstein for a while and he used to tease people as a way of showing love. I’ve adopted the last part of that as part of my personality) It felt good to have someone care as much as I did about something, especially when there weren’t too many kids in my grade school cheering for Kentucky, which means they cheered against the Wildcats. My grandpa passed away, during the end of the Tubby era, but it still felt good to have Kentucky basketball as something that felt like it was connecting us even after his passing.

Following things going south for Tubby, which in retrospect, wasn’t as south as I thought at the time, Billie Gillespie was hired. These were some dark days. Even when a player had an amazing performance, like Jodie Meeks scoring 54 points at Tennessee (thanks to my oldest brother for waking me up when this happened), there was a cloud over the team. We now know things were going on behind the scenes, but as a fan I just wanted the team to win. I wasn’t old enough to fully understand what the wildly successful late 1990s felt like and I just wanted to feel what winning big felt like.

Calipari Era

Kentucky needed to make a change and they turned to John Calipari in 2009. I was in high school at this point, but was looking for a coach to help turn the program around and to save me from getting so much shit for wearing Kentucky stuff to school every day. That 2009-2010 team really revitalized the program. The run to the Elite Eight was special, but the loss stung. In the next season, a team that was a little worse ended up making the Final Four. Behind Brandon Knight, Doron Lamb, Terrence Jones and Josh Harrellson (Jorts!) the Wildcats had some iconic games, including knocking off no. 1 seed Ohio State. Although a championship wasn’t won yet, the only jokes that came my way were ones about Kentucky “obviously cheating”. That’s what they always say when they have nowhere else to go.

The next school year, I was a freshman in college. Instead of going to Kentucky, I ended up going to Xavier University. They had a quality sports management program and threw me some scholarship money, taking the choice out of my hands in a way. I maintained my diehard fandom of the Wildcats. The 2011-2012 season rewarded me for my patience with the program, as Kentucky won the National Championship behind Anthony Davis. It was the first championship I could really celebrate, as the 1998 title happened when I was four and I really only remembered bits and pieces of it.

I continued supporting Kentucky during my tenure at Xavier. There were plenty of weird looks for always wearing my Kentucky gear to class (I did wear Xavier stuff sometimes and I do cheer for them, they just don’t rank as highly in my heart as the Wildcats). One professor even told me to stop wearing Kentucky stuff to class. I asked if he preferred me in my birthday suit because I didn’t do nearly enough laundry to support not wearing Kentucky things to class. That ended that conversation.

There were some tough times for me at the end of my time in college. I was depressed and trying to find my way in life, all while having severe social anxiety that I didn’t know how to deal with yet. The worst of days came during the 2013-2014 season. Kentucky was coming off an NIT appearance (which killed me inside) and struggled through the regular season. John Calipari pulled out a “tweak” and Kentucky started to win some games in the SEC Tournament. They ended up losing by one to Florida in the SEC Tournament Championship. After receiving an eight seed in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, things still looked bleak. I decided to believe and picked them to make the Elite Eight. What happened next felt surreal.

In the second round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament, Kentucky matched up with the undefeated Wichita State Shockers. I was later texted by a friend in St. Louis that he saw coach Calipari that morning at church. It was a standalone game and it turned out to be one of the more fun games to watch of the season. There were big plays down the stretch, but the young Wildcats held on to win after a Fred Van Vleet shot clanged off the rim. In the Sweet Sixteen, Aaron Harrison hit a clutch shot late to beat Louisville. The next round pitted Kentucky against Michigan. I picked them to lose in this game to the Wolverines. In a tie game, Aaron Harrison hit a three-pointer with over two seconds left to win the game. I was going nuts watching the game with a few friends. That advanced Kentucky to the Final Four against Wisconsin. This time Harrison hit the big shot with around six seconds left. The difference was, that Kentucky was down by two at the time and the three game them the lead. Wisconsin couldn’t get a shot to go in desperation and Kentcuky was heading to the National Championship Game.

A loss in the National Championship Game to UConn stung, but the Wildcats showed that crazy things do happen. A team that had a lot of talent at the start of the year, then had trouble figuring things out, finally put things together. It seemed almost magical. It wasn’t just winning the games, but how they were winning them. It was an improbable run with some unlikely shots falling that made it all the more fun to watch. For someone who was looking for some direction or a sign, this just felt like it was supposed to happen. This Kentucky team will always be my favorite for having this unpredictable run right at a time when I needed it. (I’m not saying that everyone can find signs from their favorite sports teams, I am a Cincinnati Reds fan and that wouldn’t make much sense, but in this case it felt different).

The following year Kentucky had an undefeated regular season. They won the SEC Tournament, and then received the top seed in the NCAA Tournament. Watching that ride was so fun. The loss to Wisconsin in the Final Four was top two in terms of heartbreaking losses in my life (the other was losing to Michigan State in the 2005 Elite Eight. I don’t know which hurt more, as I could have been an emotional 11-year-old at the time and the Patrick Sparks shot made me think Kentucky was going to win. I can’t rank them.) I refused to watch the National Championship Game with a good friend of mine, because I took the loss hard. To be fair he was a loudmouth Duke fan and watching with him as the Blue Devils won the title A) would’ve killed me and B) would’ve resulted in him receiving a permanent ban from my house. That friend has denounced his Duke fandom at this point, making him an ok human being now. All I can do now is look back on that season with good memories. The ride was so fun and it is incredibly hard to go the whole season without a loss with college kids leading the way.

Those few years put Kentucky fans on the edge of our seats. There were good moments after that point. Watching the likes of Keldon Johnson, Tyler Herro, Tyrese Maxey, Immanuel Quickley, P.J. Washington, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Malik Monk, De’Aaron Fox, Bam Adebayo, Ashton Hagans, Oscar Tshiebwe, Reed Sheppard, D.J. Wagner, Justin Edwards, Antonio Reeves, TyTy Washington and so many others was incredible. There were some fun runs, but no more Final Fours.

Thanks John Calipari

At the end of the day, John Calipari was right when he said Kentucky needed a new face for the program. Him moving on to Arkansas stings, especially because they have fielded several good teams over the years. But I can’t blame him for feeling like it was his time to find a new challenge. A portion of the fanbase wanted him out, he himself had said a 10-year run was about the lifespan of a UK head coach and it seemed like the program needed some changes. And frankly, I needed something to change too. As apparently the only Kentucky fan that people have ever met, I got so many messages when Kentucky lost to St. Peter’s and Oakland (It’s never Joe, how’s it going? Always Joe haha Kentucky lost to a small ass school no one has heard of).

Although it may be a good thing for both sides to move on, I still think it’s right to thank John Calipari. He took the program that was in the dumps (relatively speaking of course) under Gillespie to a National Championship in just a few years. Calipari had a lot of success even after the title. Things got bumpy at the end and the results weren’t where they needed to be, but there were so many fun times. I think Calipari will find success and I hope he does too for all the joy he has brought, although I wish he wasn’t in the same conference.

So thank you, John Calipari. You brought me a lot of joy when I needed it the most. But also, I can’t wait to see how energetic Rupp Arena gets the next time you walk in with another team!

Now, I’m ready to see the Mark Pope era start. It seems like his strategy (both on the court and recruiting) is different and might be the change Kentucky needs.

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