Kentucky men’s basketball seems to be at a crossroads with head coach John Calipari after the program’s latest first round NCAA Tournament loss.
Despite the discontent among Wildcats fans, ESPN’s Jay Bilas thinks it would be a mistake to fire Calipari at this point.
“For me, the bottom line is this: this wasn’t about being freshmen, or the construction of the Kentucky roster. It’s about a team that did not play well and that did not execute in a first-round game against a very good team,” Bilas said over the weekend in a video covering the third-seeded Wildcats’ loss to No. 14 seed Oakland.
Bilas went on to discuss Kentucky’s struggles against Oakland’s zone defense, as well as its inability to contain Golden Grizzlies’ sharpshooter Jack Gohlke, who scored 32 points while hitting 10 three-pointers.
He also pointed out that the Wildcats had multiple wins under tough circumstances during the regular season, but that experience didn’t carry over to the tournament.
“So, I get it. It seems like it’s a trend,” Bilas said of Kentucky’s recent early-round exits. “If Kentucky fans want to get rid of Calipari, good luck, I think that would be a mistake. Do they need to execute better and be better prepared when they go into a game like this? They do. Is it time to light our hair on fire and burn everything down? No.”
Four days after the loss to Oakland, no decision has been made on Calipari’s future, but one reportedly could be coming soon.