How John Calipari compares to Dabo Swinney in bad and good ways
One of the major stories to come out of this year’s NCAA Tournament is the job status of Kentucky head basketball coach John Calipari following yet another early exit from March Madness following a first-round upset loss to Oakland last Thursday.
Calipari expressed his dedication to the Kentucky program on The John Calipari Show on Monday, also revealing an upcoming meeting with athletic director Mitch Barnhart on Tuesday. But there’s no question that speculation and rumors surrounding his future with the Wildcats are swirling in Lexington.
On3’s Andy Staples believes that Calipari is comparable to current Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney at the moment. Which he discussed with KSR‘s Nick Roush as both coaches have recently failed to reach the mountain top they once were able to as the college athletics landscape continues to evolve.
“Both still recruit very well, both of them if the player stays, if the player’s around they get developed. They do tend to become very good, now the difference is players have to stay with Dabo for three years before they go to the NFL. That part of it works, but other things have changed within the game that everybody else has evolved with and they haven’t,” Staples explained.
Swinney has not made an appearance in the College Football Playoff in the last three seasons after making six consecutive appearances in the CFP along with two national championship wins. Highlighted by his refusal to use the transfer portal, which has recently become a valuable staple in recruiting in college football and beyond.
Meanwhile, Calipari hasn’t led the Wildcats to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2019, suffering numerous early exits from March Madness after making several deep tournament runs and helping deliver Kentucky a national championship in 2012. With many questioning if his acquiring of top talent that often leaves for the NBA following one season with the program is sustainable in today’s iteration of college basketball.
“The worst part of all this Andy is that we have to start accepting some of the things that haters said as truths. ‘Cal can’t coach, he just rolls the ball out there,’ and it’s like you fought against that forever and now I’m just like oh man. What if he’s right?” Roush asked.
Calipari’s players have had tremendous success at the NBA level, with 70% of his players ending up being NBA Draft selections. But that success has not resulted in postseason wins for Kentucky as of late, as older and more experienced college basketball teams have trended in the right direction during March compared to young and talented teams like Kentucky.
“Each year Andy we’re having to do the same thing we did for so many years,” Roush said. “And that’s well next year they’re gonna have some good players, maybe they can do it. And it’s gotten to the point where this next group of guys, I don’t know who it’s gonna be, is Reed Sheppard gonna come back? DJ Wagner? They could have a really talented roster.”
Per usual, there’s a level of uncertainty surrounding Kentucky regarding which players will declare for the NBA Draft or return to the program. The only difference this offseason is that there are now questions about if their head coach will be back as well.
“But now Cal has backed himself into a corner because it’s all been about March, well that pressure’s up even more because you know hard it is to believe that a team that went to Knoxville and beat Tennessee two Saturdays ago didn’t win another game? And you know what? That’s all that matters,” Roush said.