Paul Finebaum believes Kentucky fans should be 'happy' to separate from John Calipari

After head coach John Calipari decided to leave Kentucky for Arkansas, there were plenty of questions to answer, in particular how to feel about that separation.

Analyst Paul Finebaum went on Get Up the morning following the news of Calipari’s departure. There, he explained why he believes that Kentucky fans are, as a group, happy to be able to move on from Calipari.

“Amazingly, I think both fanbases are happy this morning,” Paul Finebaum said. “You say, ‘How could that be? Cal is a legend.’ Well, he’s a legend who had really played out at the University of Kentucky. Fans were tired of him when he got knocked out by Oakland, that was the second time in three seasons he lost in the first round. That is unforgivable, and I think he came within a whisker of getting fired. The only reason he stayed there, a $33 million buyout.”

John Calipari had been at Kentucky since the 2009-2010 season. During his time in Lexington, Calipari won a national championship and went to four different Final Fours. However, with recent struggles in the NCAA Tournament, there was tension between fans and Calipari.

“Meanwhile, Arkansas has been a great program. We know about Nolan Richardson and that epic era, but Eric Musselman had taken them to two Elite Eights and three Sweet 16s and when he left the other day people were going, ‘Where can this program go?’ They get John Calipari, who on one hand might be diminished but when you give him a chance to restart it will be welcome to that fanbase,” Finebaum said.

“But the University of Kentucky this morning has an opportunity to upgrade the program after Calipari.”

Kentucky insider lists candidates to replace John Calipari

With John Calipari on the move, the question now becomes who is going to replace him at Kentucky? After all, this is one of the premier jobs in all of college basketball and plenty of coaches would jump at the opportunity.

With that in mind, Kentucky Sports Radio’s Matt Jones put together a list of three names to take a look at.

That list included Alabama’s Nate Oats, Baylor’s Scott Drew, and Illinois’ Brad Underwood. All three of those are sitting Power Five head coaches. Oats, in particular, is coming off a phenomenal season where he took the Crimson Tide to the Final Four and is also already in the SEC.

There are certainly more names that could come up. However, this list does give some insight into who the Wildcats could be looking at for the future.