Seth Greenberg predicts John Calipari will make another run in the NCAA Tournament

Morale is anything but high in Lexington right now. After Kentucky bowed out of the NCAA Tournament early on again, the opinions of the program and on John Calipari are on unsteady ground. Even so, Seth Greenberg says that the Bluegrass, as well as the college basketball world as a whole, needs to settle down.

Greenberg shared his thoughts on Cal and Kentucky during Monday’s episode of First Take on ESPN. He thinks that, with the right combination of youth and experience next season, the Wildcats have a chance to be back in the right part of the March Madness picture come a year from now.

“John Calipari’s going to be around,” Greenberg said. “He’s got an incredible recruiting class coming in. DJ Wagner, obviously. And he’s going to complement him with a bunch of transfers in the portal. They get an older, more mature team around that group? John Calipari’s going to make a run at an NCAA Tournament.”

From there, he gave credit to Calipari for what he and this season’s group of Wildcats did manage to accomplish. It’s fair to say that a 22-12 record and another loss in the tournament’s first weekend is by no means a success when it comes to the expectations at UK.

With that said, Greenberg listed off several reasons why, in his mind, this year’s team overachieved and could have gone even further had their best scorer not picked a bad day to go ice cold.

“John Calipari didn’t forget how to coach. This roster had flaws. That’s just the way it is,” said Greenberg. “It wasn’t deep enough, they lost their backup at the point guard when Sahvir Wheeler went out. You look at this team? It had a very, very small margin of error. I actually think they overachieved with this roster. Yesterday, they were in a position to win that game. You got to tip your hat to Kansas State. Back-to-back big threes. And then you talk about Kentucky? Antonio Reeves just couldn’t buy a basket.”

When it comes to Calipari and Kentucky, Greenberg says they’re going to be just fine. The fanbase might as well buckle up in his opinion, too, considering his lifetime deal and, hopefully, his desire to get the program back in legitimate contention.

“John Calipari’s going to be there and he’s going to leave when he wants to leave,” said Greenberg. “I think he wants to make one more run and I think he will make one more run.”