Long losing streaks under Calipari don't come often

March 14th, 1999: New Jersey Nets head coach John Calipari walked off the floor at Miami Arena following his team's seventh straight loss. The next day, the Nets relieved Calipari of his duties with the team; ending a 3-17 start to the season. The next year, Calipari was hired by Memphis and later in the decade Kentucky. Since moving back to college, the UK head coach hadn't lost five games in a row again, until yesterday. A stretch of 695 games and nearly 8,000 days. In fact, Calipari has not had many long streaks in his coaching career. With the Nets in the NBA, he had only one other seven-game losing streak; ironically coming in his only winning season with the team. Prior to the streak that cost him his job, he had a six-game losing sequence. His first season as a headman in the NBA saw three losing streaks of five-games, including the first five of his career. [caption id="attachment_312007" align="aligncenter" width="1820"] Image via UK Athletics[/caption] Prior to his time in New Jersey, you would have to go back to his first two years at UMass to find another streak of five games or more. In both January 1989 and 1990, the Minutemen found themselves losers of five straight. In his career as a head coach, Calipari has only had eight streaks of five losses or more prior to yesterday's ninth. Five of those eight stretches ended at five straight losses. Those came across two college seasons and three professional years. Only twice did his team finish with a winning record; a 43-39 record in his second year in New Jersey and a 17-14 mark in his second year in Massachusetts. This Saturday against Louisville, Calipari will try to avoid his first six-game losing streak at the college level with a rivalry contest against Louisville. If there was ever such a thing as a must-win, this one would fit the definition.