00:00Let's talk about John Calipari. You wrote an article about he deserved a better fate than to go back to Rupp Arena and get abused by fans.
00:11Well, who did the abusing on Saturday when Cal went back to Rupp and what he did to the Wildcats?
00:18One wonders if they had been kinder upon his entry, whether or not it would have gone the same way.
00:25But I know this is a really, this is kind of a reach, but you'll appreciate this, Scott, as someone who grew up in Western Pennsylvania.
00:32When I was in college, I played softball for a radio station where I was interning.
00:37And one day we played a game or a series of games in Three Rivers Stadium.
00:42And I'm telling you, I could have flown up to the top of the wall and snagged everything I hit, everything I swung at.
00:49It was just total inspiration because of where I was playing.
00:53And I think that happened with all the Arkansas players who were going back to Kentucky and facing the people who made them feel like they weren't quite good enough.
01:02Now, they weren't quite good enough. They did lose to Oakland in the first round of last season's tournament.
01:07But I think they all wanted a little vengeance for that. And they certainly got it.
01:12Aduthiero, another Western Pennsylvania guy, did a phenomenal job in that game.
01:18DJ Wagner maybe had the best game of his college career, which is a really nice thing for him because he had struggled a lot of this season.
01:27It was big. Zvonar, Zonavar Misic also had a big game.
01:32All the Kentucky guys that went back with Cal had huge games.
01:36And I guess we could say Cal did, too, because his team came out the victor.
01:43They really have struggled this year.
01:47And there was talk of buyer's remorse in Fayetteville, which is insanity.
01:53You and I both knew that it wasn't going to be with immediacy that he went down there with, frankly, the mess that he picked up to take that job.
02:04I think he got away from a job that's really unpleasable.
02:08You can't win. I mean, at Rupp, they think you should win every game and win the title every year.
02:12They're unrealistic. They're insane.
02:14And so he got away from that nightmare and he went to build another program because he had already built Kentucky into a national champion.
02:21He'd already done his job there.
02:23And then why sit around and get abused?
02:25But when he went down there, all they've been doing is ripping him because they haven't been winning every game because they're, I guess, as stupid as the fans are in Lexington.
02:33Well, I don't think it's the fans in Lexington who are doing it, Scott.
02:36I think it's the people who don't like him elsewhere.
02:38And they are Legion, as you may know.
02:41He has lots of detractors in the media in particular and beyond that, in fandoms elsewhere.
02:48And so they use this opportunity to say, hey, look, if you can get it done at Louisville in a year, why can't you get it done in Arkansas in a year?
02:56Well, it's not always the same.
02:58He's had a few injuries.
03:00He's had players that weren't 100 percent healthy that he was counting on to be significant contributors.
03:05He lost Boogie Fland, his terrific point guard for the year.
03:10So there are circumstances.
03:12You can't expect everything to happen in a year.
03:14If it does, like it has for Mark Pope at Kentucky, good for you.
03:18That's awesome.
03:19But if it doesn't, you can't right away be saying, well, if others can do it, you should be doing it, too.
Be the first to comment