John Calipari Finally Tells The Truth - Admits He Should Have Taken The UCLA Job Five Years Ago, Everyone Would Have Been Better If It Happened

Finally. Finally John Calipari told the truth. He always talked about a 10-year shelf life at Kentucky. He had a chance to leave in 2019 for UCLA, which ultimately led to the lifetime contract and a damn near Civil War between Kentucky fans. Since he flirted with that job and decided to come back, he had one truly successful season - one that ended with COVID. We won the SEC regular season, had a group led by Maxey and Quickley that would have been a favorite in the NCAA Tournament. 

Instead it led to four years of fighting. Four years of people screaming about John Calipari one way or another. The 2020-21 season was a 9-win low point. He followed that up with a loss to St. Peter's, a 6-seed and a loss to Oakland. Things that just can't happen in a row yet here we are. Then we know what happened. Everyone agreed it was time to move on from Calipari, except he took a job in the conference. 

He's now viewed differently strictly because of all that. He's an enemy to me and every Kentucky fan. No Kentucky fan wants Cal to do well at Arkansas. They are a rival. You're not a Kentucky fan if you're out here cheering for Arkansas. He might not have ill-will towards Kentucky but we sure as shit can have ill-will for the fact we don't want a conference rival to do well. Pretty simple here. I'll always say it, the run he had the first 9 years was awesome. 2012 was as high as a high can get. But he's gone and Pope is in. We have one of ours back in charge. 

If he took the UCLA job of course people would bitch. Welcome to being a fan. But everyone would have been better off. Kentucky fans would have held Cal in a higher standard right off the bat because we wouldn't have had the embarrassment of 2021-2024 on our hands. Who knows what coach we would have had, but in terms of the Cal era we'd all be better off. At least he finally told the truth.