Paul Finebaum hasn’t been shy about voicing his opinion on the Kentucky basketball program under John Calipari.
The ESPN personality said last August that Calipari was no longer the best option for Kentucky when the UK coach referred to Kentucky as a “basketball school” while in the Bahamas, creating a back-and-forth between basketball and Mark Stoops’ football program.
Just last week, Finebaum joined McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, where he said this NCAA Tournament was critical for Calipari and his future at Kentucky.
On Monday, Finebaum again had criticism for Calipari on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning
“Kentucky has become irrelevant,” said Finebaum. “We get all excited about them every year because they’ve got the No. 1 recruiting class coming in, which they do again. In November, they were the No. 4 team in the country. They had to fight to get into the tournament in February, which they did, and then they laid another egg. To the elite college basketball world, getting knocked out in the Round of 32 is a failure.
“I thought just by moving the goalposts or the goals this year with Kentucky, they had to get to the Sweet 16 just to wash away the stench of the last couple of years. You had Covid, you had a losing season, then last year losing to Saint Peter’s in round one, which is one of the worst losses. It has some company after this past couple of days, but it’s still one of the worst losses in modern college basketball history. And now this.
“Beating Providence saved the day on Friday from a complete disaster, but there’s no way you can look at this season as anything other than a failure. And there’s also no way you can look at John Calipari’s career as saying nothing but the clock is ticking loudly. You can say whatever you want about his record, but it’s been 11 years since his National Championship, it’s been eight years now since a Final Four, and over the last four years this program has one NCAA Tournament win. That’s a failure.”
