During his regular appearance on WJOX’s “McElroy and Cubelic In the Morning,” ESPN commentator Paul Finebaum expressed his candid reaction to Kentucky’s loss to Kansas State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. He noted that Kentucky, which was once a proud program, has become irrelevant in the elite college basketball world.
“Kentucky has become irrelevant, you’re right, Greg,” Finebaum said. “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. Then they laid another egg. To the elite college basketball world, getting knocked out in the Round of 32 is a failure.”
He further added that the expectation of Kentucky every year is to make it far into the tournament, but they have failed to do so consistently in recent years. Finebaum noted that even by “moving the goal posts,” UK had to reach the Sweet 16 because of the last few seasons of having a losing season, and last year losing to Saint Peter’s to open the NCAA Tournament.
“Just to wash away the stench of the last couple years,” Finebaum said. “… There’s no way you can look this season as anything other than a failure. And there’s no way you can look at John Calipari’s career as saying nothing but the clock is ticking loudly.”
Furthermore, Finebaum emphasized that it has been 11 years since Kentucky’s last national championship and eight years since their last Final Four appearance, indicating that there is a growing sense of concern about the state of the program.
It’s worth noting that John Calipari has been the head coach of Kentucky’s basketball team since 2009 and is widely regarded as one of the best coaches in the sport. However, Finebaum’s comments suggest that even Calipari’s job security may be in question if the program’s performance doesn’t improve in the near future.
You can listen to the whole interview here.
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