How safe is John Calipari’s job at Kentucky?

Another year, another disappointing season for the Kentucky Wildcats. After receiving a top 5 preseason ranking in 2022, Kentucky, once again, failed to meet expectations under John Calipari. In mid-January, it looked as though Calipari’s ball club was in legitimate danger of missing out on the NCAA Tournament, considering they had just lost to a South Carolina team who was moving in the wrong direction. Fortunately, their overall body of work helped them secure an at-large bid in March, but they exited the Big Dance early for the second straight season.

Now, a 22-12 finish with an NCAA Tournament victory would be terrific at schools like Vanderbilt and Georgia, but Kentucky is looking to hang Final Four/National Championship banners as often as possible. During Calipari’s first six seasons as the Wildcats’ head coach, Kentucky was able to put up several banners in the Memorial Coliseum. In just his second season with the program (2010-11), Calipari led the Wildcats to a 29-9 overall record and a Final Four appearance. He followed that up with a 38-win campaign in 2011-12 and a 67-59 victory over Kansas in the NCAA title game. After a less than stellar 2012-13 season, Calipari and company reached two consecutive Final Fours and nearly finished the 2014-15 season with a perfect record. Since then, well…. the Wildcats have zero Final Fours, zero National Championships and just two showings in the Elite 8.

I get it, the days of watching Julius Randle, Demarcus Cousins, Devin Booker, Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Davis play in Lexington are long gone, but Calipari has had more than enough talent in recent years to win four or more games in the NCAA Tournament. Besides, every basketball head knows that it’s all about how you utilize the key members of your ball club. I mean, Dan Hurley did a tremendous job of putting his rotation players in a position to succeed last season, which explains why UConn was the last team standing in 2022-23. For instance, Adam Sanogo got plenty of touches in the low-post, Jordan Hawkins received a plethora of stagger/pindown screens to get open looks on the perimeter, Andre Jackson Jr. got to put his facilitating skills on full display and Tristen Newton made various reads in pick-and-roll situations.

Were the Huskies the most talented team in the NCAA Tournament? Perhaps not, but they were so well-coached that they managed to secure six victories by at least 13 points. So no, I don’t believe that John Calipari is on the hot seat just yet, but another lackluster season could put him in some trouble moving forward. If the long-time Division 1 head coach wants to keep his fanbase off his back, he’ll deliver a deep NCAA Tournament run in 2023-24.