When John Calipari trots out to “On, On, U of K” in the Mercedes Benz Superdome on Saturday night, a nation will stand unified and root against him.
While Kentucky is unquestionably the wildest and loudest college basketball fan base in the country, not even the state they represent will be completely behind them. Unless you bleed blue or are in position to win your tournament pool, you don’t want this team to cut down more nets.
That’s not a knock on freshmen phenoms Anthony Davis or Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, or senior Darius Miller, or the soft-spoken Doron Lamb. They’re all well deserving of a National Championship, and players a casual fan could develop a rooting interest for.
The reason for the venom being thrown around is all about Cal. He’s a fantastic basketball coach, no doubt, but as long as he’s the face of Big Blue Nation, few want this program to achieve excellence.
We’re not trolling, we’re just a culture that chooses to believe the bad and gloss over the good. You can’t sensationalize Calipari’s charitable deeds (and there are a number of them), but you can sensationalize all the speculation as to just how and why two of his former programs were put on probation but Calipari got off clean. You are also free to draw your own conclusions as to how he gets the pick of the litter from each high school recruiting class.
Whatever Cal did or didn’t do that crippled UMass and temporarily handcuffed Memphis I don’t care about. Perhaps there are a few members of the NCAA still flummoxed trying to prove something they’re quite certain of, but for the most part life goes on.
No, whatever Calipari may or may not be hiding in his closet isn’t why I’d prefer to see him lose, it’s what we see when the bright lights are shining: Cal’s effort to be charismatic sends shivers up and down my spine.
His personality borders on con-artist friendly, too-good-to-be-true charming, which raises red flags and prevents me from trusting him and his motives.
He reminds me of a used car salesman.
From giving back-handed compliments to Charles Barkley after beating Iowa State, to telling Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg that Anthony Davis was just being a “momma’s boy” when he banged knees with Perry Jones III during South Regional finals, Calipari’s method of interpersonal communication rubs me the wrong way, and it leads me to believe he’s overcompensating for something. Whether or not it’s for allowing someone not named Derrick Rose to take Derrick Rose’s SAT, I don’t know. I haven’t been in the thick of this long enough to confidently formulate an educated argument, but I do know I would never send my kid to play basketball for John Calipari.
Sure he’d do his best to get my kid to the NBA if that was the best place for him, but there’s other schools that produce pro players too ... and I’m probably not going to raise a professional athlete.
Fair or unfair, my dislike for Calipari has nothing to do with basketball, and everything to do with what I see through a number of mediums.
Maybe he really is a genuinely nice person. Maybe he’s cordial and doesn’t do things public figures are forced to do for the sake of maintaining a favorable perception with the masses, but I don’t buy it.
I could be way off, ridicule me if you’d like, but if Kentucky wins the 2012 National Championship, I’d prefer it if we didn’t hail Cal.
We don’t need him gabbing anymore than he already does.
Follow Nick Fasulo on Twitter @billyedelinSBN
