1996 uk basketball roster4/20/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() With another early loss in the NCAA tournament, Calipari's approval rating will drop, he said. ![]() He, like a multitude of fans, had been frustrated by another tough loss. Hours after Kentucky's loss to Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday, Ryan Lemond, a longtime fan and local radio personality, jumped into his black 2018 Chevy Equinox and raced up I-65 North back to Lexington. The head coach of Kentucky's program, however, endures a level of scrutiny no other men's basketball coach in America faces. Every coach in the NCAA tournament feels that pressure. Per the team's supporters, this could all descend into chaos again if Kentucky gets bounced early in the NCAA tournament for a second year in a row. Then Kentucky lost its first SEC tournament game against Vanderbilt, its second loss to Jerry Stackhouse's squad in nine days. Some of the tension around Calipari had simmered when it became clear that Kentucky would be safe on Selection Sunday. 'Legit 10 to 14 teams': Coaches and NBA scouts predict potential March Madness winners.It affects them the same." Editor's Picks "I can get fan mail from a kid who is 8 years old or a woman who is 80 years old. "I think Kentucky basketball is like a religion in the state," said Jack "Goose" Givens, an All-American at Kentucky in the late 1970s. The eight-year Final Four drought at Kentucky has made the fan base antsy, and Calipari's lifetime contract (he has a $40 million buyout) did not stop the tweets and late-night phone calls to local radio stations calling for a change earlier this season. That perennial hunger for a national championship can fuel the support and also turn up the pressure on the leader of the program. In 2012, Calipari won a national title in his third season at a school that does not hold ceremonies for teams that only reach the Final Four. helped the program rally and secure a respectable seed in the NCAA tournament this year. 1 recruiting class in America, anchored by top 2023 prospect D.J. Those expectations have fueled the pressure-cooker that surrounds John Calipari - who "politely declined" ESPN's interview request for this story - as he prepares the sixth-seeded Wildcats to face 11-seed Providence on Friday, a year after losing to Saint Peter's in the first round and two years after an abysmal 9-16 campaign. "I was like, 'No, we play for Final Fours at Kentucky, and anything else is a disappointment.'" "I started to laugh because I thought it was a joke," Chapman said. To Kentuckians, Kentucky basketball is what the Dallas Cowboys are to Texans or what the Yankees are to New Yorkers. He grew up in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and he understood Kentucky basketball was second only to God, depending on the household. "Boys," he told his team, "this is what you're playing for."Īnd that's when Chapman, the only Kentucky native on the roster, began to chuckle. Inside, there were the five bejeweled Southwest Conference championship rings Sutton had won during his time at Arkansas. It was 1986 during his first practice with Kentucky, where he starred for two seasons before he was the eighth pick in the 1988 NBA draft.įormer coach Eddie Sutton had walked onto the Rupp Arena floor with a large jewelry box. LEXINGTON, Kentucky - Rex Chapman couldn't stop laughing. ![]()
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