While all of your points are valid I think it goes a little deeper than that. Calipari has obviously been a successful college coach so saying "he's won" is a tough point to argue against. Recruiting and motivating are the two most important qualities of a college basketball coach and Calipari has them both in spades which is why he's been successful. Plenty of coaches have won titles without being great in-game coaches.
However, the eye test in-game still leaves quite a bit to be desired, anyone that understands the depths of basketball knows that Calipari isn't a great X's and O's coach just like Roy Williams, Rick Barnes, etc. He has a very basic system and does not adjust well (not that this is that much of an aberration in the coaching world). Basic systems tend to struggle against elite defenses. Also, just a personal opinion of mine, but there is absolutely no reason or excuse to use such a simple system. The more movement and more you have going on in your offense the more the defense has to work and the more opportunities there will be for defenses to make a mistake that you can capitalize on. Basically he's going with a simple system because A) he can get away with it in college with supreme freshman talent each year B) it isn't that far from what these poor kids are used to in AAU. Some people think that's genius, I get why he does it but I think it's a foolish move. For anyone who disagrees with me, I completely get the opposite side of the argument (why install a complicated offense for a core of players that'll be on campus for seven months?), just my opinion on the matter.
In addition to simplicity, for young college kids, I think he gives them too much freedom. Young players need more guidance and structure. They're still learning the game. Having your "secret tweak" being that you told your starting PG who shoots 36% from the field to shoot less and pass more is not genius, that's common freaking sense.
- He pretty much threw last year's team under the bus for their underachieving ways (at least he took a brunt of the blame this year).
- When UK made the boneheaded foul with under a minute left in the title game that ultimately put things on ice for UConn, Calipari's press conference response was to shrug it off to the fact that they're freshman.
- When asked about Randle struggles? He's a freshman, and he was a little nervous and a little tired.
- Why in the world you would ever put James Young on Napier to start the title game or switch every ball screen literally had me laughing at my TV. Did Calipari watch a second of the MSU or Florida film? This stuff isn't rocket science.
- Teams that don't execute well out of timeouts (or coaches that don't have uniquely drawn plays in the huddle) drive me crazy.
So basically he's a genius when they win and when he loses it's the player's fault because "they're freshman". Kudos to him for trying to relieve the pressure from his kids but it's complete BS.
To say overall that he's a bad coach is obviously foolish, I understand why UK fans get tired of the blanket statement from probably clueless opposing fans that say it only because they hear so many other fans say it. He does two-thirds of the coaching trinity extremely well and that's enough to win a lot of games but he's an average-at-best in-game coach.
It is also funny that Calipari is one of the few guys that gets knocked for being out-coached. Ollie out-coached Izzo and Donovan quite a bit and you barely heard a peep from the media about it. He made several mid-game adjustments that pretty much led to UConn winning.
Moral of the story...