Is this John Calipari's last year?

[MrBug708]

They have some serious issues right now. Players are actually flunking out of Memphis, the team has little chemistry full of me first players, and they have a pitiful RPI and are barely over .500.

Will they finally hire a decent coach? Calipari seems to be cut in the same mold as Quinn Snyder and Steve Lavin. All flash, little of anything else. I expect Billy Donovan to also join that prestigious club here soon enough.

[Mr. Wednesday]

There was a time when Calipari seemed like a decent coach. He brought UMass back from the dead before selling his soul to Marcus Camby, although I suppose there maybe should be some questions about how straight the team was before that.

[IMetTrentGreen]

steve lavin doesn't belong in that group. yeah he was a lousy coach, but he didn't buy his talent like the other do

[Warhammer]

Also, his courting of every big job opening is getting tiresome after each off-season. But, I lay a lot of the blame for this season on Sean Banks. After last year, he basically turned off the lights upstairs. I bet he is going to announce for the NBA draft, and stupidly sign an agent. Rather than work on bulking up a bit, get his grades in order, come back on a mission for his junior year, then declare.

[BishopMVP]

There was a time when Calipari seemed like a decent coach. He brought UMass back from the dead before selling his soul to Marcus Camby, although I suppose there maybe should be some questions about how straight the team was before that.We'll take him back in a heartbeat. In fact, one of the rumored replacements for Lappas after last year was Tony Barbee, an assistant to Calipari and player at UMass from 89-92 I believe. The Camby thing was overblown, and has happened at pretty much every major college program in the country. The same exact chain of events (agent gives player gifts without the coaches knowledge) happened at Duke with Corey Maggette and there was no punishment at all (which shows the NCAAs double standard and favoritism more than anything else.)

Cal was the perfect coach for a place like UMass - he could coach, market the team well and recruit above the level of players the team should have gotten, and not because he was paying them. Then he went to the NBA, failed horribly and went to Memphis, where instead of trying to build up a program like UMass slowly evolving from a horrible team to one that was a mid-level NCAA team every year, with the occasional great run when a Camby or Lou Roe showed up, he tried to turn Memphis into an instant Final 4 contender. Since he didn't have the prestige to get the best players like Duke or Kentucky, he went after talented players with questionable character, grades, desire to play in college etc. Occasionally they would come, at least for a short time (Dajuan Wagner, Darius Washington) but a lot jumped straight to the NBA (Stoudemire, Woods, etc) and some of the others that came had character questions. If he stopped trying for the quick fix national title contender and concentrated on building a program up again he would still be a great coach. Maybe a disaster at Memphis is what it will take for him to realize that.

[GoldenEagle]

The problem with Memphis is they recruit players who want to better themselves for the NBA and that is it. Coach Cal tells them that he will get them ready for the NBA. As a result, we get selfish play and guys that do not want to dive for loose balls because they may hurt themselves. The play has improved since the beginning of the year, but the still play way too selfish.

We also lack quality big men. Joey Dorsey is just a freshman and gets in foul trouble way too much. After that, we have nothing. Hopefully next year we can get some of these guys to come and contribute to the program. We have signed the entire Ladenburg Prep team starters.

The problem with Sean Banks is he listened to the wrong people. They told him he was already for the NBA. They told him to just go to Memphis and be the star. He played very selfish and had no concept of the team. He did not go to class since he figured he was lock for the NBA. He will be lucky now if he gets to go to the development league. No one is going to take a chance on that attitude.

As for as Cal goes, he needs to go back to what worked for him previously. He needs to bring in hard working players who will play for them team and not for themselves. He needs to quit this I was a NBA coach crap and just recruit solid players. If they were a star in high school then that is fine but he needs to change them from day one to the concept of the team.

Cal is a good basketball coach as history dictates. Memphis would be foolish to get rid of him. He is not as sleazy as everyone thinks and is actually a great guy around the community. I do not think he deserves the huge salary he gets but that is a different topic.

It has just been a down and frustrating year. I think this may humble the program a bit and get them back up to speed next yea. That is the wishful thinking, anyway.