Kentucky Yearly Basketball Calendar Recruiting – Kentucky gets a visit from another 5 star, can’t miss, 5 tool player….Kentucky Lock… Oops – 5 star can’t miss prospect commits to Rat Face – RR reaction: (Rat face is gone, but the steal is still there) Bag man strikes, he is overrated anyway, we have better players, we only want guys that want to be here, he sucks…. Recruiting, cont. – Kentucky fans stalk 18 year old kids on Twitter and fantasize about their future at Kentucky….kinda creepy… Recruiting, cont. - Cal gets his copy of the Rivals, 247 and ESPN player rankings and starts at the top and works his way down the list. No low hanging fruit for this Cat….fans continue to stalk… # 1 class - Kentucky fans celebrate the only victory they will get against Duke in finishing with the #1 recruiting class n the nation signing 4 future NBA draft picks. More Awards - Kentucky wins another Mythical Recruiting National Championship and Cal goes to Minot, North Dakota to accept the “Ron Zook, I’m the Best Damn Recruiter Award” again…Rupp Rafters starts printing 40 - 0 t-shirts. Preseason – Cal takes the Cats on a trip to the Bahamas where the team rips up some undermanned teams like the Rasta Academy of Hair Braiding and Conch State Jellyfish while hoping to knit the team together with team bonding time. Talk of 40-0 starts to purse the lips of some rabid RR faithful…this is the year…hanging # 9… First Game - :47 seconds into the first game and threads are already exploding blaming the refs and the conspiracy theory begins… Kentucky wins opener – Beat North Central Regional Polytechnical Institue for the Slow and Awkward in the season opener and the first Rupp Rafters 40-0 thread is posted. T-Shirts are ordered, or actually they can just use last years, or the year before, or… Kentucky’s First loss – Kentucky losses to a team they shouldn’t and RR thread topics: “Refs screwed us. This loss will help us. This is our wake-up call we needed” "This won't matter in March"....blah of the blah.....Cal’s press conference: “It’s all about the kids”, We are very young, etc. Blah, Blah, Double Blah…. Another Loss – Cal says he will tweak his platoon lineup and it’s a process, but we are a very young team. A couple more losses – Kentucky fans are ready to release the 5 star superstar player they were just praising a few months ago as a great player when they landed him and were singing his praises saying stuff like “He’s slicker then the grease off a b-b-q biscuit” and “he’s faster than a bee stung stallion” They are now eating their young with comments like “He’s about as useful as a pogo stick in quicksand” or “If his brains were dynamite, he couldn’t blow his nose” or “The engine’s runnin’ but nobody’s driving” Kentucky finishes season – Players improve, start to play together, play better, win games, hope returns to Big Blue Nation. Bring on the postseason…. SEC Season – Kentucky waltzes through the SEC Season and earns a high seed in NCAA tourney. Selection Sunday – Kentucky gets the proverbial 1, 2 or 3 seed and an automatic bid to the Sweet Sixteen , so the whole season boils down to having to win only 4 games ….should be no trouble. Bracket released – Rupp Rafters geniuses post: We got screwed…piss poor bracket….NCAA hates Kentucky. First Round game – Kentucky beats up on Central Missouri Southern State 92-45..banner gets ordered…oops, not so fast my friend...St. Peters ....huh? Oakland....who, the Raiders....you are kidding me.... Second Round Game – Kentucky beats up on overmatched 7, 8 or 9 seed and slides into another Sweet Sixteen. It is now just a four game season….easy peasy…wait till next year Sweet Sixteen – Kentucky struggles, but Cal gets another groundbreaking Elite Eight and the fan base breathes a sigh of relief so when Cal craps the bed in the subsequent rounds they can always point to Elite Eights and say looky, looky at Cal the Great. Elite Eight -- Oh Crap…not again…One and Done’s are None and Done….Cal gets outcoached again…. Rupp Rafters : ”We would be National Champs the last 3 years if it was not for the refs, ESPN and Dick Vitale”….. 5 minutes after loss – RR first thread “who comes back, who goes, shoulda woulda could ad nauseum… 10 minutes after loss – Ashley Judd accepts the role of Grand Marshall in the “Annual Moral Victory Bridesmaid Parade” in Monkey Eyebrow, Kentucky for the 8th straight year after the Athletic Department was turned down by 11 other candidates…. 1 day after loss – the Cal Slurpers and Spin Doctors are out in full force…keep promoting how successful he is and how no other coach has had this success, look at all the Elite Eights, etc. while settling for second best and they keep hanging in there like loose teeth in a dive bar singles night..…. While the logical, knowledgeable Kentucky fans are less forgiving saying…” 1 title with this much talent” “ even a blind squirrel finds an acorn” “He's ridin' a gravy train on biscuit wheels”. 1 week after NCAA Tournament is over - Attention turns to the NBA and all the great Kentucky National Champions who are on NBA rosters….Oh Wait..it’s a short list….time to live vicariously through former Cats in the show….Cal starts to write his memoir "How to steal Millions without a Gun" NBA Season ends – Calipari rumors of NBA jobs hit the media busier than ants on a tree stump….but Cal denies all rumors and says he loves Kentucky, no better job and so on, when he realizes that no NBA team wants anything to do with him. One NBA executive is quoted as saying… “Big Hat, No Cattle” Rewind to the top for next year….
I love that John Calamari keeps this calendar so spot on each year and gives me the pleasure of being able to post it...the gift that keeps giving....Kentucky Basketball...
Another year and I faithfully dust off the calendar for another year of Calimari and his Kids....see first loss....it has already started....Rinse and Repeat....
Cal has his warts but if he was doing this at UF we would feel different about him. Most of us would take the Cal issues to have a legitimate shot at a national title every year and the opportunity to see those talented players in Gator uniforms. You have to understand that college basketball is a sleazy business and the coaches at the top are the masters of the cesspool.
There are several coaches for whom I would never root . . . and if they came to Florida, my fanhood would be suspended instantly. Cal is one.
I agree....I would have to be in the minority then if most would welcome him...sorry, I can't embrace sleaze.
Well, my BFF Calimari makes this too easy....I think his hair product is soaking in and affecting his judgement.....yet some will continue too be okay with being a bridesmaid......
Kentucky will be up and down. They will get better as the season progresses. When they play us usually in February, they will wake up and play lights out. Time for us to knock them off twice and get them a low seed in a tough out of state bracket. Watch them flame out second game. That is what we want! Easier said then done.
The Greatest College Basketball Programs Ever: Ranking the top teams of all time I'm not happy with this year's UK team and am concerned about Cal's future at UK (at how successful it can be). But the thought of UK always being a brides made or Cal's "calendar" inevitably leading to a lack of success is laughable. Look at the quote above. During Cal's time at UK, UK is "unequivocally" the most successful, consistent program in college basketball. The future may not be a given but the past 10 years, the ones you like to make fun of, are the collective best in the sport. It shows how irrational attempts at disparaging a rival can become.
No doubt, but most of those disagreeing with me would be the same ones who were laughing at anyone not ranking UK in the top 5, prior to the season. UK fans weren't anticipating 40-0 but the prevalent thought was a team possibly in the league of 2010, 2012, 2015. Its obviously laughable. I mentioned the OP being, somewhat, irrational in his characterization of UK's success. The deficit of rational thought at RR is even more severe.
I would not dispute the ranking of Kentucky being the best College Basketball Program of all time. However, I do question the very heavy weight the ranking methodology puts on getting Players into the NBA. I guess that it is part and parcel of the modern sport but if a coach has done a great job as a teacher isn’t that already reflected in the team’s overall W-L record? I know that getting players into NBA IS what college basketball is all about. I just think that it devalues college basketball. It’s reality but I don’t have to like it.
just think the calendar is pretty darn funny....it is meant for fun and enjoyment for those Gator fans on this Gator board who don't like Cal and while it might get some riled up, I personally enjoy it. I don't deny Cal has had some success, but I enjoy his failures much more.....
Fair enough, and I hear ya. Not that I dislike Cal but I've always been able to see why others would. I fear the next few years will provide those opposed to Cal some pretty low hanging fruit...
What is World Wide Wes up to these days? I think that he has some "job" with the Knicks. What does an Executive Vice President do for an NBA team?
I just had to bring it out of retirement....Cal is the gift that keeps giving and Cal makes it easy....
