Coach John Calipari instructs Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in the win over Ole Miss. (Gary Moyers videographer)
By LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky has now won 50 straight home games — Billy Gillispie’s final home game and 49 straight by Calipari — in the last three-plus seasons.
“Well, it the first I’ve thought of it,†John Calipari said after Saturday’s game. “It is 50? That’s a lot of games.â€
Then he joked a bit about the pressure to win at Kentucky.
“I made an exclusive decision with the radio group outside, the 9,000 people that stay after (the game). If we lose, I do not sign one ball. So you guys better cheer your guts out for us to win,†Calipari said. “If I walk in there after an L (loss), no balls get signed. So now I’ll be out there signing 200 basketballs before I leave the building.â€
Kennedy said he didn’t mention the streak to his team.
“For us, we talked about a lot of things, and that wasn’t one of them. I didn’t want to bring that to our guy’s attention,†the Mississippi coach said.
13 Responses to Calipari has his own motivation for Rupp Arena fans to cheer for wins
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Larry missed your show with Evan Daniels. I couldn’t get reception for iheart radio. I hope you can recap where Evan thinks we stand with the recruits.
will do big bear.
Agree with Bear Larry. Didn’t get to listen either. I’d love to know what Daniels had to say about our chances with Noel, Bennett, Bazz, and Pollard in particular. Can we get 3 out of the four, along with our current signees, if we lose 7 off this team? Whats your thoughts on MKG and/or Teague returning?
Cal actually started saying this in his post-game show after the Tennessee game at Rupp 2 weeks ago. He repeated it again after the Florida game as well.
Something tells me it still won’t stop him from signing.
I’ll relate this story to show how important it is that Cal signs things, win or lose.
Cal signed basketballs during the first two segments of his post-game show. After he finished the final segment, he told the crowd that he was very tired and there were so many people with basketballs, that it would take him an hour to sign them all. He asked for the crowd’s understanding and ended the show without doing his final round of signing. As my daughter and I were leaving the arena, there was a young boy (maybe 7 or 8), with a brand new ball. Appartently he did not get it signed because he threw it against the concrete wall at the entrance of the parking lot and then set it down by the wall and walked away, stating that he didn’t want it. His mom had to pick it up and carry it.
I don’t think Cal would disappoint people like that on a nightly basis. He knows how much this stuff means to the fans, especially the kids. And I think he knows that, if people hang around, ESPECIALLY AFTER A LOSS, they deserve to get a signature.
I imagine it’s exhausting to have folks chasing after you all the time for a handshake or autograph everywhere you go. When I think of the story about the boy that was related, I come back to one thing: Have I ever had to say “no” to my own children? Of course I have and I LOVE them. I hope that kid gets his ball signed, but it’s not Cal’s responsibility to fulfill every fan’s wishes, adult or child. Hopefully it was a good opportunity for that young man’s parent to teach him about handling disappointment. I think people lose sight of the fact that Cal has a family, too.
Great response!
Good points rob. And Rob is the one with the great song about Kentucky basketball that you can listen to here — Go Big Blue. I love that song
It’s a great point because Anthony Davis mentioned the autograph signing and picture requests do get overwhelming. He also stated that sometimes, “I wish I didn’t come to UK for those reasons.”
Cal is only human! He understands how important the signatures are. Like most people, there are days when he is totally exhausted and has much to do before he can rest. No one is perfect, but Cal is as close to perfection that I have seen in my lifetime! He would never do anything to intentionally hurt anyone, especially a little boy or girl.
I couldn’t agree more with you Ben or with Rob. The comments you both made were perfect and I couldn’t agree more.
I didn’t post that story to try and make Cal look bad or imply that I thought the kid was justified to feel or act that way. I posted it to show how much of an impact Cal and this program have on fans and how much they mean to all of us, no matter how young. I was also trying to say that I know he knows that and would not hurt them intentionally. I believe he truly gives a crap about the fans.
Like Rob said, I used that incident as a teaching moment myself. My daughter commented that it “really sucked that Cal didn’t sign the boy’s ball”. I told her to imagine how much he had been through that day and how tired he must be. I told her that if Cal signed, until all the fans were done, he would never be able to leave anywhere he went. It just isn’t possible and he does WAY more than most coaches probably do. She actually saw my point of view and agreed with me for once.
There is just NO WAY to accomodate everyone.
The UK fan base is so passionate and so in love with the team and everyone associated with it, that there would simply be no way to make everyone happy. Cal and the players do their best and I admire and respect them for that. We should all give them a break. Like Cal is so fond of saying: “They aren’t machines.”
Oh and when I said that fans who stuck around after a loss deserved to get a signature, I didn’t mean he should sign ALL the balls. I meant that I think he won’t care if they lose, he will still sign balls. I was just saying that Cal was being Cal when he made the statement. I should have stated it better. I meant nothing negative about him in ANY way, quite to the contrary.
Watching the after game show on the SEC network when Cal was interviewed by Joe Dean ( think his name is Joe) I was thinking to myself that the coach did indeed look very tired, just did not seem to have the same old get-e-up.