LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When he knelt down, John Calipari had to know what was to come.
He has lived in Kentucky, one of the redest states in America, since 2009. In the November presidential election, Donald Trump won 62% of the state’s votes and won 118 of 120 counties; the only exceptions were the two largest, Jefferson and Fayette. , home of the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky, respectively. Jefferson could be the only county in the state that is not a majority UK fan base, and even here Big Blue’s follow-up is considerable.
In other words, it makes sense for fans who passionately follow Calipari’s team to be overwhelmingly conservative Republicans. And conservative Republicans aren’t, in large part, supporters of athletes kneeling in protest during the national anthem, especially college athletes. And yet Cal joined his Kentucky players on one knee before the Wildcats played in Florida on Saturday, three days after the deadly uprising in Washington
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“It’s just a peaceful way to protest and raise awareness … of things that have happened recently,” Kentucky center Olivier Sarr said this week.
Calipari said the players wanted him to join them, so he did. “I knelt down with them because I supported the guys,” he said, and later erred that “it was probably not a good time” for the team to kneel.
It was absolutely time to make the statement. Risks and everything. Perhaps this was the eternally combative Cal who fought against his constituency.
At the time, a coach’s approval rating had already dropped after a 1-6 season start, the worst for Kentucky in more than a century, it took even longer. In the authoritarian world of college sports, some coaches would have totally vetoed the idea. Others would have tried to prevent their players from making statements at a busy time. Still others would have approved it but would not have participated.
Cal joined them, putting him on a very short list of college coaches who have knelt during the national anthem before a match. Major athletic programs are so terrified by anthem controversies that many of them don’t even have their players on the court or on the field when the “Star Star Band,” a classic College Sports dodge, is played. Inc. (In fact, Kentucky has had its basketball team at the box office this season when the anthem is played at home, according to The Courier-Journal of Louisville).
On the other hand, Calipari’s play was disheartening. “I think what was really powerful was that the coach did it with us,” Sarr said.
It took a few guts. He needed to put into action his constant mantras of “players first” that involved something more than trying to recruit the next wave of talent.
Then came the hysteria. Kentucky blew up the Gators with the best performance of the season, and barely recorded through the rebound. There was some support, for sure, and not all dissent was excessive. But part of the feeling was the same and opposite to the usual fanatical love for Kentucky basketball.
John Root is the sheriff of Laurel County, where Trump received more than 77% of the November vote. He posted a video on Facebook with jailer Jamie Moseley where they were throwing UK basketball shirts at a burning cylinder. “That’s what I think of the show, coach, until you can control these guys and set them an example,” Root said in the video.
Mike Mitchell is the executive judge for Knox County, where Trump received 83% of the vote. He introduced a resolution calling for the state to essentially dissolve the university. The introduction to the resolution read: “Call to action to denounce the men’s basketball team at the University of Kentucky and the coaching staff for refusing to stand during the national anthem of the United States of America . This action lacks respect for the veterans who have served our country. “
As the community maneuvered, Kentucky played its next game Tuesday night. The Wildcats were defeated at home by Alabama, ages 85 to 65, down 4-7. It was Calipari’s worst loss at Rupp Arena and the worst on the show since 1988. And now Cal is busting all over the place: not winning, offending patriots, and, well, not winning.
Brad McClenny / The Gainesville Sun / USA Today Network
One thing to keep in mind with Calipari: The registered freelancer can be a political chameleon, depending on what suits his needs. There have been photographs with Bill Clinton and John Kerry, but also the former ultra-conservative governor of Mattucky Bevin. It long ago hosted Trump donor and Big Blue booster Joe Craft, the namesake of the program’s opulent internship facility.
Regardless, he has always been a tenacious defender of his players, especially blacks. (Sometimes a facilitator). Whether he is motivated by what he believes is right, or whether it is a permanent recruitment stance, he is open to conjecture. But as the anthem controversy continued to heat up on Thursday, Cal’s capitalized tweet matched who he was: “I SUPPORT, FOR AND FOR MY PLAYERS. ALWAYS HAVE AND ALWAYS HAVE!”
Some longtime Kentucky observers believe fans ’reactions to the controversy and loss are separate, that many of them would still be furious at Calipari even if their team were 11-0. Others believe the gasoline that knelt down spilled over a burning bonfire when lost. As one fan said at a Kentucky fan message board on Thursday, “This is like you have a bad relationship with someone and then everything they do bothers you. This is the Cal / fans relationship right now. “
Is the end of the relationship near? Maybe, but it would be financially prohibitive for the school to end the deal. In another classic blossom from College Sports Inc., Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart gave Calipari, 60, the so-called “lifetime contract” in 2019, a ten-year contract with a salary that increases from $ 7.6 million to $ 8.6 million, with options to do even more. Cal had been looking at UCLA and Kentucky responded dramatically.
This is despite the fact that yields have fallen over Calipari’s tenure in the United Kingdom. When he brought his recruiting philosophy to Kentucky and sold it as the way of the future, the rabid fan base envisioned a savannah domination of the sport. It has not happened.
There was a national title, in 2012. The last Final Four was in 2015. Since then, the seasons have tended to follow the same rhythm and annoying: the Cats would start terribly and be back in shape late.
Kentucky fans, more than anyone else, want to win every game. Giving them a seasonal arc that includes doses of misery at first is a difficult thing. Every November and December, fans swear they’ve had enough of Cal’s formula, which they then annoy with a substantial improvement. But the reward hasn’t included playing the last weekend of the season in a long time, given the standards Calipari helped set in the first half of his tenure at Lexington.
There are slow starts, and then there’s the current debacle. The decisions of the Calipari staff have been toasted. His crime has been described as antiquity. But the core of the problem hasn’t changed in years: Cal embraces a list constantly full of youth at a time when more experienced teams are winning titles. (As a longtime program observer said on Thursday, “fans like the fact and the fact that it’s going to the Final Four. It’s been a while”).
“Aging, getting old,” is the current mantra of the sport. But not in Lexington.
Being a Kentucky basketball coach is a big job, but a hard job. Since Adolph Rupp’s 42-year term ended in 1972, there have been six coaches with an average of eight seasons. Calipari, in the year 12, has exceeded the average.
Perhaps the anthem controversy is the struggle it needs to move forward. Choosing this battle in the middle of a losing season is a risky strategy, but it is also a show of support that is worthwhile for your players. Even if many of the show’s red state fans hated it.