According to Rece Davis, there are only two coaches in college basketball that are built for the Kentucky job. One is John Calipari and the other is Rick Pitino.
“There are two people on the planet built for that job, and their names are John Calipari and Rick Pitino,” Davis stated on ESPN’s College Gameday podcast with Pete Thamel in February. “They’re built for that job.”
Here is an excerpt of Davis’ comments via kyinsider.com:
On ESPN’s College Gameday podcast with Pete Thamel, Davis claimed that he believes Calipari will stay at Kentucky due to his strong incoming recruiting class and that “anyone would be foolish to go otherwise.”
“There are 2 people on the planet built for that job, and their names are John Calipari and Rick Pitino,” Davis explains. “They’re built for that job. I think he has a really good recruiting class coming in, I think he’s adaptable and I think he’ll make changes. I think he should choose to stay and I don’t think Kentucky should entertain the notion of making a change, though I know the fan base is mad. But they’re always mad if they don’t hang a banner, that’s the way it goes.”
Some truth in Davis’ words as Kentucky fans always expect to win. That is what it means to be the “gold standard” as coach Cal has claimed so many times.
However, Davis did go on to say that to “put a validating stamp” on everything that Calipari has done at Kentucky, he needs to bring home at least one more championship. Davis adds that not having the number of elite players that coach Cal is accustomed to is part of the issue.”
You can listen to the full episode here:
