:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/53311493/usa_today_9885791.0.jpg)
After Kentucky’s hard-fought win at Georgia on Saturday, head coach John Calipari went on a rant about the state of the coaching profession based on Georgia head coach Mark Fox and the now-fired Mark Gottfried at NC State.
Gottfried was fired this past week, though he is being allowed to coach his team for the remainder of the season. This irks Cal, and he let everyone know about it during his postgame press conference.
“We’re firing coaches in midseason. Are you s******* me?,” Cal said. “We’re firing coaches in midseason. You know what I’m putting my contract? You can fire me at midseason but you’re going to have to pay me $3 million. Oh, you’ll let me stay now, won’t you. You can fire me midseason, but you’re paying me.”
“Every coach in the country, PUT IT IN YOUR CONTRACT. What if Mark Gottfried goes on a run at the end and gets to the NCAA Tournament, which he was in four out of five years? Two Sweet 16s, which is not done at NC State. What happens if he now if he goes and wins and gets another team [into the tournament]. He had good players but they’re young, they’re like my team. It’s hard to do this with young guys.”
As much as this angers Cal, so too does any talk of Fox underperforming and/or being on the hot seat at Georgia, despite keeping that team competitive and relevant for the duration of his tenure, even when key players like Yante Maten are out injured like on Saturday, but Georgia remained competitive and pushed Kentucky to the brink.
“Let’s be real. Maten was out. Here’s what bothers me about this profession right now. What Mark has been able to do here, and other coaches, he goes to Florida, overtime, should have won the game,” Cal said of Fox. “He comes to us, overtime, should have won the game. I mean, we were lucky to win. Loses at Texas A&M because the clock stalled. The clock stalled. That’s why he loses the game.
“But he keeps his team together. That’s coaching. Not when things are going good. It’s when things go south and you lose a bunch in a row, how do you get ‘em and go?”
Video courtesy of the Herald-Leader.