Furious Kentucky fans call for boycott after John Calipari avoids the axe

John Calipari's hot seat cooled off on Tuesday with reports that he will be retained as head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats.

Several years of tournament failures put the future Hall of Fame head coach in danger of losing his job with a fanbase increasingly frustrated by his lack of recent results. The Wildcats were bounced from the NCAA Tournament in the First Round by No. 14 seed Oakland just two seasons after a stunning upset at the hands of No. 15 seed Saint Peter's.

Athletic director Mitch Barnhart held a meeting with Calipari on Tuesday and all indications coming out of that meeting are that the head coach is sticking around.

Some fans are not happy with that decision at all.

How angry Kentucky fans reacted to John Calipari news on Twitter

This was never going to be a decision that everyone agreed on. It was never going to be a decision Barnhart made lightly.

Calipari won a national title for the Wildcats in 2012. He went to the Elite Eight or better seven times in his first 10 seasons in Lexington. The program gave him a "lifetime" contract in 2019 for a reason. He was a resounding success.

The problem is that the success didn't continue. Since the 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled it's been all downhill. Kentucky missed the Big Dance in 2021, suffered an embarrassing upset in 2022, dipped out in the second round in 2023 and then tripped up again to a teen seed in 2024.

The Wildcats haven't shown up with their results in the tournament or, frankly, looked like a true contender in a long while. His lineups have been questionable. His tactics have been lacking. Recruiting prowess hasn't yielded meaningful wins, at least not at the rate fans expect.

Calipari was once one of the best coaches in college basketball, but is he one of the best right now? Barnhart has given him the chance to prove he is. A lot of Kentucky fans aren't convinced he'll pass that test.