Seeing that he's going to be there on Saturday, so he'll likely be at their Midnight Madness event. I'm guessing this is finally the "He's dead to us" moment.
Credit to him for his hatred and trolling of Calipari. I think a big part of it is simply he wants to have ownership of the program over Calipari and rub it in his face that he got run off too, Italian feud. I'm not naive too, a part of it is his way to stick it to the Louisville admin which none of them fired him, but like Bobby Knight he'll blame them forever.
The big reason I believe it is simply the Stoops aspect. Stoops and Calipari hated each other, notice Rick really loves promoting Mark Stoops? That's kind of where this started.
I do think his hate for Kentucky wasn't that bad before Cal arrived, because he knew he was better than them and Tubby was his former assistant. He knew a lot of the people and he was never fired. But once Cal came and their hype machine got larger and it coincided with his extortion trial where their fans just got ugly. But I think he always blamed a lot of that on Calipari. Calipari did something weird for Rick, because it seemed like Cal gave him new energy overall. But something about coaching against him tightened him up. He's an arrogant man and he loved being the best coach in the state, he loved that UK fans wanted him there and had to watch him coach their rival. He loved being the man and pushing out Denny and making it his own program. Cal arriving with his big personality just bothered him, because he thought he needed to be the only big man in the state. Honestly, Calipari really seemed to fall off when Rick left too. Those 2 just hated each other.
And now? Going to the game feeds his ego. He can own Calipari and have the fans cheer him again as he's the mentor of their current coach. And for us, although mad at him, he's still the elephant in the room and the living legend of UofL basketball that looms over the program like Knight did for IU for many years. Pat Kelsey is a nice guy, but they hired him over his son so he can add it to his list of grievances. And all of that while coaching at MSG for a really good program that could make noise. His ego is so large right now. This is his victory lap.
But I think with everything that's happened, I think this will be the last straw for most fans. I think now that the only thing that can bring him back will be in 9 years in 2033 for the 20 year 2013 reunion.
Credit to him for his hatred and trolling of Calipari. I think a big part of it is simply he wants to have ownership of the program over Calipari and rub it in his face that he got run off too, Italian feud. I'm not naive too, a part of it is his way to stick it to the Louisville admin which none of them fired him, but like Bobby Knight he'll blame them forever.
The big reason I believe it is simply the Stoops aspect. Stoops and Calipari hated each other, notice Rick really loves promoting Mark Stoops? That's kind of where this started.
I do think his hate for Kentucky wasn't that bad before Cal arrived, because he knew he was better than them and Tubby was his former assistant. He knew a lot of the people and he was never fired. But once Cal came and their hype machine got larger and it coincided with his extortion trial where their fans just got ugly. But I think he always blamed a lot of that on Calipari. Calipari did something weird for Rick, because it seemed like Cal gave him new energy overall. But something about coaching against him tightened him up. He's an arrogant man and he loved being the best coach in the state, he loved that UK fans wanted him there and had to watch him coach their rival. He loved being the man and pushing out Denny and making it his own program. Cal arriving with his big personality just bothered him, because he thought he needed to be the only big man in the state. Honestly, Calipari really seemed to fall off when Rick left too. Those 2 just hated each other.
And now? Going to the game feeds his ego. He can own Calipari and have the fans cheer him again as he's the mentor of their current coach. And for us, although mad at him, he's still the elephant in the room and the living legend of UofL basketball that looms over the program like Knight did for IU for many years. Pat Kelsey is a nice guy, but they hired him over his son so he can add it to his list of grievances. And all of that while coaching at MSG for a really good program that could make noise. His ego is so large right now. This is his victory lap.
But I think with everything that's happened, I think this will be the last straw for most fans. I think now that the only thing that can bring him back will be in 9 years in 2033 for the 20 year 2013 reunion.
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