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Kentucky suffered the first big upset of the NCAA tournament, and coach John Calipari appeared to throw his players under the bus.
On Thursday, #3 Kentucky lost to #14 Oakland in stunning fashion, which left Wildcats fans calling for Calipari’s job.
After the game, Coach Cal appeared to blame his players for being young freshman who made critical mistakes in the loss.
“We made some critical mistakes at critical times again today. When you have a really young team and look at where the mistakes come from, they were freshmen.”
John Calipari on what went wrong for Kentucky: "We made some critical mistakes at critical times again today. When you have a really young team and look at where the mistakes come from, they were freshmen." pic.twitter.com/JoLJVuGDXv
— Kyle Boone (@kyletheboone) March 22, 2024
Fans blasted Calipari, who frequently recruits one-and-done freshmen, over his postgame comments.
John Calipari to his Freshmen every year when they lose in #MarchMadness: https://t.co/OjEFfWtmLo pic.twitter.com/YvtuSbCmB2
— Faux George McCaskey *Parody* (@FauxMcCaskey) March 22, 2024
John Calipari had the national player of the year and lost to Saint Peter's.
John Calipari had the national freshman of the year and a fifth-year senior who set the Cal-era scoring record at Kentucky and lost to Oakland.
At some point, it's not them. It's …
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_ATH) March 22, 2024
*Exclusively builds his program as 1-and-done-U*
“It’s the freshmen’s fault we lost again” https://t.co/5oqReqaQpj
— Illini Fan Nation (@TheIlliniFN) March 22, 2024
Maybe you should be an actual team instead of just being a 1 year stop to the NBA https://t.co/YRSg1xKYjk
— HoodieSzn (PortalSzn) (@DrHoodieMaddog) March 22, 2024