Kentucky's John Calipari is certainly one of the more creative and outspoken people in college basketball.
When asked about Kentucky's No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament on ESPN, the Hall of Famer did not pull any punches and certainly did not disappoint.
Check out this legendary Calipari rant where he veers from Texas A&M being given a No. 3 seed compared to Kentucky's No. 4 seed to the 'moving target' that is the NCAA selection committee's criteria with some sort of discussion of the Alaskan bush people mixed in for good measure.
In between the jokes, here are some of the highlights of the rant that are actually applicable to what happened tonight with the selection committee.
- "I mean, come on, A&M got a three seed. Did we not play a basketball game today? I'm happy for A&M. They got a 3, I said what in the world, are we going to get a 3 or a 2?"
- "Look, at the end of the day, they're not stealing my joy, that little group of 10 who says this year it's top-50 wins. Well, last year it was road wins, two years ago it was RPI. It's a moving target. Instead of making it this is how we're gonna rate these teams. They're not stealing my joy. We just won a championship."
- "Just look over the years. It is what it is. Again, we don't have basketball people in that group. The criteria, I argued with them. What is the criteria? You ready? Every member has his own criteria. What? So, is it top-50 wins? Is it road wins? Is it strength of schedule? Is it team efficiency, which should play a part in this. That means you understand basketball. We're the No. 1 team offensively efficiency-wise in the country."
- "I knew people would say how in the world did they have A&M a 3 and Kentucky a 4 when they just played a game. Now, that means it was picked before our game. My argument with our commissioner: why are we playing this tournament on a Sunday? It makes no...it doesn't help. It's like they already picked their thing before we played."
- "I say it again: the greatest thing, you gotta play the games. I do know seed matters, most years. I'm hoping this year it doesn't matter as much because there's so much parity. Most years, the higher your seed, the better chance you have of winning. I've said that historically. That's why you can't just go mis-seed teams. You gotta be serious about it. You gotta be thoughtful about it. You can't have emotions, who you like, don't."
Honestly, I'm not sure there's much else to be said. Calipari basically just enumerated all of the problems with the committee this season.
