‘Fire John Calipari’ Trends on Twitter Following Kentucky Upset to Saint Peter’s

The Wildcats coach has only won one national championship in his 13-year tenure.

No. 2 Kentucky lost 85–79 to No. 15 Saint Peter’s in round one of the NCAA tournament on Thursday.

The game went into overtime before the Wildcats ultimately lost in the biggest upset of the tournament so far this year. 

Fans immediately took to Twitter following the game to criticize coach John Calipari’s leadership this season and during the game. “Fire John Calipari” was trending on Twitter.

Calipari followed arguably the worst season in UK basketball history with the worst first round loss in UK basketball history. The next time UK has a chance to win an NCAA tournament game it will have been almost 1,500 days since its last tournament win. Honest conversation time.

— Justin Rowland (@RowlandRIVALS) March 18, 2022

This is 💯 on Coach Cal. #BBN

— Chris Bailey🌪️🌩️ (@Kentuckyweather) March 18, 2022

@UKBasketbalI it’s time to fire @UKCoachCalipari and get someone new. Someone who has the drive to get us back to title contenders. Big Blue Nation wants banners not draft picks!! #FireCalipari

— SportsGURU (@Sports_GURU_89) March 18, 2022

There’s rarely room for nuance between “this coach rules” and “fire this coach” but John Calipari somehow completely lost the plot with a really, really good basketball team and it feels like he should reckon with that, especially because a lot of it was strikingly familiar.

— Travis Waldron (@Travis_Waldron) March 18, 2022

Fans specifically criticized how Calipari tends to recruit really good players, such as this year’s SEC Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe—a transfer from West Virginia—but the players don’t finish with strong results on the collegiate level. 44 Kentucky players have been drafted to the NBA under Calipari’s leadership. Kentucky is known for having the most first round draft picks all-time with 55 total, 32 of which have come during Calipari’s tenure.

Since Calipari took over the Kentucky head coach role in 2009, the Wildcats have only won one national title, back in 2012. Kentucky hasn’t reached the Final Four since 2015.

Fans were upset with Kentucky’s early round exit, with 6% of bracket makers chose the Wildcats to cut the nets in April.