For Two Men with So Much Success, John Calipari, Mark Pope Have Much to Learn

Both Arkansas' John Calipari and Kentucky's Mark Pope each could stand to learn a little from their predecessors if they want to understand how to stay fully in the graces of their fan bases.

Right now, Pope is in the midst of a firestorm at Kentucky despite going 5-1 over his past six games and Calipari is as much to blame for that as Pope. It also doesn't help that Wildcats fans are slightly unhinged from reality.

At the moment Kentucky is tied for third in the SEC, which is three spots higher than the Wildcats finished at the end of last season before Pope guided them to more NCAA Tournament wins in his first season than Calipari produced the previous five seasons. Yet, because Calipari put more emphasis on regular season success than postseason wins, Kentucky fans are losing their minds.

The big thing about Calipari's time in Lexington was he was big on winning the football season championship. He wanted to look as powerful and shiny as possible while most of America wasn't looking.

Then, he would put all of his energy into do all he could to either win an SEC regular season championship or finish runner-up as possible. He also put a lot of emphasis on winning the SEC Tournament, although his Wildcats were unable to make the championship game in any of his final five seasons there.

What this did is create an expectation in Kentucky that doesn't align with the rest of the country, which is where the problem lies with Pope. He follows a philosophy similar to what Eric Musselman followed at Arkansas.

Win as many games as possible in the regular season, but the most important thing is to have most of those wins come down the stretch so the team heads into the postseason hot and ready to make a run. As for the SEC Tournament, the goal is simple.

Use the first game as a tune-up to the NCAA Tournament to avoid rust, then get back home after dropping Game 2 so the players can rest up and be as healthy as possible for the regular weekend grind of the Big Dance.

This is an approach that just doesn't work for Kentucky fans. It's why Calipari lasted as long as he did there because his approach is so regular season driven.

It's possible a couple of those players who got drafted into the first round this decade did so because they had an extra couple of weeks to get ready for the combine rather than being distracted by that pesky NCAA Tournament.

For Pope, he may find himself on and off the hot seat in Lexington as fans lose their minds in expletive filled rants with each singular loss. He will need a deep run in the NCAA Tournament this year to begin to get them to trust his process, although it will continue to be rocky any time Kentucky isn't at the top of the standings in the regular season.

Meanwhile, in Arkansas, there is light concern the Razorbacks may peak too early in the regular season, which would leave them vulnerable to a quick exit in the midst of March Madness. Last year, things played out perfectly in the SEC Tournament in a natural way.

No matter how bad Calipari may have wanted to force his players to expend energy running through the championship game of the SEC Tournament, it wasn't going to happen. Arkansas got a scrappy revenge win over South Carolina to clear their heads of a blowout handed down by the Gamecocks a week earlier, followed by a tough game with Ole Miss when Sean Pedulla buried a three with 1.3 seconds left to send the Hogs home well stretched and ready to rest up for the NCAA Tournament.

The lesson Calipari should have learned from what unfolded over the coming weeks is Arkansas fans cared about upsetting Rick Pitino's No. 2 seed St. John's and making a run to the Sweet 16 far more than only finishing in a four-way tie for ninth place in the SEC standings.

Not even NCAA Tournament seedings matter. All Razorbacks fans care about in the end is going farther than most, if not all of the SEC in the case of Musselman most years, in the NCAA Tournament. The other thing they crave, which is something they have been deprived of since Calipari arrived, is follow-up once he has watched the tape back, plus an idea of what to expect in the next game.

Musselman made so much of his connection with the state of Arkansas during his longer, more relaxed mid-week press conferences between games. Here he got to explain himself in a more chill environment and he got to joke around and educate Razorbacks fans.

It was their time between the fans and the head coach that anyone in the state could access. There were no paywalls or difficult to find radio stations.

Just a coach and his fans. However, since Calipari treats talking with local media like an extreme burden that should be avoided at all costs, Hogs fans don't get that time to connect with their coach and get into his mind about what specifically needs to improve or what fans should look for in the next game.

Therefore, they are a little less informed and left with a slight unease that Calipari might fall into his old ways that made Kentucky a bit of a laughing stock when it came NCAA Tournament time late in his tenure in Lexington.

All fans hear about is how many players Calipari has put in the NBA and how much money they have made rather than what his plan and insight is on the next opponent. They worry in the backs of their minds that getting players to the NBA is all that matters, not getting the team to a national championship.

It was something Kentucky fans warned about when Arkansas took Calipari off their hands. If it turns out that the pendulum swings further in being able to say he squeezed another player into the first round of the NBA Draft rather than being able to claim a national championship as head of the Razorbacks, those small worries will create a full disconnect like they did at Kentucky.

While he may dislike it in the way little kids often dislike eating their vegetables, it would do Calipari well to show up to those mid-week press conferences like all the Razorbacks coaches before him. Instead of dumping the job on assistants, he should show up and talk about what he saw on tape, what the upcoming team does that could be troublesome, with a few playful quips mixed in about the Razorbacks instead of the NBA and his resume of getting players there.

Save all that for the national interviews that essentially serve as recruiting pitches. Those mid-week press conferences are as much about building relationships with the people of Arkansas as anything else.

Musselman understood this and utilized it to the fullest. He could be annoying at times with his antics, but Arkansas fans loved and defended him because he took the time to build a relationship with them each week.

It's the biggest weakness in the package that is John Calipari. It eventually led to his alienation of fans at Kentucky and will serve as the same if he doesn't make winning in the postseason a priority while connecting with the people of Arkansas along the way.

Even if he wins a national championship, it won't be the same if he doesn't strive to connect with the people on a deeper level. When Richardson won it, he had a genuine heartfelt connection with the fans.

They wanted it for him as bad as he wanted to win it for them. They wanted to see him achieve what his daughter Yvonne always knew he could do.

There was a connection that made it all matter. Calipari will need to work on that personal relationship, because if he doesn't, it will simply feel like the Razorbacks rented a national title from Kentucky.

And no one wants that. No matter how many players a coach puts in the NBA.

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