It’s open season on John Calipari.
Kentucky’s head coach has come under immense criticism after the No. 3-seeded Wildcats were stunned by No. 14 Oakland, 80-76, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.
Chevy Chase Inn in Lexington, Ky., which proclaims itself the oldest bar in the city, announced that they are serving $4 shots of Fireball whiskey dubbed “FireCal” for the rest of March Madness.
“We’ve been cheering on the Kentucky Wildcats for over ninety years,” Chevy Chase Inn owner Kevin Heathcoat announced. “Usually, this is when we’re celebrating March Madness. Once again this year, we’re celebrating March Sadness.
“And with any good celebration, you gotta have a drink. So, this year, we’ve got the ‘FireCal’ shot. You know, it just makes sense. We invite everyone to come down during March Sadness and come ‘FireCal’ with us. We’ll see what happens. But, I think it’s time that we all ‘FireCal’. Hey [Kentucky athletics director] Mitch Barnhart, first one’s on me. Shots fired.”
Heathcoat then took a shot of the Fireball and playfully gagged.
“Oh god,” Heathcoat said. “It’s almost as bad as [Calipari’s] coaching.”
Calipari, 65, notably has a nearly $34 million buyout in his contract, according to the Courier-Journal.
With the loss, Calipari is now just 1-4 in his last five NCAA Tournament games.
He has coached the Wildcats for 15 seasons.
His trademark preference of regularly building extremely young teams filled with freshmen who will be one-and-dones has come under scrutiny.
“We had some guys that didn’t play the way they had been playing all year,” Calipari said in a television interview after the game. “We did everything we could. We knew [Oakland’s] zone would be tough, but we missed shots we don’t miss. And, the preparation, I thought they were in a great [place], [I was] trying to keep them loose. But when the game started, you had some guys not play to the level they could play.”