For Kentucky Wildcats basketball fans, this is the ultimate offseason of discontent.
Since UK suffered its stunning 85-79 overtime loss to No. 15 seed Saint Peter's in the men's NCAA Tournament round of 64 last month, it has been open season on many aspects of John Calipari's program.
While Kentucky backers are right about some things, I fear that in at least three of the most common gripes, the wrong lesson is being drawn.
Gripe one: Calipari's "out-moded offensive system" keeps undermining Kentucky.
The reality: No sooner had the final buzzer sounded on the loss to Saint Peter's, than Calipari's offensive approach — continued use of two big men; a non-shooting point guard; lack of floor spacing — began taking incoming missiles.
It is certainly true that Calipari has not fully embraced a Golden State Warriors-style system that consistently utilizes four players out on the perimeter and features outside shooting capacity spread around the court.
But for all the fan angst about the UK offensive system, the 71 points Kentucky had on the scoreboard at the end of regulation against Saint Peter's should have been enough to beat a Peacocks offense that failed to score 70 points in 18 of the 30 games it had played entering the NCAA tourney.
Fact is, when Kentucky's roster was fully healthy, the "outmoded" Calipari offense hung 98 points on North Carolina, put 107 on Tennessee and dropped 80 on Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse.
Heck, the Wildcats still stand sixth in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency in the season-ending Pomeroy Ratings.
Meanwhile, the UK defense dropped from No. 11 in adjusted defensive efficiency on Feb. 6 to No. 36 by year's end.
Kentucky lost to Saint Peter's because its defense was not at the level traditionally associated with Calipari-coached UK teams.
Gripe two: Calipari cares more about putting players in the NBA than he does winning for Kentucky.
The reality: It is perfectly valid to question Calipari's decision to market UK to recruits as the quickest path to the NBA rather than as a uniquely special place to play college hoops.
That strategy has grated on a fairly significant portion of the Big Blue Nation from the start. Now that Kentucky is not winning at the rate it did in the early parts of the Calipari era, the level of fan irritation over the UK program's emphasis on the number of players it has put in the NBA has multiplied.
But the idea that Calipari is not all-out to win games is fairly preposterous. The knock on Calipari at all his pre-Kentucky college coaching stops is that there was, basically, no regulator on his zeal to win.
So the thought that Calipari would get to Kentucky — arguably the most prestigious coaching job in his sport — and decide to deemphasize winning is farfetched.
Whether or not it is the best long-term sales pitch, Calipari promotes Kentucky's success in putting players in the pros as a message to future recruits so UK can get more good players so it can win more games.
Gripe three: Calipari's disdain for calling timeout to "set up a play" in late-game situations is bad strategy.
The reality: After Saint Peter's Doug Edert scored on a runner in the lane with 21.6 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 71, Calipari eschewed calling a timeout.
UK correctly held for the last shot of regulation.
Point guard Sahvir Wheeler crossed midcourt with 17.2 seconds left, ran down the clock by dribbling near midcourt until 7.2 seconds remained, then drove left. Wheeler stumbled as he reached the lane, gathered himself and fired the ball to TyTy Washington in the right corner with 3.5 seconds left.
Washington moved to his left and ended up taking a contested 17-foot jumper with 1.9 seconds left.
It missed everything, and Kentucky was headed to overtime and disaster.
Afterward, fan frustration with Calipari for not calling timeout with the ball at the end of regulation boiled over.
From a coaching standpoint, calling or not calling timeout in late-game situations is a matter of personal preference. In my view, not stopping play so that the opposing defense does not have time to get organized is a reasonable approach.
Think about UK's stirring run to the 2014 NCAA championship game.
In Kentucky's battle with Michigan in the the 2014 Elite Eight, the Wolverines' Jordan Morgan tied the score at 72 on a put-back with 31 seconds left.
Calipari called timeout with 27 seconds left.
On the subsequent possession, UK's Aaron Harrison won the game by making a heavily-contested three-pointer from the deep left wing with 2.3 seconds left.
The next week in the Final Four, Wisconsin's Traevon Jackson hit two of three free throws with 16 seconds left to put the Badgers ahead of Kentucky 73-71.
Calipari did not call timeout.
On the subsequent possession, UK's Aaron Harrison won the game by making a heavily-contested three-pointer from the deep left wing with 5.7 seconds left.
Moral: Call a timeout or don't, the evaluation of late-game coaching strategies tends to be based only on outcome.
