Jay Bilas Blames Kentucky's Loss To Oakland On Everything Except John Calipari

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Fans did not storm the court following Oakland's upset win over Kentucky in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, but ESPN's Jay Bilas still elected to share his thoughts about the Wildcats' latest embarrassing effort.

Following Kentucky's 80-76 loss to the 14th-seeded Golden Grizzlies, everyone pointed the finger at head coach John Calipari. The Wildcats looked unprepared and fell into their season-long trend of struggling mightily on the defensive side of the floor. They ran into the insanely hot hand of Jack Gohlke who made 10 three pointers, but Kentucky's inability to get past Oakland was u-g-l-y.

Calipari doesn't shoot the ball, pass the ball, or play defense, but it's beyond fair to say that he deserves some of the blame for his team's brutal loss, unless you're Jay Bilas, who doesn't think the Calipari criticisms are warranted.

"The bottom line is this, this wasn't about being freshmen, or the construction of the Kentucky roster, it's about a team that did not play well and that did not execute in a first-round game against a very good team," Bilas said. "Kentucky didn't execute offensively against Oakland's zone defense. There are some intricacies to it, but it's not the first time they've seen a zone," he continued.

"If Kentucky fans want to get rid of Calipari, good luck, I think that would be a mistake."

The most egregious nonsense to come out of Bilas' mouth during his rant regarding the loss was his claim that it had nothing to do with the construction of the roster. 

Of course it had something to do with the roster of players, one Calipari is solely responsible for, and those players not being able to beat a team out of the Horizon League. Kentucky entered the game ranked 23rd in KenPom while Oakland was 130th.

Calipari has led Kentucky to exactly one NCAA Tournament win over the course of the last five seasons. If we're not supposed to blame him, at least partially, for the disaster against Oakland then when can we?

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.