Calipari-coached U.S. Falls To Canadians In U-19; Will Play For Bronze

Year after year, John Calipari has monster talent and year after year, he comes up short on championships.

He’s won just one at Kentucky but that team had Anthony Davis and more importantly Michael Kidd-Gilchrist who drove that team. He was a superb leader especially for a freshman.

You can add international ball to that list of failure now as Calipari’s U-19 team lost to Canada, 99-87.

Calipari became the first U.S. coach to lose in international competition since Mark Few lost to the Canadians in the 2015 Pan American games.

In fairness, we have pointed out previously that Canada is going to become a serious threat in international ball and sooner rather than later. With guys like Andrew Wiggins, Dillon Brooks, Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph and others, they have a really solid base to work with.

This team was led by RJ Barrett, who had 38 points and 13 boards and will be on the national team soon enough.

He’s a talented player but at some point you’d think the U.S. would have enough defense to slow him down at least a little bit.

That’s on Calipari.

Now the pressure is really on because the U.S. will play Spain for bronze on Sunday.