John Calipari (SEC Photo)
If you’ve watched any of the college basketball conference tournaments last week what immediately jumped off the screen was the amount of effort that was displayed by the players on teams like Texas, Oklahoma State, Alabama, Michigan, or Ohio State. Even in the lesser leagues like the OVC, MAAC, or SWAC the teams were giving all-out effort and although the talent in those leagues wasn’t anywhere near the talent that John Calipari assembled at Kentucky this season, those players demonstrated an effort and urgency that was rarely seen from the Blue and White this season.
Even with their backs against the wall in the opening round of the SEC Tournament, the Wildcats came out in the first half of the opening game against Mississippi State playing like a team that already had a 1-seed wrapped up, not like a team that was playing for their tournament lives.
So what gives? After all, UK played very competitively during the regular season against three of the final four teams in the SEC Tournament — Tennessee, Arkansas, and LSU. The Cats were 1-1 against the Volunteers, lost a one-point game to Arkansas, and beat LSU 82-69 back in January. Those results show that Kentucky had the talent to compete but they seemed to lack knowledge, effort, urgency, and ultimately the ability to play to win when the game was on the line.
Now, is that the players’ fault or the coaches’ fault? Were the players unprepared to compete for 40 minutes or did they choose to play for their own statistics and not to increase the number of wins in the win column? And if it is the players’ fault does that mean the UK program would be better off to see multiple players from this team not return next season?
It already appears, to no one’s surprise, that Cam’Ron Fletcher — John Calipari’s designated player to live in the doghouse this season — has entered the transfer portal. A few other players may follow depending on how many new players Calipari can reel in from the remaining available high school prospects and/or the transfer portal and how many current players feel their careers would better served by leaving for the NBA Draft or a professional league overseas.
Would it be a good thing for this team to start over next year with 50 percent or more of this year’s roster playing somewhere else?
And if this 9-16 season is the result of poor coaching how does that get fixed? If you remember after Kentucky’s lackluster offensive performance in football last season Mark Stoops immediately called it “losing football” and said he would have to make changes. And he did. He replaced his offensive coordinator for the past four years — Eddie Gran — and Darin Henshaw, his quarterbacks coach. Relationships and loyalty were important but it appears that winning mattered the most to Mark Stoops.
Does John Calipari feel the same way? Can he objectively evaluate the performance of this year’s basketball coaching staff and make the changes that are probably necessary? It seems pretty obvious to outsiders looking in that this staff didn’t seem to have the ability to get players motivated or prepared to play winning basketball at the highest level.
So what’s broken? Which of the things that appear to be broken can be fixed? Can John Calipari’s style of play still be effective in today’s college game or is it like the old wishbone offense in football — dominate for a while but eventually defenses adjust and it no longer works? Has that happened to Calipari’s “dribble-drive” style offense in basketball?
Over the next couple of weeks, I will take a look at the state of UK’s basketball program — from the roster to the system to the coaching — and try to figure out what went wrong this season and how, if I were in charge, that I would try to fix it. Hope you’ll come along for the ride.
— Keith Peel, Contributing Writer
