Mark Stoops has Kentucky football climbing while the UK basketball program has taken some steps back. (UK Athletics Photo)
Sometimes when it comes to UK sports I feel like Rip Van Winkle. It feels like I fell asleep ten years ago and upon awakening, the entire UK sports scene has turned upside-down. Ten years ago Kentucky Football was heading into a downhill slide having completed a 2010 football season with new Head Coach Joker Phillips that saw the Cats finish with a 6-7 overall record — a next to last-place finish in the SEC East at 2-6 — and a 27-10 loss to Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl.
Little did Kentucky football fans know at the time that that bowl game would be their last for quite a while. From that point on it was all downhill, in recruiting and games won, for Joker Phillips and his football Wildcats.
In sharp contrast, that same year, second-year head basketball coach John Calipari was coming off of a 29-9 season that saw his Wildcats make it all the way to the Final Four and lose in a 56-55 nailbiter to Connecticut in the semi-finals. That team finished third in the final coaches’ poll that season. Little did UK basketball fans know at the time that Calipari had a monster recruiting class coming in to go with some returning veterans and they would ultimately win the National Championship in the upcoming 2012 season. Things were on a tremendous upswing for the Basketball Cats.
Waking up ten years later, I would have said, “What in the world happened?”.
Now UK Football is on a tremendous upswing. They are beating out the likes of Michigan, Ohio State, and Alabama for a few recruits (keep in mind I’m not saying UK is even close to where Alabama or Ohio State are in recruiting yet but they are light years ahead of where they used to be) and have won three straight bowl games beating Penn State, Virginia Tech and North Carolina State in the Citrus Bowl, Belk Bowl and Gator Bowl respectively. They are consistently finishing in the upper half of the SEC East and appear to be a program that is on the rise. They are now getting transfer players from schools like Michigan State, Penn State, and Nebraska and are producing first-round NFL Draft picks.
The basketball Wildcats, meanwhile, are coming off of one of the worst seasons in UK Basketball history. Their 9-16 record eliminated any hope of postseason play and quite possibly, in my opinion, has made it difficult to bring in a much-needed high-level point guard from the high school ranks or transfer portal. Coach John Calipari is still bringing in some top-level talent — his current incoming class for 2021 is ranked fourth by 247Sports — but is the lowest-ranked class of the John Calipari era and is a far cry from the classes he brought in back in 2009 thru 2015.
In fact, it has been a long time since UK fans have seen a class that included players of the caliber of John Wall, Anthony Davis, Demarcus Cousins, Karl Anthony-Towns, Bam Adebayo, or Julius Randle. And the list could go on and on of great players that wore the blue and white during that golden era of John Calipari Basketball from 2009 through 2015
Unfortunately ten years later, without some much-needed offensive strategy and staff changes, UK Basketball could be the program that currently sits on a slippery slope looming over the precipice that leads to basketball mediocrity.
Meanwhile, Mark Stoops and Company are continuing to bring in better talent and develop that talent into top-notch players. Linebacker Jamin Davis, a potential first-round pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, is the most recent example of the football staff’s ability to develop players into high-level performers on the field and quality individuals off the field. Mark Stoops also has an eye for great assistant coaches and has proven that as coaches leave the staff he has been able to attract and develop new ones that are as good or better than the staff he lost. Brad White and Jon Sumrall are two prime examples of that. Ten years later their program is at the historical peak for UK Football and appears to be heading in an upward trajectory.
So, the big question is, what happened? How could both programs go so quickly in opposite directions? In my opinion, it’s a complex answer. First of all the recruiting landscape has changed significantly in college basketball. New and more talented basketball coaches have emerged in the SEC and in other conferences. Opposing coaches have had time to evaluate the John Calipari system and realized that if a team can take certain elements away on offense — namely the dribble drive to the basket and resulting lob dunk along with transition baskets — Kentucky becomes very beatable if their talent is inexperienced and only slightly better than their opponents.
Unfortunately, John Calipari is still running the same offensive sets he did ten years ago and the basketball world seems to be moving more towards “wide open, five players out, shoot the three, no post up” offensive sets that depend on shooting skill more than athletic skill to win games. So far John Calipari hasn’t been able to catch up offensively.
On the flip side, Mark Stoops has created a culture at UK that values probably the number one determining factor for wins and losses in college football — physicality. His offensive line, wide receivers, and running backs all block — and block well. Consequently, UK has been able to run the ball and wear opponents down over the course of a game. As the talent level continues to increase and the offensive scheme becomes less predictable and more exciting to players, the football Wildcats should continue to recruit well, improve player development and become a program that is annually in the mix for a spot at the top of the SEC East.
Meanwhile, ten years later, it appears that maybe John Calipari, like Rip Van Winkle, has finally awakened from a long nap and realized that the basketball world is rapidly changing and he needs to change with it. The rumored departure of some of the current assistant coaches in favor of former Calipari assistant Orlando Antigua would be a big step in the right direction. Recruiting players that can consistently put the ball in the basket at a very high percentage would be another big step in the right direction.
The other big step, which I’m not sure John Calipari can totally embrace yet, is that defense no longer appears to be the name of the game in college basketball. In order to get better offensive players in basketball usually one has to sacrifice something on the defensive end. It remains to be seen whether John Calipari is willing to do that. If he does change his offensive scheme, bring in a better “players coach” like Antigua and take advantage of the tremendous amount of turmoil that now exists in the college basketball world, he could get the Cats right back on top. He has done it before.
But if he isn’t successful in any of those areas, if you are a UK Basketball fan, it might be time to go back to sleep and wait another ten years for the sports cycle to swing back around in the opposite direction.
