Kentucky fans in Indianapolis were stunned by the loss to Saint Peter's. (Vicky Graff Photo)
After Kentucky’s devastating NCAA first round loss to Saint Peter’s Thursday night in Indianapolis the basketball world, especially Kentucky fans, has been scratching their collective heads and searching for answers.
Here are a couple I came up with.
Watching these players there appeared to be some fractures in their team structure near the end of the season. Oscar Tshiewbe was the star of this team. He earned it with his consistent play over a 34-game schedule. Unfortunately, it appeared to me that Calipari wanted other players on the team to also have some star billing.
Savhir Wheeler was one. In most games that UK lost Wheeler tried to do too much. Instead of being a distributor of the basketball and scoring when opportunities presented themselves, he tried to consistently force the issue. It happened again in Indianapolis against Saint Peter’s. He made many ill-advised full-speed drives up the court (at the urging of his coach) only to find that he had nowhere to go once he reached the defense and no visible plan as to where to go with the ball. Calipari said all year he wanted to play fast and Wheeler took him at his word.
Consequently, Wheeler had six turnovers in the game. Unfortunately, there was no successful coaching game plan to help Wheeler consistently use his basketball skills. Because of that he tended to freelance a lot and got into trouble trying to help the team by being a star.
Keion Brooks was another player that struggled to meet the hype that he received at the beginning of the season. He has the physical skills to be a good role player but he isn’t star material. He doesn’t have that extra something inside that makes him perform flawlessly when the game is on the line and the chips are down. It appeared from watching him play that he wants to help the team win but because he had been hyped (by his coach and some media in the offseason) as the next great star at Kentucky he tried to do too much in some games and ended up making game-changing mistakes on both ends of the floor.
In his defense, he tried to live up to the expectations of his coach who believed he could be a floor leader on this team. That didn’t happen this year.
The last player that played like he should be the star of the team was TyTy Washington. He had all the attributes needed for a star player except one — experience. He is a great shooter, can beat his man off the dribble and create his own shot, and could be a lockdown defender. Unfortunately for Washington and UK, injuries robbed him of the experience and continuity that he needed to get over the hump that is necessary for freshmen players to do well in a pressure cooker like March Madness.
During games, he also tried to do too much (at the urging of his coach) and consequently created problems for his teammates because they had started to depend on him as a star player at midseason to go along with Tshiewbe but after the injuries, his game regressed back to where it was in the early games. Time will prove that TyTy Washington is a star player and has all the physical and mental tools to get there.
The rest of the players on the team that played significant minutes are true role players and can’t be counted on to consistently lead this UK team to victory after victory against the best teams in the country on the biggest stage of the year.
Kellen Grady is a great shooter and has some ability to drive the ball but appears to be a complementary player meaning he needs a system and his teammates helping to get him open looks. He doesn’t create jump shots well on his own. The same holds true for Davion Mintz. Jacob Toppin is another player that fits that mold. All three are very good players that need to be in a system that promotes team play and not one on one star play. John Calipari doesn’t, and never has, run that type system at Kentucky.
It appeared that over the last few games of the season even though Tshiebwe was the go-to guy Calipari also wanted Wheeler and Brooks to take on that role. That seemed to pull the offense and defense in different directions Players tried to do more than they were capable of on offense and when it didn’t work it tended to bleed over into their defensive effort with hanging heads, dragging feet and playing defense still thinking about the last offensive miscue instead of the next defensive play they needed to make.
The bottom line is that Calipari had a lot of valuable role players that needed to play in a system that complements each other instead of a one on one star system. Unfortunately, Calipari doesn’t teach a complementary offensive system based on timing, cutting, and screening that spreads out the defense and allows teammates to help other teammates get open shots. His system says, “my man is more talented than your man and will win the one-on-one battle” but those recruiting days have passed Calipari by and the talent gap between his players and his opponents has continued to shrink.
He hasn’t been able to create adjustments in his system to overcome that. That’s one of the reasons why he had a 9-16 season last year and lost to a 15-seed in the NCAA Tournament this year.
There needs to be a lot of soul searching in the Kentucky coaching camp this offseason and Calipari needs to decide if he still has the desire and drive that is necessary to compete in today’s college basketball scene and is he willing to make the system adjustments necessary to bring this program back to playing at a championship level.
There is an old adage that says, “It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks.”
It looks like soon UK fans will find out if that is really true.
17 Responses
To answer your lead question with 2 words…John Calipari.
Great article
So it’s bad for Cal to have confidence in his players? I agree with coach needing to update his system, but he’s human and it’s really hard for a person to truly see their own faults. I believe the biggest problem with our program is the "fans". Do think think these players don’t read these articles and tweets and comments about how awful they are because they’ve had a bad game? Real fans should try to encourage and instill confidence in the players.
TrueCatFan, you must be John Calipari or his wife posting on the down low.
Fans don’t play, they pay. And without them your dad wouldn’t have a job.
Someone in UK upper tier need to ask Cal if your not going to change your style of coaching then it’s time let you go. Will that happen doubtful.
Our program is in worse shape now than before he came on board. Just a simple fact.
With the talent we’ve had, underachiever is the correct.
The University should quit being Cals bitch. And Cal. needs to apologize to the Kentucky fans for being loose with their commitment to their program. Yes, their program not his.
Great analysis.
If Calipari was black like Tubby, he would have been fired 2 years ago…seriously. One national title in 13 years just isn’t going to cut it. Our next coach should be given a base salary of $500,000. He gets another $500,000 for being the regular season SEC champ or winning the SEC tournament…double each of those bonuses if he achieves both. He gets a $500,000 bonus for making the Sweet 16, another $500,000 for making the Elite 8, another $1,000,000 for making the Final 4, another $1,000,000 for making it to the title game and another $5,000,000 for winning it all. If Calipari had a contract like that this year, he would have been paid $500,000 instead of the 9 million that he got for doing nothing, other than embarrassing the University and BBN. Maybe there should be a $500,000 penalty for failing to make the Big Dance and a $300,000 penalty for losing in the first round.
Great article. You nailed it!
Keith, you are spot on in your analysis of this team and Coach Calipari. Calipari has already bristled publicly about him needing to make changes in the past. The real question is what does the University do next? If ever there was a need for a coaching change, it is here at UK. The search for Calipari’s replacement would not have to go far. Shaneen Holloway is exactly the kind of coach KY needs. He coaches team first and has demonstrated that his team can produce far more than the sum of the individual players on his roster. He would bring a much needed change to KY basketball. He would seek out players with solid fundamentals and coachable attitudes who wanted to win championships for the University of Kentucky. This would include more in state kids and regional talent as opposed to the AAU one and done crowd. This is exactly the change that is needed to keep UK from becoming another Indiana.
Well, I know one thing, Duke, UNC, and Kansas are advancing in the big dance while UK is trying to digest just where this program is at right now after last year, and especially after last Thursday night. I also know Kansas, with their opening round win against Creighton, now ties UK with most wins in college basketball. They could surpass UK with the next win.
I agree with whodat that UK is not getting their money’s worth with Coach Calipari these days. UK could possibly hire a "buzzsaw" young coach, pay him less to crank this program up to once again emphasize playing lights out for that name on the shirt, and reward him for winning, winning winning!!! I also think maybe Coach has lost his spark, his heart not in it. I could be wrong, only he knows that.
This UK job takes it’s toll on a man, for sure. It is not for the faint of heart, but for 9 million a year the pay is pretty good, and performance a high priority. UK must not lose to teams like Saint Peters in the NCAA Tourney. Do so and a storm’s coming. The body language from him and his team at the end of this season was not a good look for UK basketball. Even his assistants looked shell shocked. Once proud fans of this program are not happy right now, this site proves that. That is not good for Wildcat basketball.
A lifetime contract, 10 year contract, or whatever UK has with Coach is in need of at least a re-evaluation. The decision rests with the UK brass, we understand that, but something is not right with so much talent every year, but so much heartache right now in the "Bluegrass."
Calipari is a fraud, and he holds fans in contempt.
Kansas will take over the all time wins position before this season is over, and to this so -called leader of the UK program, it is no big deal so long as he can lay claim to more NBA millionaires than anyone else.
Well, things like the consecutive 3 point basket streak and the all time wins leader position do mean a lot to me as a fan, and he has trampled on all things I have held dear for decades.
I know he is not going anywhere, anytime soon, Thank you Mitch Barnhart.
But, I am not sure I am going to follow this basketball program any longer.
I know I won’t be missed, but I fear that I won’t even miss this mess either.
Professor, those are my feelings exactly. I have bled blue my entire life. I have never seen a coach, not even Billy Clyde, be so flippant about losing ballgames. It’s always an excuse, the players fault, and he always comes back with it being a player’s first program. Getting kids in the NBA comes before winning. If the University doesn’t get rid of this conman quick, I am done with the program too. I never thought I would say that, but that is what this has come to…Calipari goes or I am gone.
Off topic. can anyone answer this.
No first person from out of bounds can receive the inbound pass. Correct.?
Gonzaga’s strange inbound formation under their basket setup had all 5 members standing out of bounds. when play resumed all but the ball handler stayed out of bounds . as the other four spread out to try n stop the press anyone who would have caught the inbound pass would be a penalty. Correct? Nope one caught the pass. was fouled and sunk the FT’s
Why wasn’t this a penalty
HELP
Are you sure that you aren’t thinking about football?