Is Kentucky really the gold standard of college basketball

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Can John Calipari use center Oscar Tshiebwe and Sahvir Wheeler to lead UK back to the Final Four this season? (Vicky Graff Photo)

John Calipari was recently interviewed on the SEC Network’s Paul Feinbaum Show and he made several references to the University of Kentucky Basketball program either being or needing to be the “gold standard” for college basketball.

Those comments intrigued me and I had to stop and ask myself, “Is UK Basketball really the gold standard for all of college basketball?” The question that kept rolling around in my head wasn’t very comforting. It went something like this.

How can a program that has only won one national championship in the last 24 years call itself the “gold standard” of college basketball?  Then this thought immediately crossed my mind, how can a program claim to be the “gold standard” of college basketball and then enter the NCAA Tournament as a 2-seed and promptly lose in the opening round to a 15-seed?

Or maybe it was this question, how can a program that had previously been winning its conference regular season title 57 percent of the time from 1932-1998 drop down to only winning it 30 percent of the time from 1999-2022 still claim to be the “gold standard” of college basketball?”.

Then I thought with a smile, “Wait a minute! What about Final Four appearances?” I knew I had hit on a winner here. After all, John Calipari is the king of Final Four appearances. Well, he was at one time. From 2010 thru 2015 UK appeared in the Final  Four a whopping four out of six times or 66 percent of the time  — only missing in 2010 and 2013.

Then, inexplicably, starting in 2016 Kentucky has not made another appearance in the Final Four — a six-year drought (not including 2020 when no NCAA Tournament was held). Also, I almost forgot to mention that this past season Kansas dethroned UK as the all-time winningest program in college basketball.

Looking at all those facts makes it difficult, if not impossible, to justify a title for UK of being called the “gold standard” of college basketball. I know it really hurts most Kentucky fans to say that but it’s true.

Just recently John Calipari said about Kentucky Basketball and it’s facilities, “Mitch (Barnhart) and I are meeting because it’s unacceptable if we’re not the gold standard in facilities and everything else. It’s not acceptable if Midnight Madness isn’t something talked about for a month. We need the campout going again.”

His implication is that everything else; all-time winning record, national championships, Final Four appearances and SEC Championships are at the “gold standard” level when actually they are not and haven’t been since maybe 1999 but at least not since 2016.

Calipari went on to say, “To have everything the gold standard, we’ve always been that. We slipped a little bit in some of the facilities. Now I’m not saying our facilities are bad, they’re not bad, they’re just not the gold standard.” It seems to me that the focus on facilities is a deflection or red herring tactic to try to draw everyone’s attention away from the facts. Facts that tell a completely different story. Kind of like a magician using sleight of hand, waving a magic wand or using a pretty female assistant to draw the observer’s attention away from what’s really going on and what’s really going on is John Calipari hasn’t  been able to pull a rabbit out of his hat since 2012 and this program hasn’t been the “gold standard” during his tenure since 2016.

With all that being said no one is claiming that the Wildcat Basketball Program isn’t one of the best in the country. But it’s just that; one of the best in the country. Unfortunately Duke, Kansas, Gonzaga, Villanova and a few others could make that same claim of being one of the best in the country.

The Oxford Dictionary says that the definition of gold standard is “a high level of quality that others try to copy.” Kentucky Basketball used to be exactly that. Most programs copied what UK was doing — just not as successfully.

But now, as painful as it is to admit, more than the facilities as John Calipari recently said “have slipped a little.” So has the performance on the court. No longer is everyone chasing Kentucky for basketball excellence. In fact Kentucky might be chasing others since 2016.

Motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar once said, “The first step in solving a problem is to recognize that it does exist.”

That appears to be the first step that John Calipari needs to take. Admitting that there is a problem and it is not with the facilities would go a long way towards helping others help him solve the problem.

Slick rhetoric, spinning the narrative and doing magic tricks with smoke and mirrors is not going to get the Kentucky program back to being the “gold standard.”

Abraham Lincoln once famously said about his political opponent Stephen A Douglas, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”

One would have to think that is a good summation of what’s happening with all the “gold standard” discussion concerning the UK Basketball Program. It looks like maybe the gold plating has started to rub off and the brass is starting to show a little underneath.

17 Responses

  1. Inside knowledge is manna so, understandably, most reporters are afraid to point out the truth for fear of losing access inside the program.
    Now, I don’t think every reporter should be enemy #1 like a certain retiring reporter, but no matter how big a fan the reporter is, it is the purpose of reporters to hold power accountable, so I applaud your bravery.

  2. The game has change there’s so much parity all across the landscape of college basketball, with that been said i think there’s no clear cut who is the golden standard of college basketball right now and it may never get that point of ky or any other team of being golden standard status again. Yes i do kentucky has slip somewhat but it’s not the first time in my lifetime of following the cats since the late 60’s. Our cats will bounce back as usual we just gotta be patient.

  3. The simple fact driven basis is that there is no way UK is the gold standard in college basketball right now. I think that title belongs to the "Jayhawks" the reigning national champion. I would think Duke is right there as well, but I want to see how Duke without Coach K fairs in the years ahead. In many ways UK finds itself in a awkward position that only winning a national championship will solve in the short term. This coming season will tell the BBN a lot about the future of this program under Calipari. All this talk about facility upgrades is a smoking mirror and an obvious diversion on the part of our Coach. I am not opposed to facility upgrades either, but that is not the most pressing problem, winning, or the absence of winning titles is.

  4. Facilities argument is total b.s. . The awesome facilities didn’t help kansas against Kentucky this year at the phog..

  5. I am not sure any team is the gold standard in men’s college basketball…it’s certainly not Kentucky though. Kentucky has quickly become the gold plated standard. Kansas, Duke, Gonzaga, and Villanova are the teams most mentioned as the contenders for national titles. Baylor, UCLA, Houston, and Arizona would make up the next 4. Tennessee, Arkansas, Auburn, and Alabama are beginning to be mentioned in the same conversations as Texas, Texas Tech, California, and North Carolina. Kentucky has slipped to the next level with Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State and a host of other teams. Kentucky is not even mentioned as the best team in the SEC anymore. This is what OAD and "players first" have gotten us in 13 years. This won’t change until Calipari is ushered out the door. Water is wet, the sky is blue, and Kentucky has become an "also ran" team when championships are being handed out.

  6. I think players recognize that they don’t need kentucky and Cal take it to the NBA. I think Cal needs the players more than the players need Cal and UK. Not cutting down UK but if your good you can be good anywhere.

  7. Kentucky is not the gold standard right now. We absolutely were during from 2010 to 2015. The number speak for themselves. The biggest problem with Uk, in my opinion, is all of our guys leave whether they are ready for the league or not. Examples include = Hagans, Richards, Wynyard, Jones, Gabriel, Diallo, Briscoe, Humphries, Skal, Lee… the list goes on and on. Imagine if all of those guys played 2-4 years? That fills a lot of holes, adds tons of experience and size. Now couple that with all the busts we have recruited that didn’t stick around= Hopkins, Boston, Askew, Clarke, Fletcher, Whitney and this is what you get. Way too much turnover.

  8. I agree that UK is down, its really just the last 2 years. Albeit, 2 very bad years. 2018, we were one shot away from F4. We had a F4 team the 1st year of covid. He’s not the best coach, but he is the best coach for us. All coaches have rough patches. Look at K, Pop, Phil.

    1. If elite 8’s are our standard for a "not bad" season, then I would rather have Tubby back. At least Tubby was a good in game coach, transparent, didn’t spin every story, didn’t talk down to his employers (the fan base), and maybe most importantly, he didn’t polarize the fan base.
      Tubby def wasn’t my favorite coach – I didnt like the slower, less exciting style of play we had beco,e accustomed to, but he did have low roster turnover, deep benches, good regular seasons and made the tourney every year, which is better than the last 7 years.
      Tubby went 9 years without a NC and was shown the door. We are now going into our 10th season without a NC (and that is not counting Covid yr – def not a NC year either).
      I don’t understand the talk that Cal isn’t the best coach but that he is the best coach for UK. The best coach in the country is the best coach for UK – exciting style of play, solid defense, and winning solves everything. It isn’t that complicated.
      Also don’t understand the dream that the covid team was a FF lock. They looked good until the end, when it imploded with the point guard refusing to go in a game, then stepping away from the team. At that point, I wasnt sure what to expect going into the tourney – 2nd rd, a sweet 16 loss, an Elite8? I had lost all confidence int that team.

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