John Calipari will have a top recruiting class next year to pursue another national championship. (Vicky Graff Photo)
There’s a lot of negativity around this current UK basketball team. Many fans have written off the current Wildcats even with the win over Louisville Saturday but seem to be hoping that next year will be the year John Calipari can turn this program back in the right direction.
Many seem to think that with a super talented Kentucky team that consists of five Top Ten recruits to go along with the current returning roster Calipari can bring home banner No. 9 but is that really a likely scenario?
He seemed to catch lightning in a bottle with the Anthony Davis-led team in 2012 but what about the other seasons since 2009? Maybe a little history lesson will help those UK fans that are still holding their breath.
In 2009 UK signed what was considered a Top 5 recruiting class in the history of college basketball with John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton to go along with then current players Patrick Patterson and Darius Miller among others. Eight players off that team ended up having an NBA career with several including Cousins, Wall and Bledsoe having tremendous success in the NBA. Cousins and Wall were both 1st team All Americans in 2010.
They made it to the Elite 8 in the 2010 NCAA Tournament. They met a Bob Huggins coached West Virginia team that had two future NBA players, Kevin Jones and Devin Ebanks. They both had minimal careers in the NBA. UK at 32-2 lost that Elite 8 game 73-66 to a 27-6 West Virginia team.
Here’s a recap of that game from the ESPN article from 2009:
“For freshman sensation John Wall and the young Wildcats (35-3), a scintillating season ended with a clang. They were awful from 3-point range, missing their first 20 attempts and finishing a stunning 4 of 32 (12.5 percent). DeAndre Liggins finally hit a 3 with 3:29 left to end the drought, but by then it was too late. West Virginia went the other way, making eight 3s in the first half without a 2-point basket.
“The second-seeded Mountaineers (31-6) used the same aggressive, in-your-face defense that led them to their three previous tournament wins. They closed the lanes, leaving Kentucky’s speedy guards with few chances to penetrate.
“And they flustered Kentucky’s big men, particularly center DeMarcus Cousins, by collapsing three players into the post once he got the ball.
“West Virginia also denied the top-seeded Wildcats easy shots by committing fouls and forcing Kentucky to make free throws, which didn’t happen. The Wildcats went 16 of 29 from the line.”
Does that sound familiar? It’s happened time and time again under John Calipari at UK. No reason to think it won’t happen again in 2023-2024. It seems that with the Calipari coaching style it is very difficult for his ultra-talented teams to overcome a disciplined opponent that shoots well from 3-point range, plays physical defense and forces the Wildcats to make 3-point shots and free throws.
It happened again in the 2015 Final Four against Wisconsin with probably Calipari’s most talented team. No reason to think that same opponent’s strategy won’t work against an ultra-talented 2023-2024 Kentucky team.
So, don’t hold your breath hoping for a miracle. In a one-game series good coaching can beat good talent. It has been proven over and over again in Calipari’s career at UK. No reason to think it won’t be very likely to happen again in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
9 Responses
Cal can go and take his top recruiting class with him. I’m ready for a coach that actually coaches over rolling the ball out to 5 stars.
NO!!!!!!
Everything that folks are saying these days is what I’ve said for at least 10 years. Calipari needs to out talent you to even be competitive. The man cannot coach. He’s had minimum 50 NBA players at UK(and 1 title, just one!) and for some reason there’s this belief that he gets kids to the league. *News Flash* the kids would have gone to the league no matter what school they attended. Personally I hope he doesn’t go anywhere anytime soon. I hope he stays at UK, keeps getting #1 classes and keeps flopping. UK fans will be livid.
When Cal first got here, there was a lot of fire in his belly. He was out to prove the critics wrong, and wanted a National Championship to validate himself to the College Basketball World.
Now that he has accomplished this, I have not seen the fire in him for the last several years. All he talks about is his NBA accomplishments and excuses for himself and his teams.
Cal has great players every year, but he has done very little with them lately.
I don’t see this changing because I don’t think Cal has the makeup to change with the times or his players capabilities. He runs pretty much the same thing every year, no matter who the players are.
I doubt it.
This year’s team is not lacking talent, it is lacking coaching! Hopefully Calipari will not be the coach of next year’s team.
Agree with all the comments:
1. We have enough talent, COW is not a coach so he cannot win at a high level regardless of how talented the roster.
2. His #1 stated priority is getting players to the NBA. Funny thing – the players that have gone to the NBA would have made it regardless of where they went to school, CCC did not get them there. Often wondered if he cared as much for the non-NBA UK players who would have to work the rest of their lives?
3. (6) number 1 recruiting classes and the rest were Top 5 classes. Is the goal to assemble recruiting classes or win games/championships?
4. CCC thinks talent wins games, teams win games.. The 1998 champs would run roughshod over most of CCC teams because they were coached, played as a team, and were not worried about their draft status!
On paper the 2022 version has much more talent but would never be in a game against the Comeback Cats!
Has already said his most important thing is to get players drafted, not win titles .Can’t believe he didn’t get fired after that comment.Lifetime contract took away his caring about winning games.Need a new coach who wants to keep up the winning tradition instead of NBA recruiting.
Amen!
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