Kentucky Wildcats: Great Expectations

The Season May Be Over, But Kentucky Wildcats Basketball Never Stops

As the NCAA Tournament moves toward the Final Four, the Big Blue Nation is in an unfamiliar situation. With the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team having been eliminated by the Indiana Hoosiers in the second round, the Kentucky Wildcats have long been back in Lexington. After a run of 4 Final Fours in 5 seasons, the BBN hasn’t been accustomed to Cats’ season being over this soon.

As the 2015-16 season progressed, it was clear this Kentucky Wildcats’ team was flawed. Despite the all-time great backcourt of sophomore Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray, the lack of a productive frontcourt was an issue the team couldn’t overcome. With Ulis and Murray playing at a high level, the Cats were a very good team. If either one or both had an off night, the Cats were mediocre at best. My theory is that there isn’t a better coach in America than UK head coach John Calipari. Calipari has made a habit of fixing flawed teams and getting extended tourney runs. But this year was not one of those years.

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Some media folks will argue, wrongly, that Coach Cal has underachieved while in Lexington. With all of the top level talent that has played for the Kentucky Wildcats under John Calipari, it’s a knee jerk reaction. First, the NCAA tournament is a perfect sporting event that yields an imperfect result. The single elimination nature of the tournament means that often the best team doesn’t necessarily win. In the NCAA Tournament under Cal, the Wildcats are 23-5. That’s more wins and more Final Four appearances (4) than anyone else. Yet, there’s just the one lone 2012 championship to show. Second, every team of Cal’s, with the exception of the 2013 squad, showed massive improvement over the course of the season.

John Calipari has had seven teams at Kentucky. He’s either gone into the NCAA tournament with the number one overall seed (2010, 2012, 2015) or he’s reached the Final Four (2011, 2014). While this year’s team wasn’t quite the disaster of the 2013 NIT team, this team was an above average team that was more dependent on favorable matchups than Cal’s other teams. Unfortunately, the NCAA selection committee didn’t do Kentucky any favors by putting them on a collision course with the Indiana Hoosiers.

Indiana possessed the inside play that the Kentucky Wildcats couldn’t combat and defensively were able to disrupt what the Cats were trying to do on the offensive end. And when you add in the nature of the “rivalry” with the Hoosiers and this matchup couldn’t have been any less favorable for Kentucky. And after three straight NCAA Ws over Kentucky’s main rivals (Indiana and Louisville), it seemed like the Cats were primed for the upset.

Ordinarily, the Cats should be a lock for the Sweet 16. But just like looking at Calipari’s overall resume and looking at each team individually, it’s easy to see how this loss occurred. Just like the cold shooting night vs. West Virginia in 201o, the missed free throws against UConn in 2011 and running out of steam vs. the Huskies in 2014, you can understand how Kentucky lost. Of the five NCAA tournament losses under John Calipari, the only one that still bothers me is the loss to Wisconsin in the 2015 Final Four and that’s probably because we were so close to a championship… so close to history.

The great news is that the Kentucky Wildcats will be back. As we enter the time of year of the “Who’s staying, who’s going” portion of the year and with the recruits set to arrive on campus at the end of the summer, it’s not farfetched to once again believe that Kentucky will be the class of the SEC and will be making noise in the 2017 NCAA tournament. Making Final Fours is a challenging task, but John Calipari’s track record has skewed the Big Blue Nation’s expectations. Unlike other programs, the Kentucky window for a deep tourney run hasn’t been shut. It’s open and waiting for the 2016-17 Wildcats.

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