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Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: Underachieving?

By Terry Brown

Mar 12, 2016; Nashville, TN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats bench cheers after their team scored against the Georgia Bulldogs during the second half of game eleven of the SEC tournament at Bridgestone Arena. Kentucky won 93-80. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 12, 2016; Nashville, TN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats bench cheers after their team scored against the Georgia Bulldogs during the second half of game eleven of the SEC tournament at Bridgestone Arena. Kentucky won 93-80. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports /
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The off-season for any sport is a time where there’s typically not a lot of news except for a flurry of activity around professional drafts and men’s college basketball isn’t any different. We know that University of Kentucky head men’s basketball coach John Calipari and the program itself are lightning rods for college basketball writers. The Cats and Coach Cal are polarizing with the vast majority of folks outside of the Big Blue Nation thinking that the guys down in Lexington are, at best, doing things the wrong way or, at worst, cheating. And what a better way to get some needed off-season clicks than writing an article to needle Calipari and the BBN?

This time, it’s ESPN’s Jeff Bordello who opines that, based on recruiting numbers, the Kentucky Wildcats are the most underachieving program in college basketball over the last four seasons (I won’t link to it). The methodology Bordello uses seems to be setup to intentionally get to the conclusion that he draws. He focuses on regular season success, but casually mentions the Wildcats’ 38-1 2014-15 season. The entire premise of the article is that recruiting is an exact science and that the number one ranked class in one year is equal to the number one class the next year and that’s simply not the case.

Final Fours are hard to reach, which is why they are celebrated. Under John Calipari, the Wildcats reached the Final Four four (4) times in seven seasons. That stretch of success is only matched by John Wooden at UCLA and Coach K at Duke. Joining that elite is underachieving? As usual, the national narrative concerning Cal and the Cats keeps moving. You can’t win with freshman… until he did. He turns over his roster every year and no one stays more than one year… until they do. And the Cats don’t care about academics… until they lead the way with a 1000 APR. And now, Final Fours don’t count for much.

As the Louisville Courier Journal’s Kyle Tucker points out (over the last four years):

  • North Carolina turned the Nos. 8, 5, and 3 ranked recruiting classes into a two second round losses and a Sweet 16 before this year’s run to the NCAA title game.
  • Kansas turned the Nos. 13, 2, 9, 7 ranked classes into ZERO Final Fours, one Elite Eight, one Sweet 16 and two second round losses.
  • Arizona turned the Nos. 3, 5, 6 and 4 ranked classes into ZERO Final Fours, two Elite Eights a Sweet 16 and a first round exit

And Kentucky is underachieving?

The Wildcats have 115 wins over the last four seasons. Duke has 116. The Cats have 10 NCAA Tournament victories. The Blue Devils have 11. Yes, Duke won the 2015 NCAA title, but Kentucky made it to the 2014 title game and hit the 2015 Final Four with a 38-0 record. With Calipari and Coach K recruiting at the same level why are the Cats underachieving and the Blue Devils not? In a word: narrative.

The BBN knows that the hits are going to keep coming. The off-season is slow and the writers need their clicks. We’ve seen polls where John Calipari was the most overrated coach. We’ve seen ESPN list Kentucky as the third best college basketball program. Every summer we get these think pieces that are written only to show that despite all of the Wildcats’ on court success, they’re really not that good. If Coach Cal and his Kentucky program are underachieving, perhaps more programs should take note and do the same thing.

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