Kentucky basketball: John Calipari needs to change remembering how it began

2010-2011 Calipari took a step forward.

The upward trend continued in 2010 as Calipari and the Cats took yet another step forward, an absolute gem of a coaching job by the second-year head coach. Cal was able to take a team that had much less star power a step closer to a title.

Kentucky wasn’t the same dominant team like in his first season, but the mix of returning players and freshmen proved to be a recipe for a March Madness title run.

That year began with the Wildcats taking a pre-season trip to Canada that proved to be a good bonding experience which was his vision.

"“It started where we showed them movies and we talked to them about ‘everyone will rise and fall together.’ We talked about going underground in the mine and the guy tells me, ‘we come down together and we come up together. No one leaves without the other.’ “"

It was the season of uncertainty with Enes Kanter as well and the Samaritan feet washing that Cal introduced to his squad surrounding servant leadership.

The Cats struggled much more than the previous year and managed to finish the regular season 22-8, but were able to win the SEC tournament for the second straight year. They went a 10-game winning streatk starting with the last three regular season games.

UK ended the year at 29-9 led by Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones, Doron Lamb, and Darius Miller all averaging in double figures but unfortunately Kentucky was taken down by the eventual National Champion Connecticut Huskies in the Final Four.

The Record wasn’t reflective of how big of a step forward Cal and Kentucky took, in just his second season this was Kentucky’s first Final Four appearance since 1998.