Big Blue Blunder: Kentucky is taking a step backward by keeping John Calipari
What has happened to the Kentucky Wildcats? One of the very best programs in college basketball history, a true blue blood if there ever was one, just got knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by Oakland University, and the worst part about it is that it wasn’t much of a surprise.
Talent certainly isn’t the problem in Lexington, not with players like Antonio Reeves, Reed Sheppard, and Rob Dillingham on the roster, but this is what Kentucky basketball has become under John Calipari: a waypoint for talented players on their way to a lengthy and productive NBA career. That’s all well and good for the Devin Bookers and Shai Gilgeous-Alexanders of the world, but for Big Blue Nation, only one thing matters: hanging more banners in Rupp Arena.
Calipari has hung one of those banners before, but the 2012 Anthony Davis-led title team is but a distant memory at this point, and a reminder of how painfully short the program has fallen since it seemed like Calipari had the college basketball world at his feet.
Three of the 15 members of last year’s All-NBA teams played their college ball at Kentucky: Gilgeous-Alexander, De’Aaron Fox, and Julius Randle. Three others (Davis, Booker, and Bam Adebayo) received votes. Calipari has long placed his players’ NBA success front and center, and for good reason. If you were a five-star high school player, wouldn’t you want to go to the same place, and play for the same coach, that produced seven members of this year’s NBA All-Star team?
The short-lived presence of these talented players at UK has done little to restore Kentucky’s position among the game’s elite programs. Since Kentucky’s last Final Four in 2015, here’s what other blue bloods have achieved
