John Calipari entered this season under more pressure than ever from Kentucky fans because he A) lost to Saint Peter’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last March, B) produced the worst season in the modern UK history two years ago, C) hasn’t made a Final Four since 2015, and D) still has only one domestic title in 13 years in the UK despite regular entry recruiting classes that rank among the best nationally.
Things only got worse after 12 games this season.
“They beat us pretty well,” Calipari said after Wednesday night’s 89-75 loss to Missouri that dropped Kentucky to 8-4 and 40th in the NET after being No. 1 in the preseason standings. from KenPom.com.
Yeah.
More troubling than the 8-4 record is that the Wildcats are 0-4 against KenPom’s top 45 teams and just got blasted — they lost 21 in the second half — by a program from Missouri. who finished 12-21 last season. On that note, shout out to Dennis Gates. Mizzou’s freshman coach inherited a mess but loaded up through the transfer portal and now has a team that’s 12-1 with the lone loss to Kansas.
Missouri looks good. Gates looks awesome.
The big national title, however, is still that Kentucky will enter January with zero Quadrant 1 wins and even less identity. Calipari doesn’t have the kind of overwhelming NBA talent he normally has in the UK, nor an obvious understanding of how to actually maximize plays in the program. It was a bad combination that led to a rocky start to the season and the removal of the Wildcats from the daily CBS Sports Top 25 and 1 rankings updated Thursday morning.
Calipari has always had his critics, of course, but what concerns him now is that his most intense critics are die-hard fans of the program he runs, and that’s never really been the case for him at the moment. college level since he started his head training. career more than three decades ago.
Is there still time to do things right?
Sure.
But history tells us that once your own fans turn to you that much, it’s hard to win them back completely, and the fact that KenPom now predicts Kentucky will lose eight more times before World Cup Sunday. selection suggests that Big Blue Nation will likely spend the next three months increasingly unhappy with a very expensive coach who is finding it harder than ever to live up to expectations.
