The John Calipari era at UK was one that got off to a blazing start as one would expect with the class of Wall, Cousins, Bledsoe and company joining his first year. We saw a tidal wave of momentum in recruiting and supplemented that with stair step results in the first 3 years culminating in his first national title in 2012. That era was the Golden era of his time here at UK. He was blazing a trail never before seen in the college basketball world taking full advantage of his recruiting prowess now supercharged with him being at arguably the most storied program in the nation with unlimited resources. But as it is with all things, nothing lasts forever. Following that national title fans were dealt a hearty dose of humble pie in 2012-2013 in failing to make the NCAAT. The following year was saved by a series of last second shots that will forever live in the hearts of many fans but ultimately lost to an inferior UCONN squad. This was the beginning of a momentum shift in the powers in college basketball who once initially had reservations about fully adopting one and done talent, namely Coach K.
2013 and 2014 were the beginning of this shift. Cal's biggest rival, Coach K in those years proceeded to lose in the round of 64 twice in a 3 year span and underachieve with a guy named Kyrie Irving. The 2014 title game against UCONN was where this snowball of momentum slowly started to gain some traction in favor of Duke. Cal's failure to cash in on a title in 2014 after a very fortunate run that consisted of eliminating three final four members of the year before via last second 3's is where this power shift began. It ultimately led to the lynch-pin moment of 2 super teams in 2015. Both Duke and UK entered the season with 9 McDonald's All Americans on their rosters. Both lost one to injury (Amile Jefferson and Alex Poythress). One cashed in on the moment while one came up just short.... This was the culmination of Coach K and Dukes arrival to overthrow UK as the lone chief of one and done recruiting. 2015 was the first year Coach K fully adopted the one-and-done mentality, and in turn won a title with it.
This is where the perfect storm began brewing for Duke to supplant UK as the number one destination for the elite of the elite. Starting in 2015 Duke has proceed to land top shelf talent in Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Brandon Ingram, Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum, Marvin Bagley, Trevon Duval, Wendell Carter, RJ Barrett, and Cameron Reddish all while UK missed on the likes of Mohammed Bamba, Miles Bridges, Marques Bolden, Jarrett Allen, Cheick Diallo, Malik Newman, RJ Barrett, Bol Bol, Cam Reddish and most likely in the coming days, Zion Williamson. Now, the Duke title was not the only thing that contributed to this. Combine that 2015 missed opportunity with back to back #1 draft picks of Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz playing for 2 teams that didn't make the NCAAT and you see that a small shower become a thunderstorm. Add the success of Mohammed Bomba at Texas, Trae Young at Oklahoma along with some other successes at non-traditional power schools and multiple exposed players like Isaiah Briscoe, Alex Poythress, Wenyen Gabriel, and Skal Labissiere along with the loss of Orlando Antigua and now that thunder storm has turned to a tropical storm. Add to that an embarrassing showing this summer by Cal in Egypt against a Canadian team that consisted of MAC-level talent with RJ Barrett resulting in the first loss for a team USA squad in over 5 years and now you have a full blown hurricane of a momentum swing.
So the question is now- how do we change this tide? Is it a coaching personnel fix? Who do we hire? You can't bring Antigua back with what he is accused of doing at South Florida. Do you take a chance with someone like Jalen Rose? Do we re-evaluate how we build our team? Do we start looking for more skill players over athletes that are raw skill wise? What if the players union does away with one and done? Is it suiting to Cal to essentially "do more with less"? It gets even more difficult if we make a living with 5-stars ranked 10-30 with the likes of Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Mizzouri, Florida, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt all getting in on that type of talent. No longer will be able to simply "out talent" or "out athlete" our way to SEC titles. I mean "doing more with less" was how his early days at UMASS were pre-Marcus Camby that consisted of missing 2 NIT's, a sweet 16, and a season of 10-18. Even looking at his early Memphis days his first 6 years consisted of 3 NIT appearances, a 1st round exit and a 2nd round exit. It wasn't until Pitino and Louisville left CUSA in 2005-2006 for the Big East that Cal saw success at a high level at Memphis. Now am I saying fire Cal? Hell no. I am simply saying that things have changed a bit since Cal stood before a podium during Big Blue Madness and said "we are the needle". We have a few tough questions we have to answer going forward. I understand Duke is taking losses too, but Coach K has a history of being able to build teams outside the parameters of one-and-done elites that Calipari just doesn't have. I think it is a fixable issue, but many fans would rather bury their heads than give any sort of critical analysis to Calipari. I get he saved us from Billy Gillespie.... but it is important to remember that Billy isn't the standard here at the best program in the history of college basketball. We, like Coach K, may be called to evolve a tad too.
2013 and 2014 were the beginning of this shift. Cal's biggest rival, Coach K in those years proceeded to lose in the round of 64 twice in a 3 year span and underachieve with a guy named Kyrie Irving. The 2014 title game against UCONN was where this snowball of momentum slowly started to gain some traction in favor of Duke. Cal's failure to cash in on a title in 2014 after a very fortunate run that consisted of eliminating three final four members of the year before via last second 3's is where this power shift began. It ultimately led to the lynch-pin moment of 2 super teams in 2015. Both Duke and UK entered the season with 9 McDonald's All Americans on their rosters. Both lost one to injury (Amile Jefferson and Alex Poythress). One cashed in on the moment while one came up just short.... This was the culmination of Coach K and Dukes arrival to overthrow UK as the lone chief of one and done recruiting. 2015 was the first year Coach K fully adopted the one-and-done mentality, and in turn won a title with it.
This is where the perfect storm began brewing for Duke to supplant UK as the number one destination for the elite of the elite. Starting in 2015 Duke has proceed to land top shelf talent in Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Brandon Ingram, Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum, Marvin Bagley, Trevon Duval, Wendell Carter, RJ Barrett, and Cameron Reddish all while UK missed on the likes of Mohammed Bamba, Miles Bridges, Marques Bolden, Jarrett Allen, Cheick Diallo, Malik Newman, RJ Barrett, Bol Bol, Cam Reddish and most likely in the coming days, Zion Williamson. Now, the Duke title was not the only thing that contributed to this. Combine that 2015 missed opportunity with back to back #1 draft picks of Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz playing for 2 teams that didn't make the NCAAT and you see that a small shower become a thunderstorm. Add the success of Mohammed Bomba at Texas, Trae Young at Oklahoma along with some other successes at non-traditional power schools and multiple exposed players like Isaiah Briscoe, Alex Poythress, Wenyen Gabriel, and Skal Labissiere along with the loss of Orlando Antigua and now that thunder storm has turned to a tropical storm. Add to that an embarrassing showing this summer by Cal in Egypt against a Canadian team that consisted of MAC-level talent with RJ Barrett resulting in the first loss for a team USA squad in over 5 years and now you have a full blown hurricane of a momentum swing.
So the question is now- how do we change this tide? Is it a coaching personnel fix? Who do we hire? You can't bring Antigua back with what he is accused of doing at South Florida. Do you take a chance with someone like Jalen Rose? Do we re-evaluate how we build our team? Do we start looking for more skill players over athletes that are raw skill wise? What if the players union does away with one and done? Is it suiting to Cal to essentially "do more with less"? It gets even more difficult if we make a living with 5-stars ranked 10-30 with the likes of Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Mizzouri, Florida, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt all getting in on that type of talent. No longer will be able to simply "out talent" or "out athlete" our way to SEC titles. I mean "doing more with less" was how his early days at UMASS were pre-Marcus Camby that consisted of missing 2 NIT's, a sweet 16, and a season of 10-18. Even looking at his early Memphis days his first 6 years consisted of 3 NIT appearances, a 1st round exit and a 2nd round exit. It wasn't until Pitino and Louisville left CUSA in 2005-2006 for the Big East that Cal saw success at a high level at Memphis. Now am I saying fire Cal? Hell no. I am simply saying that things have changed a bit since Cal stood before a podium during Big Blue Madness and said "we are the needle". We have a few tough questions we have to answer going forward. I understand Duke is taking losses too, but Coach K has a history of being able to build teams outside the parameters of one-and-done elites that Calipari just doesn't have. I think it is a fixable issue, but many fans would rather bury their heads than give any sort of critical analysis to Calipari. I get he saved us from Billy Gillespie.... but it is important to remember that Billy isn't the standard here at the best program in the history of college basketball. We, like Coach K, may be called to evolve a tad too.
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