The state of the UK basketball program. Are we closer to being the UK of the 90's, or closer to being another Indiana?

[TopCatCal]

I'm afraid that we're closer to becoming another Indiana than some might want to admit. I'm sure that 20/30 years ago that the IU fans would have never dreamed that their program would be this bad for this long. If it happened at IU it could happened here...... And considering that

1. Since 2019 UK has a grand total of 1 NCAA tournament win
2. Haven't won a national championship in 12 years
3. Haven't been to the Final Four in 9 years
4. Haven't been to the Sweet 16 in 5 years
5. Haven't been a 1 seed in almost a decade

A change has got to be made at the end of the season, & I'm not talking about changing assistant coaches. CALIPARI HAS GOT TO GO!

 

[sambowieshin]

Final Four or out THE DOOR!!!!!!

 

[know1]

It's Indiana no doubt.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

I’m frankly just sad about the state of our program. We deserve better.

 

[Myth Buster51]

The month of February is probably going to be brutal around here. 🏀

 

[Jamal Mercer]

It’s only gonna get worse.

If we don’t beat Tennessee on Saturday I see a pretty bad downward spiral for this season.

And who really cares about top recruiting classes anymore moving forward, it means nothing.

Indiana.

 

[HeelsShmeels]

Looks like all the players still in the NBA mock draft so I guess success has been achieved. Weird how some of them don’t even get that much burn.

 

[TNCatfanforever]

It's Indiana no doubt.

Nebraska football

 

[KYCAT78]

I'm afraid that we're closer to becoming another Indiana than some might want to admit. I'm sure that 20/30 years ago that the IU fans would have never dreamed that their program would be this bad for this long. If it happened at IU it could happened here...... And considering that

1. Since 2019 UK has a grand total of 1 NCAA tournament win
2. Haven't won a national championship in 12 years
3. Haven't been to the Final Four in 9 years
4. Haven't been to the Sweet 16 in 5 years
5. Haven't been a 1 seed in almost a decade

A change has got to be made at the end of the season, & I'm not talking about changing assistant coaches. CALIPARI HAS GOT TO GO!

We have been Indiana the last 5 years, our next step down is becoming LSU. Give us 10 more years under Cal and we will be Vandy.

 

[SemperFiCat]

I don't think we're really close to Indiana. IU fans have abandoned a lot of their expectations. It's oddly quite here in Hoosierland. They suck, and Purdue is doing well.

What I will say, which I've said here for a couple years, is that I see very stark similarities between IU fans that put Knight above IU, and some UK fans that are doing the same. Those Bobby Knight disciples are what started the real erosion of IU basketball. I'm seeing too many Cal fans that are prioritizing defending him over what's best for the program. Trust me, I've seen what happens, and it ain't good. I saw Texas Tech crap all over central Indiana. ...and this was before Amazon Prime. They had to actually look for that merch.

We aren't near IU, but the blueprints on how to get there are very visibly starting to overlap.

 

[GeddyHoosier]

I don't think we're really close to Indiana. IU fans have abandoned a lot of their expectations. It's oddly quite here in Hoosierland. They suck, and Purdue is doing well.

What I will say, which I've said here for a couple years, is that I see very stark similarities between IU fans that put Knight above IU, and some UK fans that are doing the same. Those Bobby Knight disciples are what started the real erosion of IU basketball. I'm seeing too many Cal fans that are prioritizing defending him over what's best for the program. Trust me, I've seen what happens, and it ain't good. I saw Texas Tech crap all over central Indiana. ...and this was before Amazon Prime. They had to actually look for that merch.

We aren't near IU, but the blueprints on how to get there are very visibly starting to overlap.

There was a Texas Tech merch store on the south side of Indy-when I lived there in the early 2000s. Always looked like business was good too.

To the original poster-I've been an IU fan a long time and its been so painful to watch us decline into what our program is now. I do agree that Knight's dismissal fractured the fan base and we've never been able to find the right coach since (Samspon could have been good if he wasn't such a sleaze). I tend to believe now that IUs success in the 70s/80s/early 90s was because of Knight and not because IU is a great basketball school. He was just the right guy at the right time, but the program's decline also began on his watch around 1994 or 95-so I partially blame him too. I think your Cats are on much more solid ground than IU ever was-you have had success under many coaches and you'll still be good after Cal. Just my .02 worth, but I doubt UK will ever fall as far as IU has.

 

[RunninRichie]

UK is at a cross roads. Some of our fans have Calipari as our Bobby Knight or coach K. Luckily for us, we’ve seen 4 other coaches win titles here. Problem is, most of the older fans don’t watch or care anymore because Cal sucks so bad. So younger fans desperately want to hold onto Cal because he’s like their version of Bob Knight. UK can hold onto this guy too long and turn into indiana. Or, we can negotiate something after this year and hire Scott Drew and go back to winning. If we flub the hire it may get bad.

 

[GeddyHoosier]

It really hurt IU as well that Knight was so bitter after his firing and did everything he could to payback his former school. The best example is convincing Sean May not to go to IU (he was a lock before Bobby got fired). Knight wanted him at Texas Tech, but he chose UNC as a compromise. Knight was always speaking negatively and playing the "I'm the victim here" card, hoping to sway the court of public opinion against IU. I doubt Calipari would ever behave that way-even if UK decided to "move him on" at some point.

Speaking of "move him on", If IU fires Woodson at some point, that will make 6 straight mens basketball coaches fired (Knight, Davis, Sampson, Crean, Archie, Woodson). Technically, Mike Davis resigned, but everyone saw the writing on the wall. For that reason alone, I think IU is stuck with Woodson until he retires on his own.

 

[OleBum]

last nights loss was like letting the rest of the air out of a 65% deflated basketball.

 

[HeHateMe2328]

Neither. We'll continue to be a top 15-20 team most years as long as Cal is here, but we've won our last title of the Cal era.

 

[WeWant9]

UK is at a cross roads. Some of our fans have Calipari as our Bobby Knight or coach K. Luckily for us, we’ve seen 4 other coaches win titles here. Problem is, most of the older fans don’t watch or care anymore because Cal sucks so bad. So younger fans desperately want to hold onto Cal because he’s like their version of Bob Knight. UK can hold onto this guy too long and turn into indiana. Or, we can negotiate something after this year and hire Scott Drew and go back to winning. If we flub the hire it may get bad.

I’m always amazed when people want to try and put Cal in the level of coaches with multiple titles.

Lets be honest, Cal is closer to being in a category with the Izzos and the Boeheims, than he is with the Ks and Williams. It was there for his taking, but he wanted to prioritize his own self goals over titles.

 

[RunninRichie]

I’m always amazed when people want to try and put Cal in the level of coaches with multiple titles.

Lets be honest, Cal is closer to being in a category with the Izzos and the Boeheims, than he is with the Ks and Williams. It was there for his taking, but he wanted to prioritize his own self goals over titles.

Yeah he put NBA success and being a humanitarian over winning titles. It is what it is.

 

[bthaunert]

If we had to choose between the two, we are closer to the UK of the 90's and it's not even a debate imo. We are still a top 5 relevant program in college basketball. We were closer to IU in the 2000's than we are now. Then we hired the right coach, at the time, to come in and show we were still as relevant as ever. That doesn't mean I'm happy with where the program is, but to me, the difference is relevance as a program. IU is just not relevant anymore and hasn't been for many years and I believe we are way far away from that.

 

[502 Wildcat]

I'm afraid that we're closer to becoming another Indiana than some might want to admit. I'm sure that 20/30 years ago that the IU fans would have never dreamed that their program would be this bad for this long. If it happened at IU it could happened here...... And considering that

1. Since 2019 UK has a grand total of 1 NCAA tournament win
2. Haven't won a national championship in 12 years
3. Haven't been to the Final Four in 9 years
4. Haven't been to the Sweet 16 in 5 years
5. Haven't been a 1 seed in almost a decade

A change has got to be made at the end of the season, & I'm not talking about changing assistant coaches. CALIPARI HAS GOT TO GO!

Sadly, I agree. A very humbling point that we all probably need to hear to truly understand where we are.

We aren't Indiana, but with respect to all the major traditional blue bloods (UK, Indiana, UCLA, Kansas, Duke, UNC, UConn) we are probably 2nd or 3rd from the bottom on that list when it comes to modern success.

Since our title in 1998, calling ourselves the gold standard or the bluest of the blue bloods has been a downright lie.

Let's note a few stats, since 1999.

UConn - 5 Titles, 6 Final Fours
Kansas - 2 Titles, 6 Final Fours
UNC - 3 Titles, 7 Final Fours
Duke - 3 Titles, 6 Final Fours
Indiana - 0 Titles, 1 Final Four
UCLA - 0 Titles, 4 Final Fours
Kentucky - 1 Title, 4 Final Fours

Obviously, we have fared better than UCLA and Indiana, but our peers in Lawrence, Storrs, Chapel Hill, and Durham have just been better modern programs.

We are Kentucky. We have sky high expectations and always have, but with this very sobering trend...the question is, should we continue to have those expectations? Clearly, the school & athletic department doesn't share them. Are we just being unreasonable at this point?

To add salt to the wound, with the uptick in college basketball investments across the country, those teams all now have either more intimidating home atmospheres and/or better facilities than we do now as well. UCLA obviously being the exception. That is a problem in and of itself.

This trend has gone on longer than simply the last few years under Cal. Teams are really making a dent into our dynasty, and I can't help but wonder if we are all keeping our expectations high in vain.

Do we deserve and can we justify being as P.O'd as we have all been lately? I'm not so sure anymore, and it sucks.

 

[RunninRichie]

Sadly, I agree. A very humbling point that we all probably need to hear to truly understand where we are.

We aren't Indiana, but with respect to all the major traditional blue bloods (UK, Indiana, UCLA, Kansas, Duke, UNC, UConn) we are probably 2nd or 3rd from the bottom on that list when it comes to modern success.

Since our title in 1998, calling ourselves the gold standard or the bluest of the blue bloods has been a downright lie.

Let's note a few stats, since 1999.

UConn - 5 Titles, 6 Final Fours
Kansas - 2 Titles, 6 Final Fours
UNC - 3 Titles, 7 Final Fours
Duke - 3 Titles, 6 Final Fours
Indiana - 0 Titles, 1 Final Four
UCLA - 0 Titles, 4 Final Fours
Kentucky - 1 Title, 4 Final Fours

Obviously, we have fared better than UCLA and Indiana, but our peers in Lawrence, Storrs, Chapel Hill, and Durham have just been better modern programs.

We are Kentucky. We have sky high expectations and always have, but with this very sobering trend...the question is, should we continue to have those expectations? Clearly, the school & athletic department doesn't share them. Are we just being unreasonable at this point?

To add salt to the wound, with the uptick in college basketball investments across the country, those teams all now have either more intimidating home atmospheres and/or better facilities than we do now as well. UCLA obviously being the exception. That is a problem in and of itself.

This trend has gone on longer than simply the last few years under Cal. Teams are really making a dent into our dynasty, and I can't help but wonder if we are all keeping our expectations high in vain.

Do we deserve and can we justify being as P.O'd as we have all been lately? I'm not so sure anymore, and it sucks.

That trend is because we held onto a mediocre coach for UK standards in Tubby for way too long. And because we hired BCG. Not yo mention cal’s many failures and choke jobs. Kansas, Duke and UNC all retained their elite coaches during those years. It’s a damn shame Cal lost to KEVIN OLLIE. Makes me sick. The whole program got complacent after 2015. No need for new facilities etc etc we’re the best. We all got fat and happy.

 

[502 Wildcat]

That trend is because we held onto a mediocre coach for UK standards in Tubby for way too long. And because we hired BCG. Not yo mention cal’s many failures and choke jobs. Kansas, Duke and UNC all retained their elite coaches during those years. It’s a damn shame Cal lost to KEVIN OLLIE. Makes me sick. The whole program got complacent after 2015. No need for new facilities etc etc we’re the best. We all got fat and happy.

I agree with you but the trend is still objective reality. And again, our admin clearly doesn't care, so are we just wasting our time and energy caring? Personally, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to care.