Average Age of Past UK Teams vs. Cal's Teams

[JPScott]

Calipari's teams at UK have generally always been considered "young" due to its reliance on freshmen and constant turnover.

It got me wondering exactly how young are his teams in comparison to past UK teams.

Below is a chart showing the average age of the team for a given year (in dark blue circles). The light blue circles are the average age weighted by the percentage of the team's points that are scored. (So for example if the light blue is above the dark blue, then that indicates that on average the older players are providing most of the scoring to the team.)

I think there's a few trends & notable events that can be seen.

For example there was a wild swing during WWII where at first there was a steep drop as mostly freshmen were playing as older players were drafted into the military. Later it went the other way as veterans returned from the war to finish their degrees.

As far as Calipari's teams, the average age doesn't appear to be much different than recent years. But the point-weighted average is where you really start to see Cal's reliance on freshmen.

Anybody see anything else interesting in this chart?

 

[Smashcat]

Anybody see anything else interesting in this chart?

Older players providing slightly more scoring on this current team? Not the case with other Cal teams.

 

[docholiday51]

Look at years 48,49 58,70,78,84 and 98 all seasons that we won or had a real shot to win it all,the age above 21 and in some cases over 22.As you get past 2010 the trend is clearly down and probably true in all of college basketball but to a lesser degree.

I am a bit surprised that the ages seem to cluster in the 20/21 range and don't change that much till 2010 given the change in the freshman rule in the early 70's

A side note Rupp changed college basketball with the fast break,Pitino with the usage of the 3 point shot and maybe Cal with the youth movement. If there was ever any doubt that Kentucky is at the forefront of college basketball here is another piece of evidence.

Cal and his youth movement(who knew Cal,the Bob Dylan of college basketball)

 

[UKGrad93]

1944 team was young.

 

[blugrazz]

I am a bit surprised that the ages seem to cluster in the 20/21 range and don't change that much till 2010 given the change in the freshman rule in the early 70's

I was a little surprise by this as well. I thought you might see this trend quite a bit later as early departures became more commonplace.

 

[JPScott]

Look at years 48,49 58,70,78,84 and 98 all seasons that we won or had a real shot to win it all,the age above 21 and in some cases over 22.As you get past 2010 the trend is clearly down and probably true in all of college basketball but to a lesser degree.

I am a bit surprised that the ages seem to cluster in the 20/21 range and don't change that much till 2010 given the change in the freshman rule in the early 70's

I noticed that too, that many of UK great teams all had relatively older squads. But then you have a team like 2012 which relied heavily on young players and they still won the championship. I don't have any NCAA numbers to compare it to, but I think this chart underscores how unusual that was.

As far as the freshman rule, if you look closely I think you can see that there was a slight shift downward in age when comparing the 1950's through 60's with the early 70's, although by the mid-80's some of those teams started to creep back up in average age.

 

[JPScott]

1944 team was young.

They were known as the "Beardless Wonders" and "Kindergarten Kids". There were 12 freshmen and 2 sophomores to go along with Maurice Bell and Nathaniel Buis who were transfer. Only Wilbur Schu was over 20 years old at the start of the season.

Bob Brannum was named All-American that year, making him the youngest player at the time to be named Consensus AA. (Anthony Davis also was named Consensus AA as a freshman and was slightly younger than Brannum at same stage of their respective careers.)

 

[CatFanInTheBathtub]

Is that pic from alumni or memorial? Either way they really didn't want people smoking in there. Literally a sign of the times.

 

[JPScott]

Is that pic from alumni or memorial? Either way they really didn't want people smoking in there. Literally a sign of the times.

Alumni Gym. Memorial Coliseum didn't open until 1950.

 

[JPScott]

Here's a better picture of the "No Smoking" sign, from the 1937-38 roster photo.

 

[Jkwo]

Thanks again, Jon. It's always fascinating to read your threads and data.