No amount of spin can change the fact that Calipari and his staff have failed to make a single move to improve next season’s roster since last season ended. That inaction looks even worse when compared to Kentucky’s blue-blooded peers.
Duke’s two draft entrees are projected first-rounders, the Blue Devils did not lose a single player to the portal, they added four five-star freshmen and got former five-stars Kyle Filipowski, Mark Mitchell, Tyrese Proctor and Jeremy Roach to return. Kansasis returning three key starters — Dajuan Harris Jr., Kevin McCullar Jr. and KJ Adams — signed a top-10 freshman class and added three of the top available transfers in Dickinson, Arterio Morris(Texas) and Nicolas Timberlake (Towson). That looks like carefully planned roster management. What Kentucky has done so far looks a lot like a lack of planning.
It’s probably also time for Calipari to take a long look in the mirror and ask why he struggles so much with roster retention. Why don’t players without clear paths to sticking in the pros not want to stay and play at one of the premier programs in college basketball? Is it something about the way they’re being coached or developed? A lack of relationships between the staff and players? It has been suggested that a major factor is other programs promising huge NIL deals while Calipari refuses to make such guarantees — and that seems like a cop-out. Anyone who has been paying attention knows Tshiebwe cleaned up in NIL money, even as he had to navigate student-visa red tape. Several Kentucky players have raked in six figures.
The complete disintegration of last season’s roster, when the Wildcats badly need bodies, suggests a deeper problem. Whatever that is, it’s time for Calipari to pinpoint the issue and fix it. In the meantime, tweeting out a 202-word statement, which reads like that famous “this is fine” meme from inside a burning house, probably won’t do much to quiet the ever-louder alarm.
theathletic.com
Duke’s two draft entrees are projected first-rounders, the Blue Devils did not lose a single player to the portal, they added four five-star freshmen and got former five-stars Kyle Filipowski, Mark Mitchell, Tyrese Proctor and Jeremy Roach to return. Kansasis returning three key starters — Dajuan Harris Jr., Kevin McCullar Jr. and KJ Adams — signed a top-10 freshman class and added three of the top available transfers in Dickinson, Arterio Morris(Texas) and Nicolas Timberlake (Towson). That looks like carefully planned roster management. What Kentucky has done so far looks a lot like a lack of planning.
It’s probably also time for Calipari to take a long look in the mirror and ask why he struggles so much with roster retention. Why don’t players without clear paths to sticking in the pros not want to stay and play at one of the premier programs in college basketball? Is it something about the way they’re being coached or developed? A lack of relationships between the staff and players? It has been suggested that a major factor is other programs promising huge NIL deals while Calipari refuses to make such guarantees — and that seems like a cop-out. Anyone who has been paying attention knows Tshiebwe cleaned up in NIL money, even as he had to navigate student-visa red tape. Several Kentucky players have raked in six figures.
The complete disintegration of last season’s roster, when the Wildcats badly need bodies, suggests a deeper problem. Whatever that is, it’s time for Calipari to pinpoint the issue and fix it. In the meantime, tweeting out a 202-word statement, which reads like that famous “this is fine” meme from inside a burning house, probably won’t do much to quiet the ever-louder alarm.
Tucker: How worried should Kentucky fans be about this roster? Very
Defections to the draft and the transfer portal have left the Wildcats with seven scholarship players — five of them freshmen — on June 1.
theathletic.com
