Top Cats: 10 disappointments of Cal's decade in Lexington
Editor’s note: This is the fifth piece in a series commemorating John Calipari’s dominant decade at Kentucky. Coming Friday: A Q&A with the man who hired Calipari.
Despite the glowing reviews and memories we’re focusing on this week, everything in John Calipari’s decade in Lexington hasn’t come up golden. Kentucky has won more games than anybody except Kansas since Calipari arrived, but his decade has been capped with only one NCAA title. Sometimes, it’s bad luck, sometimes bad timing, occasionally even bad coaching, but a careful look at the last decade shows a handful of “woulda, coulda, shoulda” moments for Cal’s Wildcats.
As great as the 10 years have been, and they have been, here are the 10 biggest disappointments of Coach Cal’s decade in Lexington.
10. The Saga of Jarred Vanderbilt
Five-star forward Jarred Vanderbilt seemed to always be injured last season, his one season in Lexington. Vanderbilt suffered some type of injury in the McDonald’s All-American game before arriving in Lexington, which was downplayed, but followed by what was apparently another leg injury that sidelined him for the pre-conference portion of his season at UK.
Vanderbilt then aggravated his injury late in the season and while the possibility of return was held out first for the regular season, then for the conference and the NCAA Tournaments, he never played again. In 14 games, Vanderbilt averaged 7.9 rebounds in 17 minutes per game. But without his help in March, Kentucky was beaten by Kansas State in the Sweet 16.
9. The annual NBA rumors
Maybe it’s not even far to attach this one to Calipari. But he’s allegedly headed to coach LeBron James every spring. Of course, so far it’s an accumulation of smoke without any fire. But particularly in an era when the recruiting mojo has taken a minor hit, it’s fair to wonder how much of the recent struggles to get top talent could be related to rumors that Calipari has one foot out the door.
8. The career of Alex Poythress
Granted, in the one-and-done era, Calipari rarely keeps players long enough to worry about massive year-to-year improvement. There are exceptions though — guys like Tyler Ulis, Doron Lamb and Willie Cauley-Stein all showed significant steps up in productivity during their time in Lexington.
Which leads us to the unfortunate story of Alex Poythress. The silky-smooth forward scored 11.2 points per game as a freshman, good enough to make the All-SEC Freshman team in 2012-13. But when he didn’t turn pro, Poythress’s career production actually took a down turn. He suffered an ACL tear in his junior season, and did still work his way into the NBA … but time didn’t improve his game. Poythress scored 20 points in 4 of his first 5 games at UK … and only five more times in his four seasons in Lexington.
7. Standing by the Harrison Twins
Few players were as polarizing as twin brothers Andrew and Aaron Harrison. The twin brothers were instrumental in leading UK to the NCAA title game as freshmen, but when they returned, they were often outshone in 2014-15 by freshmen Tyler Ulis and Devin Booker. For the year, Andrew had just 4 assists more than back-up Ulis, while also committing 26 more turnovers and shooting below 38%. Aaron made exactly one more 3 than Booker — but he also had 46 more attempts.
Kentucky’s offense bogged down at times, and more than a few talking heads wondered why Ulis and Booker didn’t see more minutes when it counted, particularly in UK’s narrow escape over Notre Dame and soul-crushing loss to Wisconsin (see No. 1, below).
6. Skal Labissiere
The big Haitian was one of the most sought-after recruits in the 2015 recruiting class, drawing comparisons from basketball analysts to Anthony Davis. Instead, Labissiere was a 6-10 jump shooter, who lacked the strength to bang inside with SEC athletes.
He averaged 15.8 minutes and 6.6 points per game at Kentucky. The Wildcats had expected much more, but guards Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray had to make up for the inside scoring deficiency, and the team was upset by Indiana in the NCAA Tournament.
5. Failing to keep Kyle Wiltjer and Charles Matthews
Given Calipari’s habit of landing a haul of 5-star recruits every season, many are called, but few are chosen in terms of Kentucky’s roster. Twice, promising young players were scared off to greener pastures by the possibility of losing minutes to other recruits.
Wiltjer was a multi-faceted big man who had an excellent career at Gonzaga after leaving Lexington, and Matthews is a fifth-year senior at Michigan and provides exactly the sort of defensive continuity and leadership that Kentucky lacks often this season. Grabbing a new round of recruits every year is nice, but not at the expense of established players.
4. The injury to Nerlens Noel
Kentucky’s 2012-13 team was Calipari’s weakest, as they not only lost a ton of talent to the NBA, but on Feb. 12, in a game at Florida, the team’s best defender (and probable overall best player), center Nerlens Noel, tore his ACL while blocking a shot. Noel went No. 6 overall in the NBA Draft even after tearing up his knee, but without his presence inside, Kentucky’s inconsistent guards doomed the team to the NIT.
3. Failing to keep Jodie Meeks
Calipari inherited relatively little talent in 2009 when he took the Kentucky job. He did keep big man Patrick Patterson and a few complementary players who helped, like wings Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins.
But when he added freshmen John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton, the only thing Kentucky lacked was a consistent perimeter scorer.
Had senior-to-be Jodie Meeks chosen to return rather than enter the NBA Draft (where he became a 2nd-round pick), it’s not hard to believe that the lack of outside shooting that doomed the ‘Cats in the Elite Eight against West Virginia would not have been an issue. Instead, going 4-for-32 from 3 against Bob Huggins’ Mountaineers doomed the ‘Cats.
2. (Not) Freeing Enes
Calipari capped his 2010 recruiting class with Turkish big man Enes Kanter … until the NCAA decided that benefits received by Kanter while playing for a Turkish club team meant that he couldn’t play college basketball. Kentucky appealed the decision, but Kanter never played a minute for the Wildcats. Kentucky reached the Final Four without him, largely based on how much practicing against Kanter helped big man Josh Harrellson. But with Kanter, who went No. 3 overall in the 2011 NBA Draft, Kentucky might well have claimed another national title.
1. The 2014-15 perfect season that wasn’t
Not since border rival Indiana in 1976 has a Division I NCAA team completed a perfect season. In 2015, it looked like Kentucky would end that streak, with Calipari fielding a veritable dream team of future pros that blew through an undefeated regular season, the SEC Tournament, and their NCAA region, albeit with a late escape against Notre Dame.
Kentucky had a lead late in their semifinal matchup with Wisconsin, but some hot shooting from the Badgers, some bad decisions from UK, and a couple of shaky calls left the Wildcats headed home at 38-1.
Considering that Kentucky hasn’t returned to the Final Four since this game, while Duke has cornered the one-and-done recruiting game for the sport’s top stars, this game might have been Cal’s turning point. In any case, it certainly hurt for Big Blue Nation.
PREVIOUSLY IN TOP CATS:
How John Calipari revived Kentucky basketball, changed college basketball
Top 10 moments of John Calipari’s decade at UK
