It used to be a given.
No matter the year or the circumstances or what was going on in the world around him, you could count on John Calipari to round up the best talent he could find, check egos at the door, stir the melting pot and figure out the magic formula that gave Kentucky basketball its best chance at a successful season.
This year, not so much.
So has Coach Cal lost his magic touch?
After all, it’s just not happening. Not with this team. Saturday’s 66-59 loss at Auburn dropped the Wildcats to 3-2 in the Southeastern Conference and 4-8 overall. After an impressive 17-point win at Florida on Jan. 9 that left Big Blue Nation confident the Cats finally had it all figured out, it’s back to the drawing board after a 20-point home loss to Alabama and a dreadful performance on the road at Auburn.
“We’re trying to figure it out,” Calipari said Saturday.
Something easy to figure out: This is a bad offensive basketball team. Saturday marked the ninth time in 12 regulation games that the Cats failed to score more than 65 points. UK ranks 287th in three-point shooting percentage (29.7 percent), 277th in turnover percentage, 291st in effective field goal percentage and 258th in two-point field goal percentage.
Saturday, Auburn scored all of two points on its first 15 possessions. Trouble was, Kentucky meanwhile only scored nine. Instead of burying the Tigers early, Calipari’s club led just 25-21 at the half. Then they allowed Auburn 45 points over the final 20 minutes, when the home team shot 55.6 percent from the floor.
“You can see I’m frustrated,” Calipari said.
Meanwhile, Big Blue Nation is a little frustrated with its head coach. Losing does that, especially to a fan base unaccustomed to losing. Fans have criticized Calipari’s lineups, his (archaic?) offensive sets, his sideline demeanor, his one-and-done recruiting philosophy, his propensity to stick with some players rather than others, and his role in the team kneeling during the national anthem at Florida and explanation afterward.
Then there’s the topic of Dontaie Allen. Calipari’s lightning rod. He’s the lone shooter on a team that can’t shoot. The former Pendleton County star barely saw the floor before scoring 23 points in the Jan. 2 double-overtime win at Mississippi State. Allen has averaged 25 minutes per game since. On Saturday, however, after scoring eight points in 15 first-half minutes, he played only eight minutes the second half.
Afterward, Calipari explained he subbed Allen out after running a couple of plays for the shooter, only to see the redshirt freshman turn down the shots. Later, the coach inferred that Auburn was going straight at Allen on the defensive end, though Calipari added the Tigers singled out more than one Wildcat that way.
“I’m not giving up on anybody,” Calipari said.
Nor should the BBN give up on its coach, of course. The man is a Hall of Famer. He has won 779 games. He’s 334-85 at Kentucky, including a national title. His only losing season as a college head coach was his first when UMass went 10-18 back in 1988-89, which by coincidence is the last time Kentucky basketball experienced a losing season (13-19).
This year has all the makings of a repeat. The upcoming schedule is unforgiving. After Wednesday’s game at Georgia, the Cats play at home against LSU (5-1 in the SEC), at Alabama (6-0 in the SEC), home against Texas (No. 4 in the AP Top 25), at Missouri (No. 17), then home against Tennessee (No. 10). Kentucky basketball with a 5-13 record on Feb. 7 is not out of the realm of possibility.
“We still have our chances,” Calipari said when asked Saturday about the possibility of not making the NCAA Tournament. “We can go on a run and be fine.”
Maybe. But such a run will take something this team and coach have yet to show this season. A whole lot of magic.
