John Calipari is to blame, of course. He’s the head coach, making $9 million per year. He recruits and coaches the players. He gets the credit for the wins, blame for the losses. So far this season, Kentucky basketball has lost five of six games, its worst start since 1926-27.
It’s not just Calipari, of course. Start with an impossibly young team. Nine newcomers. A bummer of a summer. COVID-19 restrictions. No exhibition games. Fewer confidence-building guarantee games. A challenging early schedule. A perfect storm is defined as a rare combination of circumstances that aggravates the event. What we have here is a perfect storm.
Calipari is caught in the middle of it. For years, opposing coaches have marveled at the way the UK coach continually starts over with a fresh roster, season after season, and makes it work. “I don’t know how he does it?” they say. Only this year it’s not working.
The Cats’ 75-63 loss to North Carolina in Saturday’s CBS Sports Classic was the latest example. First half, Kentucky played with more intensity than in any of its first games combined. At halftime, UK led 38-34. A corner appeared to have been turned. Then foul trouble happened. Missed shots happened. Turnovers happened. As Calipari himself said afterward, “we let go of the rope.”
By game’s end, immaturity surfaced. Bad body language on the floor. Frustration on the bench. Upset over a lack of playing time, Cam’Ron Fletcher had to be consoled by his teammates. He later apologized to his teammates in the locker room. Calipari lamented that one of his players would “cop an attitude.”
Fletcher apologized to the BBN on Sunday via Twitter saying, “I always feel I can help the team. I am a team player and it hurts to see my team struggle. That’s why I was frustrated and my emotions peaked. There is no excuse for my behavior at all.”
Calipari is at practice every day. I’m not. Neither are the fans. He knows what he sees, what he wants, what he knows. He’s a Hall of Fame coach, with a national championship to his credit, who didn’t somehow forget to coach overnight. He can only be judged on wins and losses. His record at UK: 331-82.
UK’s current record is 1-5, however. It lost to a Georgia Tech team that is 3-3 with losses to Georgia State and Mercer. It lost to a Notre Dame team that is 2-4. It was outscored 48-26 in the first half by Notre Dame and 41-25 in the second half by North Carolina. When things start going bad for this team, they escalate.
Especially on the offensive end. The Cats have failed to reach the 70-point mark in five straight games. That hasn’t happened since the final five games of the infamous 2012-13 NIT season. The Cats made just seven of 21 shots in Saturday’s second half. For the game, they were 3-for-13 on three-point attempts. They are shooting 24.3 percent from three-point range for the season. That ranks 308th out of the 328 Division I college basketball teams that have played a game this season.
Calipari tells his players “what got you here, won’t get you there” meaning what got you from high school to college won’t get you from college to the NBA. In this case, what’s worked for Calipari in the past — basing his star-making machinery on one-and-done talent — isn’t built for this 2020 storm.
It could still work, of course. We’ve got a long way to go. Who knows what happens before March. Calipari insisted Saturday his team is better than it has shown, and he’s probably right. There’s still plenty of time to jell, starting Saturday at Louisville. Hampered by COVID-19 pauses and injuries, playing without star guard Carlik Jones, the Cards trailed Wisconsin 44-18 at halftime Saturday before losing 85-48. Chris Mack has problems of his own.
What this Kentucky team needs now is a win. A win for its confidence, its psyche, its overall well-being. A win to change the narrative. A win to quiet the storm.
