Should John Calipari be getting more buzz in National Coach of the Year discussion?
LEXINGTON, Ky. – In the first 12 years of his Kentucky basketball career, Hall of Famer John Calipari coached a national champion, four Final Four teams and one squad that won its first 38 games.
But the current Wildcats might represent Calipari’s best Kentucky coaching job yet.
Coming off one of the worst seasons in program history, Calipari’s squad looks like one of a handful of favorites to reach the Final Four in New Orleans, 10 years after Kentucky won its last national championship there. Just when it looked like injuries might derail this team’s momentum after a 13-point loss at Tennessee, Kentucky responded with one of its most impressive performances of the season in Saturday’s 90-81 win over Alabama.
Kentucky basketball: hree takeaways as UK overcomes injuries to beat Alabama
Starting guards TyTy Washington (leg) and Sahvir Wheeler (wrist) watched the entire game from the bench in street clothes. Kentucky fell behind by 13 points in the first half as Alabama got off to a scorching start by making 9 of 12 3s.
But Kentucky still rallied. It still won. It still left Rupp Arena with more evidence the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s decision to slot the Wildcats as a No. 2 seed in the early bracket reveal earlier Saturday was too low.
“I keep saying, I like my team,” Calipari said. “There are good teams out there, but I'm taking this one.”
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Perhaps in a rush to move past the misery of two years of the COVID-19 pandemic we have been too quick to take a moment to recognize just how dramatic Kentucky’s turnaround has been this season.
Kentucky basketball returns after COVID season
For as much as Calipari wants to refer to the 2020-21 Wildcats’ 9-16 record as an aberration, it was no sure thing the program would immediately return to national prominence after the struggles of a year ago.
Calipari remade his staff, hiring two new assistant coaches, and embraced the transfer portal after missing on several top targets in the 2021 high school class. He ended up with a roster heavy on experience with just the perfect mix of personalities to build into a winner.
In the portal, Calipari landed the leading candidate for National Player of the Year, the SEC’s leader in assists and one of the best 3-point shooters in the country. Losing star point guard commitment Nolan Hickman to Gonzaga late in the 2021 recruiting cycle could have been a crippling blow to the roster, but Calipari replaced him with TyTy Washington, now the best freshman guard in the country.
“Every day I go to practice I enjoy myself,” Calipari said.
NCAA Tournament: Why Kentucky basketball was ranked behind Kansas in early bracket reveal
Even after constructing a roster particularly poised to thrive in a college basketball environment that has rewarded experience above all else in recent years, Calipari had more roadblocks to clear.
Five of Kentucky’s seven primary rotation pieces have missed at least one game due to injury or illness. For much of the season there was a feeling of “what if” as the Wildcats just missed marquee wins at LSU and Auburn with Washington and Wheeler sidelined for long stretches of both games.
Even after the home blowout of Tennessee and road demolishment of Kansas, there were questions about Kentucky’s depth. With Washington limited to just 13 ineffective minutes at Tennessee Tuesday due to a lower leg injury, Kentucky looked mortal again.
Calipari himself had admitted a week ago that his team had proven it could account for the loss of Washington or Wheeler, but not both. So when it became apparent the two guards would not play against Alabama, the narrative of another injury-fueled “what if” was readily available.
Someone forgot to tell Calipari and company to follow the script though.
“(Calipari) just wants to war with the guys that will fight,” said super senior guard Kellan Grady, who scored a season-high 25 points against Alabama. “He reminded us: ‘At the end of the day, I need five guys.’ And he says to us sometimes, ‘I believe in some of you guys more than you believe in yourself.’ Some guys struggled and he stuck with guys and really challenged them and forced them to rise to the occasion, and guys did.
“And in my experience in college, this is probably one of the most rewarding wins I’ve ever been a part of, just knowing what we were up against.”
Naismith Coach of the Year candidate
On Friday, Calipari was announced as one of 15 coaches on the watch list for the Naismith Coach of the Year, but he has thus far received little buzz as a legitimate candidate for the national award.
Seven different coaches received at least one first place vote in The Athletic’s midseason national awards, as voted on by the website’s reporters, in late January. None were Calipari.
Even within the Southeastern Conference, Calipari faces an uphill climb for Coach of the Year honors considering Bruce Pearl has an Auburn team picked to finished fifth in the preseason media poll in first place. Despite its abysmal record last season, Kentucky was picked as the SEC preseason favorite again.
High expectations are nothing new at Kentucky, but meeting them does not mean Calipari’s coaching job this season is any less noteworthy.
Follow Jon Hale on Twitter at @JonHale_CJ.