Two teams ruined John Calipari’s tenure at UK. They were not Saint Peter’s and Oakland.
In at least two substantial ways, Kentucky has been fortunate in its men’s basketball coaching transition from John Calipari to Mark Pope.
First, the fact that Calipari found an exit route to Arkansas, means that UK men’s hoops has been able to get “the new voice” the program needed without having to pay the almost $34 million contract buyout that would have been required to fire the previous coach without cause.
Second, the fact that Calipari exited during the current era of liberalized player movement created by the free-transfer rule has allowed Pope to come to UK and build what should be an immediately competitive roster even though he inherited no returning scholarship players.
That there is one more class eligible for the NCAA-granted “free COVID” extra season of eligibility offered to every athlete during the pandemic-impacted 2020-21 school year has deepened the pool of transfer talent available to Pope —who has signed five “super-seniors” for UK’s 2024-25 roster.
Imagine what a post-Calipari Wildcats roster might have looked like in an era before players had full leeway to switch teams without the requirement of sitting out a season first?
You might have seen UK forced to deploy multiple walk-ons just to field a team.
Since Calipari gave up what he described in his exit video as his “dream job” at Kentucky to become boss Hog at Arkansas, much has been discussed about the role that UK’s dispiriting NCAA Tournament losses to No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s (2022) and No. 14 seed Oakland (2024) played in creating the environment that led to the coach’s departure.
Damaging as those defeats were, I would argue that two teams other than Saint Peter’s and Oakland did the most to undermine Calipari’s coaching tenure at Kentucky.
One of those teams is obvious.
Connecticut essentially denied Calipari two additional NCAA championships at UK.
On April 2, 2011, Jim Calhoun’s Huskies escaped the Wildcats, 56-55, in a taut NCAA Tournament Final Four showdown at Houston’s Reliant Stadium. UConn was led by the brilliance of point guard Kemba Walker, who went for 18 points, six rebounds and seven assists.
Kentucky was done in by errant foul shooting, making only 4 of 12 free throws in what became a one-point loss.
Had UK made two more foul shots and prevailed, I am confident the Wildcats would have done what UConn ultimately did: Stifle overmatched Butler two nights later for the national championship.
Three years and five days later, UConn took another national title away from UK by beating Kentucky 60-54 in the NCAA Tournament championship game at AT&T Stadium near Dallas.
This time coached by Kevin Ollie, Connecticut was led by the brilliance of point guard Shabazz Napier, who went for 22 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Kentucky was done in by errant foul shooting, making only 13 of 24 free throws in what became a six-point loss.
Reverse those two losses, and Calipari would have (likely) had two more NCAA titles to go with the one he won for Kentucky in 2012. Three NCAA championships would have made the coach’s hold on the UK head coaching job unshakable no matter how many Saint Peter’s- and Oakland-level NCAA tourney losses subsequently followed.
The other team that ultimately did in Calipari at Kentucky is far less conspicuous.
Two times in Calipari’s final six seasons as UK head man, LSU beat UK on buzzer-beating, second shots. Both times, those last-second losses to LSU cost Kentucky SEC regular season titles.
On Feb. 12, 2019, LSU’s Kavell Bigby-Williams tipped in a Skylar Mays miss just ahead of the final buzzer to give the No. 19 Tigers a 73-71 upset of the No. 5 Wildcats in Rupp Arena.
Video replay ultimately showed that Bigby-Williams should have been called for offensive goaltending and the basket overturned.
That did not happen in real time, however. The outcome would prove the ultimate difference in LSU (16-2) winning the 2018-19 SEC championship over UK (15-3).
This past season, on Feb. 21, 2024, in Baton Rouge, LSU nipped the Cats at the final buzzer again.
With UK leading 74-73, Kentucky’s Adou Thiero blocked an attempt at a game-winning shot by LSU’s Jordan Wright. As he was falling out of bounds, Wright regained possession of the blocked shot, and made the wise, instantaneous decision to toss the ball toward the front of the rim.
There LSU’s Tyrell Ward gathered the ball and sent it through the basket just ahead of the final horn for a 75-74 Tigers victory.
That outcome was the ultimate difference in UK (13-5) finishing one game behind 2023-24 SEC regular season champ Tennessee (14-4) in the league standings.
Calipari finished his Kentucky tenure having won only one SEC regular season title (2019-20) in his final seven seasons on the UK bench.
Reverse those two last-gasp defeats vs. LSU and UK would have had three SEC championships over Calipari’s most recent seven years.
Who knows, maybe that would have banked just enough goodwill for Calipari that the fan environment that followed the Saint Peter’s and Oakland debacles would not have gotten so venomous — and the coach would not have felt compelled to take the Fayetteville exit.
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