Kentucky entered this year’s NCAA Tournament with championship aspirations, but when it was time to finally get business done, John Calipari’s squad failed to knock off Oakland in its opening matchup.
After Oakland upset Kentucky on Thursday, former Villanova coach Jay Wright offered his thoughts on Calipari’s current situation in Lexington.
Wright thought Calipari did a great job this season coaching a young core. However, he believes Kentucky will have to get older in order to compete for a national title.
“The era of taking these young freshmen and trying to play against older players is over,” Wright said. “I think he did a phenomenal job with these guys all year. You can see, they’re playing against grown men. The guys on Kentucky will be far better pros than any of these guys on Oakland or any of these guys in the tournament. But they’re not as good college basketball players.
“At this point in their careers, they’re not as disciplined yet as the guys for Oakland. It’s not Cal’s fault. It’s they’re 18 years old and they’re in this era where everyone is telling them how great they are. Just show up in college and you’re going to win. It doesn’t happen that way. And the more guys stay in college because of NIL, it’s going to be tougher for young teams like this to be successful.”
During Thursday night’s postgame press conference, Calipari talked about potentially changing the way he constructs Kentucky’s roster.
“I’ve done this with young teams my whole career, and it’s going to be hard for me to change that, because we’ve helped so many young people and their families that I don’t see myself just saying, ‘OK, we’re not going to recruit freshmen,'” Calipari said, via ESPN.
Perhaps Calipari will find the right blend of youth and experience this offseason. If not, the fans will continue to call for his job.