Kentucky lost early in the NCAA Tournament for a third straight season on Thursday.
Kentucky, who came into this year’s tournament as a No. 3 seed, got upset by 14th-seeded Oakland, 80-76. John Calipari’s squad got off to a slow start and wasn’t able to close the gap in the second half.
It’s the second time in the last three years that Kentucky has lost in the first round and to make matters worse, Kentucky has also lost four of its last five NCAA Tournament games.
The losses have Calipari looking at some changes for the 2024-25 season.
“I’ll look at other ways that we can do stuff, but, you know, there’s this thing here, it’s a different animal,” Calipari said, via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. “We’ve been able to help so many kids and win so many games and Final Fours, national titles, and all this stuff, win league championships with young guys.”
Calipari will have to figure out which of his players are returning for next season before he potentially dips his toes into the transfer portal.
If he can pull a veteran or two from the portal to help some of his younger players, that could go a long way toward getting the Wildcats back to going deep in the NCAA Tournament.