Kentucky basketball is a cornerstone of collegiate basketball excellence. Kentucky l represents a cherished tradition, deeply ingrained in the fabric of the university and the basketball world. With a legacy marked by unparalleled success and a passionate fanbase, Kentucky basketball transcends sports to become a cultural phenomenon.
Preseason
Coming into the season, Kentucky lost 4 players to the transfer portal and 3 to the NBA draft. This left Kentucky as a very inexperienced team. Only 3 players returned from the previous season. One of these was Antonio Reeves who was a big part of last year’s team, but the other two, Ugono Onyensso and Aduo Theiro, played minimal minutes last year. Although Kentucky was inexperienced it had the number 1 recruiting class in the nation. The class was led by players like D.J. Wagner, Rob Dillingham, Justin Edwards, Reed Shepard, Aaron Bradshaw, and Jordan Burks. The Wildcats also picked up a player from Croatia, Zvonimir Ivisic.
However, before the season, 2 of Kentucky’s centers Bradshaw, and Onyensso suffered injuries that led to them missing games at the start of the season. Ivisic was also not granted eligibility, so he was out for the start of the season. Their strong recruiting class with few returning starters led to the Wildcats being ranked 16th in the preseason AP poll.
Early Season
Kentucky’s nonconference schedule mostly consisted of mid-major games that Kentucky dominated with their great offense. However, they were surprised one game when they played UNC Wilmington. Guard D.J. Wagner was not able to play this game which left the Wildcats without their early season facilitator, so they dropped a game they should not have. Kentucky’s first big game was against the number 1 overall Kansas Jayhawks. Kansas was led by their 7-foot transfer center Hunter Dickinson. In this game, the Wildcats were still without all of their 3 7-footers. Dickinson ended up
dominating the Wildcats with 27 points and 21 rebounds. Although Kentucky lost this game they showed flashes of a great team. Dillingham showed how great of a scorer he could be and Reeves showed how great of a leader he can be. Another big early game was against Miami Florida(a final 4 team from the year prior). This Miami team returned many key players and added more from the transfer portal. However, Kentucky dominated them with stellar 3-point shooting, and was a breakout game for freshman Reed Shepard. The last important nonconference game for the Wildcats was against the North Carolina Tarheels. This game was the first big game that Onyensso and Bradshaw played in. Although they did not make a huge impact on the stat sheet it showed Kentucky fans the potential the team had at 100%. This win looks even better for the Wildcats as the Tarheels are set to be a 1 seed in March Madness.
Sec Play
Lots of Kentucky fans were excited as Kentucky entered conference play as a top 10 team. However, Kentucky was projected to lose its first game against Florida according to the Las Vegas betting odds. They then went 5-5 in their next 8 games almost dropping out of the AP top 25. Many Kentucky fans started to doubt the team because of their lack of ability to play defense. Then Kentucky traveled to Auburn who were undefeated at home. Many fans wrote this game off because of Kentucky’s poor play, but Kentucky’s defense stepped up and held Johni Broome( an all-American forward) to only 14 points. Kentucky looked to carry this momentum
into their next game against LSU. In the first half they got off to a commanding lead, but LSU came storming back in the second. At the end of the game, LSU hit a heartbreaking buzzer-beater to knock off the Cats. Many fans were left disappointed by this game because LSU was a subpar team this year and felt that they had no chance in the next game against Alabama. Boy were they wrong, as Kentucky scored 117 points almost breaking the Rupp Arena record. Kentucky carried the momentum of this game to the end of the season even beating Tennessee who was ranked top 5 in the AP poll.
Post Season
Many experts saw how hot this Kentucky team was heading into the SEC tournament and picked them to win the whole thing. Since they went on a winning streak to end the season they received a double-bye and played the winner of Ole Miss and Texas A&M. Texas A&M won this game by 9. Not a commanding win, but a win nonetheless. Ole Miss wasn’t a good team, so Kentucky fans were confident we would win. However, they started slow out of the gate and were never able to gain momentum losing in the first game. After this game, fans pointed out Coach Calipari’s recent March failures only beating Vanderbilt and Providence in the last 4 years in March. Despite this loss, Kentucky still received a 3 seed for the NCAA tournament and faced
Oakland in the first round. Many people picked Kentucky to not only win this game but make a deep run in the tournament. However, guard Jack Gohlke had other plans. Gohlke had only shot 8 2-pointers coming into the game vs Kentucky and he kept to his game plan, shooting 20 threes and making ten of them. This is the second most 3-pointers made by a single player in any NCAA tournament game. The Wildcats stayed in the game with clutch shots from Reeves and Dilligham down the stretch. With time running down Dilligham tried to help inside on the driver which left DQ Cole with an open corner 3 that he hit to end the game. Many fans are calling for the firing of John Calipari based on his postseason failures. This would mean Kentucky would have to pay 33 million dollars to buy out his lifetime contract, so we will see what happens next.
