After Kentucky lost 97-87 to Texas A&M in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament on Friday night, John Calipari reminded Wildcat fans of one thing: the SEC Tournament is not the tournament that Calipari cares about, it is the NCAA Tournament that dwarfs the conference’s end of season knockout competition in levels of importance.
While there is no Kentucky fan that will take a SEC Tournament championship over success in the “Big Dance,” many Kentucky fans do care about the SEC Tournament no matter how much Calipari might try and convince national media otherwise.
Kentucky fans especially care that the Wildcats have won just one game in the last five SEC Tournaments and are coming off their third straight loss in SEC Tournament games for the first time ever, dating back to 1933. Even more worrisome for Kentucky fans is that no team has won the NCAA Tournament without reaching at least its conference tournament semifinal since 1983.
Now, it’s one thing for Calipari to come out and admit he might not care about the SEC Tournament when he goes on to win it anyways — something he has done six times in his tenure at Kentucky — but it is a whole different thing when Kentucky has lost five of its last six games in the event, especially with a fanbase that is begging and pleading for any kind of postseason glory.
Luckily for Calipari, he has the chance to redeem himself in the eyes of that fanbase. On the other hand, he has every chance to potentially ruin his legacy at Kentucky in the minds of many if he is unable to finally bring home some sense of pride and actual success to the program in this second half of March and early April.
Simply put, Kentucky is Kentucky. Eight national titles and 17 Final Four appearances speak for themselves and, in the Commonwealth, losing is not tolerated, and with good reason.
Kentucky didn’t just become known as the “gold standard” in college basketball for no reason, but under Calipari, Kentucky hasn’t been to the Final Four since 2015 and it hasn’t hung a national championship banner since 2012.
However, 2012 is not yesterday.
Kentucky did, however, reach the National Championship as an eight seed in 2014, falling to UConn, while also reaching another Final Four in 2015 with the coveted “unbeatable” team ultimately being beaten by Wisconsin in Indianapolis.
Since that loss to the Badgers in the Circle City years ago, Kentucky has gone 220-90, winning 71% of its games to reach just three Sweet 16’s, win just three SEC Tournament titles and three regular season titles and have only reached the Elite Eight twice. Even more worrying is that Kentucky has not reached the Final Four at all in that timeframe.
To put that in perspective, programs with far less prestige and expectations — such as future SEC member Oklahoma, Oregon, current SEC foe South Carolina, miniscule Loyola-Chicago, modern SEC rival Auburn, Texas Tech, Houston, little known San Diego State and last year’s Cinderella team Florida Atlantic — have.
To drive this point home even further, since Kentucky last raised a banner in Rupp Arena back in 2012, programs who, again, are dwarfed by the Wildcats when it comes to success and tradition have won it all including Villanova, who won the event both in 2016 and 2018, Virginia in 2019 and Baylor in 2021.
Kentucky is also the only “Blue Blood” program to not win a title in that timeframe as Duke, North Carolina and Kansas all won a championship.
UConn, who beat Kentucky in the championship game in 2014, have also won the tournament twice since Kentucky did in New Orleans in March 2012.
If all of that isn’t bad enough, to be technical, Louisville has won a title more recently as well, much to the annoyance of Kentucky fans as the Cardinals and former Kentucky head coach Rick Pitino found glory in 2013, even though this victory was vacated by the NCAA.
So, what does that mean for Calipari?
It means the past 12 years of his reign double as the second longest championship drought in program history.
Again, Kentucky is Kentucky, but unfortunately this current roster will have to carry the weight of the Calipari Era on their shoulders in the tournament. Simply put, how Calipari will be remembered for generations to come will be established in the next three weeks … for better or for worse.
