John Calipari admits to defensive woes: 'We always knew it was our Achilles heel'
Every analyst in the country had the same assessment of Kentucky this season: They might be the best show in college basketball — but their defense is one of the worst of any major conference team in the country.
Fans knew in the back of their minds that the fact that their team allowed an average of 80 points per game and that one off night would ruin an entire season of excitement in Lexington. Against Oakland on the opening night of the NCAA Tournament, BBN’s fears were realized as they were bounced in the tournament’s first weekend for the third-straight year.
Now, head coach John Calipari is addressing the issue following the early tournament exit that turned into a weekend-long debate on whether he was going to be fired by Mitch Barnhart. Now that his 16th season in Lexington is all but confirmed, Calipari is making it his mission to improve next year’s team defensively moving forward.
“We have to do it in a way that we set the foundation,” Calipari said of setting Kentucky’s defensive agenda during an exclusive interview with BBN Tonight. “The toughness, some of it is recruiting toughness, and I think the class that we just brought in — a bunch of these guys have more toughness to their game. But let me tell you, we had a skilled freshman group, but that was lacking and we knew it. We tried to outscore people, offensively. I wanted to keep playing the way we’ve played.
“Everybody enjoyed it, including me, including the players, including the fans. [On] TV, everybody was watching us because they said ‘Man, are they fun to watch? But you’ve gotta guard!’ And I’ve done this long enough to know you’re in danger if you have that. That means you can’t miss shots. When you really guard, you can miss shots. You can play bad offensively and still win the game. I thought we could get to that and we got better. But we always knew is it was our Achilles heel.”
Kentucky’s defense has been declining in each of the last four seasons. Per KenPom, Calipari’s 2020-21 squad ranked 35th in defensive efficiency, the next season they finished 36th — but it’s been on a steep decline ever since. UK finished 2023 ranked 68th and then 112th this past year.
This hasn’t always been the case, as the first 10 teams Calipari coached in Lexington finished rated within the top 10 in the country in that same category.
Still, fans complained that Calipari’s use of length and athleticism lacked excitement at the time. Kentucky’s team this season might have taken that a bit overboard this season, and now it’s on Calipari to figure out how to get next year’s team to meet in the middle.