KSR Roundtable: Kentucky loses Jai Lucas to Duke. Now what?

by:KSR•04/29/22

As you’ve heard by now, Jai Lucas is leaving his role as an assistant coach at Kentucky to join Jon Scheyer’s staff at Duke. Not exactly the Friday afternoon news we wanted, right? John Calipari shared his reaction to Lucas’ departure, and now it’s time for us to share ours. Gather ’round the table and let’s talk about what this means for Kentucky Basketball heading into a pivotal season.

Tyler Thompson

The hits just keep on coming, don’t they? For all the good Kentucky Basketball news we’ve gotten lately — Oscar Tshiebwe and Sahvir Wheeler coming back, Cason Wallace and Chris Livingston lighting it up on the all-star circuit, Antonio Reeves transferring in — it’s hard to shake off the bad vibes around the BBN. Losing Jai Lucas to Duke makes it worse.

First, you’re losing the youngest coach on staff who is essential to recruiting and considered by many to be a star on the rise. Second, you’re losing him to Duke, a rival that continues to assert itself as the “cool school” in college basketball, a title you used to hold. Calipari’s statement — that Lucas left because he was offered a promotion elsewhere — also implies that Kentucky didn’t try to beat Duke’s offer or, if they did, Lucas wanted to leave regardless. Ouch.

There is already a lot of pressure on John Calipari going into next season. Coming off two historically bad postseasons with a projected top-five squad assembling in the wings, anything less than the Elite Eight will be a disappointment. Today’s news only cranks up that pressure cooker. Now, in addition to finishing out the roster and dealing with the fallout of Shaedon Sharpe‘s NBA Draft decision, Calipari has to make a home-run hire. With college basketball rapidly changing due to the transfer portal and NIL, Kentucky needs to be forward-thinking. Someone young who can kill it on the recruiting trail and help the Cats stay with the times. As much as we love Bruiser Flint, you can’t just scoot him back over from his role as special assistant to the head coach.

For most of his time at Kentucky, Calipari has been ahead of the curve when it comes to the NBA, recruiting, and marketing. Last year, he adapted to NIL by creating a role dedicated to it on his staff, Director of Player Development, which is held by TJ Beisner. Oscar’s return shows how much that’s paid off. With the sport changing at a rapid pace and expectations sky-high, the same thoughtfulness and innovation are needed here.

Or, you know, just pull a play out of the Memphis playbook and bring in Milt or Dajuan Wagner to secure DJ. That works too.

Zack Geoghegan

In the grand scheme of things, is losing an assistant coach all that big of a deal? Typically, no. Was anyone upset to see Joel Justus and Tony Barbee hit the road? Hell, that might be the first time you’ve read their names since they left Kentucky for other schools. It happens to the best and worst programs every single year. But for all the reasons Tyler outlined above, the context to this one definitely adds an unusual sting.

John Calipari’s statement, in particular, is what raised my eyebrow. I’m not sure how to read into it, or maybe I just shouldn’t. But it seems odd that Lucas would have thought Calipari would be mad, or that Calipari would even admit that happened in his statement. It sounds like those within the program consider Duke and new head coach Jon Scheyer as a serious threat, or least Cal does. 10 years ago, Calipari and Kentucky were the serious threat.

I don’t believe this is a massive long-term loss for Kentucky, even if Lucas does continue to find success as an up-and-coming, soon-to-be head coach. Calipari will find another assistant with plenty of drive and connections to the younger generation. But it does signal a shift in the college basketball power balance that appears to have been happening for a while now. Lucas would rather be at Duke than at Kentucky — he’s not the first.

Adam Luckett

In a vacuum, this would not be a huge deal. Kentucky is an elite basketball program and many rising assistants should want this job where they can wear a logo that would allow them to recruit the best of the best on the grassroots circuit. Unfortunately, this is another body blow to a fan base that’s absorbed a lot of them recently and gives Duke more ammo as that program continues to pull away from the Big Blue even without Coach K.

Following the worst season in program history, John Calipari made some minor tweaks only to see things fall to pieces down the stretch. Kentucky followed up that wretched year with the worst tournament loss in program history. Less than two months later, the Wildcats are now losing what could be the most promising staffer in the program who helped add both Daimion Collins and Cason Wallace to the 2022-23 roster.

As we sit just days away from the start of May, I’m not sure there’s really much Calipari and the program can do right now. No matter how this offseason progresses, nothing matters outside of results on the scoreboard when the season starts. That will only magnify when March rolls around. We’re in for a rocky ride and little wins need to start accumulating to help quiet down some of the noise. However, there will be no eliminating the noise. Detractors are fairly hovering around.

Adding a solid assistant, landing another quality transfer, and weathering this storm is about all you can ask for at the moment. We’re just in for a long, exhausting, and frustrating offseason.

Nick Roush

Recruiting freedom. That’s the phrase Rivals’ Travis Graf used to describe what Jai Lucas is getting when he goes to Duke. We all know money was not the deciding factor in this job. Kentucky could match any offer Duke put on the table. However, it appears that Lucas wanted the keys to drive his car where ever he’d like to recruit the best basketball players in America.

That same phrase was used when Joel Justus was pushed out the door last spring. That could have easily been chalked up to sour grapes. The fact that it’s been used a second time is concerning. Justus and Lucas were both the young guys on the staff, using their savvy to create early connections in the process and develop bonds with the 16-year-old prospects. They were in that position to give Calipari insight he cannot see from his perspective as a 63-year-old man.

Most employees believe they deserve more from their employer. This is not a new concept. There may have been nothing that could have stopped Lucas from walking out the door. However, this decision and that particular phrasing makes one question if the controlling head coach needs to take a step back and let his young assistants do what they’re paid to do: recruit the best young basketball players in America.

Jack Pilgrim

There’s no positive way to spin losing one of the youngest, brightest basketball minds in the game to your bitter rival. When you’re competing against Duke for the best recruits and national championships, it’s a bad look for one job to look more favorable than the other in what should be a lateral move.

It’s fair to ask why Jai Lucas favored one opportunity over the other. Did it come down to money or job title? Kentucky could’ve competed with either of those things. That feels unlikely. It could have, however, come down to trust, role, recruiting freedom, program status and/or age. Duke’s program is getting younger with Jon Scheyer at the helm, and remains at the top of the college basketball world in terms of clout and ‘cool’ factor with the next generation. Kentucky is playing catch-up, whether they’re ready to admit it or not.

John Calipari must hit a home run with Lucas’ replacement. No old coaching buddies looking for a job and no retread hires. Kentucky needs a young piece who can evaluate talent, connect well with players and recruit (and close) with the best of them. The options are out there.

Like many top recruits recently, Lucas thought Duke was a better fit moving forward than Kentucky. Calipari has to flip the perception of the program — and fast.

Drew Franklin

The gold standard is feeling bronze at best here lately and today’s news of losing Jai Lucas to Duke is another example of Kentucky’s fall from the very top. As my colleagues have already stated, the impact on day-to-day coaching operations will be minimal if Calipari makes the right hire to fill Lucas’ shoes, but the optics of Duke taking a coach from Kentucky is another big L for Calipari’s program. From my fan perspective, the departure raises two concerning flags:

(1) Assuming it wasn’t over money, because it likely wasn’t over money, what made Lucas jump ship? Something obviously wasn’t as good as it is elsewhere, hopefully not too many somethings. Is the staff over-managed by John Calipari’s coaching/recruiting style? Does Lucas see a sinking ship and wants to leave before it’s underwater? Is Duke just that much cooler in the eyes of recruits and Lucas wants to be with the winner? Only Lucas knows those answers and I, an outsider, can only speculate, but seeing him make the lateral move to a direct rival is concerning internally. What exactly is Duke doing better than Kentucky for him to make the jump, and is it a problem for Kentucky or only unique to Jai Lucas?

(2) Is Calipari in denial? I already worried Calipari has been in denial over some of Kentucky’s problems lately and his statement on Lucas did not ease any worries. In Calipari’s statement admitting he lost a staff member to Duke, his rival, Calipari tries to spin how good Kentucky’s staff is and how his assistants get offers all the time. OK, that’s good to know, but Duke just took the young star, so maybe now’s not the time to spin the message. Admittedly, I’m overanalyzing a paragraph on Twitter, but I hope Calipari isn’t truly thinking he lost one of his coaches because Lucas got a “promotion,” as Calipari put it. The reality is, Jon Scheyer just slapped the floor in Kentucky’s face by stealing one of the game’s best young recruiters, and shrugging it off as a “promotion” for Lucas can be problematic. Going from a Hall of Famer’s staff at Kentucky to Jon Scheyer’s staff at Duke (Jon Scheyer!) should not be a promotion for anyone.