One Underrated Factor in Kentucky's Decline is SEC Improvement

On3 imageby:Bryan the Intern03/22/23

BryantheIntern

The SEC coaches in 2009-10: Anthony Grant, John Pelphrey, Jeff Lebo, Billy Donovan, Mark Fox, Trent Johnson, Rick Stansbury, Andy Kennedy, Darrin Horn, Bruce Pearl, and Kevin Stallings.

That is the group of coaches that John Calipari had to deal with when he became the University of Kentucky’s basketball coach in 2009. Of that group of coaches, Grant, Pelphrey, Lebo, Fox, Horn, and Pearl would all be fired from their positions. Kennedy was forced out at Ole Miss. Johnson resigned from LSU after the Ben Simmons disaster. Cal wasn’t exactly taking on a murderer’s row of coaches in 2010. Donovan is a Hall of Famer and Pearl is excellent. Nobody else could compete.

The overall depth of the conference has improved dramatically as well. Just take a quick look at the number of NCAA Tournament teams the conference has produced since 2010:

SEC TEAMS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

2010: 4 out of 12
2011: 5 out of 12
2012: 4 out of 12
2013: 3 out of 14
2014: 3 out of 14
2015: 5 out of 14
2016: 3 out of 14
2017: 5 out of 14
——————-
2018: 8 out of 14
2019: 7 out of 14
2021: 6 out of 14
2022: 6 out of 14
2023: 8 out of 14

So why did I put that dividing line between 2017 and 2018? Two reasons. First, that was the point where the SEC began putting a significantly higher number of teams into the tournament. And second, that is when UK has begun to struggle as a program. The reality is that as the conference has improved, Kentucky hasn’t really improved with it. A rising tide lifts all boats? Not currently happening in Lexington.

From 2011-2015, Kentucky only played 11 games in 5 seasons against ranked SEC opponents. We’ve played 13 ranked SEC opponents in the last 3 years alone. And we are losing most of those games.

When you look at the stagnation of the program, it’s a multilayered problem for sure. There has been so much attention paid to 2 major factors. First, John Calipari’s system of play not adapting to the modern game. Second, the level of talent has dipped some since the first 6 or 7 years. But I think not enough attention is being paid to the fact that other teams in the league have just flat caught up. Alabama, Tennessee, and Auburn are absolutely on equal footing with Kentucky right now. Texas A&M, Florida, Missouri, and Vanderbilt appear to be on solid footing and competitive with UK year in and year out. That’s half the league right there that thinks they can win any game against UK. In 2010, only Florida and Tennessee could really say that.

My hope is that the improvement of the SEC, with many teams using modern basketball and improved recruiting, will only spark UK and Calipari to get things back on track. Winning national titles is very hard. We’re the greatest program in the country and have only won 8. But winning SEC titles used to be easy because we always were a step ahead of our rivals. That is not the case anymore. So what are we going to do about it?

Discuss This Article

Comments have moved.

Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.

KSBoard

2024-03-28