Things You Can't Do In College Basketball

It’s mid-February, when the best teams around college basketball are sharpening their skills ahead of postseason play. For the second time in three years, Kentucky is trending in the wrong direction. John Calipari’s team is doing things you can’t do to be successful in college basketball.

You Can’t Lose to Georgia and South Carolina

It does not matter if Dominique Wilkins and Sindarius Thornwell are suiting up for the opponents, you can’t lose to Georgia and South Carolina in the same season and expect to make the NCAA Tournament. The last time a Kentucky basketball team did this, the Wildcats went to the NIT, then fired Billy Gillispie. Since South Carolina joined the SEC, it’s only happened two other times, 1994 and 2002, a group better known as Team Turmoil.

You Can’t Have Only One Scoring Guard

For 39 minutes only two guards recorded points for the Wildcats in the loss to Georgia. Adou Thiero had a couple made free throws off the bench while Antonio Reeves scored 20 points for the Cats. Cason Wallace saved all of his scoring for the final minute of the game when a victory was already out of reach. It does not matter how many players are injured, you can’t win basketball games in the year of our Lord 2023 without guards accounting for at least 50 percent, if not more, of your total points scored.

You Can’t Call Up a Timeout to Draw Up a Three-Point Air Ball

The Wildcats let a second half lead slip away in Athens, yet still were within striking distance with just under four minutes to play. Down only three, the Cats went to the sideline to make the most of a crucial scoring opportunity. It resulted in a Chris Livingston three-pointer that was air-balled. On the ensuing possession, Georgia sunk a three, the dagger for the Wildcats..

You Can’t Waste the Career of a National Player of the Year

Oscar Tshiebwe averaged 17.4 points and 15.1 rebounds in 2021-22, a stat line not seen in college basketball in 40 years. He earned Consensus National Player of the Year honors, a first for a Kentucky Wildcat. He returned for one more college basketball season. The last Naismith winner to do so, Tyler Hansbrough, followed it up with a National Championship. That will not be the case for Tshiebwe. A year later, he’s not quite as dominant, yet he’s still been college basketball’s top rebounder all season long, averaging more than 13 per game.

Years from now Oscar Tshiebwe’s No. 34 will hang in the rafters of Rupp Arena, fitting for a National Player of the Year. Following the loss to Georgia, he’ll likely do it without an NCAA Tournament win on his resume. It’s unacceptable, period.

You Can’t Be this Bad for this Long at Kentucky

The last time we saw Kentucky win an NCAA Tournament game, Tyler Herro sunk a late bucket to propel the Cats to a Sweet 16 victory over Houston in the 2019 edition of March Madness. He’s played in the NBA Finals more recently than the Wildcats have won a game in the Big Dance.

Barring a miraculous late season turnaround, seniors at the University of Kentucky will spend an entire career in Lexington without witnessing an NCAA Tournament victory. Even students on campus during Kentucky’s probationary period in the early 90s did not go through misery for this long. Yes, COVID-19 did cancel one postseason, but ‘what ifs’ provide no solace. It’s unacceptable, period.