of kentucky wildcats They lived on the cliff during the season. Coach John Calipari’s team has been phenomenal offensively, but he seemed to believe defense was an option from the start of the year. Unlike most of Calipari’s best teams, these Wildcats lacked a dominant big man and were often beaten by the board. Kentucky looked great when the outside shot was falling. But when they were cold, this particular Wildcats team looked like it could beat anyone.
Kentucky picked the worst possible time for one of its worst performances of the season. And now their season is over.
In the first round of the 2024 Men’s NCAA Tournament, No. 14 seed Oakland defeated No. 3 seed Kentucky 80-76. The Wildcats went from being a fashionable Final Four pick (guilty) to being eliminated from the tournament in one shot. If these Wildcats hadn’t been playing with fire all season, something incredible would have happened.
Kentucky has only won one NCAA Tournament game in the past four years, but this one will go down as something even bigger. The southern region looked wide open, so it felt like Britain had an easy draw to at least the elite elite. In hindsight, this feels like the worst loss of the Calipari era in Lexington. It may not be something he can get back.
A March Madness legend is born in Oakland
No one knew who Jack Gaulke was going to be in this game. Now, no Kentucky fan will ever forget him.
Goelke came off the bench and made 10 3-pointers on Oakland’s 20 field goal attempts. All from behind the arc. The 6-foot-3 senior was running off screens and hitting threes at an unstoppable rate. Kentucky’s defense couldn’t stick to him.
Goelke hit just eight two-point shots all year. Kentucky knew they could protect him at the arc, but they still couldn’t do it.
Kentucky’s offense cratered against Oakland State’s zone.
Calipari had to have known that Oakland was going to play zone to his team. Instead of setting up a unique defense, the Wildcats players felt like they had no idea what they were doing with the ball.
Freshman guards Reed Shepherd and Rob Dillingham struggled in the first half of the game, not even making shots. Kentucky’s big men offered little inside. If not for the heroics of Antonio Reeves (27 points on 11-of-18 shooting), the Wildcats might have been eliminated.
But in general, Cal’s lack of a plan on how to get Rob/Reed into advantageous spots against the zone we all knew Oakland was going to come in and play…concerns It just means you feel like you’re being treated.
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) March 22, 2024
Kentucky averages about 90 points per game. In the game against Oakland, they unfortunately fell short. One team looked ready to play, the other wasn’t.
The lights were too bright for Reed Shepard.
Not only was Shepard arguably the best player in Kentucky as a freshman, he may have been the best freshman in the nation. Shepherd, the son of two former Kentucky basketball legends, chose the worst time to play his worst game of the season.
Shepard had two turnovers, three personal fouls, and scored three points on 1-of-5 shooting. He made so many bad plays down the stretch, like throwing the ball away for a turnover or fouling off a 3-point shot while on defense. Shepherd’s nightmarish game became a complete reality as he missed a deep three with Kentucky’s season coming to an end in regulation.
Some media outlets predicted that Shepard would be the No. 1 overall pick in this June’s NBA draft. I put him in the top ten. It will be interesting to see if he considers going back to school now. You can’t go out with this.
John Calipari has never forgotten this loss.
calipari Signed a lifetime contract with Kentucky in 2019.. Since then, he has won just one tournament and failed to finish in the top 68 in 2021.
Calipari lost to 15th-seeded St. Peter’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament just two years ago, but he never felt as talented as that team. This team had two future NBA guards in Shepard and Dillingham. There were also great veterans like Reeves. With a relatively easy bracket draw, the path to the Final Four was clear. Now, their postseason run is over before it really begins.
This feels like the worst loss Calipari has ever endured. That’s the type of L that someone just doesn’t get over. It’s always a long offseason after a loss in the NCAA Tournament, but this one will be especially painful for Coach Cal and Kentucky.
