Kentucky Basketball: Merely Mediocre??

So I'm trying to deal with something that I just never thought I'd have to....Kentucky as a mediocre basketball program! How'd this happen? It seems like yesterday we went to 3 straight National Championship games winning 2 which hadn't been done since the days of UCLA and John Wooden in the 1970's. Kentucky the #1 program in Collegiate Basketball in wins, tournament wins, SEC regular season championships, SEC Tournament Championships, 2nd in National Championships. Now we lose to a team whose gym holds 1000 people and is their first year in Division 1 Basketball. Now When North Carolina comes to town, it's an expected 20 points loss. No Final Fours or Championships since that fateful 1998 season. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those who believes a Championship is needed for a successful season because winning the NCAA Tourney Championship is the hardest Championship to capture in sports. Even UCLA's 11 championships runs them to about 1 every 10 seasons of basketball and thats the most. However for Kentucky to be unranked, losing to weak teams( no offense Gardner-Webb) and not even be competitive when the elite come into Rupp Arena. Once again How did we get here?

1.)College Basketball has changed since the powerhouses of the mid 90's being ravaged by early entrants into the NBA draft. Also there has now been a limit placed on the number of scholarship players each team can have allowing for a more competitive balance. Lets look at the Kentucky 1996 team that everyone around the State longs for....well in today's basketball that team would never have existed. First off Antoine Walker, Ron Mercer, Derek Anderson, Walter McCarty, Wayne Turner, and Nazr Mohammed wouldn't have even made it to school or only played a year. Thats all the starters and half the bench wouldn't have even set foot at Kentucky plus we could have only had 11 guys on scholarship instead of 14. 8 of the players on the 1996 Championship team went on to have solid NBA careers with 6 drafted in the first round.....Today you're lucky to have 2 players on a roster drafted in the first round and if you do you're an elite team. Also simply put Kentucky is not the only team in the last five years to have taken a drop from the elite. Duke, North Carolina, UCLA, Louisville, Indiana, and Arizona are all basketball powerhouses who've had a recent season in which they fell from grace. The landscape of college basketball has vastly evened out over the last 10 years and thats part of the excitement, case in point The Final Four run of George Mason 2 years ago. It's fun to root for cinderella, except of course when cinderella beats you!

2.) The Tubby Smith Era was a very interesting time of great success and ultimate failure for the Kentucky Wildcats. First off I am a staunch Tubby supporter, the man never won less than 20 games, never had a losing season, won 76% of his games, 4 elite 8's, 1 final four, 1 national championship. He is a top 5 coach in America today but it was time for him to go, if not simply cause he wasn't wanted at Kentucky by the majority. However when he did leave he left the program in shambles with 2 seasons of 10 losses or more, back to back 8 seeds in the tourney and back to back 2nd round exits, and a roster with many holes. I think the problem dates back to 4 years ago with the recruitment of Rajon Rondo, Joe Crawford, Randolph Morris, and Ramel Bradley....highly touted McDonald's All Americans, 4 players who never accomplished much at Kentucky. Also the year in which we passed on one Kentucky boy, Chris Lofton. The previous 4 years Tubby recruited solid, workmen like players who fit his system and played hard. He also had signed the Kentucky Mr. Basketball during this period and all had failed to be solid players. The fan base clamored for Tubby to step up recruiting even though we'd had great success. So pass on another Mr. Basketball with question marks in his game and recruit 4 Mcdonald's All Americans. Rondo was selfish and disliked by most the other players on the squad and was figuring to be 1 and done. Morris as well was figuring 1 and done and didn't quite supply the effort needed to be an elite player in the SEC and of course we all know he left, only to come running back when not drafted. He gave us 1 and a half more years after being declared ineligible but by then the damage was done. Joe Crawford wanted to go home half-way through the season and has shown flashes but not consistency. Meanwhile Chris Lofton was lighting up the SEC at Tennessee averaging 20 points a game and freshman of the year honors in the SEC. Through all of this the fans blamed Tubby, Tubby, Tubby when all he did was break his way to appease the fans demands and the hated him for it cause one of their own slipped through the cracks. Recruiters were able to use fan discension in the bluegrass to lure blue chip recruits away including Tyler Hansborough, Brendan Wright, Darrell Wright, and Corey Brewer who all went to rivals. If we'd have landed any one of these guys we would have been an elite team. So Tubby went back last year to what worked for him previously but that would take time. Meanwhile fans were putting For Sale signs in his yard and halfway through the season his agent was making a deal with Minnesota......Leave Kentucky for Minnesota. Tubby Smith was frustrated, unwanted, and hurt plus he knew that he was losing his two biggest recruiting targets to Florida in Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas so he bolted. Now he's at Minnesota where if they just make the NCAA Tournament he'll be praised. All he did was win at Kentucky and all we did was complain it wasn't good enough. The fans have as much guilt in the current state of affairs as Tubby Smith does.

3.) The Billy Gillisspie Era begun with a roar as he was annouced as the new head coach of Kentucky. Now the bad part was he was the 4th choice behind Billy Donovan, Rich Pitino, and John Calipari who all said thanks but no thanks. Even so he was able to land Patterson, thanks to Donovan leaving Florida for the Orlando Magic long enough to convince Patterson he couldn't be trusted to stay and also got another All American in Alex Legion who backed out of his Michigan commitment. Problem is the team is young with only 2 senior players and the rest freshman and sophmores and no anchor in the middle since Randolph Morriss bolted for the NBA. Then came the home blowout loss to Gardner-Webb and injuries to Jody Meeks and Derek Jasper. So far, not so good!

So now Kentucky is just plain mediocre and this shall be a long season. My prediction from the schedule is 18-13 with our first trip to the NIT in a long, long time. I think Billy G. needs about 2 years to get the program back on track to being a ELITE program again. Hate to say it Kentucky fans but get ready to be just OK and remember the days that Tubby Smith was here winning 22 games, and SEC Championship and Losing in the Elite 8 because those seasons will look like a dream compared to what you are in store for the next couple years. When you're looking for someone to blame, just look in the mirror and realize you ran off a top 5 coach who was highly successful and got stuck with 4th choice. Good Luck Billy G. I'll be behind you win or lose because I'm a Kentucky Wildcat true fan!