Kentucky
John Calipari’s middling Kentucky team may be college basketball’s most interesting story
The Kentucky men’s basketball team handily defeated Mississippi on Tuesday night, 75-63, providing a rare feel-good moment in a season largely defined by poor defense, inexplicable losses at Rupp Arena and John Calipari’s typical mix of petulance and indignance in response to the pushback he’s getting from Big Blue Nation.
Calipari has been at Kentucky for 15 seasons now − far longer than even he would have expected. But he’s now locked into the job by the largesse of his contract and the lack of better options for a 65-year-old whose best coaching days are likely behind him.
And the plain reality that Calipari likely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon − he won’t be fired, and he isn’t the type to leave millions of dollars on the table − makes what happens over the next six weeks the most interesting story in college basketball.
Either Kentucky will conjure up a March run that heals some deepening wounds, or one of the sport’s preeminent programs will be stuck with a coach it no longer wants and a decline it does not deserve.
Make no mistake: At a time when parity rules the sport, the old guard of coaching stars has largely left the scene and the future NBA stars are not as relevant to college success as they once were, college basketball is pining for a Kentucky comeback.
But to this point, watching Calipari flail around on the sidelines without the answers to make it happen has been nothing short of sad.
Since losing to Wisconsin in the 2015 Final Four, ending the Wildcats’ chance of becoming an unbeaten national champion, Kentucky hasn’t been the same program and Calipari hasn’t been the same coach.
The erosion has happened for a lot of reasons. The biggest is probably that older, more physically rugged players have become more important than the one-and-done freshmen that were Calipari’s specialty. There have been staff changes and some key, longtime Calipari assistants that were shoved to the side in an attempt to become more recruiting-focused. There has also been a staggering stubbornness to adapt to modern basketball until this year, as Calipari has finally embraced the 3-pointer and better offensive spacing.
But the change has come at a cost: Kentucky is now ranked just outside the top 100 in the defensive efficiency metrics, which is stunning in the context of Calipari’s long career. At UMass, Memphis and then Kentucky, defense was non-negotiable. It was the thing that saved his teams time and again when the shots weren’t falling. The effort his teams consistently gave on that end of the floor was probably Calipari’s best attribute as a coach.
And this year, unless something changes late in the season, Kentucky’s poor defense is probably going to be what extends its Final Four drought to nine seasons.
Previously in times of trouble, Calipari always had the next gimmick he could sell and the next recruiting class that could make people believe a championship was just around the corner.
Those days are long gone.
Prior to the Ole Miss win, Kentucky had lost three in a row at Rupp for the first time ever, had lost to hated rival Tennessee for the seventh time in the last 12 meetings and was trending toward a poor seed in the NCAA tournament.
Meanwhile, Calipari has drawn criticism locally for skipping out on his postgame radio interview after a few tough losses, and the atmosphere at home games has been downbeat. Even though Calipari almost certainly isn’t going anywhere, it feels like every game at this point is a referendum on whether he’s still the man for college basketball’s most rewarding, but also toughest, blueblood job.
All this is happening while Kentucky has a roster stacked with future NBA players, including two potential lottery picks in Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham and top recruit D.J. Wagner, who has had an uneven and injury-plagued season. With Kentucky’s mix of freshmen and veterans, this team should be better than 17-7.
“It’s just going to be a process,” Calipari said Tuesday. “And I keep saying to everybody, we’ll break through. We will. My teams break through.”
But nobody really believes that anymore.
At one point in Calipari’s Kentucky tenure, the entire country would have feared this team regardless of the struggles it’s had in February. Just wait, just wait. The light’s going to come on because it’s Kentucky and Calipari. That was the aura around the program he created and his players lived up to time and time again.
The recent reality, though, has told a different story. Kentucky missed the NCAA tournament in 2021, got bounced by No. 15 seed St. Peter’s in 2022 and was outclassed by Kansas State’s veteran guards in the second round last year. Maybe this team can reverse the trend, but they’re going to have to show us.
College basketball was more fun when Kentucky terrified everyone. Yes, Calipari had a few inexcusable March flops and should have more than one national title. But those things can happen in a one-and-done tournament.
Calipari once famously said, “We do more than move the needle. We are the needle.” He wasn’t wrong. For his first six years in Lexington, this program was feared every time it took the court, every year rolling out a new group of future NBA All-Stars who looked the part almost from Day 1.
And the truth is, Calipari’s the only coach in the country who could make that happen. He’s one of one, as perfectly suited to that job and the demands of that fan base as anyone who’s ever lived. When he inevitably moves on at some point, it’s hard to imagine anyone else reaching those highs year after year.
It means there’s one realistic solution to Kentucky’s season of discontent. Calipari desperately needs to do something that now seems long in the past. He has to get this team playing to its potential. He has to reset the clock and put this past month into a memory hole. He has to produce the kind of big run in March that used to seem automatic.
He has to make Kentucky feel like Kentucky again.
GRANVILLE, W.Va. — West Virginia didn’t go down without its best fight Saturday night against Kentucky.
But resiliency wasn’t enough for the Mountaineers to overcome an abundance of mistakes that the Wildcats capitalized on enough to claim an 11-9 victory at Kendrick Family Ballpark, putting UK within one victory of winning the Morgantown Regional.
“For our team to bounce back and be able to tie that game showed real resiliency,” WVU coach Steve Sabins said. “These guys keep playing. Couldn’t be more impressed with the grit we showed. Didn’t play our best game. The effort and intensity was there, but overall, sloppy game.”
The Wildcats got to Mountaineer ace Maxx Yehl throughout the first inning before the Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Year exited having recorded two outs across 36 pitches. Sabins confirmed Yehl left with an injury, but had no further update on the southpaw.
“Maxx left the game with an injury. We don’t know what that is,” Sabins said. “Haven’t talked to the trainer. At that point, trying to make decisions that are in the best interest of the team.”
Playing as the away team on its home field, the Mountaineers (40-15) went down in order against UK starting pitcher Nate Harris to start the contest.
The Wildcats (33-21) then worked to touch up Yehl in their first at bat, which leadoff hitter Jayce Tharnish working a walk after an eight-pitch battle.
Tyler Bell then reached on a Brodie Kresser error that likely otherwise would’ve been a double play, and with the bases loaded and one out, Ethan Hindle drove in two with a single to center, though Hudson Brown was thrown out at third on the play.
Braxton VanCleave followed with a two-run home run that easily cleared the right field fence, and after Yehl hit Carson Hansen with a pitch, his outing was over.
“I knew we’d have our hands fall. Sometimes to get an ace, you have to get him in the first,” Wildcats’ coach Nick Mingione said.
West Virginia’s Sean Smith got to third base with one out in the second, but the Mountaineers didn’t score, and their deficit grew to six runs in the bottom of that inning, which featured a run-scoring double from Luke Lawrence and Hindle’s fielder’s choice that brought Bell in with the sixth run.
WVU gained momentum in the third when Gavin Kelly belted a two-run home run to left.
A two-out rally in the fourth helped the Mountaineers draw closer, and it began with a Ben Lumsden single. Tyrus Hall split the gap in right-center with a run-scoring double to make it 6-3, and after Hall advanced to third on a wild pitch, he scored the Mountaineers’ fourth run via a balk.
Harris was lifted for Ryan Mullan during the inning, but he walked and hit the only two batters he faced.
Jack Sams relieved Mullan and walked Sean Smith to force in a run, though he induced an inning-ending fly ball to shallow left on a 2-0 offering to Matthew Graveline, enabling UK to preserve a one-run lead at that point.
“You can never underestimate the importance of one run,” Mingione said, “and that’s denying it or getting it.”
Armani Guzman’s leadoff walk in the fifth led to him eventually stealing third base, with the throw down on that play ending up in left field and allowing Guzman to cross the plate and tie the matchup at 6.
Kresser made a second error to start the home half of the fifth, and it loomed large when Owen Jenkins, the No. 9 hitter, connected for a two-out, two-run single off Reese Bassinger, who had struck out Caeden Cloud with the bases loaded in the previous at bat.
At the conclusion of that play, Guzman alertly chased down an errant throw that got away in the infield and fired home to Kelly, who applied a tag on Carson Hansen to prevent UK from leading by more than two runs.
“Nothing really catches him off guard,” Sabins said of Guzman.
Kelly then led off the sixth with his second home run of the game and 15th this season, allowing the Mountaineers to trail by one.
“A lot of ups and downs and it speaks volumes to our offense and whole team. We’re a resilient group of guys that are gritty,” Kelly said.
WVU got even for a second time in the seventh when Tyrus Hall doubled to right to score Guzman, who had reached on a double to start the frame.
With the game knotted at 8 in the eighth, UK reliever Jack Bennett retired Kelly, Paul Schoenfeld and Smith in order, setting the stage for UK to go back in front.
The Wildcats did exactly that in the bottom of the inning. Jenkins was hit by a pitch, stole second and moved to third on a Tharnish infield single, before Bell was also hit by a pitch, loading the bases with one out.
Lawrence made Bassinger pay for the hit batsmen with a go-ahead single to right that drove in one, and left-handed Ben McDougal came on to pitch at that point, but Brown greeted him with a two-run single to right for an 11-8 lead.
“I couldn’t do it without this whole team and staff,” said Lawrence, who played through injury. “Our training staff did an unbelievable job last night and this morning with me. When I came out yesterday, every single guy in that dugout had my back and willed me through today.”
A two-out error from Cloud at third base allowed Graveline to score in the ninth and sent the tying run to the plate.
Sabins elected to have Zahir Barjam pinch hit for Hall, but he lifted a fly ball to left for the final out.
“Barjam has legitimate power and really good bat-to-ball skill,” Sabins said. “In those moments, trusting in the roles guys have been in. You’re kind of envisioning a two-run home run there.”
The Mountaineers will look to avoid elimination at noon Sunday against Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons (39-20) topped Binghamton, 12-3, in the first game Saturday at Kendrick Family Ballpark.
Sabins noted the Mountaineer coaching staff would work late Saturday to develop a pitching plan for the elimination contest.
“It’s very difficult to line up for the future. It’s more about next man up and as you win games, you’re going to have some heroic performances,” Sabins said. “That was the message to the team at the end. If you haven’t had the ball a ton or you’ve been dying to be in the biggest games of the season, your time is coming so be ready for it.”
The winner will play Kentucky at 5 p.m. Sunday and would have to defeat the Wildcats twice, with the if necessary matchup scheduled for Monday at a time to be determined.
“Anytime you have a chance to maybe play one less game than your opponent it actually does matter,” Mingione said.
Kentucky finished with 12 hits and was hit by a pitch on six occasions.
Bennett was the last of five UK pitchers utilized and threw the final four innings, striking out three and issuing one walk. He allowed three runs on four hits over a 60-pitch performance.
“The biggest thing for me is I’m a pretty calm guy. I don’t get too caught up in the moment or try not to at least,” Bennett said. “Coming out of the bullpen, you have to have fire in your ass. Excuse my language, but that’s what you have to do.”
The Mountaineers totaled nine hits and drew six walks, but surrendered six unearned runs.
The nine runs are the most for WVU in any loss this season.
“When you do have that many free passes, those singles and doubles turns into runs,” Sabins said. “We made big pitches in big moments but they got big hits in big moments. It wasn’t our cleanest game.”
PENDLETON CO., Ky. — A woman was killed, and two juveniles were seriously injured Friday night in a two-vehicle crash in Pendleton County, Kentucky State Police said.
Police said troopers responded to a two-vehicle crash near the 2600 block of US-27 around 9 p.m. Friday.
Troopers found that 67-year-old Sandra Barker was driving a 2015 Chevrolet Equinox north on US-27 when she crossed the center line and struck a 2018 Ram truck that was being driven by a 57-year-old man.
Barker was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Two juveniles, who were passengers in the Ram truck, were transported to the hospital with serious injuries. Police did not say if the 57-year-old driver of the truck was injured or not.
Troopers said the investigation into the crash is in the early stages, and it’s being reconstructed by Kentucky State Police’s Post 6 in Dry Ridge.
Troopers were assisted by the Pendleton County Coroner’s Office, Pendleton County EMS, Pendleton County Fire Department, Southern Campbell EMS, Northern Pendleton Fire/EMS and AirCare.
Replay: WCPO 9 News at 6PM
Is the mint julep overhyped? See what was said at Kentucky Derby 2026.
Courier Journal’s Keely Doll and Olivia Evans asked racegoers at the 152nd Kentucky Derby if the mint julep, a derby-staple, live up to its hype.
It’s National Mint Julep Day, a celebration of one of Kentucky’s most recognizable cocktails.
The popular bourbon drink has long been tied to Louisville and the Kentucky Derby. According to Churchill Downs, about 127,000 mint juleps are served over the two-day Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby weekend.
How to make a mint julep
Let’s Talk Derby: How to make a mint julep for the Kentucky Derby
It’s time for another ‘Let’s Talk Derby with Kathryn and Kirby’ video. Learn how to make the official drink of the Kentucky Derby: the mint julep.
How many mint juleps are served during Kentucky Derby weekend each year?
According to Churchill Downs, about 127,000 mint juleps are served over the two days of Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby weekend. This number of cocktails requires more than 10,000 bottles of bourbon, 2,250 pounds of freshly harvested mint and 475,000 pounds of ice.
The mint julep has been a traditional beverage of Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby for nearly a century.
Reach Marina Johnson at Marina.Johnson@courier-journal.com.
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