On you, John Calipari. To thrive in March Madness, SEC needs more from Kentucky | Toppmeyer
The SEC's basketball sizzle quickly fizzled.
For the third straight NCAA Tournament, the SEC did not produce a men’s basketball Final Four team. It didn’t even crack the Elite Eight this year, despite tying a conference record with eight NCAA qualifiers. SEC teams went a combined 6-2 in their tournament openers. Then, one by one, they faltered.
Top-seeded Alabama’s reliance on 3-point shooting caught up with it. The Crimson Tide lost to San Diego State in the Sweet 16 amid a barrage of bricks from the perimeter.
Rick Barnes’ Tennessee Vols re-enacted their March Madness vanishing act, albeit one round later than expected. And Arkansas ran into a buzz saw.
It’s now been 10 straight NCAA Tournaments without a national champion from this big-spending conference that rules football and swings a big stick in several other sports.
On the whole, SEC basketball flexes more muscle than it did during Greg Sankey’s early years as commissioner. Schools beefed up their scheduling, and many are spending big on coaches.
Still, no SEC team has celebrated a men’s basketball national title since John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats in 2012. And the SEC’s best avenue to ending this drought revolves around the Wildcats regaining their fastball.
Arkansas and Florida join Kentucky as the only SEC schools to win a men’s basketball national championship. UK is responsible for eight of the SEC’s 11 titles.
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Calipari said it best last summer. Kentucky is a basketball school. Nowhere else in the SEC is that so unequivocal. Basketball enjoys heightened relevance at a few other SEC schools – Arkansas and Tennessee come to mind – and Nate Oats and Bruce Pearl turned winters at Alabama and Auburn into something other than football offseason.
But, football reigns throughout most of the SEC’s footprint. For many Alabama fans, I suspect the sting of an NCAA Tournament exit soon will yield to the thought of Nick Saban’s quarterback competition and the number of days left until A-Day.
Kentucky’s second-round loss will linger, though, especially after last year’s first-round embarrassment to Saint Peter’s.
The SEC didn’t become the premier football conference by relying on Vanderbilt, Kentucky or South Carolina. It was fueled by its most storied football program, Alabama, winning six national championships under Saban. Other schools contribute to the SEC’s football clout, and Georgia now rules the sport. Throughout the BCS and College Football Playoff eras, though, Alabama has performed like the heavyweight it is.
Calipari’s Wildcats once lived up to their reputation, too. Persistent dominance of a single-elimination, 68-team NCAA Tournament celebrated for its upsets is a demanding assignment, but Kentucky nonetheless attained a lofty peak under Calipari. From 2011-15, the Wildcats went to four Final Fours.
Calipari embraced the one-and-done era and managed roster churn better than his peers.
Alabama’s football dominance was no riddle. Saban assembled and developed talent better than anyone. The NFL Draft became an annual coronation of Alabama’s greatness.
Similarly, Calipari thrived through talent assembly. After Kentucky won the 2012 national championship, freshmen Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist became the top two NBA Draft picks. Six Wildcats were drafted within the first 46 picks that year. UK won 38 games that season. It matched that victory total in 2015 before supplying another six NBA draftees, including No. 1 pick Karl-Anthony Towns.
Kentucky continues to supply NBA talent, but it hasn’t produced a top-five selection since 2017.
Other coaches caught up with Calipari’s one-and-done approach, and the transfer portal became a great equalizer. Programs that struggle to sign McDonald’s All-Americans can plunder the portal for talented veterans. Kansas State beat Kentucky in the second round behind senior transfers Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson.
Saban’s reign became marked by his ability to evolve and endure staff turnover.
Calipari has not weathered change so well, and his offense grew archaic.
Assistants John Robic, Orlando Antigua and Kenny Payne were an instrumental combination at the height of Calipari’s tenure. Antigua rejoined Calipari’s staff in 2021 after departing four years previously. Payne is now Louisville’s coach, and 2016 was Robic’s final season as an assistant. Robic had been Calipari’s wingman at Massachusetts and Memphis, too. He’s missed on Calipari’s bench.
Calipari, 64, will get the opportunity to fix this, thanks to his $41 million buyout. He’s under contract through 2029. His contract would allow Calipari to shift into a golden-parachute athletics administration role starting next year.
Don’t expect Calipari to embrace that option. Coaching the Wildcats pays him $8.5 million annually, tops in the nation. The administrator role would come with a $950,000 salary, equaling a pay cut of nearly 90%.
“Who would do that? I’m not doing it, OK?” Calipari told The Athletic last fall.
Calipari signed the No. 1-ranked recruiting class. That, plus his buyout, offer job security.
Is Calipari’s recruiting haul a sign of a Big Blue revival? That would be ideal for Sankey’s national title aspirations for the SEC.
Until Kentucky regains its prominence, SEC basketball is in danger of remaining a March Madness tease.
Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: To thrive in March Madness, SEC needs more from Kentucky basketball
