John Calipari defends lineup decisions in final year at Kentucky

Kentucky’s lineups this past season were one of the final straws for some in regards to John Calipari. Still, he has once again defended his decisions when it came to the Wildcats’ rotation last year.

Calipari explained those choices during an appearance on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Wednesday. He said that he wanted to make it about the entire team in how he distributed the minutes. That’s why he was fine in taking the blame for it, especially since neither player that this topic centered around, Reed Sheppard or Rob Dillingham, had issues with their roles as reserves.

“Do you understand those two are going to be lottery picks? And they came off the bench!” Calipari shouted. “Never said anything. Everybody was on my ass – ‘What are you doing? This guy can’t coach anymore. He’s losing his mind’. Well, I had a team to coach and I wanted to bring everybody together.”

“That’s what I was doing,” said Calipari.

Again, Sheppard and Dillingham were the story last season at Kentucky. Of their 65 combined collegiate appearances as freshman, they totaled just six starts in total with Sheppard owning five of those himself.

That was the case even though they were each statistically among the best on the roster and in college basketball. Sheppard did it all in averaging 12.5 points, 4.5 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.5 steals while shooting 53.6% from the field and 52.1% from three. As for Dillingham, he was electric in posting 15.2 points, 3.9 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and a steal on 47.5% shooting overall and 44.4% from deep.

Pair them with Antonio Reeves and the Wildcats had one of the best backcourt trios in the country. However, whether completely right or not, Calipari elected to continue trying lineups with others at guard. That namely included DJ Wagner, a five-star in his own right, as a season-long starter.

The Big Blue Nation only got more upset by those circumstances later on Wednesday. While the season, along with Calipari’s tenure, is long over and done with, both Sheppard and Dillingham further proved their worth as each were Top-10 picks in the 2024 NBA Draft. Sheppard went third overall as the first college player off the board to the Houston Rockets. Dillingham then went eighth to the San Antonio Spurs before a trade dealt him to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Wildcats are going to have several ‘what could have been?’ scenarios to look back on from toward the end of Calipari’s career there. That includes the parts that an all-time, fan favorite duo in Sheppard and Dillingham had to play this past year

Still, Calipari maintains his methods when it came to his team last season, regardless of how it’ll be remembered or criticized.