John Calipari reveals if NCAA Tournament upsets will impact his philosophy in future

Another season under John Calipari has resulted in an early NCAA Tournament loss for Kentucky. Oakland was the victor on Thursday, sending the Wildcats home without a win in the postseason, including the SEC Tournament. Disappointing results have become too normalized in Lexington and some kind of change is needed.

While some Kentucky fans believe the change needs to be the head coach, his buyout is just South of $34 million. There is a good chance Calipari returns for the 2024-2025 season and will make another run at a national championship.

So, maybe there could be a philosophy change for Calipari — specifically in the way he recruits.

However, Calipari says changing his ways will be difficult due to the individual success his players have had. Kentucky the team has not been able to break through in some time but the NBA results certainly still there.

“I’ve done this with young teams my whole career,” Calipari said. “It’s going to be hard for me to change that because we’ve helped so many young people and their families that I don’t see myself saying ‘Okay, we’re not going to recruit freshmen.’ The thing that we’ve been blessed with is families bring their sons to us and we do what we’re supposed to do to help them prepare for the rest of their lives.”

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Antonio Reeves was probably Kentucky’s best player this season and just wrapped up his second season in the program after transferring from Illinois State.

However, freshmen Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham stole headlines at times due to their offensive ability. DJ Wagner and Justin Edwards were a major part of the rotation as well, contributing throughout different points of the season.

Playing young guys has been the story of Calipari’s career and was no different this go-round.

“We made some critical mistakes at critical times again today,” Calipari said about the loss to Oakland. “When you have a really young team and look at where the mistakes come from, they were freshmen.”

Kentucky will have to run with a similar ideology next season. They have signed four players with another two committed in the 2024 recruiting class, all of which are ranked inside the top 100 per the On3 Industry Rankings. Before even thinking about adding some older guys, six freshmen are on their way in.

Maybe Calipari can bring some experience in through the NCAA transfer portal. But there may not even be room for outside players.

“We’ve got to figure out who’s coming back and who’s not,” Calipari said. “We’ve got this transfer stuff going on. We may not need it. We have an unbelievable group coming in that I feel really good about.”

No matter who is on the 2024-2025 roster, there is going to be pressure if Calipari is still the Kentucky head coach. There could be an opportunity down the road to change the recruiting philosophy but Calipari cannot imagine it at the moment.