Kentucky basketball is in 'complete disarray,' insider says

Any Kentucky basketball fan knows that the last few years of hoops in the bluegrass just haven’t been up to par. The team simply isn’t winning like it used to in the early John Calipari days — which is the biggest issue for fans right now. But beyond a few extra losses, UK is experiencing what seems like a lack of organization or unity throughout the entire program, starting with its head coach.

John Calipari just lost another assistant coach after one year (KT Turner in 2023, Jai Lucas in 2022) and has seen almost his entire staff changeover since COVID. Meanwhile, he has zero juniors or seniors on the roster right now and is grasping at straws finishing off the 2024 team after losing his nine leaders in minutes last season, all of which had the option to return to Kentucky but chose not to (pending the Reeves’ decision).

This string of confusing off-court storylines and tough luck on the court has UK fans asking: what is going on with the Kentucky basketball program? Well, BBN’s largest media presence, Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio, answered that very question on Thursday morning’s edition of KSR.

“I want to do some hard truths here,” Jones began. “I don’t know all that’s going on behind the scenes, but what I know is what I’ll talk about.” That sounds pretty ominous. Perhaps because it was:

“And I will say to you, this is just a fact. Is this not fixable? Anything is fixable. But this is a fact: this program, in the last few months, has been in complete disarray. Nobody knows what’s going to happen next, including the coaches. It has been in disarray — and anybody that says otherwise it’s just wrong.”

Piggybacking off that point, Jones added that the coaching staff didn’t even know who was going to stay or go in the latest round of NBA Draft decisions. Chris Livingston and Oscar Tshiebwe departed and Antonio Reeves returned to college but has not confirmed he’ll end up back at Kentucky. Per Jones, Calipari and staff pushed hard for both Reeves and Tshiebwe to return and definitely aren’t getting one (Oscar) and may be about to lose the other (Reeves) to a grad transfer.

First, it was the losing, which was less frustrating in 2021 when Kentucky hadn’t had a bad year in a while, before they would go on to lose in the first round of the tourney in 2022 and spend most of 2023 on the bubble. Now, Kentucky is struggling to even build a roster or find a single one of their top nine contributors to return.

Fans were unhappy with the subpar year Kentucky had in 2023, but at least they had a No. 1 recruiting class and a terrific 2024 team on deck. But now that’s in question, because John Calipari can’t even find a couple veterans or returnees who want to be on the team. His own players clearly don’t want to be back and incoming transfers have said ‘No’ to Calipari and Kentucky at every turn this spring.

Heading into the 2024 season, Kentucky is looking at a truly elite recruiting class, even by Calipari standards. It’s loaded to the gills. But given the lack of recent winning, the growing SEC, five total minutes of NCAA Tournament experience returning and a failed offseason, fans are really wondering if the guy behind the wheel is capable of driving the level success necessary to lead a program like Kentucky.