Archie Goodwin opens up on Kentucky's 2012-13 season and what could have been done differently

Coming off a national championship the season prior, the 2012-13 Kentucky men’s basketball team struggled to live up to lofty expectations. Head coach John Calipari reloaded once again with the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class, but returned less than 10 percent of the minutes and scoring from a roster that went 38-2 and mowed through the tournament field.

Kentucky finished 21-12 (12-6 SEC) during the 2012-13 campaign, missing the NCAA Tournament (and later losing to Robert Morris in the first round of the NIT) in large part due to the season-ending ACL injury that center Nerlens Noel suffered during the middle of conference play against Florida. It was a season that started with plenty of optimism — a top-five national ranking, plus a 20-point, eight-rebound performance from Alex Poythress in a close loss to Duke — but quickly took a turn for the worse.

And perhaps no one took more of the blame for how things unraveled that season than Archie Goodwin, a freshman at the time and former five-star high school recruit. The 6-foot-5 guard was shouldered with plenty of offensive responsibilities, which were only complicated once Noel went out for the season. Goodwin went on to leave Kentucky as a one-and-done, going late in the first round of the 2013 NBA Draft. And just like that, he was gone.

Up until this week, he was unable to share his side of the story with the Big Blue Nation. In an eye-opening conversation during Thursday’s episode of KSR with Ryan Lemond and Drew Franklin, Goodwin was able to open up on what he experienced throughout the 2012-13 season. It was one of the most honest and in-depth discussions you’ll ever hear from a former Wildcat.

Goodwin’s reaction is a long one, but I would encourage you to read every single word of what he said.

“The last thing I’m gonna say, that I felt like could have helped us, was me being at the point guard at the beginning… I don’t know if you guys remember, but Ryan (Harrow) was the point guard at first, and he had his stuff going on. Then I went into the point guard role, and I went into that point guard role, we were top 10 in the country, like we were a top 10 team. We were right there with Duke. We lost one to Notre Dame on the road, and then I think that’s when Ryan came back.

“And then coach had started him back as the point guard for us. And we just kind of had up and downs, because for me and my game, if you remember Coach Cal’s offense, his two guards — Doron Lamb, Darius Miller, (DeAndre) Liggins was a 2-3 — but his two guards are predominantly guys who catch and shoot, play off of floppy action. He did a lot of that with Doron, which was where he thrived at. But for me, that wasn’t my game. My game was more downhill transition, more like a John Wall-type player. John Wall is a better passer than me. But as far as being able to get into the rim and get downhill and put pressure on the defense from the fast break standpoint, that was my game, and that was more predicated for a point guard in Coach Cal’s system.

“And so I thrived a lot during that time as the point guard, where I was getting a lot of my praise, and then when I moved to the two, where I was in more of a catch and shoot role, it kind of went down. And so to the outside guys, or to the public who don’t really understand what’s going on, it’s like, oh, he’s getting worse. So like, that was the theme of the year, like, oh, Archie’s getting worse. It’s not necessarily I’m getting worse. I’m just in a different position, and I’m not being used how I was being used at the beginning, which was to my strengths, because at that time, shooting wasn’t a strength of mine. Like, you know, I was more of a downhill player. And even still, to this day, like I’m a way better shooter now, but I’m still a downhill player.

“And so, it works when you give me the ball and let me play downhill, then I can get and create, and I can get into the rhythm of shooting. So I think that, you know, me being used the way I got used at that second half of the season, it hurt us as well, because I wasn’t able to really put pressure on the defense like I wanted to. And then what did that result in? There was a lot of times where I would kind of get antsy here and try to force things, and, you know, trying to force them, and trying to integrate myself into the game, because I wasn’t being able to really get used that way….

“Because, you gotta think, every year since (Calipari has) gotten here, it was Point Guard University, that’s what he would call it. So the point guards, they run the show, and all of them are downhill guys. You know what I mean? Like, the only guy maybe that wasn’t downhill would be like a Tyler Ulis, but even Tyler Ulis, he’s so crafty and quick to get in the lane. He could still get there whenever he wanted and make plays. He was probably one of the better shooting point guards that Coach Cal had. But from John Wall, you can go back to Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans, John Wall, Brandon Knight, Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander), De’Aaron Fox, Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray was more of a shooter too, but he was athletic and can get down here. But a lot of the point guards were downhill players, and for me, the discussion that we had prior to me coming, was he was going to allow me to play that point guard some, which I thrived in when I was there.

“And I’m sorry to be a little long-winded, but I just never have gotten this opportunity to explain this to people, because I got a lot of slack that year and people wondering, what was the problem? You know what I’m saying? And I’ve never gotten a chance to really express how I felt about that year and what I think could have helped us. I don’t think that it was necessarily (just) that. I’m not going to put it like, oh, Coach Cal is the problem. He wasn’t. I just, I believe that if he would have allowed me to stay at that point guard position, it would have helped us way more, especially with Nerlens getting hurt.

“I caught a lot of slack that year for a lot of the problems that was going on with our team, and rightfully so, me being one of the better players, I take that on the chest, but when you can’t do anything about it because of — I’ve had conversations with Coach, and I remember going to him and asking him, ‘Coach, I would love to play the point.’ And he just basically told me, I want you to play the point, but we gotta let Ryan play it. I need you on the court, so we gotta put you at the two.”

Goodwin certainly isn’t bitter about his time at Kentucky and how it all unfolded, but he does wish things could have been done differently. With how often Calipari was churning out five-star guards through the program, returning for a sophomore season didn’t seem viable for him. The Harrison twins and James Young were on the way for 2013-14. He felt like his time at UK had come to a close.

The situation might have played out differently had all of this happened in the modern day, where NIL helps keep good players in college longer than in previous decades, but the season played out, how it played out. Nearly 13 years later, it still sits on his mind. Suiting up for La Familia this week, where he’ll get a chance to play in front of the BBN once again in The Basketball Tournament, certainly helps — that doesn’t mean his lone season in Lexington is any easier to look back on, though.

“I still think about it,” Goodwin added. “Not in a haunting way, but man, I wish I could redo that season. There would be so much that I would do different.”

[Listen to Goodwin’s full conversation with KSR here]