John Calipari's "Archaic Offense" is one of the Best in College Basketball

John Calipari has been a target for various forms of criticism since he entered the head coaching ranks. In recent years it’s all revolved around his “archaic offense.”

Jonathan Givony piled on after the St. Peter’s loss. In January Jeff Goodman’s anonymous source described the Wildcats’ offense as “shitty,” enough evidence for Goodman to call for an end of the marriage between John Calipari and Kentucky. Around that same time another anonymous coach told Dana O’Neil, “their offense is archaic,” while another said Calipari’s scheme has “no sense of purpose.”

John Calipari’s shitty, archaic offense is now one of the best in all of college basketball.

Fresh off an 82-point performance where the Wildcats shot better than 53% from the field against a Top 25 Florida defense, Kentucky ranks 14th in adjusted offensive efficiency, according to KenPom. The Wildcats have the third-best offensive rebounding percentage in America, thanks in large part to Oscar Tshiebwe, who ranks fifth in the SEC in scoring at 16.2 points per game.

Over the last ten games the Wildcats rank third nationally in offensive efficiency. Not bad for a shitty, archaic offense.

Kentucky is shooting 36.2% from three-point land, the best in the SEC. What drives these anonymous sources mad is that the Wildcats only attempt about 18 threes per game. “It’s inefficient to take two-point jump shots.” Unless you’re rebounding almost 40% of your misses. There are many different ways to skin a cat, and Kentucky has found a way to be efficient offensively without using the Golden State Warriors’ model of shooting only layups or threes.

While most have spent their time focused on Calipari’s offensive style, folks have overlooked the real problem with this team: defense. Kentucky currently ranks 89th in defensive efficiency, the lowest of his 14-year tenure. The Wildcats aren’t great on-ball defenders and they don’t have an elite rim protector waiting to clean up the mess.

There are two things standing in Kentucky’s way of a deep run in March, depth and defense. They may not be able to fix both problems, but the shitty, archaic offense might just be good enough to keep Kentucky alive deep into the NCAA Tournament.