Kentucky's recent trend of postseason struggles continued against Oakland

During John Calipari’s first six seasons (2009-15) as the head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, he posted a 15-3 record in the SEC Tournament, plus an incredible 22-4 mark in the NCAA Tournament. The results? Three regular season SEC championships, three more SEC Tournament titles, and the 2012 national championship.

The following five seasons (2015-20) weren’t as spectacular (an admittedly tough act to follow), but winning was still a common theme. A 10-1 record in the SEC Tournament with a 9-4 mark in the NCAA Tournament. Again, Kentucky was the SEC regular-season champion in three of those seasons and won the SEC Tournament three straight times.

The last four seasons (2020-24)? Nothing even close to the winning stats mentioned above. A 1-4 record in the SEC Tournament and a 1-3 record in the NCAA Tournament, including two losses against teams seeded 14 or lower (14-seed Oakland; 15-seed Saint Peter’s). Calipari’s teams went from regularly winning the SEC to being consistently knocked out early in the Big Dance.

Even more damning? Kentucky was the betting favorite in all of its previous 10 SEC/NCAA Tournament games. The Wildcats went 2-8 over that span. UK hasn’t made it out of the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2019 and is without a Final Four appearance since 2015.

This current season, the now-finished 2023-24 campaign, might be the most disappointing of them all though. Kentucky had fan favorites spread across the roster with a high-powered offense unlike anything the Big Blue Nation had ever seen under Calipari. And yet, this group didn’t win a single postseason game.

According to UK statistician Corey Price, this was just the fourth time in school history that the ‘Cats went 0-1 in both the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. The only other instances this happened came in 1980-81, 1986-87, and 2007-08.

The most recent postseason loss, an 80-76 defeat at the hands of a very confident Oakland team, was perhaps the most disheartening of them all. Kentucky let a former four-year Division II player (Jack Gohlke) light them up for 10 three-pointers. The Golden Grizzlies led for nearly 28 minutes. The Wildcats’ many star freshmen did not step up to the challenge.

And now, following another early postseason exit, a long offseason is in the future.