Ranking all the John Calipari Era players at Kentucky (Part 2/5)

I have taken on the unenviable task of trying to rank each of the 104 players who have been on the roster during John Calipari’s 13 years at Kentucky. If you think it would be easy, it has not been. But it has also been a fun trip down memory lane for me, remembering some names I had just flat forgotten and appreciating some guys I forgot made such an impact. I decided to break down the players into 6 tiers, releasing a tier each day this week (and 2 on Monday). A quick schedule:

MONDAY: Walk-Ons and Never/Barely Played
TODAY: Flops
WEDNESDAY: Impactful
THURSDAY: All-Stars
FRIDAY: Legends

Today’s post was certainly the hardest to write, not because justifying these players as “flops” was difficult but because it’s just hard to call guys who certainly tried their hardest and represented the university a negative term. But the reality is that some players just don’t meet the expectations that they had coming into Kentucky.

Out of the 104 players, I ranked 21 players as FLOPS at Kentucky. Yesterday, we ranked players 104 through 78. Below are my rankings in Flop Tier, starting with player #77.

77. Charles Matthews (2016)
Matthews came in following the 38-1 season and many thought he would be the next in line of great freshman players. An AAU teammate of Tyler Ulis, Matthews got some significant playing time in that 2016 year. He got double-digit minutes in 19 games that season. But despite all of that, he averaged just 1.7 points per game on a team that struggled to score at times. It just wasn’t working for Matthews and he bolted for Michigan after one year. What made it worse is he became a two-year starter and double-digit scorer for a Final Four team. Was he misused? Maybe. But his time at Kentucky was certainly a flop.

76. Dontaie Allen (2021-22)
Look, fans can complain all they want about Allen’s time in Lexington but at some point, the player has to take responsibility for not earning his playing time. He had one great moment and that’s about it. And for all the talk about what a great scorer and shooter he was, he shot 35.7% from the field and 33% from three for his two-year career. People can blame Cal all they want, but Allen’s time at UK was floptastic.

75. Skal Labiessiere (2016)
On the list of players in this tier, Skal actually had better stats than many of them. But Skal plummets to near the bottom because of his expectations against production. This was supposed to be the next great big man. The next Towns, Noel, Randle, Cousins. Instead, nobody brought greater frustration to the fanbase. Here’s the funny thing about Skal. His one season, had it been played in the 1980s or early 1990s, would have been considered a solid freshman season. But because of the era he played in, he is considered one of the biggest flops in school history.

74. Devin Askew (2021)
Despite becoming one of the all-time greats at Texas, his time at Kentucky was a disaster. The 2021 squad had lots of problems but they all originated with Askew’s inability to run the offense. The guy got almost THIRTY minutes a game for that team, playing point guard, and still got under 3 assists per game. One of the least productive regular players in the Calipari era.

73. Mychal Mulder (2016-17)
Another guy that some fans would argue was misused in his two seasons. But he really had one skill and that was shooting the basketball. And he was streaky at best. He barely played in 2016 but in the 2017 season, he got decent minutes. But he never found consistent flow in an offense with several stars. He went just 5 for 22 from beyond the arc in his last 11 games. What’s really crazy is he’s become a consistent NBA player out of nowhere. But his time at UK was not impactful.

72. Jemarl Baker (2018-19)
Jemarl, meet Mychal. Mychal, meet Jemarl. It’s basically the same thing for both guys. Thought to be great shooters. When given the chance, were mediocre shooters. Left after two seasons. You can interchange their careers as much as any two players in the Cal era. And that’s not really a compliment.

71. Darnell Dodson (2010)
Darnell had his moments. But he flopped when needed the most. From the SEC Tournament semifinals through the Elite 8 loss to West Virginia, here were Dodson’s 3-point shooting numbers: 2/6, 1/5, 1/6, 1/3, 0/1, 2/9. A combined 7 for 30. His 2 for 9 against WVU was a serious contributing factor to that loss. And then he was gone just like that to Southern Miss. Doron Lamb became what we hoped Dodson would be.

70. Johnny Juzang (2020)
Seeing what Juzang has become at UCLA, it would have been quite nice to have seen then on the 2021 disaster squad. He actually seems like the kind of player that would thrive in a Calipari system but he just didn’t see the floor much, especially in any kind of consistent manner. For instance, his last four career games went 6-9-16-33 in minutes played. That had to be hard for him never knowing if and how much he would play. But you can’t define his time in Lexington as anything but flop.

69. Lance Ware (2021-22)
I don’t love putting a current player on this tier but how else could define his time so far? He played more minutes as a freshman than a sophomore, largely due to Oscar’s presence. But Oscar might be coming back so where does that put Ware for next year? In two full seasons, he has 83 points total. Any real kind of improvement could bump Ware up into the next tier but he has to go somewhere for right now.

68. Eloy Vargas (2011-12)
Eloy was a permanent backup to Josh Harrellson and Anthony Davis in his two-year stint but he never became any kind of productive force. Not a particularly skilled big man, scoring just 85 points in 71 games played. I’m not sure he was ever expected to be more than a role player at Kentucky but that role was quite minimal in two seasons.

67. Daniel Orton (2010)
Not too many unliked players in the Cal era but I’m not sure he was a favorite of many. Always seemed unhappy on and off the court. Not particularly good when he did see the floor. Gone after one season. And don’t forget, this was a fringe 5-star player. His time in Lexington was Cal’s first flop.

66. Quade Green (2018-19)
I tend to think if Green had just hung around and not transferred nine games into his sophomore season, he might have become a nice role player moving forward. Instead, he let Shai and Hagans outplay him consistently and then pouted his way out of town. Because of his exit, I think his time at UK had to be listed as a flop.

65. Perry Stevenson (2010)
Tend to forget that Perry got one season under Calipari but the influx of talent relegated him to the bench primarily. And even during the Gillispie years, he drove fans nuts. A fairly athletic player but just never developed good skills. Did have one of the better dunks of the last 20 years though. He’ll always have that.

64. Nate Sestina (2020)
I am told by certain members of the KSR staff that putting Sestina here is laughable. But let me ask you this question? Would you say that Sestina had an “impactful” year at Kentucky? Because that is the next tier up. I’m not sure anybody expected him to be a star after transferring in but despite getting 20 minutes per game, he averaged just a little over five points per game. Less than four rebounds per game. Lots of games where he was just a space-filler on the court. Want more proof? First four games at Kentucky: 31-30-30-34 minutes. Last four games at Kentucky: 13-19-15-26 minutes. He went from consistently on the floor to not so much.

63. Marcus Lee (2014-16)
Always one of my favorite UK basketball stats. Marcus Lee played in exactly 100 games at Kentucky. His career-high in points came in Game 1, with 17. I actually liked Marcus Lee a bunch. Exciting athlete who nobody should want to jump with. But when you really look at his three years, his production increased each year but he never really made a serious impact. And truly the worst free-throw shooter I’ve ever seen.

62. Ryan Harrow (2013)
Harrow was pretty terrible in his one season but he was also plagued by having to follow the Wall-Knight-Teague trio as point guard at Kentucky. He just never seemed to be the leader that the 2013 squad needed. And then he bolted after the season to be closer to home. And then he was followed by Harrison-Ulis-Fox. So he just sticks out like a sore thumb in the point guard line at Kentucky.

61. Ramon Harris (2010)
One of the few leftovers from the Gillispie dumpster, Harris had a couple of decent years in 2008 and 2009. But the talent level on the 2010 squad was so much better than Harris that he became a non-factor in his final year. We are starting to really get into the fringe players who had some arguments as impactful but I don’t think quite make the cut.

60. Wenyen Gabriel (2017-18)
I always felt like Gabriel was plagued by his own beliefs. He had a role he could have played to perfection on both the 2017 and 2018 teams but only showed flashes. His SEC Tournament performance in 2018 was certainly memorable but followed it up with games of one point and three points in the NCAA Tournament. Just far, far too inconsistent for my liking and I think a flop compared to what he could have been.

59. EJ Montgomery (2019-20)
Man, did fans want Montgomery to become a dominant force. I think, in talent alone, he had boatloads more than Nick Richards (sorry, Drew). But Nick developed a game and Montgomery didn’t. And then he joined an ever-growing list of Calipari players who left for the NBA despite making a minimal impact at UK. Baffling player in many ways and nowhere near the impact that his recruiting ranking would have suggested.

58. Brandon Boston (2021)
Was Boston the 58th best player in the Calipari era? Probably not. He was better than some guys ahead of him for sure. But has there been a bigger 5-star flop than him under Calipari? Skal and that’s it. He just never could get it going on a team that he should have been the star on. A 35% shooter who got 290 shots up is not a good thing. He has started to make an impact in the NBA, which might make his flop status for his UK tenure that much more solidified.

57. Hamidou Diallo (2018)
He’s the highest-ranked flop, which is probably not a great consolation. And I battled hard with this one because Diallo certainly had his moments. But something happened on New Year’s that season that changed things. In the 13 games for January 1st, he scored in double digits in 10 of 13 games. In the 24 games after January 1st, he did it just 6 times. And he scored less than five points in NINE of those games, including just two points in the season finale against Kansas State. He had all the hype in the world and I just don’t think he came anywhere to matching that, including flops in several key games. That’s why he lands here, the best of all the flops.

Whew, that was not easy to do. Tomorrow things get a lot happier and a lot quicker with the IMPACTFUL players of the John Calipari era.