Ranking All the John Calipari era players at Kentucky (Part 4/5)

We only have 26 more players to rank of the 104 total that have played under John Calipari. It seems as the days have progressed the complaints have increased and I would certainly welcome anybody to try this. It’s very hard. It’s really easy to say “I can’t believe you put this player ahead of this player” but it’s a lot harder to take all 104 and figure out the standards to rank them. But I will say as we get to the Top 26 players, encompassing the top two tiers on my ranking, I found the task got easier.

For those who might have missed the first three days of this ranking task, I split the players into 6 tiers and have released four of the tiers already:

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

Out of the 26 remaining players, I placed a total of 14 in the ALL-STAR tier. So what makes an all-star player? Well, these are players that were likely the best player on their team, and if they weren’t it was only because a legend-tiered player was there as well. They either had an elite skill or an elite season. But, they wouldn’t be considered quite elite enough for jersey retirement. Even though I am quite confident in my order, how some fans view a player is skewed by what they want to see. Or even what they remember. And that is proven by the first player on today’s list:

26. Kellan Grady (2022)
Grady will forever be tarnished by his play over the last 2-3 weeks of the season. For whatever reason, he lost complete confidence in his jump shot. I’ve never been able to physically see a guy’s confidence leave him more than Grady. But that also makes what he did in the first four months of the season difficult to remember. Grady was probably the best pure shooter we’ve seen at Kentucky since…I don’t know when. And I’m willing to look at what Grady could do and proved he could do and downplay the end. I know many will not.

25. Tyler Herro (2019)
Doesn’t get enough credit for the huge NCAA Tournament shot against Houston. But his improvement over that year led him to a surprising leap into the NBA after one year. Probably as close to Rex Champman as we’ve seen, although not that good. But by the end of that season, it seemed as if UK ran more plays for him than any other player, including PJ Washington. Would have loved to have seen him in a Final Four against Virginia.

24. TyTy Washington (2022)
UK has had a bunch of 5-star freshman flop since 2017 but Washington met all expectations from the jump. And then he got injured. But frankly, that isn’t his fault and shouldn’t be held against his place in these rankings. I think a healthy Washington leads to a deep NCAA run, and a deep NCAA run could have cemented him into the legend tier potentially. Probably the best mid-range game of the Calipari era.

23. Andrew Harrison (2014-15)
Point guard on two Final Four teams. Amazing some fans hate on this guy. He wasn’t a great shooter but he also didn’t try to be. He took the open shots that came to him but he was a distributor first and foremost. Plus he improved his game throughout his two seasons. I don’t think there is any argument he was in a John Wall-Tyler Ulis level of point guard but to diminish him as some kind of failure or disappointment or anything but an elite UK player is absurd.

22. PJ Washington (2018-19)
Did anyone improve Year 1 into Year 2 more than PJ? His 2018 season finished with a thud of missed free throws and I am not sure fans were high on him going into his sophomore season. But he became an absolute force for the Elite 8 team that year and a Final Four would have made him a fringe legend level player. One of my favorite players because he scared the living crap out of me and I was thrilled he was on my team.

21. Aaron Harrison (2014-15)
Obviously, his NCAA Tournament shots will always make him a name we remember at Kentucky. But he wasn’t to the level of some of the legends we’ll reveal tomorrow. He was an excellent player and dynamic shooter. An underrated defender too and the best guard on a 38-1 team. He separated himself from his brother due to his better scoring capabilities but his clutch moments don’t hurt either.

20. Eric Bledsoe (2010)
I think Eric Bledsoe would have been the best player on maybe 3 or 4 of Calipari’s teams but that 2010 team was so stacked I have him at 4th. I just don’t think we really appreciated how good he was. He had an edge to him and people forget he was a pretty good 3-point shooter. He finished 38% from behind the line for the year and hit 8 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. A great leaper too for a guy his size.

19. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2018)
Kevin Knox might have been the most talented player and leading scorer on that squad, but SGA was the best player. He took 70 fewer shots than Knox and still almost outscored him for the season. He was the guy who got the ball in clutch situations. And you had to be impressed how much he took the reigns of that team when battling for playing time against Quade Green to start that year. Nobody thought he was a one-and-done player but by the end of that year, he was the surest thing on that roster.

18. Bam Adebayo (2017)
Bam would have broken backboards in the 1990s for sure. He might not have been stronger than DeMarcus Cousins but there wasn’t a player with more force than Bam. He often had to play third fiddle behind Fox and Monk on that team but he rarely was outplayed in the post that year. Probably UK’s best big man between Towns and Oscar.

17. Terrence Jones (2011-12)
The combo of him and Davis will never be matched at Kentucky. Never. Jones’ versatility on the offensive end, shot-blocking ability on the defensive end. He had an edge to him too. Probably a little ball-heavy in his time for many fans’ liking but on that 2012 team he found his role as the 4-man and was just as unstoppable at times as Davis. And he’s a guy that could have easily left after his freshman year but instead came back, improved, and made a difference in Year 2. Not enough fans give him credit for that.

16. Patrick Patterson (2010)
I mentioned above that this group probably will not have their jerseys retired but Patterson might be the exception. I think he is right on the fringe for that honor but his 3-year career rivaled most all Top 10 players. If he had come back for a senior season he would have threatened the school scoring record. That’s how good he was. If he had gotten three years of John Calipari, there is no telling how good he would have been. But to fight through two years of Billy, nobody would have blamed him to bolt. Then in 2010, he didn’t complain he had to share the shots more. He owed it. He chose to mesh with that group of freshmen. Still probably one of the top 5 fan favorites of the post-2000 UK basketball.

15. Immanuel Quickley (2019-20)
We might forget that Quickley was SEC Player of the Year in 2020 and seemed to become one of Cal’s favorite players in his tenure. Quickley was, at best, a marginal role player in his first season and there was uncertainty about who would be “the guy” in 2020. He took on that role and had one of the better individual seasons under Calipari. That NCAA Tournament getting canceled did not help his legacy because he needed that final chapter to solidify his place. But I won’t forget he became one of the better guards we’ve seen at UK.

14. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (2012)
The best defender of the Calipari era. And one of the best finishers at the rim. Superior athlete and the perfect complement to Anthony Davis. His pro career was a bust but at Kentucky, he was just one of the best to do it. MKG still has the best dunk in this tenure and hardly anybody remembers it.

13. Nerlens Noel (2013)
His injury effectively ended the 2013 season and that’s all you need to know about his impact. He impacted a game as much as anybody in UK modern history not named Anthony Davis. And in shot-blocking alone, he might have been better. Now his pure offensive game ran behind some of the other great big men but that was improving as that season progressed. But the injury will always be a factor in his legacy and likely keeps him out of the top tier in my rankings.