We Have To Stop These Kentucky Basketball Falsehoods (BTI's Rants and Ramblings)

Is social media real life? It is not. Studies show only around 20-25% of people use Twitter on a regular basis. But, there is no better way that I can get a large set of feedback quickly than social media.

As a fanbase, there are some trends that we have to put a stop to ASAP. Because they are falsehoods and make us look foolish. And I will readily admit, again, that social media is not real life. People who are constantly posting on social media are usually making snap judgments and not researching their points of view (insert political opinion here). But I am here to help us all look less foolish by beating down some commonly used opinions on social media that are just wrong.

1. OFFICIALS ARE ALWAYS BIASED AGAINST KENTUCKY

First are foremost, it feels like the level of officiating in college athletics is as inconsistent (i.e. bad) as I can remember. Games are not called the same from week to week. Rules are applied in some games and not others. Some officials grandstand so much they have reputations. We should never know anything about officials. So this is not a defense about officiating. But the idea that refs come into a game to “screw” Kentucky is just a falsehood. Just a stat to remember:

Number of Additional Free Throws UK Has Attempted vs. Its Opponents Year By Year

2010: +283
2011: +131
2012: +324
2013: +170
2014: +310
2015: +271
2016: -35
2017: +206
2018: +205
2019: +297
2020: +120
2021: +58
2022: +85
2023: +76
2024: -17
TOTAL: +2,484 FREE THROWS (Average Per Season: 166)

Somehow the refs have been screwing us forever to the tune of giving us almost 2,500 attempts at the foul line under Calipari. Weird strategy by them, but okay. Ask around to other fanbases and they will tell you that Kentucky receives the best home whistle in the SEC. And there have been studies done to show that raucous home crowds affect how refs call a game. So in many ways, we are the reason that the Cats get a FAVORABLE whistle most of the time.

But the point is that over the course of 40 minutes, refs are going to make bad calls or no-calls that you think should happen. It happens to both teams. It will happen to UK and it will happen to our opponents. We received several tremendously favorable calls against Texas A&M. We received some bad calls against Arkansas.

I am not going to say that refs generally have given us a better whistle than most (although that’s probably true), but we have to stop saying that refs are always screwing us; they just aren’t.

2. THE POLLS ARE BIASED AGAINST KENTUCKY (NOR SHOULD WE CARE)

I will never understand our fascination with the AP and Coaches poll in college basketball. It absolutely has no significance whatsoever. Also, it doesn’t decide if you get into the NCAA Tournament. It doesn’t decide your place in the conference. Your ranking means nothing. And at Kentucky, whether we are ranked #1 or unranked, our games will be televised and promoted aggressively by networks. So the rankings are pointless and we use too much energy caring about them.

With that said, this idea that pollsters are always out to undervalue Kentucky is a falsehood; in fact, under Calipari, Kentucky often remains in the polls or is ranked very highly in the preseason, only to disappoint during the regular season. Outside of Duke, I’m not sure any other program gets the benefit of the doubt in the preseason more than us.

But if we want to break it down, let’s do it. Let’s take this season’s AP poll. Kentucky has dropped in the poll four times from the previous week. They dropped one spot in the first week from the preseason with two teams jumping over them. Those teams, Baylor and USC, both beat major conference teams in Week 1. We did not. We actually went UP 1 spot following our loss to Kansas. How many teams go up following a loss? We dropped four spots (from 12th to 16th) following our home loss to UNC-Wilmington.

Ask yourself this question. Let’s say Dayton or San Diego State or LSU lost at home to a team from the Colonial. Do you think they would only drop four spots? Kentucky got the benefit of the doubt after that horrid loss because we are Kentucky. We dropped two spots after losing to Texas A&M and four spots after losing to South Carolina.

Our losses have been pretty terrible this year. Three losses to unranked teams. Why is North Carolina ranked so much higher even though we beat them? They are undefeated in conference play and their losses were to Villanova, UConn, and Kentucky. To have a loss to UNC-Wilmington and an 18-point loss to South Carolina on the resume and still be ranked 10th shows there may be a bias TOWARD Kentucky in the polls.

Additionally, what does it matter to the beat writer at the Las Vegas Herald or the Spokane Journal where Kentucky is ranked? We give too much credit to ourselves out there about how much some of these guys and girls care. Are there journalists out there who don’t like Calipari, like Pat Forde or Jeff Goodman? Of course there are. But not enough to dramatically impact the poll.

3. KENTUCKY ALWAYS GETS A HARD NCAA TOURNAMENT DRAW

This, again, is not backed up by facts and a complete falsehood. What some fans want is for the other 15 teams in our region to be the worst team on that seed line. If we are the 1-seed, we want the worst 2 through 15 seeds. And when that obviously doesn’t happen, we claim the NCAA is out to get Kentucky. There are 64 quality teams in an NCAA Tournament. Kentucky is going to have to play really good teams to make a Final Four. We are not owed the easiest path, nor are we given the hardest path. And if our team is any good, it shouldn’t matter the path.

As has been hammered home many times on this site and radio show, if the NCAA truly wanted to get its best ratings, they would absolutely give Kentucky the easiest path imaginable. They want UK to go as far as possible, along with Kansas, North Carolina, and Duke. But the reality about UK’s tournament draw can be proven in 2 points:

1. Since John Calipari arrived, his teams have been in 12 NCAA Tournaments (missed in 2013, 2020, 2021). Taking the average KenPom rankings of the team in the bracket, Kentucky has been in the hardest region 3 times out of 12. Three.
2. Over the course of John Calipari’s tenure, his NCAA Tournament draws have opened up tremendously many years. UK has played 44 NCAA Tournament games in his tenure. When you take away the 12 first-round games, where the seed was predetermined, UK has played the best-seeded team possible in just 17 of 32 games. A total of 15 times UK has gotten to play an opponent seeded worse than they could have played if the draw had played out as expected. That’s fortunate. And also highlights the randomness of the tournament, which makes worrying about the draw pointless.

4. PLAYERS ALWAYS PLAY BETTER AGAINST KENTUCKY

This one is the biggest selective memory issue for many fans. We remember when guys unexpectedly go off against us and don’t remember when they don’t. And more often than not, they don’t. We always remember the Dajuan Harris hitting 5 threes as a poor shooter. Or St. Joe’s or Wilmington playing great games against UK. But what about Stonehill, New Mexico State, Texas A&M Commerce? Did Miami play over their heads? We got one of Armando Bacot’s worst games this season against UNC. For every great performance you can give me, I can give you two guys who underperformed against the Cats.

Sometimes other players have good games. It will certainly happen again this season. But it’s not proof that guys ALWAYS play great against Kentucky. We have blown out plenty of teams this year and for the past 15 years. Teams that turned out to be quite good and we made them look awful. But that is just the standard here, so it leaves our collective memory quickly. But when somebody does something outside the norm, we remember it. I am simply arguing that doesn’t then correlate to some trend.

As a fanbase, I want us to bring truth to how we cheer for our team. I believe it is always fine to be critical when things are going poorly. I think fans should be able to take a minor bit of credit for the improvement of this year’s team, as much of what has been going wrong has been corrected. And many things fans have called for have improved.

But continuing to spew falsehoods about perceived slights and bias against Kentucky makes us look foolish. It comes from an emotional place and not a factual one. The reality is Kentucky is one of the blueblood programs in college basketball, a spot they have rightfully earned. But the idea that everything is against us is just not true. Refs are not against us. Polls are not against us. The NCAA Selection Committee is not against us. And players don’t magically play better against us. So let’s focus on the truths of these games and the program and not the falsehoods, right?