Oakland 80, Kentucky 76 FINAL

John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats put all their eggs in one basket when they laid an egg in the SEC postseason tournament, losing for the second time to Texas A&M in the opening contest. Before the tournament began, Calipari said that he didn't care about that tournament, he only cared about the one after.

And now we have the one after.

Oakland, a Horizon league #14 seed sporting a record slightly worse than Kentucky's record, dealt Calipari and Kentucky their 10th loss of the season. The contest featured Jack Gohlke, who launched a massive twenty 3-point shot attempts, making half of them to lead all scorers with 32 points. On the night, Oakland's three-point shooting could not be stopped, as they went 15-31 from three-point range, 48.4 % for the game.

Meanwhile, Kentucky's nation-leading three-point shooting was mostly impotent until late in the game. Freshman Reed Sheppard, by some accounts the #1 draft pick in the NBA draft this season, played 26 minutes, scoring only 3 points on 1-5 shooting. Freshman DJ Wagner went scoreless in 17 minutes, 0-5. Rob Dillingham managed 10 points, but on 2-9 shooting in 28 minutes of play, while Justin Edwards matched him with 10 points on 4-9 shooting in 15 minutes of play. Freshman Zvonimir Ivisic scored 3 points and grabbed 5 rebounds in 13 minutes, while Aaron Bradshaw added 3 points and 3 rebounds in 4 minutes.

The graybeards of Kentucky led the team tonight, with grad students Antonio Reeves playing his final game for Kentucky, and going out with 27 points on 11-18 shooting, 5-9 from three-point range, and Tre Mitchell Kentucky adding 14 points and 13 rebounds before fouling out in 31 minutes of play.

The rebounding battle between the two teams was mostly even, with Oakland winning it 40-39. Oakland came into the contest with one of the loosest handles in the country, but took good care of the ball, only turning it over 7 times. Kentucky, meanwhile appeared to be the most nervous team, turning the ball over 11 times with Oakland managing 5 steals on the night.

Where does Kentucky go from here? John Calipari is a Hall of Fame coach whose credentials cannot be disputed or denied. Notwithstanding this, Kentucky basketball has been a mere shadow of itself, winning only 1 NCAA tournament game in the last 4 years.

Kentucky has failed to secure a #1 seed since 2015, and has fallen short of the SEC regular-season championship the last 4 years, and has not won an SEC tournament championship since 2018. If it was not for the grace of the NCAA causing Kansas to forfeit games, Kentucky would have still been in the #2 spot for all-time wins, a source of great pride for many fans. As it is, with 0 added wins and postseason play – both SEC and NCAA tournament – Kentucky failed to add to their lead, despite Kansas having two star players succumb to injury, one for the remainder of the season.

What will it take to right the ship at Kentucky? Is John Calipari still the coach that can do it? Will a loss like this and continued pressure on the coach because him to seek greener pastures? There have been some back channel talk of an interest from Michigan. Would he choose this as an easy exit?

If so, who is on the Kentucky Athletic Director shortlist to replace him?

And is that the only way he would depart Kentucky? Would the Athletic Director ever consider making a change without being forced to do so?

It may be an interesting off-season.