8 national championships spanning five different decades.
17 Final Fours.
59 20-win seasons, 14 30-win seasons.
48 SEC Championships, 28 SEC Tournament Championships.
25 consensus First Team All-Americans.
As good as Kentucky basketball has been over the last 112 seasons, you can certainly make the argument that under John Calipari, it’s the best it’s ever been.
Hearing rumors of Calipari leaving to the NBA is now an annual occurrence only for him to remain in Lexington, it’s looking more and more likely that Calipari will ultimately retire as the head coach at the University of Kentucky, which would be string music to the collective ears of Big Blue Nation.
But whenever Calipari does decide to move on from coaching basketball, it will be all too soon for BBN because when that day comes, it will never be this good again.
Calipari has done exactly what he said he would do when brought to Lexington:
1) “Add to the wall.”
2) “Return this legendary program back to its rightful place atop the mountain of college basketball.”
3) “Make UK the gold standard.”
He’s also used his platform to raise millions and millions of dollars for both local and national charities through various telethons, alumni games, fantasy camps and other ventures.
In the historical context of Kentucky basketball, consider these numbers from the Calipari Era:
– Calipari’s 190 wins over the last six seasons are the most in the NCAA over that span and the most over a six-year stretch in school history, edging Adolph Rupp’s 188 wins from 1946-52 and Rick Pitino’s 183 wins from 1991-97. His win percentage (.837) is also the highest in school history, besting Rupp’s .821 clip.
– Calipari not only ended the longest Final Four drought in school history (13 years) in 2011, he proceeded to take Kentucky to the Final Four in four of the last five seasons, joining Mike Krzyzewski (!) and John Wooden (!!) as the only coaches in NCAA history to accomplish that feat.
– Calipari has won nearly 75% of his games against ranked opponents (41-14) and gone a combined 17-4 (80.9%) against rivals Louisville (7-1), Kansas (3-0), Indiana (3-1) and North Carolina (4-2).
– Kentucky had only gone undefeated in the SEC twice in the last 55 years prior to Calipari’s arrival. Under Calipari, the Wildcats have finished unbeaten in the league twice (2012, 2015) in six seasons, winning over 80% of its regular season league games.
– Calipari won his first 54 games at Rupp Arena, the second-longest streak in school history (129). Since the facility opened in 1976, the Wildcats have won almost 90% of its games at Rupp Arena (529-64). Calipari has posted an insane 102-4 (.962) record at home.
– In its history, Kentucky has played 175 games all-time as the No. 1-ranked team in the AP Poll. Sixty-eight of those (38.8%) have come in the last six seasons under Calipari.
– In 2012, Calipari led the Wildcats to an NCAA single-season record 38 wins en route to the school’s eighth national championship.
– In 2015, Calipari led Kentucky to a school-record and NCAA single-season best 38-game win streak, which also ranked as the 10th-longest in NCAA history and was the longest win-streak in college basketball in 23 years. The Wildcats became the first team in NCAA history to start a season 38-0, winning its games by an average of 20.7 points per game.
– In the first 62 NBA Drafts, Kentucky did not produce a No. 1 overall pick. Since 2010, Calipari has yielded three:
John Wall (2010)
Anthony Davis (2012)
Karl-Anthony Towns (2015)– Since 2010, there have been 360 total players selected in the NBA Draft. Twenty-five of them played for Calipari at Kentucky, or 6.9%.
Further, during that same time frame, Calipari’s Wildcats have accounted for 19 first round picks (10.5%), 12 lottery picks (13.3%), 10 top-10 picks (16.6%), six top-five picks (20%) and three No. 1 picks (50%).
– Kentucky produced 84 overall NBA Draft selections over the first 62 years of the NBA Draft. Calipari has coached 25 over the last six. That means Calipari has accounted for nearly a quarter of UK’s all-time NBA Draft picks.
– Calipari’s draft picks will combine to make almost $120 million in the NBA this season alone and their total contracts exceed $700 million. Not only is he getting players to the league, they’re excelling once they get there.
– According to the 247Sports Composite, which averages recruiting rankings from every major outlet, Calipari has signed the No. 1 recruiting class in five of the last seven years, finishing No. 2 in 2012 and 2014.
– Since 1978, McDonald’s All-Americans have become the standard by which recruits are judged. From 1978 to 2008, Kentucky signed 32 of them, or basically one per year. Calipari has signed 21 since 2009, the most of any school during that stretch.
– From 2002 to 2008, Kentucky signed a total of four 5-star recruits. From 2009 to 2015, Calipari signed 26.
– Last week, Kentucky was voted preseason No. 1 in the USA Today Coaches Poll for the third consecutive year. The Wildcats have started the season in the top five of the Coaches Poll in six of the seven seasons in the Calipari Era.
– Kentucky is ranked preseason No. 1 despite losing seven players to the NBA, its top seven scorers and being forced to replace:
86.8% of its points
78.1% of its rebounds
69.6% of its assists
83.2% of its blocks
78.2% of its stealsPause. Enjoy. Reflect. Appreciate.
Because when Calipari is gone, it’ll never be this good again.
Full Article Over On 247Sports.com.
