The offseason is a time for reflection, for contextualizing things, for comparisons, for analysis, and for sounding off with opinions on topics that might generate some interesting discussion.
In the spirit of all of those things, here's my attempt at ranking John Calipari's 11 basketball team's at Kentucky.
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1. 2011-2012
If someone wants to rank the '14-15 team No. 1 in spite of not winning a title I'll grant the time and space for that case to be made. I'll say up front I don't think that's being contrarian or too cute by half, at least not necessarily. But I've got to go with the team that did win the big hardware. And I would pick the 2011-2012 team to beat the 2014-2015 team head to head on a neutral floor if we had been privileged to someone watched such a game. This was not Calipari's deepest team. They didn't start 38-0. But when it mattered, they were clearly the best team in the country. They had Calipari's best player, an absolute warrior in Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, a point guard who selflessly and maturely settled into a modest role, and the kind of returning quality experience (Lamb, Jones, Miller) that it's almost impossible to fathom Kentucky having now.
2. 2014-2015
Had this team run the table and defeated Wisconsin then Duke they would have been the obvious choice. The necessary choice. But that didn't happen. If they had steamrolled their way to Wisconsin and lost in a total fluke, I might be tempted to push them to No. 1 just because of how dominant they were, how they were the first team ever to start 38-0, the novelty of such a talented platoon system, the unreal size at the college level, and other reasons. But for me they were not clearly the best team in the country at the end of the season. They were fortunate to survive Notre Dame. Granted, ND and Wisconsin were two exceptional offensive teams. But as great as this team was, losing to Wisconsin was not a huge upset. They had more good pieces than any other team perhaps in my lifetime, anywhere, but they didn't have that Anthony Davis who would not be denied.
3. 2009-2010
This is probably the last ranking that I'd call fairly easy. Like the two teams listed above it, this was a truly dominant college basketball team. It also brought fun, glory, and pride back to Kentucky basketball. Beyond jump-starting the wild ride of the last decade, the simple athleticism (speed, quickness, explosiveness) of a John Wall-Eric Bledsoe backcourt coupled with the tenacity and edge of a Patrick Patterson-Demarcus Cousins frontcourt was a thing to behold. There were probably more "dogs" on this team than any other Calipari has had. But shooting was a weakness, and shooting caused them to lose before its time. This was likely the best team in college basketball for the whole season, but extreme youth and cold shooting led to one of the most disappointing losses in program history against WVU in the Elite Eight. This team could hold its own against the '12 and '15 squads, but I would not pick them to win more than four times out of ten against either of them.
4. 2016-2017
One of the knocks on the '16-17 team is that they didn't have a lot of great wins. And for a long time, there was a sense amongst a lot of fans that they had the potential to be excellent but weren't quite putting it together even in a relatively weak SEC. Well, by the time the tournament rolled around this team had a ton of wins, had avoided bad losses, and were powered by De'Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Isaiah Briscoe, and Bam Adebayo - an excellent collegiate quartet. This was by far Calipari's fastest team in terms of tempo and they were thrilling to watch. It would be hard to say Kentucky of 2016-17 was "better" than North Carolina, the eventual champion and the team that eliminated the 'Cats in an Elite Eight heartbreaker, but even though the Tar Heels took the hardware, we can safely say these teams were essentially equals. UK might have won the title if they had survived that round. However, it was not an overwhelming team on the level of the top three Cal-era squads. Between Monk's 47 points in Las Vegas against UNC to De'Aaron Fox torching Lonzo Ball in a revenge tournament win that bounced the Bruins, this team left fans with plenty of memories. This was Calipari's best team since that '14-15 squad.
5. 2018-2019
This might be a controversial ranking but the '18-19 team led by a frontcourt of P.J. Washington and Reid Travis was arguably the nation's best team for a stretch and was certainly in a position to compete for and win a national championship. They beat Auburn twice in the regular season, once in an embarrassing blowout for the Tigers, and had Bruce Pearl's team on the ropes a third time. But an inability to close out that game kept UK from the Final Four, where two teams ranked below did make it. The reason I've got this team ranked ahead of two Final Four squads is, even factoring the additional one and two wins respectively, this team was better over the course of the whole season. They were not always dominant, but at one point they did reach enough of a peak enough level that earned recognition as a team that could have won No. 9. The backcourt was probably not good enough to win that title even if UK had survived Auburn, even with Tyler Herro becoming a very good college player.
6. 2010-2011
Kentucky's first Final Four team in 13 years (the longest drought in program history) could have a case to be higher on this list. Speaking of dramatic tournament wins, how about Brandon Knight's heroics against Princeton and Ohio State and then Elite Eight revenge for that 1995 loss against North Carolina? This team will probably always have a very special place in the hearts of a lot of Kentucky fans because they not only broke an ugly streak by UK's standards, but they exceeded expectations one year after the 2010 team suffered a crushing tournament loss. This team served notice that Cal's Cats weren't a one-trick wonder and weren't going anywhere. But a 2-6 road record in SEC play and some early struggles confine them to a lower spot on the list.
7. 2013-2014
For about four months it seemed that this team, which had led at least one fan to get a "40-0 tattoo" that could only be removed through much pain and payment, would be best known for underachieving more than any other Calipari team. They lost far too many regular season games, and with 11 years of hindsight we should have the wisdom to say that almost no amount of freshman talent, all by itself, is enough to avoid a lot of bumps and bruises. This team was ultra-talented but younger than any other Calipari team. And it showed. The youth showed in an inability to close out some close games during the regular season, but the excellent talent and a series of unforgettable clutch Aaron Harrison shots showed up in the NCAA Tournament. In terms of college talent, this team was Calipari's fourth best. In terms of full season results, it's down the list. But in terms of postseason play, the wins against Wichita State, Louisville, Michigan, and Wisconsin may have been the most dramatic stretch of four straight wins for any team in tournament history. Had they finished with a win against UConn, this team would have one of those patented nicknames given to title squads. Because of the loss total and the fact they they were not dominant in the tournament, but improved and clutch, they aren't as high as some might have them.
8. 2017-2018
This may go down in Kentucky basketball history as a forgotten season. That's not a criticism so much as there aren't as many glaring items that stand out from this Kentucky team, which had an uncharacteristically "easy" path open to the Final Four, or so it seemed until Kansas State uglied their way to a shocking win against the 'Cats. This was a good team compared to the rest of the country, not a great team. There was P.J. Washington, and while he was very effective late in the year after early inconsistency, he was not sophomore P.J. Washington. There was the oft-injured Jarred Vanderbilt, the contributors like Quade Green, Wenyen Gabriel and Hamidou Diallo. Most of all, with the late-season Washington, there was the dangerous Kevin Knox and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who exceeded expectations as a one-and-done as much or more than any other Calipari player. But the pieces and the whole were not on the level of the higher-ranked squads here.
9. 2019-2020
Now we come to the Wildcats of this past season. This team had the look of Calipari's second-worst team after the first part of the season following an historically bad loss to Evansville and an 0-2 record in Las Vegas. But after that they buckled down and were nearly flawless the rest of the way. This was certainly not a dominant team. They never dominated a good opponent or maybe even an average opponent. There were stretches of impressive play followed by a leveling out and a lot of holding onto leads late. But wins are wins and had there been an NCAA Tournament, seed controversy aside, this would have been one of eight to 12 teams capable of cutting down nets. The backcourt was the team's strength, as expected, Immanuel Quickley stole the show en route to SEC POY honors. This season will be remember as the one without a tournament and the year of Quickley and Nick Richards breakthroughs. There is a segment of the Kentucky fan base that, while recognizing Calipari's achievements, pines for the days of seniors and getting attached to longer-term team projects. This team was maybe the closest thing to that under Calipari, with several players returning for year two (or three, in Richards' case) and persevering to break through even when some had written them off. But it was not a great offensive or defensive team. I found it tough to rank this team behind the '17-18 team that lost to Kansas State, but ultimately went with the team that had more solid contributors and just a tad more star power in SGA, Knox, and the later-season Washington.
10. 2015-2016
It's interesting that you could conceivably make a case for Tyler Ulis and Jamaal Murray as John Calipari's best Kentucky backcourt. There would be no universal agreement on that with Wall-Bledsoe, Knight-Lamb, Fox-Monk and others providing competition. But Ulis set the single-season assist record at Kentucky and also scored 30 points, for example, against Texas A&M in the SEC tournament championship. He was one of the most beloved UK players in modern times and for good reason. Pair him with the top scorer of the Calipari era in Murray, who averaged 20 but sometimes seemed to be averaging 30, and that was a dynamic duo. The problem is this team had very little after that. They lost to Indiana in the Round of 32 and were not balanced enough lacking a post game or good enough defensively to seriously contend for a title. With almost any other supporting cast or UK frontcourt, this team could have made a lot of noise.
11. 2012-2013
It goes without saying that Calipari's lone NIT team at Kentucky would bring in the rear and fans should hope that remains the case until he retires. The point guard position was a mess with Ryan Harrow not thriving on the stage and Archie Goodwin out of position. Julius Mays occupying a big role really says a lot about where this team was. It bears mentioning that had Nerlens Noel not been injured this team would have been a tournament team, but it was never going to be a contender and probably never more than a fringe Top-25 team for any stretch of time.
