LEXINGTON, Ky. — Contrary to the popular narrative among frustrated Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball fans, John Calipari is not resistant to all major changes.
In 2021-22, the coach known for popularizing the one-and-done phenomenon in men's college hoops fielded one of the most experienced rosters ever at Kentucky.
UK entered the just-completed season with players who had made a whopping 367 career college starts on its roster. As the 2021-22 season played out, Kentucky's top seven players featured two super-seniors, four juniors — and only one freshman.
On the surface, it made UK in terms of experience look very much like the teams that have consistently been winning the NCAA championship since 2016.
Yet rather than a Big Blue return to March Madness preeminence, the shift in approach by Calipari yielded the worst NCAA Tournament loss, by seeding, in Kentucky basketball history.
So what lessons are there to be drawn by the UK basketball brain trust — as well as Kentucky fans — from what happened to the Wildcats' roster of grizzled veterans?
The victory by Kansas over North Carolina in the 2022 NCAA championship game Monday night only reinforced the prevailing paradigm of what it takes to win it all in men's college hoops: Vets are where it is at.
Bill Self's title-winning Jayhawks were the sixth straight national champion built around a nucleus of highly experienced players.
— 2022: Kansas started two seniors, a junior and two redshirt sophomores.
— 2021: Baylor started a redshirt senior, a senior and three juniors.
— 2020: No tournament due to the coronavirus.
— 2019: Virginia started a redshirt junior, two juniors, a redshirt sophomore and a freshman.
— 2018: Villanova started three redshirt juniors, a junior and a redshirt freshman.
— 2017: North Carolina started two seniors and three juniors.
— 2016: Villanova started two seniors, two juniors and a freshman.
In this season's Final Four, 11 of the 20 players who started were juniors or seniors. Counting three redshirt sophomores, 14 of the 20 Final Four starters were in their third year of college or more.
Over the past six NCAA Tournaments, 82 of the 120 players who have started in the Final Four have been juniors and seniors. Add six redshirt sophomores, and 88 of the 120 starters in the final weekend have been in their third years of college or more.
Meanwhile, only 11 freshmen have started Final Four games since 2016. There were two frosh starters — Duke's Paolo Banchero and AJ Griffin — this past season.
So if, as is clearly true, old remains gold in the NCAA Tournament, why did Kentucky's most-experienced team in eons lose as a No. 2 seed in the round of 64 to No. 15-seed Saint Peter's?
In retrospect, Kentucky peaked in January. The UK team that smoked Tennessee in Rupp Arena, 107-79, on Jan. 15 and blew the doors off of Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse 80-62 on Jan. 29 was as good as anyone in college hoops.
Alas, that was not the Kentucky that played in March.
One wonders: Did having such a veteran team throw off the Calipari-era schedule of team progression that had been perfected for freshmen-heavy teams that needed a longer runway of development?
Though it is not what elements of a frustrated Big Blue Nation want to hear, bad luck primarily related to injuries is part of the explanation for UK's late-season fade.
Injuries in February sidelined Wildcats' starting guards Sahvir Wheeler (wrist) and TyTy Washington (lower leg) for two games each. Even after the duo returned, UK was never the same team.
However, it is also possible that the way Kentucky constructed its veteran roster undid some of the benefits that normally are reaped from having older players.
Of the two super-seniors and four juniors among UK's top seven players, five of the six were transfers who did not begin their careers at Kentucky. Only junior forward Keion Brooks among the Cats veteran nucleus had begun his college playing tenure in Kentucky blue.
Conversely, every one of the five starters for national champion Kansas had been in the Jayhawks' program at least three seasons (although massively valuable sixth man Remy Martin was a super-senior and graduate transfer from Arizona State).
With Thursday morning's announcement that Kentucky freshman forward Bryce Hopkins was joining redshirt sophomore swingman Dontaie Allen in the transfer portal, UK has now lost five players with remaining eligibility to transfer in the past three seasons.
For those players, maybe it is a fear of being recruited over. Or perhaps it is a belief that the Kentucky program is not built to reward those who stay with chances to play.
Whatever the reason, it is roster churn from guys leaving for other schools — and not the loss of one-and-dones to the NBA — that keeps UK and Calipari from organically building the kinds of veteran rosters that programs such as Villanova keep riding to Final Four trips.
