Kentucky puts Big Blue nation out of its misery with SEC Tourney loss

Donovan Dooley|published: Thu 11th March, 15:04 2021

John Calipari remembers what it’s like to coach a bad basketball team. source: Getty Images

Mississippi State ended Big Blue nation’s hope of a tourney run this season after Iverson Molinar hit two clutch free throws to give the Bulldogs the 74-73 win over Kentucky.

This play right here basically sums up what Mississippi State did to the tournament hopes of John Calipari and the Wildcats.

Kentucky finished its season as one of the worst basketball teams to ever lace it up in Lexington. This squad finished with a 9-16 record and went 8-9 in conference play. Kentucky hasn’t finished a season under .500 since 1989.

Often this season looked like they would have been better off with Michael Scott from the office in their backcourt.

There is no debating that this was a very uncharacteristic year from Big Blue. Many will blame the distractions of COVID combined with so much young talent for Kentucky’s demise, but honestly, if you look at the roster that Calipari had this year, it just wasn’t good enough to play up to the standard that Kentucky basketball has created.

This will be very interesting for the program moving forward. Kentucky has grown accustomed to talented freshmen leaving them after one season and refueling every season. But what will happen now that most of these young players will likely return for another season in Lexington and become teammates with another stellar recruiting class?

Maybe Kentucky will be back better than ever next year once they combine experience with better young talent. But when historians look back on this season, they’ll remember a Kentucky team that just could never figure it out.