Kentucky Basketball: Takeaways from heartbreaking loss to Louisville

Changes are needed

The John Calipari offense has seen a lot of success throughout his tenure at UK. It has seen seven (of twelve) teams get to the Elite Eight or higher. From Karl Anthony-Towns to Willie Cauley-Stein, there has been an unheard-of amount of top talent to pass through his program.

Even with a similarly high recruiting class and another couple of graduate transfers to steady the boat, this team may be a bit different. This offensive style based mostly on beating people off the dribble and through isolation, may not work this time around.

We are now seven games in (1-6), which I believe is a big enough sample size to get a general feel for the team. It hasn’t worked so far and hasn’t even really been that close to working. Not counting their opening night win over Morehead State, they have failed to score 65 points in any game. Sixty-five. Not scoring 65 points in every game against a legitimate competitor warrant changing the scheme.

Kentucky’s defense has been a really pleasant surprise, being ranked 20th nationally in defensive efficiency. This may be one of the better defensive squads Calipari has had for a while. If this team can figure something out offensively, there is enough defense there to make some noise.

There is enough sample to say that if they do not change their system, this team is not going to be an NCAA tournament team.

As Albert Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”