Interesting stat

[STL_Cat]

It's 2 years...

Uk basketball has existed for over 100 years. Calipari has coached for 30. I get the disappointment and the frustration, but that you all have singled your entire life around 2 years is absurd...but there's also a trend of uk fans being forever miserable and that trend is real.

I'm going to push back on the 2 year stuff. I felt like the 2017-2018 UK team was one of the least enjoyable, least watchable teams we have had in years. 26-11, 10-8 in the SEC and a Sweet 16 loss to a bad K-State team. It's more than just 2 years.

 

[Blue63Madison]

You’ve been unbelievably spoiled in your lifetime. Not a criticism of you personally. But folks your age seem to have much higher expectations and get much more crushed when UK fails to meet them.

I’m 64 years old, which means I was born in 1958. UK went to one Final Four between then and the year I enrolled at UK, 1974. I saw the greatest player in UK history never play in a Final Four. I saw Bobby Knight and IU become the glamour program. Even Tennessee had the upper hand for a couple years when they had Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld.

UK of course won the championship in 1978, that was 20 years since its last one with only 2 Final Fours in that time. After that we watched IU win another title, Dean Smith finally break through, Georgetown become the hot program. UK seemed to be eclipsed for many more years, even with one Final Four in 1984.

This period included consecutive first game losses in 1981 and 1982 to Middle Tennessee and UAB. No they weren’t “15 seeds” because the tournament was only 48 teams. But they were huge upsets to minor conference teams. Very embarrassing. As bad as this loss to St. Peter’s. One of those teams included Sam Bowie. And just 2 years later UK with the same coach was back in the Final Four.

I lived through “Kentucky’s Shame” in 1989. Moved to the west coast for those 2 years and since UK was banned from TV, I had no idea what was happening at all. For two years. Had to watch Duke and UConn become the hot programs.

But UK returned to prominence. It always does.

The great thing about the BBN has always been that we know our history. Well, our history includes some looooooooong stretches when UK didn’t win anything. It includes some massive upsets. It includes an Elite 8 loss by a team that included Kenny Walker to a team UK beat three times. It includes times when other programs had undefeated seasons, got the top recruits, and had coaches who were considered the best in the game.

Just offering a little perspective for y’all.

Here’s some more perspective. We’ve had more first round NBA picks in the Cal era, than we had in the entire history of UK basketball before Cal. Yet it resulted in only one title, and here we are in a 7-year long downward spiral that could very possibly get worse next year. I’m fine with Cal sticking around to oversee recruiting, but we need someone to coach them.