‘Woefully inexperienced’ Kentucky shows freshmen alone need help, analyst says
While watching Kentucky and Duke lose games this early season, a thought came to ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla’s mind: John Calipari and Mike Krzyzewski need to tweak the formula based on one-and-done players that brought their programs so much success in the last decade.
Fraschilla concluded that programs like UK and Duke need to not rely solely on freshman stars, but complement them with veteran players.
“The one-and-done philosophy may be running its course” at Kentucky and Duke, Fraschilla tweeted Wednesday morning. “With the transfer market about to explode, it may be time for both, like everyone else, to get older. . . . Duke will always take a Zion-like talent, but waiting for the next one? Good luck!”
In a follow-up phone call, Fraschilla said transcendent freshmen like Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis come along about once a decade. Minus such a first-year star, even UK and Duke cannot rely solely on celebrated freshmen. The ESPN analyst noted how even with Davis, Kentucky won the 2012 national championship with the help of experienced teammates like Darius Miller, Doron Lamb and Terrence Jones.
Beginning on Aug. 1, the NCAA is expected to allow players to transfer one time without having to sit out a season. And because of the coronavirus pandemic, all players can get an extra year of eligibility. So, more experienced talent than ever appears to soon be available.
Fraschilla likes to say the job description for coaches is changing in terms of team building. “Coaches are no longer recruiters only,” he said. “They are roster management supervisors.”
The ESPN analyst cited Richmond’s victory over Kentucky on Sunday as a prime example of this point.
“Sunday was a perfect example of what happens when a low-to-high major team plays against a very talented, but woefully inexperienced high-major team,” Fraschilla said. “Anybody who didn’t see this coming is not following basketball.”
Perhaps less dramatically, Fraschilla saw his opinion reinforced Tuesday night in the Champions Classic when more experienced Kansas and Michigan State defeated Kentucky and Duke.
As he envisioned a brave new world of player movement, Fraschilla said he could see, say, a sophomore who had established himself as one of the Big Ten’s better players wanting to move to Kentucky or Duke.
“They are way more apt to take that kid as an immediately eligible transfer than they were five or 10 years ago when they were trying to get one-and-done guys,” Fraschilla said of UK and Duke. “They’ll still recruit one-and-done guys. But these coaches are smart enough to know they need to get old quickly.”
Or perhaps a future Phil Cox or Barry Goheen will star for, say, Vanderbilt, then want to complete their college careers at Kentucky, Fraschilla said. Of such native Kentuckians, he added, “You’re kind of obligated to take a kid like that to make the program better.”
Louisville added graduate transfer Carlik Jones, who will be one of the three best point guards in the ACC, Fraschilla said. Jones had played for Radford.
“You can no longer build a college basketball program the way we saw it done under Joe B. Hall and Dean Smith and Bob Knight where you take freshmen and you cultivate them,” Fraschilla said.
Some Kentucky fans have lamented the evolution to dependence on one-and-done players entering and exiting in a year. When asked if even more entering and exiting would be good for the game, Fraschilla said, “The last person a coach wants to please is the fan because if they try to please the fans, they’re going to end up sitting with the fans.”
When an increasing number of players began transferring, former Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith frowned on the change. He wondered aloud about the loss of loyalty to programs that cultivated such players.
Said Fraschilla: “Seriously, you couldn’t find loyalty in the dictionary with anybody associated with the NCAA as a player, coach or administrator.”
So, the prevailing motivation is merely what is beneficial at the moment?
“Correct,” Fraschilla said.
Even with this season’s inexperienced team, Kentucky will not suffer, Fraschilla said. He saw UK being favored in 75 percent of its remaining regular-season games.
But so-called mid-major programs could be hurt by losing an ever-growing number of blossoming players to higher-profile teams.
“Hopefully, kids not playing much at the high-major level will filter back down to the mid-majors,” Fraschilla said. “But what we’ve seen in the last five or 10 years is mid-majors are basically a farm system for the high majors.”
Next game
No. 20 Kentucky vs. Georgia Tech
What: Holiday Hoopsgiving
Where: State Farm Arena in Atlanta
When: 5 p.m. Sunday
TV: ESPN
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Series: Kentucky leads 56-15
Last meeting: Kentucky won 67-53 on Dec. 14, 2019, in Rupp Arena
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 7:23 AM.
