Yes, UK is young, but not as young as many of Calipari’s teams. How much will it matter?

Even for John Calipari — a college basketball coach synonymous with freshman talent and a pioneer of the one-and-done model — this Kentucky basketball team about to embark on its NCAA Tournament journey is inexperienced.

Sure, the Wildcats have played 32 college basketball games this season against a top-level schedule. UK has been together longer than normal as well, given the Cats’ participation in last summer’s GLOBL JAM event in Canada.

But Kentucky — which only recently reached full strength as a roster — still has precious little experience in the one-and-done environment of the NCAA Tournament entering Thursday night’s round-of-64 matchup with Oakland (23-11).

Eight of UK’s 12 scholarship players this season are freshmen: Aaron Bradshaw, Jordan Burks, Rob Dillingham, Justin Edwards, Joey Hart, Zvonimir Ivisic, Reed Sheppard and D.J. Wagner.

Entering this season, Kentucky had a combined 7,101 minutes of Division I college basketball experience between sophomores Adou Thiero and Ugonna Onyenso, and fifth-years Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves.

These four players have combined for five past appearances in NCAA Tournament games.

Thiero played a total of three minutes across UK’s two NCAA Tournament games last season. Onyenso didn’t play in either.

Mitchell had 13 points, six rebounds and played all 40 minutes for West Virginia last year in an NCAA Tournament round-of-64 loss to Maryland. Reeves led UK with 22 points in last year’s first-round win over Providence. Then in the round of 32, he produced an infamous 1-for-15 shooting performance as Kentucky lost to Kansas State.

Calipari has often said this group of Wildcats is the youngest team in college basketball. While that’s not quite right, these Wildcats are still plenty young, and plenty green, with a defensively porous SEC Tournament loss to Texas A&M serving as their only taste of win-or-go-home basketball before Thursday’s March Madness opener.

What can UK’s past history under Calipari tell us about what the Wildcats might do in this year’s NCAA Tournament?

Kentucky basketball’s yearly experience, performance under John Calipari

Here’s a look at each of Calipari’s teams at Kentucky (starting with the 2009-10 season) and their average NCAA Division I experience (per KenPom), final record and NCAA Tournament performance.

▪ 2009-10: Average D-I experience of 1.12 years (278th in nation), 35-3 record, lost in NCAA Tournament regional finals.

▪ 2010-11: Average D-I experience of 0.83 years (324th in nation), 29-9 record, lost in NCAA Tournament national semifinals.

▪ 2011-12: Average D-I experience of 1.18 years (238th in nation), 38-2 record, won national championship.

▪ 2012-13: Average D-I experience of 0.94 years (297th in nation), 21-12 record, no NCAA Tournament appearance.

▪ 2013-14: Average D-I experience of 0.42 years (345th in nation), 29-11 record, lost in NCAA Tournament national finals.

▪ 2014-15: Average D-I experience of 1.04 years (291st in nation), 38-1 record, lost in NCAA Tournament national semifinals.

▪ 2015-16: Average D-I experience of 0.77 years (323rd in nation), 27-9 record, lost in NCAA Tournament second round.

▪ 2016-17: Average D-I experience of 0.63 years (341st in nation), 32-6 record, lost in NCAA Tournament regional finals.

▪ 2017-18: Average D-I experience of 0.21 years (351st in nation), 26-11 record, lost in NCAA Tournament regional semifinals.

▪ 2018-19: Average D-I experience of 1.03 years (298th in nation), 30-7 record, lost in NCAA Tournament regional finals.

▪ 2019-20: Average D-I experience of 1.12 years (284th in nation), 25-6 record, no NCAA Tournament held.

▪ 2020-21: Average D-I experience of 1.19 years (264th in nation), 9-16 record, no NCAA Tournament appearance.

▪ 2021-22: Average D-I experience of 1.87 years (186th in nation), 26-8 record, lost in NCAA Tournament first round.

▪ 2022-23: Average D-I experience of 2.23 years (118th in nation), 22-12 record, lost in NCAA Tournament second round.

▪ 2023-24: Average D-I experience of 1.75 years (197th in nation), 23-9 record, No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Some notable data points from this sample:

▪ Kentucky’s clear-cut most experienced team in the Calipari era was last year’s squad, which sputtered for most of the season and won only one postseason game.

▪ Kentucky’s least experienced team (per KenPom) of the last 17 seasons (the 2017-18 team), reached the Sweet 16 as a No. 5 seed.

▪ That 2017-18 team was also the last UK squad to have an average Division I experience mark of less than one year.

While experience doesn’t guarantee a national championship, more often than not there’s a connection between having experience and enjoying March Madness success.

Since the 2006-07 season, 13 of the 16 NCAA champions ranked in the top 150 nationally in KenPom’s average Division I experience statistic.

Each of the last three NCAA champions (Baylor in 2021, Kansas in 2022 and UConn in 2023) averaged more than two years of Division I experience on their rosters.

With that said, outliers also exist.

UConn (282nd) in 2011, Kentucky (238th) in 2012 and Duke (235th) in 2015 are all examples of national champions that ranked in the bottom half of the country in Division I experience during their title-winning runs.

This story was originally published March 19, 2024 at 10:00 AM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription