Although it is now confirmed that John Calipari will lead Kentucky in 2024–2025—who will be on his team and who will be selected in this summer’s NBA Draft?
For Year 16, John Calipari will return to Kentucky. Tuesday night, following a discussion with the head coach of his men’s basketball program, Mitch Barnhart made it very evident. However certain the school’s athletic director may seem about Coach Cal’s plans for Kentucky basketball, things are already heated and will only become hotter.
Calipari might already be gone if it weren’t for a $33 million buyout, but Barnhart must accept the 65-year-old when he says he is making changes to his roster building. College basketball became significantly older, almost suddenly, as a result of a surge of veterans with COVID eligibility who took advantage of NIL monies and the transfer portal to bring an end to the one-and-done era.However, Calipari, the best one-and-done head coach, assembled his 2023–24 team with four sophomores and eight freshmen, and it collapsed miserably in the NCAA Tournament’s opening round. The fact that the greatest players from this year’s team are leaving is the worst news for Kentucky. Not just Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves will not return to the Wildcats for the upcoming season due to their eligibility issues.
After a dismal rookie season, Wagner isn’t going to the NBA, but he might not go back to Kentucky either. Even though the former five-star shot 40.5% from the field and less than 30% from three, he started ahead of Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham.
At the beginning of games, it was so evident that Kentucky was frantic to get Sheppard on the court and Wagner on the bench, but Calipari persisted in putting his name in the starting lineup and giving the opposition a lead. Although I think Wagner has the potential to become a good college basketball starting point guard and that Cal’s too complimentary evaluation of his play may be the reason he stays in Lexington, it seems like
