Kentucky-Louisville Could Be Absolutely Fascinating

Typically the annual Louisville-Kentucky game is big news and it probably will be this year, but for very different reasons.

Louisville of course has had a dreadful season. Currently just 2-11, the proud program seems to have hit rock bottom. The offense is incoherent and the defense is erratic at best.

But Kentucky’s situation is also not good.

The Wildcats are now 8-4 and the fans are growing very unhappy with coach John Calipari.

Kentucky has always been a fishbowl but Calipari’s earlier successes kept it at bay.

The truth though is that despite Calipari’s tremendous recruiting, Kentucky fans are beginning to lose patience. UK hasn’t been to the Final Four since 2014-15 and the regular season records since 2016-17 have been 32-6, 26-11, 25-6, 9-16, 26-8 and, so far this year, 8-4.

As always, toss out the Covid year (9-16). Is it a disaster?

Clearly not.

But it is Kentucky, and the fans expect to win, to win big and to do it consistently.

And Calipari is clearly not doing that and last year’s loss to Saint Peter’s didn't help either.

So Kentucky enters this game with far more pressure than Louisville. Will that make a difference?

It might - and if UK loses this game, things are going to get very, very ugly.

• Is Kentucky’s John Calipari now the Jimbo Fisher of college basketball?
• UK Basketball: Coaches anonymously criticize John Calipari and offense
• Five Things Calipari Said About Kentucky Before The Louisville Game
• Anonymous coaches weigh in on John Calipari, Kentucky’s issues
• John Calipari Gives Hilariously Inflated Praise For Terrible Louisville Team
• John Calipari builds up Kenny Payne and the challenge of playing Louisville
• John Calipari offering few answers to solve Kentucky’s multitude of problems
• John Calipari Says It Has ‘Become Harder to Play at’ Kentucky
• Criticism continues to mount on John Calipari after Kentucky’s offense regresses in big spot against UCLA