From 2009-2017, John Calipari and Kentucky were as dynamic and dominant a pairing as any in college hoops. In that span Kentucky logged more wins than any team in the sport and amassed a 249-53 overall record with five SEC regular season, five SEC Tournament titles, four Final Four appearances, a national runner-up finish and an NCAA championship.
The last six seasons and change have been anything but dominant since.
By normal college program standards, Kentucky has been very good since the start of the 2017 up until the present day, with 132 wins in that time frame -- 18th most among all men's basketball teams. But Kentucky is not a normal college basketball program and its fans, fair or not, do not have expectations of a normal fanbase. Amassing fewer wins since 2017 than Texas Tech and Auburn, among many others, is not the standard.
Ultimately, total wins matters very little if you're producing in the postseason, but that has been scarce of late, too. Kentucky has zero Final Four appearances since 2015 and the steady crescendo of March Madness embarrassment in recent years has exacerbated things. A coach might be forgiven by the Big Blue in most circumstances, but not now after coming off consecutive disappointing postseason finishes in 2022 and 2023 -- one that ended with a loss to 15-seed Saint Peter's and the other (a second round loss to Providence) that extended its second-weekend NCAA Tournament drought to three seasons. (Both of which, by the way, preceded a 9-16 nightmare season.)
UK's loss to Gonzaga at home on Saturday felt like another low point in what has been a slow spiral of sadness in Lexington. It was historic to boot, as it gave Kentucky its first three-game home losing streak since before Rupp Arena was even built in the late 1960s. Fittingly, Kentucky is the lead item of our weekly report card this week. -- with a predictable 'F' heading its way. The Wildcats still have the future NBA talent to catch lightning in a bottle and make a run in March, but it has not performed this season like one of the most talented teams in the sport, and another disappointing tourney exit at this point seems imminent.
The rest of this week's grades are below. As always, the grades are handed out based on the week that was, running from Monday-Sunday.
College basketball grades: This week's report card
| Team | Grade | Analysis | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Arizona | A+ | Arizona gets one of two A+ grades on the week after outperforming expectations and overachieving given its circumstances. The Wildcats outlasted Utah *at* Utah on Thursday in triple-OT, then turned around and won *at* Colorado two days later -- 99-79 -- despite entering both games (understandably) as the underdog. |
 | Purdue | A+ | Purdue only played one game this week but it made the most of it with a dominant 79-59 win over Indiana at home. The Boilermakers got up so big they gave big man Zach Edey the green light to shoot wherever, and he obliged by hitting his first 3-pointer of his college career. Purdue is a wagon. |
 | Saint Mary's | A | No team outside of Gonzaga has dominated the WCC the way Saint Mary's is right now. The Gaels improved to 11-0 in league play this week with wins over Pacific and Portland by 41 and 25 points, respectively. This might be the most fearsome defensive team in all of college basketball. |
 | UConn | A | No one is touching UConn in the Big East right now. It went 2-0 again this week with cushy wins over Butler and Georgetown to remain 2.5 games up on Marquette in the conference regular season race. This team is looking like the clear favorite to win the title ... again. |
 | Gonzaga | B+ | It's been a down year for Gonzaga by its own standards but it enjoyed a big week with a 32 point win over Portland and a four point win over Kentucky in Rupp to bolster its NCAA Tournament bonafides. Work to be done, but the Zags are looking good enough to get into the Big Dance -- if they can get a body of work worthy of inclusion. |
 | Kansas | C+ | A 1-1 week in the Big 12 is good for most teams, but not quite good enough for Kansas, which lost in OT to rival Kansas State before barely holding off Baylor in Lawrence over the weekend. Health has not been kind to some its lineup, but KU still just has not looked like the class of the Big 12 like most years. |
 | Tennessee | D | I'm writing off the mid-week win over LSU entirely and handing Tennessee a 'D' for its embarrassing showing Saturday in Aggieland. Texas A&M led by as many as 22 (!) over the Vols before winning by 16. That's unacceptable for a top-10 team. |
 | Kentucky | F | With three losses in its last four outings, Kentucky is quickly becoming an afterthought in the SEC and beyond. A fully healthy lineup might help, but that still has not happened 23 games into the season. |
 | Wisconsin | F | Things have gone from bad to worse for Wisconsin as its losing streak reached four games this week with losses to lowly Michigan and Rutgers. Both came on the road so maybe the Badgers deserve some lenience, but they've not earned it after a rough few weeks. |
 | Oklahoma State | F | It says a lot about the state of affairs at Oklahoma State that West Virginia lost to Texas by 36 over the weekend and yet the Mountaineers remain only the second-worst team in the Big 12. The only good news about OSU's Bedlam loss on Saturday was that it meant we're one game closer to the season being over. Yuck. |
 | Missouri | F | Missouri's losing streak moved to 11 games with losses this week to Texas A&M and Mississippi State by a combined 43 points. Mizzou and DePaul are the only two teams in the Power 6 structure to not have a win in league play. |
 | USC | F | Freshman star Isaiah Collier returned for USC this week, but the Trojans still had a miserable two games with losses to Cal and Stanford. Stanford hit 19 3s on USC to bury the game early. |
