Before the arrival of John Calipari following the 2009 season, Kentucky basketball was going through a bit of a rough patch.
The Wildcats hadn’t made it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2005, but most notably, Kentucky’s dominance in the SEC Tournament had all but disappeared.
After Chuck Hayes beat LSU with a last-second bucket in the semifinal round of 2005, Kentucky would go 4-5 in their next nine games at the SEC Tournament. In three of the next four seasons, the Wildcats would not earn a first-round bye and only once advanced to the semifinals.