Following the Billy Gillespie era, Kentucky fans were in desperate need of entertaining basketball and that is exactly what John Calipari provided in his first season as Kentucky’s head coach.
Bringing in the No. 1 recruiting class, headlined by DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall, the Wildcats assumed the No. 1 ranking for the first time since the 2002-03 season. Over the course of that year, the Wildcats were dominant, winning the SEC regular season title and SEC Tournament Championship, and never dropped out of the top 5 in the AP poll.
As fun as that season was for fans – despite being upset in the Elite Eight by West Virginia – the season was just as fun for the players. In an interview with Kevin Garnett, Demarcus Cousins went into detail about that year and his Wildcat experience.
“That’s the most fun I have ever had playing basketball,” Cousins said of his time at Kentucky. “It was about basketball. There wasn’t no politics. There wasn’t no bulls***. The team, it was a vibe, it was a brotherhood. I knew my guy had my back, he knew I had his back. It was never cloudy. There was never, no grey area. It was always black and white.”
What was your favorite Cousins moment at Kentucky? Here’s the memorable “call me” game at Mississippi State.
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