John Calipari once told the college basketball world that they’re going to hate Kentucky, “Because I go into your town and beat your team.” His resume on the road was not what made the Wildcats one of the most feared teams in all of college basketball.

The day after Kentucky suffered a home loss to Georgia, just the fifth time the Bulldogs have won in Lexington since 1925, Big Blue Nation is dissecting the many problems with Mark Pope‘s second team. Substitution patterns, three-point defense, and free throw shooting are at the top of the list of grievances. While those matter in the here and now, there is a big one that hangs over the program.

Rupp Arena is a colossal venue where opponents’ dreams go to die. That’s what it’s supposed to be, at least.

When all is right in the world of Kentucky basketball team, a bubble team’s NCAA Tournament hopes are dashed, not reinvigorated. I don’t care about any of the hand-wringing over the Rupp Arena atmosphere. It’s irrelevant. Kentucky is supposed to hold serve on its home court, no matter how good or bad the team may be. That’s not been the case since the pandemic.

Home Losses Stack Up for Kentucky

John Calipari won his first 54 games at Rupp Arena. Kentucky did not lose a home game until his fourth season in Lexington, and it happened with a team that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament. Calipari posted a 249-26 record at Rupp during his 15-year tenure. Fourteen of those losses, more than half, happened over his final four seasons. That includes the undefeated 2022 campaign, one of his six undefeated seasons at Rupp Arena. Allow me to share a few more woeful numbers:

— Losses to Unranked Teams at Rupp Arena from 2010-20: 6
— Losses to Unranked Teams at Rupp Arena from 2021-26: 14

If you’d like to remove the five losses during the abysmal Covid year, fine. But then you should probably include the exhibition loss to Georgetown, too.

Before the pandemic, Calipari’s worst team only lost two games at home. They’re now averaging more than three home losses a year, with 70% of those coming to unranked teams.

You Must Hold Serve at Home

I apologize. I threw a bunch of numbers at you. If you like numbers, there are even more, but that distracts from the main point.

Football fans grew weary of Mark Stoops for a myriad of reasons, but one of the biggest reasons why he’s no longer the coach is that he couldn’t deliver wins to season ticket holders. Kentucky went more than two years without a home win over an SEC opponent in an 11-game losing streak. Winning at home matters in every sport, but even more so in this one.

There is no greater home court advantage in all of sports than college basketball. You see it every night in this sport, whether it’s NC State beating North Carolina like a drum or Kansas handing Arizona its first loss of the season. Winning on the road is hard. It should be even harder when you’re playing at Kentucky. That has not been the case for the last six seasons. Mark Pope must address a lot of problems with this program, but this should be one of the easiest to fix.