John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats are back in ESPN’s Top 25

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It’s been quite a whirlwind year for John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats.

Kentucky finished last season with a respectable 22-12 record and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where as a six seed they were set down by three seed Kansas State, 75-69.

Since then, however, most of the conversation has been about players departing the program, including Oscar Tshiebwe and Chris Livingston both remaining in the NBA draft, while key rotation players Sahvir Wheeler and CJ Fredrick hit the transfer portal.

In fact until recently Kentucky had just seven confirmed scholarship players, five who were incoming…