Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Louisville are all bucking a college basketball norm this season

The men’s college basketball teams at Kentucky, Louisville and Vanderbilt all have something in common besides proximity.

All three are the exception to what was once considered a long-standing basketball rule: You can’t start over with a brand new roster and experience success.

Yet all three are experiencing plenty of success. Ranked No. 9 in the latest AP Top 25, Kentucky is 14-4 overall, 3-2 in the SEC, with five wins over top-15 teams. Ranked 25th, Louisville is 15-5 overall, 8-1 in the ACC, and riding a nine-game winning streak. After going 9-23 last season, Vanderbilt is 15-4 overall and 3-3 in the SEC with a win over sixth-ranked Tennessee.

Not one of the three returned a single scholarship player from last season. The Kentucky roster has nine transfers and three freshmen. Vanderbilt has 11 transfers and one freshman. Louisville has 12 transfers and one freshman.

That’s not usually a recipe for victories. In fact, CBS Sports college basketball analyst Gary Parrish left Kentucky out of his preseason top 25 for that very reason.

“Kentucky is not in my top 25 — but is in my top 35. So I’d probably guess something like a 7 or 8 seed (in the NCAA Tournament),” Parrish told the Herald-Leader’s Ben Roberts back in November. “Obviously, there was no better way for Mark to remake the roster than by grabbing as many good transfers as he could get. And he did well. But recent history shows teams built this way — with seven or more transfers in one offseason — are rarely good.”

Yet Kentucky, Louisville and Vanderbilt — plus others — are good.

“I haven’t jumped into a deep study on that,” Pope said Thursday as his Wildcats prepared to play Vanderbilt in Nashville on Saturday. “I do think that it’s something everybody is going to pay more and more attention about, about a full roster reconstruction. Because even with good teams, you’ll have turnover and on any given year. Certainly in the current environment, you can end up with a full rebuild.”

That was the situation former James Madison coach Mark Byington found when he replaced Jerry Stackhouse at Vanderbilt last March. Nine Commodores hit the portal. Byington quickly assembled a roster that has produced Vandy’s best start since 2007-08.

“What an unbelievable job that staff has done constructing this team and putting together pieces that fit and having guys fully buy in,” Pope said. “They’re playing incredibly hard, and they have some real joy and moxie and toughness in their game. And you know, as a full reconstruct, that’s really impressive.”

Same for Pat Kelsey at Louisville. The former College of Charleston coach inherited zero holdovers from Kenny Payne, fired after 12 wins in two seasons. Despite injuries to key additions — Kasean Pryor and Koren Johnson — the Cardinals are tied for second place in the ACC behind Duke.

Other rebuilds are flourishing. No. 17 Illinois is 13-5 overall and 5-3 in the Big Ten despite being No. 344 in KenPom’s continuity rankings. New coach Dusty May has No. 21 Michigan at 14-4 overall and 6-1 in the Big Ten despite inheriting only three players. West Virginia is 13-5 overall and 4-3 in the Big 12 for new coach Darian DeVries, who brought in eight transfers.

And watch out for USC. Eric Musselman took a pair of transfer-filled Arkansas rosters to the Elite Eight. He has USC at 12-7 overall and 4-4 in the Big Ten with 11 transfers. The Trojans have won three of their last four games.

So one thing we have learned this season: A quick and successful rebuild can be done.

“We try to find character,” said Byington after the upset of Tennessee. “We try to find competitive guys, and they had to make winning number one. Right now in the NIL days, where some guys want stats — they feel like stats are more money — that wasn’t going to fit with our mission and our team. . . . But the guys have completely bought in to what we’re trying to do.”

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