Tennessee, Arkansas, S. Carolina & Kentucky
- Thread starter Random UK Fan
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Rivals has him at 10, but 247 has him at 19th. ESPN has him at 15th. He’s a borderline 5* with some services putting him in 4* status. That’s not good when you're counting on him to be your featured pg.
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Either way, he’s not expected to be a game changer. Richmond and Knox are 4 stars. This is Cal's worst class by far. It was okay when he had Somto and Quaintance, but they aren't guards and unless you have elite guards, you won't win shit. Cal without ultra elite guards, is a recipe for disaster.
If he can get Wagner, I would feel better about Arkansas, but even then, that backcourt will be a poor shooting one and also, he doesn't have a true center on the roster. Big Z is a stretch 5 that doesn't hit 3's enough to stretch a defense.
Not exactly, your position on Cal at UK is pretty much as you see it. However, we both know that Cal knows how to coach when he is correctly motivated and I think walking away from UK's 30 mil will properly motivate him. I think he will be out for blood.
Arkansas is now my 2nd favorite team in the SEC. The fans are great.
There's now more Akansas fans in Memphis than UT fans. I'd say UT is a distant 4th behind Memphis, Ole Miss Arkansas. So many ppl hated Calipari at UK, but now love him and Arkansas. They tend to flip flop down here. The only constant is they hate UK and it's mostly all they talk about.
*Makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Granted I work in a heavy competitive place with nothing but alpha males. They will talk shit, just to talk shit.
There's now more Akansas fans in Memphis than UT fans. I'd say UT is a distant 4th behind Memphis, Ole Miss Arkansas. So many ppl hated Calipari at UK, but now love him and Arkansas. They tend to flip flop down here. The only constant is they hate UK and it's mostly all they talk about.
*Makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Granted I work in a heavy competitive place with nothing but alpha males. They will talk shit, just to talk shit.
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I’ll be watching Arkansas in my periphery this season, and the burden is on Cal to prove he still “has it”. Until then he’s only as good as his last few seasons.
He can be motivated all he wants, but until he changes his narcissistic mindset, figures out how to coach a real offense, figures out how to coach a real defense and most importantly, prioritizes team goals over individual goals (won't happen), his results will remain the same.
Take a look at the teams Cal has had that had success, see anything in common? Does this Arkansas team resemble any of those teams?
I can be motivated to be an NBA all star all I want, but I'm not going to sprout 8", improve my vertical and shave 20 years off my age. I'm still just going to be this great looking guy hanging out in NKY with no NBA contract.
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As you know, I have always spoken highly of Cal. I think he is going to come out strong at Arky. When we thought he was coaching at UK next year I said I thought he pull it together there too.
He just lost 10 games with 2 lottery picks and at least 3 other guys that are going to play in the NBA.
He went 9-16 with a squad that had 3 NBA players on it.
He lost 11 games in 2018 with a team that had 7 NBA players on it, one of those players is Shae Gilgeous Alexander.
Those teams had far more talent than he will have at Arkansas this year.
He knew if he put Dillingham, Reeves, Sheppard, Big Z and Adou Thiero on the floor, he had a team that would score on anybody, just ask Alabama, but Cal refused to play that line-up. If he did that, it meant Edwards and DJ had to sit. Name another coach that does that.
This season at Arkansas, Fland and Knox are going to play no matter what. If they suck, they're still going to play. He is not going to change that.
If Cal wanted to, he could kill it in college, but to him, individual accomplishments and goals are more important. His last three years were do or die and he knew it. You could see the stress on his face every game, but it wasn't enough for him to change and if you have to make promises to sign these top 10 kids, then what's the point?
You say you don’t care about NBA talent, yet you’re judging teams by the number of NBA players. You said last year’s team was too young to play defense or go far in the tourney…now it was a huge coaching failure. And you say all the time that many of these OADs barely scratch the surface of their potential…but now the 2018 team was polished and SGA was in the same galaxy of player he is now?
If Arkansas lands Wagner and one more solid piece, this would be one of his most talented teams in recent years. Definitely not the least.
It doesn't take a genius to understand why I'm talking about NBA players. Anytime you’re talking about a calipari coached team, it's about NBA talent and he struggles even when he has legit top end NBA talent.
The comparison I made, was to show that this team has less talent than any other team Cal has had.
Calipari needs top shelf ultra elite blue chip talent to win. He needs the perfect storm, the 24/25 version of Arkansas is a massive step down compared to what Cal has had and what he needs.
I didn’t think I had to explain this, but I forgot, you're here.
Couldn’t win one SECT game, or beat Oakland with TWO top 4 picks.
It's crazy he only has 1 title with the massive amount of incredible players he has had the last 20 years.
Two top 4 picks "off the bench".
Yes, “Calipari needs 10 NBA players to win, blah blah…” You get that you’re still judging the talent of the team based on perceived NBA talent, right?
Meanwhile, Pope apparently needs zero NBA talent to win, even though he’s never proven he can win with anything.
Davis may never sniff the NBA, but he’s an elite college talent. Aidoo is a very good college player, Thiero, etc.
To act like this will be a worse combination of talent/experience than 2021, or even 2018, is hilarious, especially if he lands Wagner.
Yet when others would say this, you’d lecture for 5 pages about potential vs college production. 😆
There were a lot of UK fans who never liked Calipari.UMass, Memphis, looking for a reason at UK, and now Arkansas. I'm not lumping Jeff into that group, but they know who they are. It even included some media talking heads.
*Matt Jones and Kyle Tucker were the absolute worst. They trashed him prior, then trashed him when he wouldn't give any more interviews. They dogged Jerry Tipton for years and became 10x worse over their feelings. Now they're like CNN and Trump, they can't stop talking about him. Their hurt vagina brings them the most clicks. I wouldn't be surprised if Pope cuts them off as well if they use soundbites out of context for clicks.
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Oh, so now we're comparing Cal to Pope. Okay, we can do that, but shouldn't we give Pope a fighting chance? How do you think Cal would do at Mormon-U with zero high end talent? Pope stayed ranked all year and had a far better defense. His staff is better too.
As I've said previously, Pope will be coaching for UK, he runs a great offense and he switches defenses. He will also get really good players at UK, not rental players, good players that he can develop. By doing those things, he has my full support. He’s going to lose games, but it won't be because he was prioritizing individual goals and accomplishments.
If you want to compare rosters, to me, it's a no brainer. Give me the squad that has 3 defensive killers and a team full of upperclassmen that have actual college accomplishments over another, lower rated, box-of-chocolate young guys that have accomplished nothing. Davis is great, but nobody else on that Arkansas roster has accomplished a damn thing and the HS kids he has coming in, are projects. I'm just glad that roster isn’t going to be wearing UK jerseys, it isn’t even half as stacked as the roster we just had that Cal lost 10 games with.
So you're saying you prefer Arkansas' roster and you think Arkansas is going to finish ahead of UK? Shoot your shot and let’s put some skin on it.
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It's clear you're evaluating Kentucky's players through a different lens. "Davis is great, but nobody else on that Arkansas roster has accomplished a damn thing." Aidoo averaged 11.4 and 7 last year on a top team. And I'm pretty sure you guys liked Thiero and wanted Z back. Even if Davis is the only truly elite player...so what? Who are all these elite players on Kentucky's roster?
I'm not going to pretend to know exactly how it's going to shake out, considering both teams started from nothing and aren't finished. Why would I make a prediction now? That's what's weird about being so adamant that Arkansas won't be good. Dude's got 7 players. He's clearly going to have more than 7 when the first game is played. So far every player he's added has been a highly-rated transfer or top 20ish freshman. He's probably done adding freshmen, so the most likely scenario is he adds a couple more solid transfers. Which would leave him with a good mix of talent/experience.
Btw, keep in mind that even though continuity will be an issue for both rosters, it'll probably be less of one for Calipari. He might have three guys who played together last year (Thiero, Z and Wagner).
If I had to bet today, I'd probably bet on Arkansas having the better year.
First of all, continuity is going to be an issue for everybody, including Kansas, so it's not just UK and Arkansas that have to integrate new players. Hell, 2 of the FF teams this season (Alabama and NCST) were built almost entirely out of transfers, so your concern is really nothing but UK hate, surprise surprise.
As far as stars, again, that’s what Cal needs. This isn’t about UK. I like UK's roster, because Pope runs a system with team goals in mind, Pope will put his best team on the floor, Cal puts guys on the floor with the draft in mind. He runs an outdated, archaic offense that requires extreme talent and athletesism to win.
As far as Aidoo, Ado and Z, you obviously don't know your ass from a hole in the ground, those guys are role players. Big Z had 1 good game, Ado is a good rebounder and decent defender, but he can’t shoot, Aidoo is not a shooter, he’s another good rebounder and put-back guy, but he is not a guy that you run your offense through. Davis is the only legit talent Cal has and Cal's outdated offense and simple defense is going to get exposed.
I'm ready to put some skin on this, lets go, let's do an avatar bet on this. I'm betting UK has a better season and finishes ahead of Arkansas. Keep in mind, Pope is still going to sign 3 more guys, Lanier, Wooga Poplar and Jaxson Robinson are all on the table.
I have a great avatar all picked out for you, this is easy money.
This would be like if I responded to your ramblings about freshmen with "everyone has freshmen." Yeah, no kidding everyone has to integrate new players. But not an entire roster. I had no idea it would be controversial to claim that continuity is kind of important in CBB. 😆
LOL. When did I say they weren't role players? Now how many of Kentucky's players would you say are not role players? How many can go get you 20 on any given day?
I really don't care that much about it, but if you insist on betting, I might later on. No use in betting when Calipari has 7 scholarship players. Reminds me of last year when lurker insisted on a bet and then KU lost two players and Kentucky gained like six. It would be pretty foolish to bet on anything when there are still 7 billion players in the portal and there will be players pulling out of the draft.
Besides rooting for KU, the Royals, and the Chiefs? I can't think of anything.
You’re throwing shit against a wall hoping to knock UK down while standing in a slightly smaller puddle of piss. Your UK hate is so freaking obvious.
KU has what, 3 returners? None of which are all that great, KU has a bunch of new players they have to integrate in, so Bill Self has the same issue.
But I tell you what, I would rather integrate a bunch of 4th and 5th year seniors, than try and do it with freshmen. That’s what Cal will be doing and these kids aren't polished Jamal Murray/Tyrese Maxey type kids, they're closer to Kevin Knox, and Jared Vanderbilt level.
But again, 2 of this year's 4 FF teams were almost completely built out of the transfer portal, so I really don't think your put-down has legs here.
LOL, you literally argued with me just a few posts ago when I said Arkansas roster is mostly built out of role players. You stated that Aidoo scored 11.4 ppg and Z and Ado were well liked by UK fans (not sure why this was your argument on how these guys are not role players, but I'm not surprised, this is what you do). Now you're denying it. Awesome.
Now, again, I have to repeat myself. Pope is not the one that needs 20ppg scorers, Cal is the one that needs a team full of stars, which he just had and failed with.
However, Brea, Carr and Lamont Butler can all get 20 in a game, but again, why is that a requirement? BYU was the 14th most efficient offense last season, did Pope have a bunch of 20ppg scorers? No, but Cal had at least 5 guys that could get him 20, how did he do?
But you do care, you keep trying to argue with me about it, so, put your money where your mouth is.
So many things, but you can start with the fact that he hates UK and he will contradict himself for days on end, just to keep an argument going and he'll twist everything you say just to fit his UK hate agenda.
Other than that, he’s alright, I think.
So, he has a tiny pecker?
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He’s a KU fan, that’s a requirement.
It's a put-down to say that a team with no returnees won't have continuity? Dear God, you have issues. I wonder how often people in your life have to lie to you to keep you from having a mental breakdown. 😆
Look at your KU hate. God, it's so obvious!
Uh, how would you have any idea what Pope needs?
Butler can get you 20? Are we talking about the same guy? He averaged 9 ppg in the Mountain West. And Brea averaged 11 ppg in the A-10. Scored 20 a couple times all year.
Do I need to make a bet every time I post on a message board? Like I said, I'm not opposed to a bet, but it would probably be a good idea to actually know the rosters of the teams I'm betting on. Seems like common sense.
I have him on ignore because I don't know what in hell is wrong with him. He exited!
You don’t even recognize you have a UK hate boner. You poor boy.
Chubby Checker and ExitFlagger say: "Let's twist again, like we did last summer"
Oh IDK, by seeing what he has been doing with far less talent. This isn’t his first year in the coaching business.
Read what you just said. You asked "who can get you 20", I gave you names, you admitted Brea scored 20 in a couple games and questioned both guys.
Do you not understand the difference between an average and a single game performance? Not to mention, Butler played for SDSU, who scored in the 60's, they were a low possession offensive team, but that doesn't mean Butler can't get 20 in a game. But here's something you don't understand apparently, you don't need a guy to average 20ppg when the entire team averages 75ppg. I'd rather not have 1 guy that a defense can key in on. BYU didn’t have a 20ppg scorer, seemed like they did just fine.
Another twist. Where did I ask you to make a bet every time? You're the one disagreeing with my take and you sound so sure of yourself, so, put some skin on it.
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