How many NCAA tourney victories is a top 5 Net ranking worth
In all seriousness, good luck in the SEC tourney next week Della!!!
Would You Want UK in Your Bracket?
- Thread starter Random UK Fan
- Start date
In all seriousness, good luck in the SEC tourney next week Della!!!
We disagree on this one. We've had teams that didn't need as much time, but we also never had this kind of mix before. Cal asks for a lot and expects a lot. It took both coach and players to understand each other. As long as they play hard, smart and give their best, I'm fine with it.
Did you see the Vanderbilt pregame video with Oscar and Jacob? Pretty good insight to both players and adapting from their own point of view.
Ready to be through with a HOF, UK natty winner and appears to have his fire back coach. Ridiculous lol
I'm not sure, but probably 4x a top 20.How many NCAA tourney victories is a top 5 Net ranking worth
In all seriousness, good luck in the SEC tourney next week Della!!!
Thanks, I am looking forward to it. It is wide open this year. Good luck to Maryland in the postseason too.
You’re making excuses. Cal makes 9 million a year and after 2021 (9-16) and Saint Peters, you can't drop the ball.
He has a returning NPOY who is also the best rebounder most of us have ever seen.
He has a lottery pick that he didn’t realize he should be playing at pg.
He has a 2 time SEC assist leader
He has 5 seniors
He has 2 elite shooters plus Wallace
He has size, length and athletesism all over the floor.
He lost to a stripped Michigan state team, lost to Georgia, lost at home to a God Awful South Carolina team, got hammered at home by Arkansas.
Again, this is after 9-16 and saint Peters.
He hasn't beaten a power 5 team in the NCAAT since the 2017 sweet 16.
Hasn't won an NCAAT game since 2019.
His record against ranked teams the last 5 years is disgusting, something like 10-25. This is UK, not Cleveland state.
Again, this guy makes 9 million a year, but he has to have elite NBA talent to win.
Yeah, you're right we disagree.
Edit:
As far as your last comment about Cal winning a title and being in the HOF and it being ridiculous that UK fans want to run him off, I'll say this. Without the NBA lockout, Cal doesn't win that title and do you really think he’s in the HOF because he’s a great coach? You can't be serious. There's a reason Della is complimenting Cal and hoping he stays at UK.
Last edited:
I’d just like to say there’s nothing Cal could do this season for me to change my mind on him. We could win the ship and i’d still be ready for him to leave.
His style and philosophies are dated and we’ll never have a dominant team under him again.
All you Cal doomers just concentrate and are obsessed with only bad. Harp on the bad stuff and can't even enjoy basketball and it seems to affect your life. How often do you think a team wins a natty, gets to a final four, elite 8, sweet 16? I've seen plenty of Cals teams start off slowly, some fast. Some took a while to put 2 halves together. This years and last years a little later due to the mix of players. Have you even watched the offense and how it runs? We're one of the most efficient offenses in the country. We're one of the top rebounding teams.
Some of you guys are so damn arrogant that you know better than a HOF coach, have the finances to change coaches, and that's if you can hire one better than Cal. Dude, you're just a fan, or not. UK doesn't owe you a damn thing.
So in your eyes, this team is crap. How many coaches can take a disjointed team and produce what is trending now? You're living in your own fantasies.
I don't get it. I honestly can't relate to some fans.
To each their own. It's their perception and if they've given up on Cal....even if he won another title, that's on them. I would guess they listen to KSR?
Last edited:
The game has passed Cal by, the fans shouldn’t have to explain to him who his best players are. He has changed since he signed his mega deal.
Cal 2009: "I can't hide you here"
Cal 2018-23 "I don't want to take his heart"
He turned UK into an NBA g-league, then Shaedon Sharpe happened. What a joke.
That's the last I'm going to say on this.
I don’t know what to tell you lurker. He’s not getting any younger for one. And sometimes you gotta quit while your ahead. Which we probably should have done 4 years ago instead of giving him a contract extension with a preposterous buyout. But hindsight and all…
If Cal by some miracle pulled off another ship then you definitely quit while you’re ahead if you can at this point.
There are tons of coaches out performing Cal since he signed that contract extension in 2019. And at lesser programs with lesser resources.
Just a cold hard truth that you Cal cock gobblers can’t seem to remove your tongue from his asshole long enough to see.
If Cal won another Championship, we should quit while we're ahead?
I don't get it. I guess because I'm in a different state and just look at the stats.
What stats are you looking at exactly? I mean, i don’t think you’re taking career trajectory/age in this sport into account.
And you’re clearly not looking at his numbers since he signed tjr contract. they’re real bad. They wreak of complacency. What do you think would happen in the extremely unlikely scenario he wins another one? It’s just going to get worse from there.
I mean right now it looks like Cal quit while he was ahead so why shouldn’t Kentucky do the same?
Last edited:
Just what's available. I get it, I was just taken back you'd fire a guy that just won a title.
That surprised me.
Good luck guy, Your success means mine.
I wouldn’t fire him. I wouldn’t fire him now. I just wouldn’t stop him from moving on.
I’m not saying Cal should be fired, but that doesn't mean I have to support him.
I think he's doing more to kill the program than help it at this point. UK should never go this long without an NCAAT win, or go 5 years without beating a power 5 team in the NCAAT.
But hey, 2010 draft night was "the greatest night in UK history".
What did me in with him was the way he prioritized draft night over UK basketball. He walked that tight rope and won for many years, but then Antiqua left and so did the recruiting. Then, his farm system came back to eat the program and he barked at the fans while losing at historic levels.
He followed up the worst season in UK history with the worst NCAAT loss in program history. But hey, at least we got to "go to the games early to watch Schaedon Sharpe warm up".
I think he's doing more to kill the program than help it at this point. UK should never go this long without an NCAAT win, or go 5 years without beating a power 5 team in the NCAAT.
But hey, 2010 draft night was "the greatest night in UK history".
What did me in with him was the way he prioritized draft night over UK basketball. He walked that tight rope and won for many years, but then Antiqua left and so did the recruiting. Then, his farm system came back to eat the program and he barked at the fans while losing at historic levels.
He followed up the worst season in UK history with the worst NCAAT loss in program history. But hey, at least we got to "go to the games early to watch Schaedon Sharpe warm up".
He's had the 1st or 2nd class nationally every year but like two, and I'm pretty sure that was due to prioritizing top transfers. So it still probably shook out to being #1 or 2 even in those seasons.
Do you expect to land the top 5 Rivals players every year or what?
So, is Kevin Knox, Ashton Hagans, Sasha Kilea Jones and Diallo = to Wall, Cousins, Davis, Randle, Bledsoe, Townes and Noel?
You get the top 1 or 2 class when you have to recruit an entire team every year.
When you fly that one and done flag, you damn well better get the #1 or 2 class every year.
The problem with the one and done format is that I think it’s been proven to not work most of the time. I’d say only 2012 Kentucky and that duke team are the only teams to pull off the win with mostly one and done talent. It takes a combined team of older players with one and done talent to win it all. Only when the player is a generational talent (like AD) does a team win with only freshman.
Wow I forgot we were ranked that high preseason...what a joke. Duke was entering the season with a rookie head coach, had only one returning upperclassman from last year's squad and a recruiting class where the overwhelming consensus was that none of the 3 top 5 recruits were the type of impact blue chip recruits that previous recent OAD Duke guys were like Banchero, Bagley, Zion, Barrett and Tatum.Hmmmmmm..... you sure about that? The pre-season #7 team with the top ranked recruiting class by far that included 3 of the top 5 players wasn't a title favorite? 🤣
Fanduel odds on 11/1/22.
Current odds range from +3000 to +4500 on UK and +5000 to +5500 on Duke. In other words, Duke has shit the bed worse than UK (but UNC takes the cake).
Kentucky on the other hand was returning the NPOY and rebounding leader, 2x SEC assist leader and 5 other upperclassmen to go along with a strong recruiting class and a returning impact transfer in CJ Fredrick.
Kevin in no shape or form should the expectations have been similar preseason. It shows you that the blue bloods are terrible preseason bets and that most CBB writers/AP voters aren't closely analyzing this stuff.
No, if Cal wins another title this year, your AD Mitch Barnhart should reaffirm his commitment to Cal's lifetime contract, promise to make Brad Calipari the next HC and commit to giving Brad a lifetime contract too.
Having to replace a bunch of guys in no way guarantees a highly rated class.
And why are you comparing those guys to your best players from the early years? You can't be arguing that those are your top recruits from recent years.
It would make a lot more sense to compare to Tshiebwe, Wallace, Maxey, SGA, Adebayo, Monk, Fox, Murray, etc.
This is my stance too. I don’t hate Cal. I’m VERY appreciative for what he’s done at UK, but I’m also chapped for what he’s done TO UK the last few years. His tenure here is perfectly balanced.
In order for one and done to work, you better have at least one transcendent player, but you might actually need 2 tbh.
If you land a generational guy like AD, Mello, Zion or KD, you really have something.
Or, you do like UK, Baylor and KU did this year (and many many other teams) and you bring back a bunch of experienced player and you add a couple future NBA guys to it. When you have a roster like what UK has, you can't collect 9 losses, some to very bad teams, and think the coach is doing a good job.
How many teams would love to have Oscar (returning NPOY) + Cason (lottery pick) + Toppin (possible NBA cup of coffee guy + Livingston (NBA talent) + Reeves (elite shooter) + Collins (6'11" 5* pogo stick) + a 2 time SEC assist leader (Wheeler) + CJ Frederick (was a 46% 3 point shooter) + Thiero and Onyenso? That's a top 5 team, but UK was on the bubble.
This isn’t a one and done squad, this is the most experience Cal has ever had at UK ANDDDD they played summer ball. They looked better in August, when Cal wasn't game coaching, than they have all season.
But yeah, if you're going to be an NBA farm system, you can't strike out on all the top targets like Cal did for so long. Cal gets the credit for recruiting, but it’s really Antiqua that's doing the heavy lifting.
I agree. Kansas goes after the one and dones, but our biggest success is in the 25-40 range. Those guys tend to stay 2-3 yrs (sometimes 4) and blossom into great college players. Most don’t transition into good pro players but as a Kansas fan I don’t give a shit about what they do in the nba (I don’t watch the nba, usually just check the box scores to see how former Jayhawks did). Self also likes the 6-5 to 6-7 ‘athlete’ that can guard 1-4 and throws a big in for the five. Our lineup is stacked with 6-6 interchangeable parts.
One of the things Self said about Cal was not everyone could do what he is doing.
Problem is, Self adapted and Calipari is trying to do what he once did.
Haven't players who stick around seem to be better than freshman/grad transfers/players learning on the fly?.
I would be curious to see another loaded Calipari team.
I would be curious to see another loaded Calipari team.
Kansas has picked up some grad transfers the last couple years that have worked out. We probably don’t win the natty without remy and we would not be in a position to defend with out McCullers.
I also think you will get your wish next year. That team is going to be loaded.
The surest way something can be done is if they've already done it.
Folks were convinced he'd never win a title. Never get in the HOF. Yet, here we are, and yeah, next year is going to be fun.
But bringing in 5 or 6 new players, usually 5* kids, most certainly will usually put you in the top 2 in recruiting rankings, just by volume alone.
Thats what UK does, but there's a big difference between top shelf 5* guys and 2nd level 5* guys.
The teams winning title (most of college basketball actually) have no interest in recruiting an entire roster every year, they bring in a few 3 and 4* guys and develop them. How many schools need to recruit 5 or 6 guys every year? Cal + UK + tons of playing time, is easy money.
I compared the recruits from 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 to Cal's first few classes to explain to you that Cal is not the one that is the ace recruiter, it's Orlando Antiqua. When Antiqua left, Cal's recruiting took a nosedive, Antiqua comes back, it shoots back up.
Cal got lazy there for a while, thought he could just coast. He's not a good enough coach to do that.
Some coaches value college accomplishments, some coaches value NBA draft picks.
Vanderbilt would love to have Uk in their bracket.
I watched the last four minutes and vandy couldn’t have looked worse. Vandy got whistled for a foul on 70-80% of UKs possessions down the stretch. The guy guarding Oscar was wildly inept. Oscar is not an offensive player by any means by he was working that guy. Why UK choose to not force feed it is crazy. It’s coaching or dumber than rocks players. No reason to lose against vandy at home on senior night. Just nonsense.
I was begging them to pound it inside with Oscsr the entire 2nd half and we literally posted him up like twice. I get we've been playing Oscar away from the basket and has opened the offense up more, but shots weren't falling tonight and we needed to feed Oscar the rock tonight.
That last play for Kentucky was set-up nicely, though. I'm actually really impressed they could get off such a good look in under 3 seconds. Just completely whiffed with that shot. But, incredible opportunity.
It was a much better look than I was expecting to see. And the right guy shooting it as well.
