Kentucky Basketball: John Calipari Is Re-evaluating Recruiting
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Indeed. He's never offered guys as early as he's been offering players from the '17 and '18 classes. He's obviously rethinking the way he goes about it.
Kentucky's season was a failure?
Hmm. 38 - 1. Best single season win total in history.
It was a failure? Where did they get that idea?
Must be new math.
Hmm. 38 - 1. Best single season win total in history.
It was a failure? Where did they get that idea?
Must be new math.
I can't get over the article saying the season was a failure.Of course the main goal was a championship but it was still an amazing season.
I think "failure" is how some people would describe not hitting the goal(s) they set out for themselves at the beginning of a year. Others would describe it differently.
In general I appreciate Cal as a coach, but I will say that I was turned off by what I perceived as his pride/arrogance - the comments during/after the Notre Dame game especially. I thought the last couple of games, where Cal came unglued on the sidelines, were a symptom of his not being prepared for what Notre Dame and Wisconsin were doing. Being more prepared might not have made a difference - e.g., Notre Dame spanked us twice despite days of preparation - but it wouldn't have hurt.
In general I appreciate Cal as a coach, but I will say that I was turned off by what I perceived as his pride/arrogance - the comments during/after the Notre Dame game especially. I thought the last couple of games, where Cal came unglued on the sidelines, were a symptom of his not being prepared for what Notre Dame and Wisconsin were doing. Being more prepared might not have made a difference - e.g., Notre Dame spanked us twice despite days of preparation - but it wouldn't have hurt.
We will ever get past this...Cal and staff watched the tapes and prepared the team...Individual players did not...OMGawd, this is getting so old!
"The things that we'll work on will pertain to Wisconsin, but our players won't know it. They won't know why we're doing this drill. The breakdowns will all be based on what we coaches have seen."
"The things that we'll work on will pertain to Wisconsin, but our players won't know it. They won't know why we're doing this drill. The breakdowns will all be based on what we coaches have seen."
I walleye fish a lot in July and August first have of September my goal has been to land a 20 pounder . I had one get off at the net last summer that was about that size. I had her whipped on top of the water head in the net big she was to big for my net. She rolled got the hooks hung in the net and was gone. That does not make me a bad fisherman,but it did make me get a bigger net. Sometimes we think we have everything under control and we forget Murphy s Law and I quote : Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, at the worst possible time..
Does it similarly bother you when Rat face starts in on a ref with snot flying and he's screaming like a rabid dog? Seems to bother the refs as they generally start seeing things his way. He does that a lot more than Cal.
And who said they weren't prepared? At least as well as you can get prepared in 48 hours. Its quite possible that Wisconsin just played a good game and beat our ass that night. Give them a little credit.
As far as not hitting goals as a means label someone or some organization a failure, I have to give you that one. Anyone that makes all their goals doesn't like to push themselves. By that definition, most any high achiever is going to fail. Its a rather stupid perspective.
And yes, I'm being tough on you because you are a Duke fan. I have a good friend who is a Duke fan and he gets the same treatment. Every conversation we have ends with, "Duke sucks" no matter who might be listening or what we were discussing. If I ever find a license plate with that on it, it will be fastened to the front of his Benz. Funniest part is that it will take him six months to notice it.
Here's what I find laughable. The article says that Cal was wrong to believe that focusing inward was enough.
Was he really wrong? We didn't execute when we most needed to. Had we played our best game, we win.
It wasn't lack of preparation for Wisconsin that did us in. We mostly locked them down over the last 10 minutes. We just didn't execute the stuff that had worked for almost all of the previous 13 months.
Was he really wrong? We didn't execute when we most needed to. Had we played our best game, we win.
It wasn't lack of preparation for Wisconsin that did us in. We mostly locked them down over the last 10 minutes. We just didn't execute the stuff that had worked for almost all of the previous 13 months.
I think Calipari is recruiting players earlier has more to do with how many high school kids have reclassified as of late. I think he will offer more players because of our misses this spring, but he will only offer kids who he thinks can play and lead us to a championship. I'm fine with his recruiting. No questions here at all.
You had to tell that story. Had something similar happen with a Spotted Bass (Kentucky Bass) I'd estimate at six pounds. Air is still blue in that cove.
To me recruiting earlier also sends a message to kids and media that Calipari will be around for a while.
Of course not. UK had held Wisconsin to 58 points with about 2.5 minutes to go until that horrendous goal tend call. Then they hit a garbage 3, and hit a bunch of FTs to pad their point total. Despite Wisconsin making UK look silly at times on D, UK's DD overall did a fine job on the best offense ever according to KenPom. UK failed to execute on offense, and played terrible the last 5 mins and a fairly mediocre game for 40 mins...and still could have won the game.
Yes, what I'd call Coach K's tirades do bother me, towards officials but especially when directed towards his players. And Duke flopping, and Tyus' leg kick, and Winslow sometimes playing dirty, all those things bother me, too. I was being a bit critical of Cal as that was the topic of the article, but as I've said, I respect him and the results he's delivered.
No mystery there. Wisconsin outrebounded Kentucky 34-22. Our All American Willie Cauley Stein had 1 of his worst games of the season, in a game where everyone knew he would probably be the difference I way or the other. Those were the reasons why Kentucky lost a close game to Wisconsin.
UK lost due to prior escaping with poor performancee. Over confidence did us in.
They felt like the 90s Bulls but even that team lost a few games.
They felt like the 90s Bulls but even that team lost a few games.
This is pretty much it...anyone that adds complexity to the Wisc loss does so for their own needs
The season was a failure. To a great many of UK fans it was a championship or bust. There was a poll on here a month or so before the end of the season showing the same thing. With the guys that came back plus the guys that came in accounting for 10 McDonald's All Americans, it was arguably the deepest amount of talent any team had ever assembled. Winning it all was the only way many would be satisfied, me included.
Cal is probably only second to Wooden as the greatest recruiter of all time, but what Wooden did that Cal hasn't done is won more games and more championships with that talent. I have heard Cal talk about doing some things differently, i.e. recruiting, etc., but the one thing to me that stands out more than all is lack of offensive scheming and I haven't heard anything about being more attentive to that. He seems to just let them play street ball and use their talent to score. It has worked more times than not until you come up against some good defensive teams, i.e. Notre Dame and Wisconsin. Then it's time to make adjustments.
I haven't commented on this before, but it was easy to see (to those that have an open mind) that Cal was sacrificing the good of the team sometimes by playing the Harrison's when he shouldn't have been. Of course, we all felt we knew why and then he admitted it. Getting those guys to the pros was his ultimate goal. He now says that we should have 5-6 drafted next year. I hope that we have that many play well enough to reach his goal. It will mean a lot of wins, but I will never have the faith in Cal again to win a title when everyone expects him to just because he has the most talent.
We should have won it all and it can be debated until the end of time why we didn't. If it's true what Barbee said that he doesn't think Cal will ever get over the Wisky loss, then Cal has to believe the season was a failure too.
I like Cal and I hope he stays here forever, but I also hope he swallows some pride and ego and makes some changes in his offensive philosophy.
Cal is probably only second to Wooden as the greatest recruiter of all time, but what Wooden did that Cal hasn't done is won more games and more championships with that talent. I have heard Cal talk about doing some things differently, i.e. recruiting, etc., but the one thing to me that stands out more than all is lack of offensive scheming and I haven't heard anything about being more attentive to that. He seems to just let them play street ball and use their talent to score. It has worked more times than not until you come up against some good defensive teams, i.e. Notre Dame and Wisconsin. Then it's time to make adjustments.
I haven't commented on this before, but it was easy to see (to those that have an open mind) that Cal was sacrificing the good of the team sometimes by playing the Harrison's when he shouldn't have been. Of course, we all felt we knew why and then he admitted it. Getting those guys to the pros was his ultimate goal. He now says that we should have 5-6 drafted next year. I hope that we have that many play well enough to reach his goal. It will mean a lot of wins, but I will never have the faith in Cal again to win a title when everyone expects him to just because he has the most talent.
We should have won it all and it can be debated until the end of time why we didn't. If it's true what Barbee said that he doesn't think Cal will ever get over the Wisky loss, then Cal has to believe the season was a failure too.
I like Cal and I hope he stays here forever, but I also hope he swallows some pride and ego and makes some changes in his offensive philosophy.
I had the opportunity to attend 2 October practices with this past year's team and I view the loss to Wisconsin a little different than some. At those practices, Cal talked a lot about preparing the players to "just play". The team did several drills in practice that would appear to be "offensive sets/plays" but really it was the players reading, reacting, knowing what to do when defenses did certain things, and making plays. What I saw as the year progressed and especially the Notre Dame and Wisconsin games, was that Cal seemed to go away from that early season philosophy just a tad bit. IMO, we slowed the ball down and actually tried to get into more "sets" instead of letting players make plays.
Now don't misunderstand me here, I know we had to get into sets to get KAT the ball, but we waited too long to do so, which led to forced shots if we couldn't get him the ball. And I am not saying we don't run sets/plays/offenses throughout the year. I also truly believe we win the game if Ulis is in the game for one of Stein or Lyles. We had too many bigs in the game, which made getting the ball to KAT even more difficult.
The most important point made in the Grantland piece, IMHO, was made in this rhetorical question: "What if the players had actually taken the time to learn Wisconsin’s tendencies?" Cal's declaration that he wasn't going to watch any film of Wisconsin's games was one of the most - if not absolutely the most arrogant thing I've ever heard any basketball coach utter, at any level of the game ! If WCS and KAT had just watched a little film on Kaminsky they could have unquestionably shut him down. Kaminsky's two or three go-to post moves were so predictable that with a little film-watching WCS and KAT could have reduced him to nothing more than a 3-point shooter, and the 'Cats demonstrated the capability to neutralize the 3-ball the whole season.
I, too, hope that Coach Calipari now recognizes that his refusal to watch game film of Wisconsin was a terrible mistake born of a very unbecoming arrogance.
I also strongly agree that Cal certainly has the capability to forge the kinds of relationships with recruits that will withstand the storms of negative recruiting during the end-game, and I hope, too, that Cal does adopt that approach.
Just MHO, of course.
I, too, hope that Coach Calipari now recognizes that his refusal to watch game film of Wisconsin was a terrible mistake born of a very unbecoming arrogance.
I also strongly agree that Cal certainly has the capability to forge the kinds of relationships with recruits that will withstand the storms of negative recruiting during the end-game, and I hope, too, that Cal does adopt that approach.
Just MHO, of course.
It's a fact of life that some people are happier when they have something to complain about.
I'm sorry, I just can't buy it. Maybe it's the word failure that's the problem. Comparatively, this was a team in
Kentucky's top 10. So if one draws the failure line right above this team, we're talking maybe 8 - 9 successful teams total in our history. That's just wrong.
Maybe what folks are wanting to call failure is really just performance not meeting expectations or potential. In fact, I think the vast majority of performances in history fall somewhat short of optimal. That I can accept and is a reasonable label for this team. Yes they could have done better. So could we all. Still 38 wins does not constitute failure. It is an inappropriate and implausible tag to apply to this team.
As far as Cal's approach to the game, I think he coaches high percentage basketball. The Harrison's were the right right approach at that time. It's easy to confuse hindsight with superior strategy. We have a lot of fans doing that.
With regard to offense, Cal coaches to the strengths of his players relative to the weakness of the other team. Granted, the wheels were coming off in the last 5 minutes. Over the last few decades, I've seen that happen to a lot of teams, including Kentucky teams. Again, hindsight makes for easy observations. I expect Cal to follow the same course and tailor the approach to his team and opponents.
I understand what you're saying and the only reason I used "failure" is because of the expectations with the type of talent we had. We were successful in a lot of areas, but failed to achieve the ultimate goal that everyone predicted us to. Even though we all enjoyed the season, it was a failure because of the way it ended.
Semantics, I guess.
I can agree that they failed to reach their full potential. Nearly every endeavor in the history of mankind has failed that test. Even our championship teams had untapped potential. Extrapolating a bit further, the entire basketball program has failed since it began. But that's a paradox. We are arguably the most successful program in history. Hence I think the word failure in this context just leads to confusion and less than constructive dialog.
It's more like a test. Just to fish a number out of the air, say they scored a 95% over the season. Well above a failing grade. Well short of perfection. That I can support and it would be interesting perhaps to assign a score in that fashion. An F? Naw. A or B?
I just don't buy into the tyler ulis needed to be in the game theory. For 1, he was having shin splints during the game.
And 2, for right or wrong cal was goin to continue switching players on defense. Tyler would get matched up on a big guy everytime. I really like ulis, but he wouldve been in a no win situation in that game.
And 2, for right or wrong cal was goin to continue switching players on defense. Tyler would get matched up on a big guy everytime. I really like ulis, but he wouldve been in a no win situation in that game.
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