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This recruiting class..

I get the sentiment. But imagine if those guys had a real coach? You think any real HOF coach isn't going to the final four with those guys? I mean they did win 30+ games even with Cal on the sideline.
K didn't make the Final Four with that team with Zion, RJ Barrett, Tre Jones, and Cam Reddish. That team was probably just as talented or very close to it at the college level.
 
K didn't make the Final Four with that team with Zion, RJ Barrett, Tre Jones, and Cam Reddish. That team was probably just as talented or very close to it at the college level.
That team also had no bench depth. I'd take a Wall, Cousins, and Bledsoe all day as long as we have good transfer portal types around them who can carry the team when the freshman inevitably hit rough patches.
 
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If we somehow get White, Davis and Osobor with Williams then put something of substance together with the remaining spots, we are going to have a good team.
 
The point is none of these freshman today are worth half of what they were then. We’ve already seen it, these kids today aren’t John Wall, they’re closer to Edwards than Anthony Davis. They paint their fingernails and wear dresses. I’m just saying it’s not the hard up New York babies of Gen X. You cannot win with them. They are good enough to win when the lights come on but not good enough to win in the conference or national tournaments. And Arkansas goodness, they’re getting into the game on the back 9 of Calipari’s career AND the OAD system. I’m fairly certain that John Scheyer eventually will go down because Duke isn’t stopping.

Coach K and Calipari became obsessed with the marketing angle of having tons of NBA players instead of doing what it takes to win. They think the good outweighs the bad and they’re wrong. Coach K cost himself several titles trying to keep Calipari from getting his. He should have just stayed the course of 1 or 2 OAD’s and recruited traditionally.

We hired a coach that understands the assignment. Recruit what will make UK win in March and that’s what he’s doing to his ability. It’s going to be a process but it’s one that we can rest assured is going to put Kentucky first which is the job of a blue blood coach. Interestingly enough, Bill Self ended up realizing this early on while everyone was laughing at beating him in a few recruiting battles. He laughs now, and soon we will too, at the expense of Arkansas.
 
The point is none of these freshman today are worth half of what they were then. We’ve already seen it, these kids today aren’t John Wall, they’re closer to Edwards than Anthony Davis. They paint their fingernails and wear dresses. I’m just saying it’s not the hard up New York babies of Gen X. You cannot win with them. They are good enough to win when the lights come on but not good enough to win in the conference or national tournaments. And Arkansas goodness, they’re getting into the game on the back 9 of Calipari’s career AND the OAD system. I’m fairly certain that John Scheyer eventually will go down because Duke isn’t stopping.

Coach K and Calipari became obsessed with the marketing angle of having tons of NBA players instead of doing what it takes to win. They think the good outweighs the bad and they’re wrong. Coach K cost himself several titles trying to keep Calipari from getting his. He should have just stayed the course of 1 or 2 OAD’s and recruited traditionally.

We hired a coach that understands the assignment. Recruit what will make UK win in March and that’s what he’s doing to his ability. It’s going to be a process but it’s one that we can rest assured is going to put Kentucky first which is the job of a blue blood coach. Interestingly enough, Bill Self ended up realizing this early on while everyone was laughing at beating him in a few recruiting battles. He laughs now, and soon we will too, at the expense of Arkansas.
I just think it's interesting how so many people reference NBA allstars or NBA careers when referring to success at UK. If you truly sit back and built a UK lineup based on statistics, game making decisions and reliability to win, I think you could put together a few interesting ones that would beat our high draft picks in March. Execution and decision making are so crucial and we've lacked that in games and on the sidelines until draft night when everything is suddenly forgot about from the collegiate season.
 
The point is none of these freshman today are worth half of what they were then. We’ve already seen it, these kids today aren’t John Wall, they’re closer to Edwards than Anthony Davis. They paint their fingernails and wear dresses. I’m just saying it’s not the hard up New York babies of Gen X. You cannot win with them. They are good enough to win when the lights come on but not good enough to win in the conference or national tournaments. And Arkansas goodness, they’re getting into the game on the back 9 of Calipari’s career AND the OAD system. I’m fairly certain that John Scheyer eventually will go down because Duke isn’t stopping.

Coach K and Calipari became obsessed with the marketing angle of having tons of NBA players instead of doing what it takes to win. They think the good outweighs the bad and they’re wrong. Coach K cost himself several titles trying to keep Calipari from getting his. He should have just stayed the course of 1 or 2 OAD’s and recruited traditionally.

We hired a coach that understands the assignment. Recruit what will make UK win in March and that’s what he’s doing to his ability. It’s going to be a process but it’s one that we can rest assured is going to put Kentucky first which is the job of a blue blood coach. Interestingly enough, Bill Self ended up realizing this early on while everyone was laughing at beating him in a few recruiting battles. He laughs now, and soon we will too, at the expense of Arkansas.
Good point about Self. He gets like 1-2 five stars a year. And pulls 4 stars and builds them into great players. He had guy from Austraila this year who was good. Furphy I think. Believe he was a 4 star. NBA bound by the looks of it after one year.
 
If everything shakes out and we land the potential roster possible.. has me feeling like I did watching Wall, Bledsoe, Cousins, and Orton commit.

.. There are some really good players popping up suddenly that I'd prefer over high school talent these days.

Have a feeling this may be an insane class of vets.
Wow.
 
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If you just go by great as in college great and what they do at college... yeah Jeff Sheppard, Wayne Turner, Gerald Fitch, Scott Padgett, Marquis Estill , Erik Daniels, etc etc were all great college players ...... but Wall, Cousins, and Bledsoe were great in college too............ but were nba great after that. But yeah the guys we are after can put up stats and kill it against other colleges in the NCAA but they arent guys who are going to go on and have great nba careers... well most likely
Yeap. I want guys here who are here to win titles in conference and NCAA. Couldn't give two sheets about the NBA, or what guys do after UK.
 
I don't think a John Wall is in the portal. If there was talent like Wall, Bledsoe, and Cousins, then they would be entering the NBA draft instead of trying to hook on with another college team.
 
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I mean anyone can an off night in one game, most of them played well at some point during our runs.
But we had enough talent at one time that there was no excuse for the finishes we had. Absolutely should have been more than one title. If they leave a year after accomplishing nothing, and not doing well I consider their stay here nothing more than NBA audition.
 
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Trazarien White (He'd be great)
Deivon Smith (He'd be great)
Johnell Davis *prayers lol*
Otega Oweh (Unsure)
Great Osobalor (He'd be great)
Amari Williams (He'll be great)
We have Oweh and Williams now. We won't sign any of the other players you mentioned.

However, we have a very solid class of transfers that is a great core for this year. The only problem is that most of them only have one season of eligibility left. But that can be managed. Brea, Oweh, Williams, and Garrison were big gets for Coach Pope. We still need a couple of athletic combo forwards, and I wish Thiero would wise up and come back to UK.
 
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This is the most excited I’ve been about an incoming class since 2009-10, yes obviously not the same fire power and we’ll probably have an average upcoming season. By year two however, it will be nice to have a good nucleus of familiar faces to make some noise.
 
If everything shakes out and we land the potential roster possible.. has me feeling like I did watching Wall, Bledsoe, Cousins, and Orton commit.

.. There are some really good players popping up suddenly that I'd prefer over high school talent these days.

Have a feeling this may be an insane class of vets.
A good upper-class college player is likely to provide more for a single season than freshmen coming in with underdeveloped bodies and clueless at how to play at the college level. We are talking about men vs boys.
 
I will take an experienced portal transfer with a track record of success at the college level.over freshman "firepower" every time. The transfer will be consistently more productive than the freshman more often than not. A whole team, however, composed primarily of proven transfers, will almost always prevail over a whole team composed primarily of freshman all stars.
 
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That's what I don't understand. The first poster commented about my statement not translating to the NBA and that isn't even relevant. Give me proven college vets with experience and 20 point scoring 5 assist guards, double double bigs, and we'll see what happens.

I rather have college greats than nba greats. That's why we are on this message board and not a G League or NBA board.
UCONN. All that needs said. Freshman NBA one and dones are not working in college ball anymore. They are no where near as good as freshman were back then. Todays youth are weak both mentally and physically. It got us one title with that system. A generational freshman and two returning seniors. I’ll take Popes new approach.
 
Part is AAU leagues. They aren't playing real ball. It's basically just pick up games. They aren't being coached in HS like some of the kids were back just 10 years ago. Watching the nba all star game and they didn't play a lick of D. Guys today just don't play like they did just a few years ago. I've said many times that the nba is turning into the And1 league and it seems tons of top talent are learning to fit that system.
 
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You'll see more freshmen recruited then you think moving forward. With the final year of Covid exemption aka "I want to play until I'm 27 and even though my team was eliminated in '20 Conference Tournament, I should get 2 to 3 extra yrs). Most programs already talking about returning to core of their incoming talent being from HS.

Filling gaps/needs from Portal but take 2 star HS kids and 1 to 2 program guys who are willing to learn how to play and stay. Player Development being strong on this staff will help that a great deal.
 
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