10 years ago today.......

[sambowieshin]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005–06_Kentucky_Wildcats_men's_basketball_team

Imagine a three guard line-up of Rondo, Bradley, and Crawford with Randolph Morris down low and Sparks/Ravi Moss coming in periodically to knock down threes. Sims, Perry and Thomas would just be needed to play some D and grab a few boards. Definitely not as athletic and talented as we are today but there was enough talent on that team it should have never lost 13 games IMO.

 

[caneintally]

ugh we lost 3 games in a row twice that season . God we were bad that year but if that team had Cal as its coach we would of probably lost maybe 7 games but to be honest Cal would never of had a team with that little talent IMO. Morris didn't play til early January that year so that didn't help either obviously.The days of having players like Sims , Perry and Thomas are long gone thank the gods!

 

[sambowieshin]

I had forgotten about Morris and the double triple losing streaks. Refresh my memory regarding Morris. Why didn't he play until January??​

 

[CharlieT71059]

We were not a top caliber team at that point

 

[spotter34]

I had forgotten about Morris and the double triple losing streaks. Refresh my memory regarding Morris. Why didn't he play until January??​

Tubby "lost" the fax stating Morris wanted to return to Kentucky after declaring for the draft.

 

[kyjeff1]

I had forgotten about Morris and the double triple losing streaks. Refresh my memory regarding Morris. Why didn't he play until January??​

Wasn't that the year after the fax that Tubby found? Was it an Eligibility issue perhaps?

 

[GYERater]

That team had 1 player that had any kind of NBA career, 10+ losses isn't really that surprising.

 

[caneintally]

Wasn't that the year after the fax that Tubby found? Was it an Eligibility issue perhaps?

Nope he wasn't drafted and he wanted to come back to UK and it wasn't cleared til early January . That team was a mess and I could of not liked them less. People talk about team turmoil but I didn't mind that team too much compared some of the other god awful teams like this one . I look back on Tubby's last 2 years with more distain then Billy Clyde's 2 years as Billy just should of never been hired and was not a good coach but Tubby at one time was a good coach and he just got lazy and didn't want to recruit UK level players and he should not be remembered fondly for that.

 

[bradscats]

Nope he wasn't drafted and he wanted to come back to UK and it wasn't cleared til early January . That team was a mess and I could of not liked them less. People talk about team turmoil but I didn't mind that team too much compared some of the other god awful teams like this one . I look back on Tubby's last 2 years with more distain then Billy Clyde's 2 years as Billy just should of never been hired and was not a good coach but Tubby at one time was a good coach and he just got lazy and didn't want to recruit UK level players and he should not be remembered fondly for that.

Tubby did not recruit UK level talent but that team was one of the few of the later years that actually had it. Rondo, Crawford, and Morris were all five stars. Bradley was a four star. Sparks was a top flight transfer. Depth was an issue and so was Tubby's ability to coach top talent.

 

[bucsrule8872]

That team had so much potential, just did not live up to it.

We had an obvious hole at the 4 spot, but we had all the other spots covered. Rondo was a phenomenal talent. Morris was a top 10 player at the 5. Crawford was the highest rated player of the three, IIRC. That class was ranked number one in 2004.

Sparks was a great college level player. Bradley was talented as well. But we had no one at the 4 spot and our depth, especially inside, was non-existent.

Looking back, I just felt like Tubby was phoning it in by that time.

I still don't understand why Mitch didn't go after Cal after Tubby flew the coop for Minnesota.

 

[CatColumbia]

That team was a disaster and under achieved. Coming off a missed rebound away from reaching the Final Four the previous year, I felt this team had enough to reach the Final Four. Losing Azubuike to the pros was a blow and also Morris not getting cleared until January affected the team.
There was also a lot of team turmoil from what I recall. If I'm not mistaking, there was a huge issue between Rondo and Sparks that nearly broke the team in half.

 

[Nubb16]

Morris could have been the best player in college if he had just put in the work. No, not all of those guys succeeded in the NBA, but all were very good college players. Very underachieving team IMO.

 

[.S&C.]

I was 20 at the time and loved that team. I bragged constantly about the "number 1 recruiting class".

Man Cal changed all that.

 

[Nubb16]

Not trying to get off topic, but I watched the SEC featured on Sam Bowie today and was thinking him and Morris looked a lot alike. Just me?

 

[loublue22]

The 03 and 05 classes ruined Tubby, they were ridiculous.

 

[IL Wildcat]

I remember that team well. It was very underachieving, lost way too many games.

I always thought Tubby was great at getting the most out of his talent. I even used to tell people that if Tubby could get someone else to recruit for him and let him coach them, he'd be in the conversation for a title every season. I think there is some truth to that.

However, that particular team is an example of Tubby having talent but not being able to get them to come together. There were some egos on that team for sure, but Tubby couldn't manage them.

And all of this should make us appreciate Calipari so much. That class of Rondo, Crawford, Morris, and Bradley was Tubby's best, easily. But Cal brings in a class like that every season. But the big difference is that Calipari knows how to manage the egos. Tubby couldn't do it.

 

[gossie21]

I believe it was around this time that Tyron Nash decided prep school was a more enticing offer than a full ride scholarship to play basketball at UK.

 

[yoshukai]

Tubby "lost" the fax stating Morris wanted to return to Kentucky after declaring for the draft.

It was on his desk under an empty bag of Cheetos and three empty Skoal cans .

 

[yoshukai]

Nope he wasn't drafted and he wanted to come back to UK and it wasn't cleared til early January . That team was a mess and I could of not liked them less. People talk about team turmoil but I didn't mind that team too much compared some of the other god awful teams like this one . I look back on Tubby's last 2 years with more distain then Billy Clyde's 2 years as Billy just should of never been hired and was not a good coach but Tubby at one time was a good coach and he just got lazy and didn't want to recruit UK level players and he should not be remembered fondly for that.

It absolutely WAS the year tubby lost the fax . That is why he wasn't cleared until January , because tubby couldn't find the fax stating he wanted to return to school if undrafted . There were other players that went undrafted and returned to school that year but they didn't have to sit out because their coaches were organized enough to keep up with paperwork .

 

[KY Long Rifle]

Wasn't that the year that we lost a close one early in the season to UCLA?