2017-18 Will Be 8th Time Duke Has Been Preseason #1 Under K; He's Won Title Once (1992)

[wcc31]

2010's loss had been coming all season, imo.

Hard to come to grips with either UConn loss. Both teams were playing beautiful basketball and then ended up in a rock fight.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Who GAF? Giles was never going to be 100%. They had another supposed lottery pick on the bench along with Jefferson who played really well.

Love that NOW SC was such a great squad. I certainly don't recall ONE person claiming they'd beat Duke beforehand.

Keep pissing out Duke excuses and I'll keep sending them back.

You're awful and it's been fun backhanding your ishy takes. MORE PLEASE.

I won't argue about the roads that Duke gets compared to ours. It's two totally different ends of the spectrum.

I gave USCjr zero chance to win that game after how they finished the season. They were dead to rights after a weak SECT showing. But they had great experienced talent to make a run.. and don't forget, 3 or 4 losses coming with Thornwell under a suspension. That team was good enough to be a 4 seed some days. They wavered down the stretch and then put on a run to the Final4.

Coaches poll after it was all said and done gave them somewhere in the top8. That was kneejerk after their run.. but they clearly weren't 7th seed bad. It was one of the few times Duke had an unfavorable matchup and they got burned for it.

 

[JoeBeeHall]

We've choked away at least one. Arguably 2 under Cal. Is what it is. Winning march madness is hard. The favorite rarely wins because typically there's not a ton of separation from the top 5-8 teams or so.

UNC was extremely fortunate this past season. As lucky as any champion I can remember.

I'm happy with Cal but his weakness is obvious to me. He struggles to finish. I think if he sticks around long enough he'll figure it out though and at some point he'll roll off 2 or 3 in a 6 or 7 year span. He's clearly got the recruiting chops and coaching acumen. Just has to figure out how to keep his guys, and himself loose down the stretch.

Any coach would struggle to win with the path the ncaa throws at Ky every year .

 

[LineSkiCat14]

2010 wasn't coming all season long.. Yes we were destined to have an off night.. but WVU was hitting absurd 3-pointers for a team that might have been worse than us at shooting. Butler made another 3 at one point and basically did the Jordan-Shrug on the way down the court. Their own players couldn't believe it. Meanwhile, we can't buy a bucket. It was a perfect storm.

 

[dlh331]

how do you consider winning by 20 points 'barely' winning?

Elite 8, Duke wins by a miracle over UK. That would be barely.

 

[wcc31]

I won't argue about the roads that Duke gets compared to ours. It's two totally different ends of the spectrum.

I gave USCjr zero chance to win that game after how they finished the season. They were dead to rights after a weak SECT showing. But they had great experienced talent to make a run.. and don't forget, 3 or 4 losses coming with Thornwell under a suspension. That team was good enough to be a 4 seed some days. They wavered down the stretch and then put on a run to the Final4.

Coaches poll after it was all said and done gave them somewhere in the top8. That was kneejerk after their run.. but they clearly weren't 7th seed bad. It was one of the few times Duke had an unfavorable matchup and they got burned for it.

They clearly weren't a 7-seed? Okay- dookie.

I have news for you- soft teams that play zero D would have problems with any 7-seed.

Keep digging...

 

[LineSkiCat14]

It didn't have so much to do with Duke's Defense until down the very stretch.. it had everything to do with USC's and their energy. Clearly the coaches poll thinks they were mis-seeded. I guess they know nothing, too.

What are you even talking about at this point? I single handedly caused about half a dozen Duke posters to get banned here (or at least made them leave). Remember Mark Gastineau.. yeah you can thank me for that.

You might be one of the more delirious, internet-tough guy posters here.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

No one goes to bat for our team here like I do , and many posters can attest to that. Duke, Kansas (RC Texas and Kneeburns both caught bans because of me), UNC fans.

But I'm not going to blindly say "Ohh herp derp no chance Duke loses less than 10 games and loses first weekend". Or falsely assume their team is going to collapse next year.

Be better than that. Give teams some credit when it's due and do it with some knowledge.. it's what I love about the Kentucky fanbase.

 

[Poetax]

Look at who Cal has beaten in March and then consider that three of his losses have come to the eventual champ- all tight games.

Kentucky routinely has to travel roads others don't. It's tough to beat three Top 10ish teams to get to the F4- which we almost did last year.

If you really break down WHO we have beaten compared to our contemporaries, it's a JOKE.

We have as many big March wins as the rest combined.

I think you have a point, winning those tough games before the FF, you have to expect at least one off game from a young team, its just tough that our off game usually spells doom.

 

[wcc31]

Duke gets enough of a pass from the media. They won't get one from me.

It's to the point where casual fans don't know the truth. That's why I'm here- to educate fools.

You're all welcome.

 

[Aike]

It's not just losing the last game. He's had arguably the best team left standing late in the tournament 5 times since he's been here.

We choked against WVU bad. Probably again against Uconn in both 2011 and 2014 and absolutely against Wisconsin.

I think the 2 Uconn games are at least debateable howecer. I think they had the stronger team in 2011 and we were without an all first team defense center in 2014.

I don't fault him for losing the last game in 2016 or 2017. We had 1 legit big man on the roster last season. I think all in all he's done a hell of a job. No coach is perfect.

And no one wins them all either. Just feels like of 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2015 he would/should have closed at least one of those out. We had a huge talent advantage over what was left of the field at those points in both 2010 and 2015 as well.

"Had the best team left standing" is a ridiculous standard. Especially considering that in the years you listed, we beat 6 teams who were better than us.

Would we have been better off losing to OSU and Wichita St.? Then at least we wouldn't have been the best team left at the end.

 

[KDcats11]

It's not just losing the last game. He's had arguably the best team left standing late in the tournament 5 times since he's been here.

We choked against WVU bad. Probably again against Uconn in both 2011 and 2014 and absolutely against Wisconsin.

I think the 2 Uconn games are at least debateable howecer. I think they had the stronger team in 2011 and we were without an all first team defense center in 2014.

I don't fault him for losing the last game in 2016 or 2017. We had 1 legit big man on the roster last season. I think all in all he's done a hell of a job. No coach is perfect.

And no one wins them all either. Just feels like of 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2015 he would/should have closed at least one of those out. We had a huge talent advantage over what was left of the field at those points in both 2010 and 2015 as well.

By this logic, Cal is being punished for not bowing out early in those particular tournaments like the other "great" teams those years. So what if he had the best team left in those tournaments? It's not his fault that the other great teams choked earlier. Our own fans are being brainwashed by the dumb narrative other fan bases try to push.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

No team has done better in the tournament since 2010, in regards to their seeding, than Kentucky. No big upsets and we've surpassed expectations several times.