And yet neither of them managed to make the NCAA tournament. That seems crazy to me to have that much talent and not make the tournament. I guess it just proves how important experience was this year.
According to most "NBA Draft experts" UK and Duke have 6 projected draft picks combined....
- Thread starter Creed Bratton
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Well a few would be getting drafted off whatever potential they see in them . It’s not that crazy when we saw they weren’t that good outside of Jackson .
I can’t speak for the Duke side I didn’t watch a single game .
I can’t speak for the Duke side I didn’t watch a single game .
I wonder if experience, or the lack of, is really the biggest issue with both our seasons being so sub par. I can not help but feel kids today come thru AAU ball thinking they are going to the NBA and college is nothing more than a stepping stone to that. It is more about the individual today than team.
I am not sure we will ever see the good old days of college ball again where kids come to a school because this was their dream, play like the Unforgettable's did and watch them with their parents and girlfriends on Senior Day.
It was the OAD for the last few years causing all this and now we have this transfer rule where kids bounce around more than the pros do.
Me Me Me.
To your original post, we really didn't have that much talent. At least not talent that was actually ready to play at this level.
Again, only 1 first round pick. We were far from loaded with talent. And 5 of the freshmen left anyway.
Again, only 1 first round pick. We were far from loaded with talent. And 5 of the freshmen left anyway.
Johnson and Hurt will be drafted. Without looking I’m not sure who their third is
This^ It‘s much about potential. Young 5 star players are like highly rated two year old thoroughbreds, a few become instantly successful as three year olds but many need some time, experience and further training in order to compete with older horses. Of course, some of these horses, even with this additional time, training and experience never reach the levels of success expected of them based on their pedigree. It is is much the same for highly touted 5 star high school basketball players, some just never reach the success which was forecast for them.
Some, but not all, services have Clark in the 2nd round too which makes 3 for UK. Whether he actually gets drafted on the limited time he played remains to be seen. For Duke it's like UK where most have Hurt and Johnson with DJ Steward being on some boards but not all.
We live in a crazy time. I really wish we'd start to analyze talent - when assessing whether a particular coach did a good job or a bad job - in terms of how good a kid is right now, while he's in college. How good he was in high school really shouldn't matter much. And how good he might eventually be in the pros really shouldn't matter much. How good you might have been before, in high school, and how good you might be after, should be irrelevant. In the old days, when kids stayed 4 years, there was a much closer relationship between draft position and how good that kid was while you had him in college. It's not true anymore.
Skal, BJ, Clarke, Sacha.....supposed to be really good, and just weren't. Calipari didn't underachieve with them. Devin, Hami, and others eventually became pretty good pros, but they weren't yet very good at UK. If Devin scores 71 in a game 3 years after Cal had him, that doesn't necessarily mean much about when he was 18 and at UK.
Skal, BJ, Clarke, Sacha.....supposed to be really good, and just weren't. Calipari didn't underachieve with them. Devin, Hami, and others eventually became pretty good pros, but they weren't yet very good at UK. If Devin scores 71 in a game 3 years after Cal had him, that doesn't necessarily mean much about when he was 18 and at UK.
Captain Obvious, here, but we'll never really know how much difference a full schedule of pre-season workouts and a full capacity Rupp Arena would have made to the season's outcome. I'm not saying we had enough talent or that the outcome was acceptable, but I don't believe this team accomplished all that it might have in an ordinary year.
We had a lot more talent than our fanbase is willing to admit. It’s just a damn shame that we could barely get the ball across half court due to poor point guard play. CALS offense folded like a cheap tent as a result of that little fact.
Well outside of Jackson I would say the scouts are crazy, neither Boston or Clarke will make an NBA roster next year so they are drafting them for the G league.
Boston and Clarke will be two way players next year. The NBA is talking about increasing the amount of two way players each team can have on the big team.
yeah, true. On the one hand......everyone went through Covid, but not everyone had the same experience. If this team had had a normal summer and fall schedule, and if they hadn't played a top 10 schedule, they would not have been 9-16. They wouldn't have been great, because every one of them - save Mintz, Jackson and I guess Toppin - was less than was expected. So, probably not a losing record, but nothing great. Still Cal's worst team, I'm guessing.
On the other hand (and before folks accuse me of saying it was Covid and not Cal's fault), it's still Cal's fault. His program, he gets the credit and the blame for the results. True, he can't control for a pandemic......but he's the one who chooses to walk a high wire each season, and so when unexpected things happen, and you've put yourself in position to be more impacted by those things than you would have otherwise, it's your own fault. [if you drink just a little and drive, and have a wreck that is someone else's fault but you get caught up in it because you're DUI, that's on you.]
It's a high wire because he starts over virtually every year, and even though it typically works well, sometimes it won't. Like I said, after watching this season, one thought was - how have we not had this until year 12?
The fact that we couldn't beat Mississippi State at the end of the season suggests that the missed practice sessions were not going to have a significant impact. The insisted continued use and majority minutes given to Boston and Askew over Mintz and Allen hurt us along with other factors; not using Saar properly, Fletcher, and of course inexperience. That is all on the coaching staff.
Also 2 of those played half and way less than half of a season (Johnson straight quit and we all know the Clarke debacle) so neither team got to use 1 of those "draft picks" for much of the season. I can't wait for the new season so I can hopefully wash the taste of this past one out of my mouth
