Cal Now Closer to "Super Team"
- Thread starter KYtotheCore
- Start date
It will be interesting to see how this plays out and who comes back. We do seem to have at least what we didn't have this season, an inside presence with physical players. I don't think as exciting as Fox and Monk may be that they will equal the experienced Ulis, and then Murray but come close and add the inside players makes for a great potential.
All I know is that we will rely heavy on talented freshman again. As fans, we are excited about having several, highly talented guys on the roster. However, they will still be frosh with no experience playing against D1 competition.
I sincerely hope that another team(s) receives all the pre-season hype as the #1 team, or heavily favored to win the title. It might be a "super" class of freshman; but, they are still freshman and will have to adjust to playing against teams with grown men rather than HS kids.
In other words, I'll SMH if another year of 40-0 talk starts up with these guys. That's putting a lot of expectations on a group of young men before they've even logged a single minute in college basketball!!! Yes, the talent has the potential to be a great and competitive team. But, we will still rely heavily upon freshman for major minutes, and they will have some "growing pains" with adjustment to college ball.
I sincerely hope that another team(s) receives all the pre-season hype as the #1 team, or heavily favored to win the title. It might be a "super" class of freshman; but, they are still freshman and will have to adjust to playing against teams with grown men rather than HS kids.
In other words, I'll SMH if another year of 40-0 talk starts up with these guys. That's putting a lot of expectations on a group of young men before they've even logged a single minute in college basketball!!! Yes, the talent has the potential to be a great and competitive team. But, we will still rely heavily upon freshman for major minutes, and they will have some "growing pains" with adjustment to college ball.
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Hopes and dreams. I agree with you. But you know this is exactly what will happen. 10 fold if we add Bolden or any other highly ranked kid.
It is a lot of expectations. And no, nobody should even whisper of 40-0 unless again most of these guys come back and are then bolstered by another #1 class. But three times we've brought in an extremely talented freshman class and had great results leaning extensively or exclusively on them (2010, 2012, 2014). Two more years our freshmen have come in and met or expeeded expectations while playing on teams with lots of veteran support (2011, 2015). And twice we've had noticeable holes in the roster along with guys not panning out (2013, 2016). But those two were also years when we knew going in that we'd missed on some targets and couldn't afford to have anybody play at less than their full potential or get injured.
When Bolden commits we'll have our super team. Bet on it......
De'Aaron Fox 12-14pts, 6-7ast, 4rbs
Malik Monk 13-15pts, 3ast, 4rbs, 40% from 3
Wenyen Gabriel 10-12pts, 7rbs
Bam Adebayo 10-12 pts, 10-11rbs, 2blks
Marques Bolden 10-12pts, 7-8rbs, 1-2blks
Isaiah Briscoe 7-8pts, 5rbs, 3ast
Marcus Lee 5-6pts, 5-6rbs, 1-2blks
Derrick Willis 6-7pts, 4-5rbs, 44% from 3
Sacha Killeya Jones 4-5pts, 4-5rbs, 1blk
Dominique Hawkins
Charles Mathews
Isaac Humphries
Tai Wynyard
We'll literally have everything a championship team needs. Plus having 3 major contributors returning in Lee, Briscoe, and Willis will really go a long way IMO. Briscoe will back up the 1 & 2. Willis will backup the 3 and a little bit at the 4, Then Lee and Killeya Jones will be the 2 backup bigs. Hawkins and Mathews will fight for the 10th spot, but neither will be in the main rotation I don't think. We could in theory platoon but I don't see it happening. Not full time anyways. Its going to be a great year and another special team like the one in 14-15.
De'Aaron Fox 12-14pts, 6-7ast, 4rbs
Malik Monk 13-15pts, 3ast, 4rbs, 40% from 3
Wenyen Gabriel 10-12pts, 7rbs
Bam Adebayo 10-12 pts, 10-11rbs, 2blks
Marques Bolden 10-12pts, 7-8rbs, 1-2blks
Isaiah Briscoe 7-8pts, 5rbs, 3ast
Marcus Lee 5-6pts, 5-6rbs, 1-2blks
Derrick Willis 6-7pts, 4-5rbs, 44% from 3
Sacha Killeya Jones 4-5pts, 4-5rbs, 1blk
Dominique Hawkins
Charles Mathews
Isaac Humphries
Tai Wynyard
We'll literally have everything a championship team needs. Plus having 3 major contributors returning in Lee, Briscoe, and Willis will really go a long way IMO. Briscoe will back up the 1 & 2. Willis will backup the 3 and a little bit at the 4, Then Lee and Killeya Jones will be the 2 backup bigs. Hawkins and Mathews will fight for the 10th spot, but neither will be in the main rotation I don't think. We could in theory platoon but I don't see it happening. Not full time anyways. Its going to be a great year and another special team like the one in 14-15.
If that lineup materializes, I can see Lee, Wynyard and possibly Humphries transferring.
That's my main concern. Hump and Wyn could be like Robey and Phillips, but our style doesn't suit them and no way both get enough minutes to develop. It's hard to expect 5 star frosh to become a true team in 9 months, and that assumes they all live up to their billings. A Ulis would make all the difference.
Lee I could understand but why the others? They are going to have to develop in a system anyway.
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N. W. O. has a good line up there except what did he do with mulder....he is still on scholly.???? or did he leave and I missed it. 
Shame the Cats aren't eligible for a pre-season overseas basketball trip yet,to get important playing time together before it really counts.That helped the 14'15' team tremendously imo.
o n the other hand after just seeing the picture of " Bam " I really don't see how much more that kid can develop.
Man, forget all the 40-0 crazy talk. If Bolden picks UK, we will probably go more like 44-0. Maybe 45.
you must be crazy if you don't think at least one of the returning players cracks the rotation...
Sellin briscoe a bit short there! He will learn to shoot offseason and be an absolute beast if he returns...lottery pick and perhaps team leader.
Not sure how I missed our question. Sorry. It's posted in the OP. For some reason the site gives some people a hard time. I know HICatFan occasionally has some issues too. FWIW, it's on the Louisville Courier Journal site.
What I find funny about recruiting is that a month ago no one knew about Bolden or really thought we even needed a big man what with Lee, Humphries, Bam, SKJ, and Gabriel all being 6'10" or taller. Now all of a sudden, due to the fact that we already have everyone else locked up and because of the media hype and general boredom, he's become this MUST GET! all of a sudden.
Yes and no. I think it helped that team start off fast but I think they had about enough of basketball by late February/March and seemed a bit burned out. That was like a year straight of nothing but basketball every day.
I think we all learned our lesson about 40-0. Relying heavily on FR can be up and down, but generally it has been successful come March. I know some will say "but we only have 1 title". True. But more often than not it's not the best team, or even the best team in March that wins it all. Getting hot, and even lucky, play a big role. That's how an OAD tournament works. But we've been in a very good position to win it almost every March since Cal arrived.
I do think you need some veteran leadership for a championship team, preferably from guys who see the court in more than just mop-up minutes, but I don't think they have to be your primary (go-to/best) players. We'll have Willis and Lee, SRs who have a good chance to see 10+mpg. We'll have SR Hawkins, who will play some if Briscoe doesn't return. We may have SOPH returning starter Briscoe return, as well as SOPH Humphries, each will see significant minutes. But who among them is a "Leader"? I think the only one may be Briscoe.
Quite possibly the worst autocomplete in RR history.
Great post!!! I wish some on this board would realize this. Some think it's a big joke to get that talk going but all it does is make us look ridiculous and ignorant.
We have been talking about adding Bolden for a long time around here. A lot of us have anyway. Im sure there has been some but not many on here have called him a "must get" recruit. But we know the skill set he brings and it's definitely a welcome addition. Not sure why that difficult to understand with fans on a message board. What else are we going to talk about right now. Spring football? Dont think so.
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