Corey Evans says Wiseman to Memphis (low confidence level pick)
- Thread starter Smashcat
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If we don't get a top 5 guy this year, I'm not sure when we ever will again. It will be the 4th yr in a row without one, and the last one we did get was Skal, who obviously was overrated. Towns is the last legit top 5 guy we got. It will cement the idea that something has drastically changed in the recruiting world and Cal and UK is just not seen as the place to go anymore. Have no idea what changed that, but something must have.
Yeah we suck.
Step away from the ledge. It's gonna be ok.
Yeah it's time to panic as Caipari has slipped all the way down to at worst 2nd every year in recruiting. No one wants to come here apparently.
SAG1.0 was not like this.
Jesus, does nobody bother to read anymore? I never said or hinted what you guys took from my post. Not getting Top 5 guys does not equate to sucking. I think we have a great chance to win it all this year without any. Some of you guys are way too quick to pounce on any post that acknowledges the change in the recruiting landscape. What say we stop reading into posts and just respond to what is actually said? Wacky concept I know.
Khalil Whitney is 2 spots outside the top 5 and could damn well end up in the top 5 when the final rankings come out and he is the #1 SF. You don’t need “top 5” guys to win championships, yeah they obviously help but your season doesn’t end if you miss on “top 5” guys.
I could care less if we miss out on “top 5” talent the rest of Cal’s tenure as long as he assembles teams that allows us to compete damn near every year I’ll be happy but that’s just me.
Fox was top 5 when he committed. Bam may have been in one ranking or another at some point. Monk was in the top 10 in all rankings. There wasn't 5 freshman I would have traded for Murray. I'm not sure when or how the "Cal can't get top 5 recruit" became a thing.
Yeah I’m with ya but apparently @silentsaregolden2.0 is tryin to make it a thing. Ppl need to relax on this recruiting thing, pretty sure Cal knows what he is doing.
Agree. He knows what he is doing and is covering every base he can. As the FBI investigation has shown, there are all kinds of very questionable things going on behind the scenes.
You didn't bother to acknowledge the obvious reason UK whiffed on so many top 5 guys: people were cheating, including Duke. Now that the FBI has cracked down and Duke lost its bag man you'll see the real change you're talking about, for the better. Amazing how people freak out far before anything even happens. UK is sitting great with multiple top 5 kids and already likely has 1 commited when the dust settles.
He didn't start it. Certain folks here have been beating that drum for a while. They're quiet about it now with the FBI stuff and us looking to be loaded, but they've changed the tune they were singing the last couple of seasons, and particularly when Zion chose Duke.
So now ONE post is being in the "rallying group", "freaking out", and "making it a big thing". Whatever, carry on guys.
Fox, Monk, and Bam just happened to be in a loaded class. The RSCI top 5 from that class was Jackson, Giles, Ball, Tatum, and Fultz, with Fox 6, Bam 8, and Monk 9.
Giles clearly did not belong due to injury, but you can argue who the real top 5 were out of the other 7. The important thing for UK is to ALWAYS get a few freshman who are capable of being impact players from Day 1, preferably a few with All-American, top 5 pick potential, and UK had 2 of those in 2016, along with Bam, who was just a notch below that level.
Those types of players are more likely to be top 5 recruits, but sometimes not, and sometimes the difference in impact between "top 5" and guys a notch lower is minuscule. UK getting Fox instead of Fultz or Ball didn't exactly set UK back. It might have actually helped, as Fox was less ball-dominant than either of those 2.
There's also the fact that Cal is a SUPERB scout. Other than possibly overvaluing hyper-athletic non-shooters at guard, there aren't a lot of misses on his resume', even when he's going with what appear to be secondary options
You also said you were now convinced Keldon Johnson would miss everything including the Duke game over the next month or so because he didn't practice the other day. There's a bit of a reactionary pattern developing.
The other schools are paying more now for Top 5 talent.
As you know I have said this for quite sometime and I never get straight answers back. It's always "we just landed the 8th rated player" or "we have 4 blues coming in"
Are you crazy we have a top 2 class!!!!!!
I said we are having trouble landing TOP 5 PLAYERS WHICH UK HAS NEEDED BIG TIME WITH THE AMOUNT OF TURNOVER WE HAVE.
How many final fours does UK have without a top 5 player? How many titles?
That's what I thought. If they'd stay on topic we could get around to the answer quicker.
Right now though, it doesn't matter because we are RETURNING PLAYERS. A sophomore PJ IS a top 5 player in this years class maybe, for example.
But until we started returning guys, recruiting shooters, and being a more traditional roster, it hurt bad. When we weren't returning anyone and we went to war with Diallo and Briscoe as freshman, it's simply not going to cut it. That's a fact people, not an opinion.
It's actually an opinion, and our entire world would be a lot better off if we'd stop confusing the difference just to try and sound correct.
No it'a fact. When UK has heavy turnover and no incoming top 5 players, we haven't succeeded to a final four or title game as I recall.
Our national title team had the top 2 players in the class, and top 2 draft picks.
2014 final four had s legitimate top 5 guy in Randle.
2015 had returnees and a top 5 player.
There's a pattern here, surely you can pick up on it.
Kentucky needs top 5 players if we aren't returning everyone. And those top 5 players need to need to add up.
When we are returning players and recruiting people who can score, shoot, defend (balance) we dont necessarily have to have them.
I'm not seeing this as an opinion. It's a mirror image of reality even if people's love for cal is so blind they can't see it.
Both of you make excellent points. I feel most of the other posters missed Silent original main point. He just stated that we have been missing on top 5 recruits lately, which we kinds have been. He showed no panic mode about this, just stating fact/opinion which is what this board is supposed to be for. Silent, there just seems to be a lot of young posters on here and also posters who go crazy over anything stated that sounds like it might be negative towards UK. Anyone paying attention knows I'm a major UK guy and have been for a long time. I live and love UK Athletics but I recognized what Silent said in his post and see nothing horribly wrong with what he stated. Just wish other posters would discuss his message rather than just go into attack mode with no real answers or discussion of the topic he raised.
And really top 5 is a general number however most of the cream of the crop falls into the top 5 range. At least for us.
Really anything around 7-8 and down with no returning players is a death sentence. And we've got nearly a decade of sample size to look at.
Really anything around 7-8 and down with no returning players is a death sentence. And we've got nearly a decade of sample size to look at.
We have the #1 SF & #2 combo guard in the class. Super frustrating huh
Bro we have the #1 SF and he can damn near be top 5 when the final rankings come out. Not to meantion Maxey who is the #2 combo guard who could prolly come in and play on this years team.
If there wasn’t sooo many C/PF in this years class Whitney and Maxey would be top 5 easily imo
No that's fine, Cal has finally built a roster for college basketball. When he wasn't, and was losing everyone and signing 7, 14, 22, 30 etc... it was a problem. All you have to do is look at the history.
Come on Bass......you got this.
I remember 3 years ago we had our best back court ever and the bigs sucked and we lost 9 games and had no shot at the title. We haven’t had a great season under cal without a great big man that can score easily underneath the basket.
Fox, Monk, and Bam were definitely a final four team. Damn you Higgins!
I get that but we have a long time before next years class is done so I thinks it’s a lil premature to start worrying about us missing out on top end talent when we have such a wide net casted out on top end big men. I know you love and trust Cal so that’s why we need let Cal do his thing. We can’t knock em out every single year.
Who insinuated it was over because it wasn’t me. I thought you were intelligent enough to get that I was saying we need some great big men and until we have them locked up and committed... we should worry to some degree
Well, there are 2 things about this I would like to point out. First, there have been years with top 5 talent that didn't result in a title, title game or even a final four. So, while it is a fact that we have not made a final four or further with Cal as our coach without a top 5 talent on the roster, it is not a fact that it is required, and more so, that it guarantees it. There are a lot of coincidences in life that people can try to connect, but in the end, they are just coincidences. It's just like the we have never won a championship without a player from Kentucky on the roster. Yea, that's true, but is it really a requirement?
Secondly, even the "Top 5" is an opinion of someone or someones. It isn't a black and white curriculum. It's people's opinion. If the top 5 consisted of 5 players in the mold of Skal, and 6-10 were in the mold of Knight, MKG, and AD, would you still believe that you had to have a "Skal" on the roster to go to the Final Four?
The truth is simple, Cal needs players that can either hold their own or better at 5 positions on the floor. It either needs to be a freshman ready to make an impact, or a returner who knows what it takes, or a grad transfer who has already proven he belongs. The impact freshman doesn't have to be a top 5 player, just ready to make an impact. Fox, Monk and Bam didn't make the Final Four not because they weren't top 5 recruits, but because they didn't get a lot of consistent help.
That’s what I’m saying is why worry now when we have soo much left in the recruiting season. Yeah if we don’t have a single big man committed and it’s middle of the summer then ppl can start to worry and act crazy but no one knows what’s going on behind the scenes.
Hell, a week or so ago no one was worrying cuz it seemed like we was getting any big we wanted and now this week we aren’t getting any bigs at all. All I’m saying is let the process play out before we begin to worry.
That was a title team. They were playing their best ball at the best time and got ROYALLY screwed. I'm still upset about it to this day.
We’ve had 9+ losses under cal a few times which means his recruiting isnt perfect.
