It all started going down hill when Robic left. It’s becoming more obvious by everything coming out
Dillingham says John Welch was responsible for his great shooting
- Thread starter twwilliams9
- Start date
As the years have gone on Cal has become that bitter old man coach who wants to handcuff guys with electric playmaking abilities. It has been a weird thing to watch.
The lack of offensive gameplan was due to Cal knowing he needed to feauture Dj and Edwards in some way but he couldn't let that be known. Hence the term playing "random". If we were to have played through Rob and Reed all the time and them be the focus of our offense we would have been in a much better spot.
The lack of offensive gameplan was due to Cal knowing he needed to feauture Dj and Edwards in some way but he couldn't let that be known. Hence the term playing "random". If we were to have played through Rob and Reed all the time and them be the focus of our offense we would have been in a much better spot.
Cal coached the same way at UK from his first year to his last. Which is one of the main gripes we had as fans.
He always has looked tense on the sidelines. Even going back to his UMass days. His demeanor is what it is.
Players are exponentially more responsible for the outcome of a game then a coach is. That is a universal truth as it relates to the game of basketball.
It was time for Cal to leave for many reasons. But I blame Reed and Rob for the loss to Oakland far more then I do Cal.
Great post and I agree with your statement but time will tell if Pope is a home run hire. I will not call it a home run hire until after the season. Louisville fans were initially calling Payne a home run hire and after two seasons he was fired. Now we all know Pope will do much better but will it be to our expectations as fans. The good news is the staff is off to a great start and the fans are engaged. I give Pope an A+ at this juncture.
If either had been given the proper instruction throughout the season, they would have not been in that position.
Kentucky had a championship-caliber roster last year. The NCAA tournament is still somewhat of a crap shoot, but to not get out of the 1st round with that team is criminal.
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That is an insane comment when we see the same theme play out all through the years. The players are an extension of the coach. Cal had the gameplan of throwing the ball down low to Tre Mitchell who had been one of our worst players for 2 months.
I'm sure Brad will be just as good lol
Fortunately they don't base draft positions on one game.
Last few min of the game badly needing points, and Cal has hands of stone Ugo in there ...
I think the 2 just have different opinions. I made a thread a month ago about how Dillingham had a dislike for Cal, there seems to be no case for that from Reed.
I love it when the “Bennie’s” are proven correct. It has happened more times than certain people will admit.
Seems more and more obvious (and sad) that Cal's season was over as soon as he gathered as many future pro's as he could. Then just keep them out of trouble, from getting hurt, etc. Where is UK's interest in all this? NOWHERE. Dude was just using UK as a vehicle to facilitate his true goals of getting kids to the NBA and making Mom and Dad happy. In my only defense of him, he's not from Kentucky and didn't play here. He doesn't have it in his blood. This coaching job should never be in the hands again of someone without a connection to KY.
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The way cal has handle the backcourt these last few years has been baffling. Form the Askew disaster to giving the keys wheeler over TyTy and Cason and now the Rob and Reed situation. He would’ve never done these things early in his tenure. I don’t get it.
I think he just handles the PR side of it differently. I would almost guarantee there was a lot of questioning Cals use of Reed in private conversations in that Shep household during the season.
That's a strange take considering he has been over the top in his praise for Cal. Even reposting his Arkansas picture on his IG story. I would understand your stance if he had been neutral in his comments.
Eh...I think you are missing my point. Dilly and Reed missed wide open shots against Oakland's funky zone. They were good looks ran in the rhythm of the offense that UK had been running all yr. They missed them. Antonio Reeves sure didn't miss them. Edwards was 4-9, which, while not great, is much better then the effort and results that Dilly and Reed put forward.
Yes, Cal featured Tre way too much. Poor coaching decision. But I am not going to blame Cal for our two top 5 picks missing wide open shots and crapping down their legs.
How could he? Kid has to know he should have been a starter and a featured part of the offense. Reed too. Cal will act like he got them to the NBA when the reality is that his crap coaching probably cost them a spot or two.
Yeah Reed and Rob are responsible for all the first round NCAA tourney losses.
This^^ is when I noticed everything going to hell in a hand basket as my mom would say
As pointed out, both were absolute crap against Oakland and that is on them.
They both also over played hoping for steals which lead to major defensive lapses. One inexplicable one by Reed let Florida tie the game and send it to over time In Rupp.
They both also over played hoping for steals which lead to major defensive lapses. One inexplicable one by Reed let Florida tie the game and send it to over time In Rupp.
So that quote is really out of context and it implies things that the full quotes don't. The full quotes are:
“My defense lacks at times,” Dillingham said. “But I feel like when I actually give effort and I know the game plan, then I really know what to do. Sometimes, I don’t know the game plan, and it gets me off, so I’m halfway going. But I feel like when I actually know the game plan, I’m a great defender, when it comes to being on the ball and terrorizing the ball.”
“I feel like in college, we weren’t all the way locked in on defense,” Dillingham said. “So we would all be thinking different stuff, so we’ll play it different ways. And it would look like, ‘Oh, he’s not playing defense.’ But we really think we’re playing the right defense, you know?
The full quote doesn't make Cal look any better at all.
Imagine being a Hog fan and getting excited about a coach who replaced Welch with Brad.
I’ve said since the last third of the season that Dillingham wasn’t happy. And that he probably wished he had gone elsewhere. I was told by several he was happy because all that mattered to him was his draft status. Well I say BS. The only difference in he a Reed is Reed is trying to say all the right things and move on. Rob is more transparent and less worried about how he’s perceived by the fans and coaches.
Cal is burned out. Arkansas hired a burn out. His performance will have a few ups but a lot of downs until Cal or the school wakes up and says he is done.
S16 (likely E8) would have been our floor last year if Welch had been our HC instead of our ignored-after-December OC advisor.
Exactly the case and I really think he wants Arkansas fans to know that is what his goal is and winning games comes secondary. If you watch some of his public appearances he is practically saying as much. I think he is at a point where he is like screw it I don't want to be here anyways lol. I also think it is a sad deal that he has gone out like he has because of an unwillingness to adapt.
That and Cal wanting to talk to other schools in the middle of our season…..
Welch was one staff member that I wish Pope would have kept.
It was obvious how good that hire was. Yet Cal totally went away from his philosophy when it mattered and obviously didn’t let him have a voice which is why he left after 1 year so quick.
Have you ever written anything critical of Calipari?
Seems like you didn't consistently write here for years until the Cal cult went running for cover. Now all you've seemed to be interested in is shielding Calipari since he left.
Weird stuff.
No, they're obviously not, but they are responsible for what happened last March. And it's been a reccuring theme for YEARS.
Again. The common person in all of this is the coach. Not sure why anyone would blame 2 guards who carried us all year would have any blame for any loss. Did Cal not say, “don’t blame the kids, blame me”? Cal loves to take the credit for the good, but not the crap show that became the UK tourney debacle.
Sure, the coach is to blame. But everyone in sports knows that you're always remembered for your last game. They completely choked in the most important game of the season, that's on them. Cal definitely could have managed the roster better, should have started them, but they took the shots and missed. They played terrible defense. Cal didn't do any of those things. Love what they did during the season, but what really matters is how you finish. That's what needed to change around here, and Pope is the right one to make that happen.
Absolutely!
One is saying all the right things trying not to stir the pot. The other is being transparent.
No ... CCC "didn't do any of those things." But CCC ran up and down the sidelines in at crunch time in the Oakland game like -- as one poster on this board recently put it -- a deer in the headlights. The most significant of CCC's many inadequacies is that he got scared in the close games ... and I mean every close game. Sometimes his deer-in-the-headlights fear of losing didn't cost us the game, but you can bet that no player has ever played his best when his coach is showing with every fiber of his being that he's afraid they're going to lose !
Just MHO, of course and - whether or not - Go 'Cats ! ! !
Well Mitch told him Brad could not be on staff and that did it for Cal. Thank God.
No way. At all. Cal provided no leadership at all. A total POS of a coach.
I don't disagree with anything you're saying about Cal. None. You're spot on. But the thing that needed to change here, besides the coaching aspect, was the culture. You can't tell me for one second that kids who have one foot out the door the minute they're on campus aren't feeding two monsters inside their heads when the pressure is on. Pope wants kids here who are INTO the college basketball part of being a student athlete.
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