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Do the BCG days seem a nightmare?

Orville Boggs

Orville Boggs

Junior
Dec 5, 2012
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Thousandsticks, KY
Did it take us sinking to new depths never seen to finally get Mitch to make the call to Coach Cal? I've heard Pratt and other's told him it was in his best interest to do so.

I vividly remember the BCG Show on Sunday's Mornings after a beat-down "whipping" as he talked to Rob and you could almost smell the alcohol through the TV. (coughing, looked like he hadn't slept 2 hours & our lack of toughness talk) I hope the dude has his life straightened out. But he flat robbed the UK Administration.

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What is interesting is that had UK called Cal after Tubby left for Minny after the 2007 season, we would have been further along somewhat, and Billy Clyde, who was doing great at A&M, might not have had his life ruined. He could very well still be at Texas A&M and still doing well there !
 
CloverforkCat said:
What is interesting is that had UK called Cal after Tubby left for Minny after the 2007 season, we would have been further along somewhat, and Billy Clyde, who was doing great at A&M, might not have had his life ruined. He could very well still be at Texas A&M and still doing well there !
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i wish we would have gotten Cal instead of BCG
but when you look at the situation with Rose, it may have worked out the best that we got Cal two years later
BTW i think the NCAA did Memphis, Cal and Rose wrong
now think of what the NCAA would have tried to do to UK
 
I don't consider them a nightmare. We were the laughing stock of college basketball and everyone was jumping for joy. Then Cal arrived, the rest is history. We all must be saved at one point in our lives. Cal did that for UK. I like to view it as the forgotten days.
 
The really surrealistic times with Clyde were after he was fired, but was still hanging around Lexington (and other parts of the state). That stuff was just too bizarre- going to college bars, going to the Derby, and then the kicker with the golf outing that turned into a 2 am drunk driving arrest. Just too weird to seem real, but it was.

The other surrealistic aspect was how fast Cal changed it. Pretty much everyone thought Cal would turn UK around pretty quickly, but the sheer speed with which he assembled a top 5 team was mind-boggling as it was happening.
 
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Now that BCG has come and gone. And now that Cal has done what he's done, I wouldn't change a thing. You never know what would've/could've happened had Cal come a couple years earlier.

The NCAA might have come down hard on us. Cal might have left prematurely.Who knows. I'll gladly take those terrible two years for what has followed.
 
The nightmare would have been to wait the customary 3-4 years before letting him go in order to allow him to coach his own recruits. He really didn't recruit enough classes to lower the talent from the level it was at the time. Had that happened the house cleaning by Cal might have taken longer. The nightmare is that we exposed guys like Patterson, Meeks, Bradley, and Crawford to an insufficient coach for this level of program. As a recruit/player you have always anticipate that the coach might leave but expect someplace like Kentucky to replace that coach with a commensurate or better coach.
 
Nightmare for sure, but it's turned out all right for us, for UL fans not so much. Not meant as a knock on Mitch, I think he's a great AD, but someone really dropped the ball doing a background check on that clown.
 
The BCG years brought nothing but despair. We wasted a lot of good talent with BCG. He insisted on Michael Porter and Coury, and pressed Derrick Jasper to come back too soon.
He downplayed Meeks, humiliated probably every team member except for Porter and Coury, and simply blew his chance at the big time.

Its almost like we did no background check on him. The SEC tourney tornado was the icing on the cake for the BCG regime.

I am sure the rest of the SEC loved watching us implode internally, especially the smug Stallings.
 
It was real. People hated Tubby so much that they were falling all over themselves to support that fool, despite the red flags. However, if that was our penance to get Cal, then it was worth it.
 
Billy Clyde stunk it up, but he was the perfect villain. Cal was the perfect replacement. Let the villain take the heat for replacing Tubby and Cal gets the glory for saving us after BCG. Perfect.
 
Those BCG days were strange times indeed.

I doubt many would admit to be excited when he was hired. I was. I thought he would be great, and frankly I was tired of the general malaise from the Tubby era.

2008 - We dealt with the injuries to Meeks and Jasper during the early part of the season, so many of the losses (while tough to stomach) were explainable.... besides, we reasoned, Tubby left the cupboard bare. The team regrouped during conference play and made the NCAA tournament - although with Patterson going down with a stress fracture we didn't expect much from the team. There were still some causes for concern, that we simply chose to ignore. Why was Mark Coury starting so often? Why were the players always injured. Why are we recruiting all these mystery players (Hunter McClintock?). Why is Jasper transferring?

2009 - We got Patterson and Meeks back healthy, we were bringing in some interior help with Harrelson and some stud recruits with Liggins and Miller. We weren't going to have a repeat of the year before...... and then, we lost to VMI, got throttled by UNC, lost the lead/game to Miami, and then let Porter guard the final shot against UofL. Still, things weren't all bad. We rushed to a 16-4 record, Meeks scored 54 against Tennessee. We had 2 potential all americans and for sure the SEC POtY. Then....... BCG went crazy. He told Meeks he was selfish and shot too much. He told players not to set screens to get Meeks open and not to pass him the ball. The wheels fell off. The team went 3-8 to close the regular season with inexplicable losses to USC (x2), even losing to UGa.... on senior night..... to a team that hadn't won a road conference game all year.... and had already fired their coach...... all this with an NCAA tournament bid still hanging in the balance. Even then there was a very vocal minority that wanted to keep BCG around. If we fire him we might lose our stud recruits. How could we replace Jon Hood, Daniel Orton, Dominique Ferguson, Dakota Euton, Vinny Zollo?!?!??!?! How could we get a decent coach if we only gave BCG 2 years? While I previously admitted to wanting BCG at the outset, I had firmly changed my mind at this point. I think the 2nd USC loss killed his career. Everything after that point was just one more nail in his coffin.

It's crazy to look back on those days and wonder how UK got to that point. We used to hang on to any/every shred of recruiting news hoping and praying that there was a stud recruit that would consider us. We looked at recruits ranked in the 30s - 70s as program changers. We called a Hampton transfer a BEAST. I am so glad those days are gone.
 
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I too was among the UK fans that was SO damn ready for Tubby to hit the road, and I really thought BCG was a good hire.

Yes, nightmare describes his tenure here perfectly; the guy couldn't coach, couldn't recruit, and lived his life in a bottle.

The day they announced they had hired Cal I jumped for joy, as I knew he was the perfect fit for the Kentucky job. I hope he coaches until they have to wheel him to Rupp in a wheelchair.
 
Orville Boggs said:
Did it take us sinking to new depths never seen to finally get Mitch to make the call to Coach Cal? I've heard Pratt and other's told him it was in his best interest to do so.

I vividly remember the BCG Show on Sunday's Mornings after a beat-down "whipping" as he talked to Rob and you could almost smell the alcohol through the TV. (coughing, looked like he hadn't slept 2 hours & our lack of toughness talk) I hope the dude has his life straightened out. But he flat robbed the UK Administration.

Thoughts, Comments, Troll Reaction!
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Not as bad as the tubsters though ? His lasted so much longer !
 
I don't think Billy G was the nightmare. He was just a bad bad dream. Sutton was my nightmare.
 
I may be in the minority here but I liked Tubby (I even got to meet him a few times when I was at UK; wonderful guy!) even if he was a bit unlucky in the NCAA's (he may not have returned to the Final Four after the 1998 championship but he did go to the Elite Eight in 1999, 2003 (and ran the table in the SEC), 2005 (so so close, 2OT!) and in 2006 came a couple buckets short of upsetting Kansas in the second round. So perhaps the infamous BCG administration was our penance for the way much of our fan base treated Tubby. One thing's for sure, when in only BCG's second game we lost at Rupp to Garden-Webb of all teams, that had to be the fastest ending of a honeymoon I ever saw!
 
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Thankfully it's a nightmare that is receding in the past. One that makes me appreciate Coach Cal all the more.
 
Estil said:
I may be in the minority here but I liked Tubby (I even got to meet him a few times when I was at UK; wonderful guy!) even if he was a bit unlucky in the NCAA's (he may not have returned to the Final Four after the 1998 championship but he did go to the Elite Eight in 1999, 2003 (and ran the table in the SEC), 2005 (so so close, 2OT!) and in 2006 came a couple buckets short of upsetting Kansas in the second round. So perhaps the infamous BCG administration was our penance for the way much of our fan base treated Tubby. One thing's for sure, when in only BCG's second game we lost at Rupp to Garden-Webb of all teams, that had to be the fastest ending of a honeymoon I ever saw!
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Going to Minny and getting fired was Tubby's penance for not doing his job. Now, he is in the wasteland of Texas Tech. He is now in purgatory. UK got the best part of the deal. We got 2 years of BG and then a REAL coach in Calipari.
 
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No, the Tubby days seem a nightmare. BCG was gone in an instant. Tubby ball seemed to last half my lifetime and some people actually fought for him to STAY. The only good thing was Tubby interviews were great to take a nap to.
 
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Estil said:
I may be in the minority here but I liked Tubby (I even got to meet him a few times when I was at UK; wonderful guy!) even if he was a bit unlucky in the NCAA's (he may not have returned to the Final Four after the 1998 championship but he did go to the Elite Eight in 1999, 2003 (and ran the table in the SEC), 2005 (so so close, 2OT!) and in 2006 came a couple buckets short of upsetting Kansas in the second round. So perhaps the infamous BCG administration was our penance for the way much of our fan base treated Tubby. One thing's for sure, when in only BCG's second game we lost at Rupp to Garden-Webb of all teams, that had to be the fastest ending of a honeymoon I ever saw!
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You're right , you are in the minority . The very few and easily satisfied minority . LoL
 
Orville Boggs said:
Did it take us sinking to new depths never seen to finally get Mitch to make the call to Coach Cal? I've heard Pratt and other's told him it was in his best interest to do so.

I vividly remember the BCG Show on Sunday's Mornings after a beat-down "whipping" as he talked to Rob and you could almost smell the alcohol through the TV. (coughing, looked like he hadn't slept 2 hours & our lack of toughness talk) I hope the dude has his life straightened out. But he flat robbed the UK Administration.

Thoughts, Comments, Troll Reaction!
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Truthfully, I never give him a thought unless someone brings him up. Like you, I hope has conquered his personal demons and has his life in order.
 
Not going to lie, during the last part of the year when the rumors starting to flow in about Billy G, I was in the dumb ass group of thinking that he deserved one more year and I was worried that we was going lose all of our "top recuirts" lol . Thank god we got Coach Cal.
 
I simply try to block the two years of the mad scientist from my mind. They are the lost years.
 
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