Fair and objective player comps and why the media is horrifically wrong on this UK team.

[Son_Of_Saul]

Hang with me for a moment. I think the following player comps are actually a conservative estimate of productive output for the following season.
Top 10 rotation pieces only;

Lamont Butler = close to sophomore-level Wayne Turner (Final Four starter).
Kerr Kriisa = close to junior-level Jeff Sheppard (Final Four rotation piece).
Koby Brea = close to freshman-level Doron Lamb (Final Four starter).
Otega Oweh = close to sophomore-level Kalenna Azubuike (rotation piece on a #1 seed).
Jaxson Robinson = close to a senior-level Darius Miller (6th man for title team).
Collin Chandler = junior-level Jeff Brassow (rotation piece on Final Four team).
Ansley Almonon = sophomore-level Walter McCarty (rotation piece on top 3 seed).
Andrew Carr = sophomore-level Scott Padgett (starter on runner-up team).
Amari Williams = sophomore Nazr Mohammed (actually more skilled than Mohammed - runner-up for title).
Brandon Garrison = freshman-level Jamaal Magloire (rotation piece on Final Four team).

If you took those ten players from UK history, placed them at the noted level of development, and then brought them together next year, you'd have a heck of a team. It wouldn't be a title team, but it would be extremely competitive and they would be an extremely tough out that could beat just about anyone come March.

The media is overthinking lottery-level talent and not placing enough emphasis on quality depth and competent personnel at every position.

 

[DraftCat]

I'm on my 5th beer where you at? @Son_Of_Saul

 

[UKWildcats1987]

People on here have been saying for years preseason doesn't matter. Who cares.

Now that we have a new coach and some of the meaningless polls and pundits aren't getting on the fan viewed bandwagon, people seem to have issues with it.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

People on here have been saying for years preseason doesn't matter. Who cares.

Now that we have a new coach and some of the meaningless polls and pundits aren't getting on the fan viewed bandwagon, people seem to have issues with it.

The point of the thread is that we have much more talent than a 24th or 25th ranked team. Take Ron Mercer off the 1997 team and put Darius Miller and a sophomore Kalenna Azubuike on there, and that's what you basically have with this upcoming team (minus the cohesion).

If this team forms any type of real chemistry, our floor is a lot higher than people (even fans) suggest.

 

[DraftCat]

For the record I think we are a top 10 team and I've been saying that since we got our last commitment for this year.

New HC and a strong SEC obviously is creating some doubt from certain media members. Which yea sure there is an extreme amount of turnover now days so it's hard to project college players.

I like our chances that's all I'm going to say and I think we have the right coach and right system to compete moving forward.

 

[TOMCATS1990]

It all boils down to how well all these players can come together and play team basketball in one season. CAL struggled to get mostly freshman but seasoned teams as well to progress and play well in March especially the last 5 seasons. We have talent and plenty of elite college talent but not elite NBA talent. Should be a solid Top 20 team and get better as the season rolls along at least I hope we are.

 

[BBNinSC]

They won’t be sleeping on this team long. I expect Kentucky to have people talking before Thanksgiving

 

[know1]

The point of the thread is that we have much more talent than a 24th or 25th ranked team. Take Ron Mercer off the 1997 team and put Darius Miller and a sophomore Kalenna Azubuike on there, and that's what you basically have with this upcoming team (minus the cohesion).

If this team forms any type of real chemistry, our floor is a lot higher than people (even fans) suggest.

Agreed. This team is much better than just in the top 25. There's no way they aren't.

 

[Blueisbest]

Beat the media darlings from Duke and they will have no choice but to re-evaluate this team.

 

[zoid1]

It’s really simple SOS why we are ranked lower than expected. 1. First and foremost new coach who is 0-2 in the big dance. 2. With a new coach comes a new system to learn. 3. None of these players have played together yet or in this system sans Robinson and that's why everybody tags him as a starter and the biggest get yet. 4. We supposedly don't have a star go to player. 5. The SEC is gonna be rough from top to bottom night in night out. 6. Other teams have established coaches, systems and players that have come back this year.

That's what a person who don't wear blue tinted glasses will say like the media who ranked us.

Now here's what UK fans will counter with like me.

1. Our new coach has more talent than he's ever had by far. He's back at his alma mater were he won a title and was captain. He's one of the best up and coming coaches in the nation who is a offensive genius. If BYU can get a 6 seed and make them competitive with all the restrictions what is he gonna do at UK with all our resources.
2. We have Robinson who has played 2 years under coach's system and in the SEC. We have 9 upperclassmen including 7 senior's or super seniors so the learning curve will be much easier and we should be playing his system to it's full potential much quicker than a frosh dominant team.
3. Again we have a big advantage in chemistry because these players are not 18 most are 22 and ready to go out of college with a bang. The learning curve again should be much easier with older players. Plus a big advantage the media doesn't talk about is our experience which includes over 800 games played with over 500 starts among our 9 upperclassmen.
4. We have a bunch of experienced players and play a system that's doesn't require a single player get 30 but we do have a coach that can draws up plays to get us what we need to do to win. But we do have players who will get hot and could drop 30 on any given night in this system.
5. We've dominated the SEC since it's inception and had challenges for the throne but it all runs thru Lexington historically.
6. We play offense and defense to our full potential we can beat anybody on any given night.

 

[Rideordiewildcat]

Hang with me for a moment. I think the following player comps are actually a conservative estimate of productive output for the following season.
Top 10 rotation pieces only;

Lamont Butler = close to sophomore-level Wayne Turner (Final Four starter).
Kerr Kriisa = close to junior-level Jeff Sheppard (Final Four rotation piece).
Koby Brea = close to freshman-level Doron Lamb (Final Four starter).
Otega Oweh = close to sophomore-level Kalenna Azubuike (rotation piece on a #1 seed).
Jaxson Robinson = close to a senior-level Darius Miller (6th man for title team).
Collin Chandler = junior-level Jeff Brassow (rotation piece on Final Four team).
Ansley Almonon = sophomore-level Walter McCarty (rotation piece on top 3 seed).
Andrew Carr = sophomore-level Scott Padgett (starter on runner-up team).
Amari Williams = sophomore Nazr Mohammed (actually more skilled than Mohammed - runner-up for title).
Brandon Garrison = freshman-level Jamaal Magloire (rotation piece on Final Four team).

If you took those ten players from UK history, placed them at the noted level of development, and then brought them together next year, you'd have a heck of a team. It wouldn't be a title team, but it would be extremely competitive and they would be an extremely tough out that could beat just about anyone come March.

The media is overthinking lottery-level talent and not placing enough emphasis on quality depth and competent personnel at every position.

You lost me early with Kerr and Shep.

 

[BBUK]

The point of the thread is that we have much more talent than a 24th or 25th ranked team. Take Ron Mercer off the 1997 team and put Darius Miller and a sophomore Kalenna Azubuike on there, and that's what you basically have with this upcoming team (minus the cohesion).

If this team forms any type of real chemistry, our floor is a lot higher than people (even fans) suggest.

I was "gonna" start drinking a Yuengling or two. Did I already? Like the way you think in any event...

 

[KentuckyMildCats]

I just think it's hard for anyone to speculate - us fans or the media, without actually ever seeing them play together. Im just kicking it until preseason is here

 

[Titpwhami2014]

Hang with me for a moment. I think the following player comps are actually a conservative estimate of productive output for the following season.
Top 10 rotation pieces only;

Lamont Butler = close to sophomore-level Wayne Turner (Final Four starter).
Kerr Kriisa = close to junior-level Jeff Sheppard (Final Four rotation piece).
Koby Brea = close to freshman-level Doron Lamb (Final Four starter).
Otega Oweh = close to sophomore-level Kalenna Azubuike (rotation piece on a #1 seed).
Jaxson Robinson = close to a senior-level Darius Miller (6th man for title team).
Collin Chandler = junior-level Jeff Brassow (rotation piece on Final Four team).
Ansley Almonon = sophomore-level Walter McCarty (rotation piece on top 3 seed).
Andrew Carr = sophomore-level Scott Padgett (starter on runner-up team).
Amari Williams = sophomore Nazr Mohammed (actually more skilled than Mohammed - runner-up for title).
Brandon Garrison = freshman-level Jamaal Magloire (rotation piece on Final Four team).

If you took those ten players from UK history, placed them at the noted level of development, and then brought them together next year, you'd have a heck of a team. It wouldn't be a title team, but it would be extremely competitive and they would be an extremely tough out that could beat just about anyone come March.

The media is overthinking lottery-level talent and not placing enough emphasis on quality depth and competent personnel at every position.

Great comps. It’s going to take them a while to develop chemistry. As we just saw with Team USA, you can bring the best players together but chemistry doesn’t just magically happen. It will take them 20 games to hit their stride. But when they do? They’ll be that team in March you’re praying doesn’t wind up in your region.

 

[jwphelps]

Hang with me for a moment. I think the following player comps are actually a conservative estimate of productive output for the following season.
Top 10 rotation pieces only;

Lamont Butler = close to sophomore-level Wayne Turner (Final Four starter).
Kerr Kriisa = close to junior-level Jeff Sheppard (Final Four rotation piece).
Koby Brea = close to freshman-level Doron Lamb (Final Four starter).
Otega Oweh = close to sophomore-level Kalenna Azubuike (rotation piece on a #1 seed).
Jaxson Robinson = close to a senior-level Darius Miller (6th man for title team).
Collin Chandler = junior-level Jeff Brassow (rotation piece on Final Four team).
Ansley Almonon = sophomore-level Walter McCarty (rotation piece on top 3 seed).
Andrew Carr = sophomore-level Scott Padgett (starter on runner-up team).
Amari Williams = sophomore Nazr Mohammed (actually more skilled than Mohammed - runner-up for title).
Brandon Garrison = freshman-level Jamaal Magloire (rotation piece on Final Four team).

If you took those ten players from UK history, placed them at the noted level of development, and then brought them together next year, you'd have a heck of a team. It wouldn't be a title team, but it would be extremely competitive and they would be an extremely tough out that could beat just about anyone come March.

The media is overthinking lottery-level talent and not placing enough emphasis on quality depth and competent personnel at every position.

Some of the media are Cal pal's and are down playing UK as a favor for Cal.

 

[BlueSince92]

Some of those are stretching/wishful thinking. And I say that not because the comparisons are all that unreasonable, but because, for example, you’re going to need to get lucky in order to have Andrew Carr really wind up pulling the same net weight as Scott Padgett pulled in his title year, once we get deep into the season and the competition heightens and smart opponents with serious size and talent know how to play us and we start having to beat them on what we can get even despite them knowing that.

And you can absolutely get that lucky. But it’s gonna be problematic to get that lucky in every single one of the three or four cases where you would need to get that lucky in order to strictly bear this out. So again, to me this view involves a hearty helping of wishful thinking.

But all the same, everyone is thinking wishfully somehow or other at this point. Even the people basing their outputs on the highest rated players and the most successful teams from last year who have the most promising turnover on paper.

So I don’t find your estimation unreasonable at all, ultimately. If it proves to be a little different than reality winds up playing out, I frankly think it will still be closer than the predictions of most if not all of the people who guessed wildly differently about us, by hedging their bets on the other side.

 

[Cats192]

I’ve said since the roster was finalized: this is a top 15 roster.

This garbage about 9th in the SEC is laughable.

 

[Bkocats]

It’s the unknown
as excited as 95% of us are, no one can really say with any certainty how good we may or may not be
I personally think we are being underestimated
And I like where we are..this team will have to work for position.
I also understand WHY we are rated where we are
It won’t matter at the end of the season

 

[king of cali]

You lost me early with Kerr and Shep.

Same. Didn’t read anything after that.

 

[Swimcat20]

The game, the team, the coach, I don’t know what to think. It’s all changed so much It’s too hard to predict. I think we’ll know what we’ve got by Thanksgiving