Sure, bud! I'm any and all of the previous posters with whom you have disagreed with. There should be countless for you to choose from!
Now would you like to answer why some of you all have become so soft and entitled?
Former Cat Tom Heitz gets it
- Thread starter ukjenning44
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Now would you like to answer why some of you all have become so soft and entitled?
Why are their opinions irrelevant and yours is not??? I agree with him, Cal doesn't care about championships, for him it is all about getting to go to the NBA draft and sit with these guys as they are drafted.
Yet, the 2 players who play the most minutes are the least likely to get drafted.... how does what you said make any sense?
Dude you sound like a teenager.
Where in the hell did I "blast" Tom?
I posed the question if it was Brad who had OAD money the table would he have advised him to return to school and try to win a title.
I'm definitely not the only one in this thread to make the point that the game is not going to go back to how it was.
Of course we prefer titles. We have won 4 of them the last 65 plus years so we definitely need to win another one soon and should be due based on the average.
Sadly we won't win 9th until calipari is gone. He's not a worthy coach anymore and won't win anything that matters here again.
I had to look this guy up because I never heard of him and he didn't win a title during his time at UK either.
Sadly we won't win 9th until calipari is gone. He's not a worthy coach anymore and won't win anything that matters here again.
I had to look this guy up because I never heard of him and he didn't win a title during his time at UK either.
You're completely glossing over the culture that Cal himself has created, or at least allowed to fester while here. Yes, we love top rated recruits and want to get them. But Cal has created an environment where the only players that want to play for us already have one foot out the door before they even set foot on campus. And if a player doesn't think he will be drafted first round after year one, they transfer, pout or quit. He also doesn't recruit a good roster. He just goes after the highest rated recruits in the top 50 and hopes he can make a team out of them. He has no ability to create a system and recruit for that system. Just because you have 5 stars by your name doesn't mean you will be a success if your skill set doesn't match what the coach wants to do. Cal hasn't figured this out.
They speak for every "UK basketball first" fan.
23 different lineups against SC. TWENTY THREE. Don't give him an excuse either because 3 7 footers have been added to the roster. And how any of us Benny's would have handled it better doesnt mean squat. Cal is the one drawing the big salary to figure this shit out and manage the program. There should have been a sensible, workable plan already in place and a plan to tweek it (23!). Cal has too many mouths to feed this year and his NBA leaning agenda paralyzes him from making the hard choices. 23!
The problem is the coach.
The problem is the coach.
Cal makes deals or promises the only thing I can think of, he wants these so called 5 stars and promises them what ever but 5 stars don't always pan out.
Just admit it guys... Getting players drafted into the NBA and creating generational wealth is the top priority for the University of Kentucky's BB program. If we luck up and win a National Championship along the way, then it's just gravy for Cal and his supporters.
What me, you and every fan want is for his team to recruit the players that give his team the best chance to first win now, and second to have a program that is a perennial contender, right? But I think what you’re presenting is really a false dichotomy. You can recruit really good or projectable high school players (e.g., skilled higher floor/lower ceiling, tweeners, big men projects, etc.) every year – which UK seems to be doing some more now – to build a returning core (i.e., program builders). Good coaches from high school through college, including Calipari and his staff, can discern potential. And, at the same time, you can also recruit some OADs - other top programs do it every year. But, as another poster here has wisely stated to me, if you’re going to do that the key is that you need balance.
Why not rely so heavily on high school OADs? Because overwhelmingly the best college basketball players each season are upperclassmen – and teams anchored by those better upperclassmen are the ones going to FFs and winning championships. And in this new portal transfer era + NIL, a college All-Conference or even All-American can and often will transfer to one of the top programs, and especially, I think, a program like UK. So, if UKs returning players are not enough by themselves – and they never will be “good enough” if you think you can improve somewhere, right? – then you go after the best portal transfers as hard as you ever recruited high school OADs regardless of who has already committed. Again, because they’re generally and overwhelming going to be better college players in a one-year scenario.
Look at the projected draft boards. They’re chocked full of freshmen who aren’t even remotely close to the best players in their league, little alone college basketball. So, someone who assumes the highest projected draft picks must be the best players is just wrong. What those freshmen are, is players with the most projectable upside. The NBA teams already have the best players in the world, so they particularly don’t need the best players in college basketball (who may be close to maxing out their potential). What they want is to speculate on what a young kid might become – if all that “talent” actually develops into a high-level pro, then they have “won” the draft. If the kid never turns out, then it’s not that bad because, as I said, they already have really good (some great) players.
So, it’s not recruiting OADs that is, in my opinion, the problem. The problem is over-reliance on freshmen to carry your team and not bringing in the best players for the OADS to compete against. If the OAD beats out the returning player or transfer, then by all means he should play in front of them. But if he can’t – and history I think shows he frequently won’t – then let him come off the bench and help the team while he develops. Most 5-star freshmen on contending teams are role players with upside (where occasionally the “talent” will burst out in “wow” plays). And the NBA is still going to draft them on potential.
And if you tell me: “Well, the OAD high school recruits won’t come if they have to compete with good upperclassmen,” then I say fine, don’t take them. Would you rather have a player with more perceived “talent” who is leaving after one year or a player who has a bigger impact on winning now? Or stated another way, would you rather have a 5-star high school recruit or a college All-American (or even just All-Conference)? Would you rather have Edwards or McCullar (or Reeves or Knecht or Trey Alexander, or Dillon Jones or Tristan da Silva – and on-and-on)? Or, if you say it’s not fair using Edwards because he’s been a perceived “bust” (I don’t agree with that by the way), then substitute Cody Williams (Colorado) or Ja’Kobe Walker (Baylor) and those upperclassmen still have a much bigger impact on winning today than either.
Exactly ... PROGRAM FIRST. A rising tide lifts ALL boats ... not just the PLAYERS boat. PROGRAM FIRST and nothing else.
Let me save you the suspense. You are not stupid.
If his opinion is no longer relevant or correct as an explayer, then was is it that he's correct about CCC'S system and can't win didley squat and is the 3rd/4th best coach in the conference much less the nation. Oh, he can whine, b$$$h and moan about ""his boys" having to play against GAM and get embarrassed!!
Bradshaw said that we were more talented at EVERY position with 6 possible FIRST rd players while they didn't have a player that will sniff the nba. HE BUILT THIS and I'm sure he's perfectly satisfied he's accomplishing HIS goals while TOTALLY circumventing his duties of playing for a NC. It's getting old!
That sounds good in theory but the early signing period is Nov.
Do you hold scholly's even if you have 5 star talent wanting to commit.
There's no way to know what will be in the portal by Nov and the portal is the same as HS in that every class is not equal.
Waiting on the portal is a gamble at UK but not so much at UT because the best HS players have little interest in going there.
UK's biggest problem in the last 5-6 years is not getting the right 5 stars
Nobody is going to second guess Cal's creme of the crop recruits.
Nothing wrong with bringing in one & done talent, as much as it's putting that one & done talent above the success of the program.
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Ah, the old "do you still beat your wife" nonsense. Nice try. Why are you so cocky? Is it an affectation or do you actually believe you have the intellectual capacity to walk to the drinking fountain without falling down?
Ah, another loser who cherry picks his own posts. Did you or did you not point out that he was a reserve who had no pro future? Not so clever way of putting him down in order to discredit his opinion. It's pretty obvious what you did and why. Do you need me to draw you a chart?
And we still get out-rebounded with three (3) 7-foot players and a bunch of athletic 2's and 3's? WTF
Guess you are the one who doesn’t get it then, unless you are saying that more players in the NBA that played at UK is more important to you as a fan than KY actually having success and winning titles. And no the two don’t go hand in hand. How many players are now playing professionally from 2016-2023 that we never even made the final four?
You tried reading too much into Toms simple question when his question was really that simple.
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Do they still keep score in the games? Do they still count wins and losses? Is your place in the tournament based on your performance during the season? Do guys on other teams who play and win titles get blackballed by the NBA? I get exactly what he’s talking about and he’s right. Team game, team goals, teams win championships. Individual awards come at the end of the season, including draft positions. Exactly what is so hard to get?
I care about both. Y’all act like having NBA players hurts the program. We didn’t lose to South Carolina because of NBA players.
It was the truth.
Did you see him play?
They had 15 scholarships back then.
Tom was a third stringer.
So he had no shot at a pro career.
They had old school NIL back then and I'm sure he was on the short end of that as well.
I respect him as a man and that he played here.
It's easy to put down OAD when you're not a beneficiary of it, hence my question of what would he advised his nephew if he had been in a OAD position.
We lost to USC because of an overall lack of player experience and coaching, had nothing to do with "NBA Players".
And now you double down. Regardless of his status, he knows basketball better than you do and his opinion shouldn't be altered at all by what he did in college. You're making MASSIVE assumptions about his motivations, and that means you're guilty of confirmation bias because your agenda is to defend Cal at all costs. So you'll cut into some former players if necessary.
Are some of you really this dense?
Cal puts getting players drafted over winning games and championships at UK!
If he could do both it would be great. He lucked into it one time.
It’s time to get back to winning games and championships. We’re just a NBA farm team at this point.
Kansas seems to understand both Wins and Championships with less NBA talent. But even if Tom had the recipe, Cal is too ignorant to change his ways that worked 20yrs ago, and now he is trying a zone, that will last 2-3 minutes
Are you this dense? We lost to South Carolina because of the NBA is a moronic take. That’s not even close to being the reason why we lose or Cal’s bad 3 year run. Y’all are so anti Cal y’all grasp on to any ignorance just to be negative.
His offense and roster construction is why we had an awful 3 year run, not NBA players. He signed a 5’10 PG who can’t shoot in Wheeler because he wanted another NBA player on resume? Sure.
Bottom line you're going to see more and more players from Tom's era speak out on OAD and NIL.
Not just UK alums but from all school.
They look around at the current landscape of CBB are realize they didn't get shit compared to what they get now.
Sean Woods went on a little rant about how entitled UK's players were.
When Tom was here it was program first,second and third.
Here and everywhere else.
Only superstars got the booster perks.
I'm sure Tom was way more appreciative of his free education than today's players.
Are you a fan of OAD? Why don't you just sack up and state your own opinion instead of cutting into other people? I get it, it's easier to pick apart others instead of having to defend your own position, but it's lazy and predictable.
Since the new transfer portal, has UK ever not had available scholarships at the end of the season? In fact, I’m trying to remember if UK has ever had to turn down a player Calipari really wanted (freshman or otherwise) because of a lack of scholarships? It seems to me the real question is: “Is UK willing to recruit to win the best transfers regardless of what 5-star high school player has already committed?” If either the transfer or high school player isn’t willing to come because of competition, then you just don’t get that one. Fine, move on. But it seems to me that Calipari has been very good at getting guys to come regardless of who else is being recruited or already committed.
And arguing that the problem is just that UK is not getting the “right” OAD freshmen when they’re getting the No. 1 or 2 ranked recruiting class every year, is hard to take seriously. Even if just getting that one right OAD freshman guy every year was the answer – which I don’t believe at all - that argument creates an impossible method for success. You’d have to be perfect in identifying and getting that one guy every year. It’s a set up for - and a ready-made excuse for – failure.
I don’t have issues with bringing in those players but too many of them need to stay another year and Cal pushes them out to the NBA or transfer.
Good post, very thoughtful. But … when you lose multiple players every year … who and how do you recruit, if not looking for the best players available ?? If not high-schoolers, then who ?? Will Burks and Hart be here for 3/4 years ?? I can ask the questions, but do not have the answers …
It’s been more than 3 years. We’ve not been to a FF since 2015. Cal has lost to Tom Crean, Bruce Weber, Bruce Pearl without their best player Okeke, Holloway(St Peter’ed) there, and Jerome Tang.
Cal had much more talented rosters than any, he was just outcoached!
He will play players like Edwards and Whitney to get them drafted and not play someone like Sharpe to protect his draft status.
Cal is washed and has been since Wisconsin took his nuts. Instead of retiring so we can get back to winning, he would rather steal his 9 million per year while funneling the NBA.
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His first 6 recruiting classes were money.
Wall, Cousins,Knight,Jones MKG, Davis, Randle,Towns.
Replace those guys with
Avery Bradley
Derrick Favors
Josh Selby
CJ Leslie
Quincy Miller
Cody Zeller
Andrew Wiggins
Jahlil Okafor.
Group 2 is a hell of a recruiting haul but no way it would have produced the wins and FF's and Title.
Group 1 wasn't just 5 stars recruits, they were the right 5 star recruits.
Last 6 years has been opposite.
Highly rated overall classes but missing the true difference makers.
Of course, I can't say who will and who won't stay either - or for how long. But that's always been the case to some degree, right? Although it's definitely got to be a bigger issue now. Still, everybody is playing by the same rules when it comes to building rosters - and others seem to be able to create contending continuity. And would you agree with me that UK doesn't have to take a backseat to any program in CBB when it comes to attracting and keeping players?
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