Fwiw, Roberts thinks we wind up w/ Quickley, Shittu and one of Zion/Barrett/Johnson
- Thread starter Smashcat
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If one of the three is Barrett, I will be happy. If one of the three is Zion, and Barrett doesn't go to Duke, I will be happy. Any other "one of the three" result will piss me off.
Honestly I think it's more likely that we end up with two of the three then just one. And all three isn't out of the question.
Just imagine if someone had told us back in 2008 that we could be "pissed off" if our recruiting class included the #2, #8, and #10 player in the class. Or for that matter at any point in history prior to Cal coming here.
Quickley,Shittu,Barrett please and thank you with a side of Vanderbilt or Washington/SKJ on the side and Barker/Alexander to top it off.
A conclusion based on a faulty premise, namely that this will be a small class due to the number of returning players.
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The issue is that if Barrett goes to Duke, we are officially losing the arms race. It's one thing to miss on a recruit. It's an entirely different thing to lose nearly every top 10 recruiting battle to the same school.
Yeppp. People need to get off the nut hugging Duke train.
By many people's opinions Duke is the only program doing things right and everyone else is - literally every other college coach/ basketball program is failing to live up to even good expectations.
This. The issue isn't losing a top-10 talent, it's losing a top-10 talent to Duke. However, there's some time (presumably) before these guys decide, and I'm not sure anyone has a great feel for where any of these guys will go, minus Quickley (consensus being UK).
It means we lost this year, for sure. But not convined we are losing the race or that we lost the war.
Tre Jones and Reddish were locks for a while, specifically Jones who Coach K conned into going to Duke because his brother went there.. (By the way, Bonus Points for being a spineless sack and not branching out from your brother, who already won a title there).
Kentucky also has the rare occasion where next years roster has serious question marks on it, but the good kind.. We have no graduating seniors of note, and a giant class this year where many of the recruits will probably come back. Might make for a thinner class, but again, not inherently a bad thing.
Whether or not we are losing nearly every recruiting battle of the top ten to Duke may or may not be the reality, but this will quickly become the perception if Barrett goes to Duke.
And with some of players we will inevitably have return, I would be ecstatic with a class of Shittu, Quickley and Zion/ barret/ or Johnson.
We'd be sitting VERY pretty for the following year.
I'll say it again, I hope some of the naysayers start to appreciate what we have right now. Because I'm pretty sure this recruiting success , tournament sucesss etc won't be duplicated to the degree which we see now.
We're in the midst of an AMAZING run, and time
To be a UK fan.
If you find yourself being downtrodden and severely upset "underachieving " every year we don't win a title ... if that's the case Try and remember that literally every other team and fan Base (sans Duke (for the Duke obsessed peeps ) and whoever happens to win the title ) is underachieving, inferior etc.
Cal, 90+ % of the time has us in the discussion for a legit finial four / title run EVERY single year. Literally every year. That's pretty awesome and very very very few teams can say that year in and year out.
We'd be sitting VERY pretty for the following year.
I'll say it again, I hope some of the naysayers start to appreciate what we have right now. Because I'm pretty sure this recruiting success , tournament sucesss etc won't be duplicated to the degree which we see now.
We're in the midst of an AMAZING run, and time
To be a UK fan.
If you find yourself being downtrodden and severely upset "underachieving " every year we don't win a title ... if that's the case Try and remember that literally every other team and fan Base (sans Duke (for the Duke obsessed peeps ) and whoever happens to win the title ) is underachieving, inferior etc.
Cal, 90+ % of the time has us in the discussion for a legit finial four / title run EVERY single year. Literally every year. That's pretty awesome and very very very few teams can say that year in and year out.
Duke loses everything next year and on paper, we don't.
All things being equal, they probably should outduel us for OAD's this cycle.
If we end up losing everyone and not reloading, it could hurt. But what if we get 3 top 10ish guys and add them to Green, Shai, Baker, and maybe Washington and Gabriel?
All of the sudden we return depth and pretty good talent. Probably look more like the UNC team that just played in back to back title games.
Which ultimately is the point of all this anyway. Build the best team however we can do it.
I love getting top 3 picks, and I hope we do. But blending together 2-3 classes of top 10-20 guys may be just as good, if not better (if there's no mass exodus).
All things being equal, they probably should outduel us for OAD's this cycle.
If we end up losing everyone and not reloading, it could hurt. But what if we get 3 top 10ish guys and add them to Green, Shai, Baker, and maybe Washington and Gabriel?
All of the sudden we return depth and pretty good talent. Probably look more like the UNC team that just played in back to back title games.
Which ultimately is the point of all this anyway. Build the best team however we can do it.
I love getting top 3 picks, and I hope we do. But blending together 2-3 classes of top 10-20 guys may be just as good, if not better (if there's no mass exodus).
I honestly think we get a class of the following.
Quickly
Barrett
Johnson
Zion
Shittu
That will be the #1 class and with what we will have returning could be Calipari's best team here.
Quickly
Barrett
Johnson
Zion
Shittu
That will be the #1 class and with what we will have returning could be Calipari's best team here.
Well, that depends on your definition of a "battle." You don't think K would have liked Fox? You don't think he would have liked Monk or Bam? Did he lose the battle on these guys, or did he just not recruit them (after it became clear he had little chance)?
Duke doesn't make it publicly known they are going after a player until they think they have them wrapped up. They are able to do this because they control the Internet recruiting hacks (If you don't believe this, just look at the post Bossi made on this site regarding Barrett. He came to a UK board and lead with the fact that Reddish to Duke would have no impact on Barrett. He then wrote the most lackluster assessment possible, despite the AAU coach coming out later and saying "it couldn't have gone any better.")
Cal, on the other hand, never backs down from a fight. He'll keep going for a guy he wants to the bitter end; even if it means looking like he lost a "battle." He's more interested in staying in the fight until the end than he is saving face.
IMO we need Zion and Barrett to be the best team next year. Guys, Diallo, PJ, Vandy, Richards, and Knox are all gone next year. They will all go first or early second round. Quickley is a luxury not a need. Need a beast inside and out and we can win this thing next year
Good points. We'll no doubt have some departures this year like always. But I do think we'll have some very good returning talent; more than usual. And if we can add Barrett and/or Zion to the Quickley/Shittu type guys, our talent level will look scarily close to how it looked in 2012. I've felt for a while, and I'm still cautiously optimistic, that the 18-19 year could be a perfect storm, the likes of which George Clooney wouldn't even sail into.
That's fine. But back in the early 2000s every recruit was going to UNC, UConn, Duke... and outside of 2004 we were picking up scraps. That was my point.
Frankly I want Zion Williamson most out of all those guys. Long term I think Barrett/Reddish might be better players, but we only get them for 1 year regardless, and I think Zion is best suited to make an immediate impact in college. Not to mention I think B/R are (or would be) somewhat redundant on the same team. I would love to get Barrett and Zion, so if we can swing that, let's do it.
Even IF that happens, and even IF the "perception" is that way (it shouldn't be) ... who cares ?
So just because we may sometimes have the #2 overall class (and many times still #1) or we lose "battles" to Duke for top 5 recruits .. ... then ...what ? Should we make coaching changes lol? I mean cmon ...We're failing? We should make changes? Still doing better recruiting wise than literally every other school.
What do fans of every other college program think if this is the case? If Kentucky should just give up and accept that they will be "second fiddle" I guess that means every other school/ coach should to.
Duke is the only solid, successful program. They will win the title year after year
Self, izzo, miller, Marshall, Wright ... and every other " top tier " (or any coach) should just ... be fired? Be put on the hot seat? Accept the fact that no matter what , (unless they win the title every year and get better recruits than Duke) , they're accomplishments, wins, etc are moot. Not important.
Ok, so say we do lose RJ to Duke. So what ? Say we lose 3 more top 10 talents to Duke ... it is what it is. Who cares? We're still gonna bring it elite recruits , year after year after year and still - majority of the time- be in the discussion for a final four / title run right along with Duke, Unc, zona, msu, KU... etc .
I mean it sucks, but all these threads and obsession/ fear of Duke is ridiculous
I imagine we'll lose 1 or 2 more guys than we thought.. but I;ve said all along there's no way we don't return one or two (or three) of Knox/Richards/Gabriel/SKJ/Tai/Washington.. Just too many players for 2 positions for people to show out. Shai is also pretty raw, and Green seems like a 2-year guy.
LOL at the constant Duke hand wringing . UK can't be the only powerful recruiter as there are too many good players. UNC and KU in the mid 00's were the 2 powers at it and now UK and Duke but UK is still #1 as they have gotten more great talent then anyone . Shittu ,Quickly , Zion , Barrett , a top 25 sg and another top 30 PF will be our class if I had to bet.
I'd make a friendly wager right now that we don't lose all 5. Richards has 2 year player written all over him. If he doesn't pick up the college game right away, his minutes will go to any of the other 3-4 PFs (even though he's a truce center).. There won't be much wiggle room for Richards.
Richards was projected at 14 in one of the major draft boards. Pure potential no doubt. He may stay but it is unlikely based on early draft boards.
In regards to me, there is no obsession or fear of Duke, I'm just stating a point.
In my opinion the Duke talk is so prevalent here on this board because Kentucky and Duke are at the top of the game. Not only that, but Duke is getting players that some analysts/reports had said were "iffy" in regards to eligibility status (Bagley and Duval) and will in all likelihood be cleared. You add all of these things together, along with the other factors such as academic hypocrisy, easy tourney roads and the media's insatiable love of Coach K and you get a recipe for a lot of commentary.
As far as the recent run for Duke re: recruiting, you would have to be seriously looking the other way not to realize that Duke is on a recruiting roll right now. With that said, someone did make a solid point earlier when they stated that the perception right now of Duke picking anyone they want, can be contributed in large part to the recruiting analysts like Zagoria, Borzello, Slater, and others that seem to be very pro Duke.
Ultimately, you're right. What does any of it matter? It's just a bummer that Duke (for all of the aforementioned reasons) has the perception that it has at the moment.
A couple UK commitments will hopefully lighten the mood some, but the Jones, Bagley, and Reddish stretch has sucked.
Well said. Barrett to UK would do wonders for all of us. Put Zion with him and I don't care who Duke gets.
It is a very achievable class and one I see us getting.
I think a lot of folks don't expect us to have the turnover this year that we typically have. ESPN has an article about incoming freshmen and don't mention any of our guys. So I think they believe we will not have many open spots.
Agree. It is not unrealistic to think that we get Quickley, Barrett, Shittu, and Williamson. If so, I will be real happy.
So Duke beats us for Reddish, Bolden, Bagley* and...? and now they're taking all the top 10 recruits from us?
Because we have Knox, took Gabriel, took Murray, and pulled Bam from their backyard in the last three years. Not to mention Quade Green who they absolutely wanted but was outside the top 10-ish rankings.
We aren't going after a lot of the same guys. They got Jones, we want Quickley. We didn't pursue Trent or Carter. They didn't go after Washington or Diallo. We both wanted Bamba and missed.
You guys just look for reasons to whine.
Because we have Knox, took Gabriel, took Murray, and pulled Bam from their backyard in the last three years. Not to mention Quade Green who they absolutely wanted but was outside the top 10-ish rankings.
We aren't going after a lot of the same guys. They got Jones, we want Quickley. We didn't pursue Trent or Carter. They didn't go after Washington or Diallo. We both wanted Bamba and missed.
You guys just look for reasons to whine.
Last time we got the #1 and #2 player in the class it worked out well for both UK and Davis/MKG.
