Glass half full post. Sort of I guess

[Montana81]

a few things that are a little more positive.

It wasn't an upset. We all knew this was going to be a tough game and the odds were against us to get out of this region. No team has ever beaten 3 30 win teams just to get to the final four.

All things considered, I feel like we met expectations. dominated the sec. Won 30+ games and we were expected to compete for a title and we did. I don't know about you guys but I had UNC and Kentucky 4/5 preseason and that's almost exactly how we finished.

Kansas had a worse loss. They were a pretty heavy favorite against a lesser seed, playing a de facto home game and got beaten convincingly.

The outlook for next season is shaky, but the season after that is setting up to be another juggernaut. A lot of the guys we got in the next recruiting class aren't sure fire one and dones but will probably play a ton of minutes. And then the season after that we get the offseason road trip just like in 2015.

Speaking of Kansas, we gained 1 win on them in the all time wins list thanks to a late season 13 game win streak and Bill self doing what bill self does in both the big12 and NCAA tournament ts. At one point that looked bleak.

It's taken a lot of great coaches a long time to figure out how to finish in March. Cal has only been in this position of coaching a perennial contender for about a decade now.

Coach K went to 6 final fours in an 8 year stretch at one point and finally won the last 2. Then he didn't win another one for a decade. And then another decade after that. Cal is putting us in a position more often than any other program. He's just gotta figure out how to finish another one off. Only a matter of time IMO.

 

[Kuhldaddy]

Very sensible post. Not sure everyone is ready for a sensible post yet.lol

 

[JStaff2187]

I know everyone is different, but for me 30 wins, both conference championships and an elite 8 is a successful season.

Anyone who thought this team would accomplish the above after the Florida loss is lying to themselves.

 

[Sawnee Cat]

a few things that are a little more positive.

It wasn't an upset. We all knew this was going to be a tough game and the odds were against us to get out of this region. No team has ever beaten 3 30 win teams just to get to the final four.

All things considered, I feel like we met expectations. dominated the sec. Won 30+ games and we were expected to compete for a title and we did. I don't know about you guys but I had UNC and Kentucky 4/5 preseason and that's almost exactly how we finished.

Kansas had a worse loss. They were a pretty heavy favorite against a lesser seed, playing a de facto home game and got beaten convincingly.

The outlook for next season is shaky, but the season after that is setting up to be another juggernaut. A lot of the guys we got in the next recruiting class aren't sure fire one and dones but will probably play a ton of minutes. And then the season after that we get the offseason road trip just like in 2015.

Speaking of Kansas, we gained 1 win on them in the all time wins list thanks to a late season 13 game win streak and Bill self doing what bill self does in both the big12 and NCAA tournament ts. At one point that looked bleak.

It's taken a lot of great coaches a long time to figure out how to finish in March. Cal has only been in this position of coaching a perennial contender for about a decade now.

Coach K went to 6 final fours in an 8 year stretch at one point and finally won the last 2. Then he didn't win another one for a decade. And then another decade after that. Cal is putting us in a position more often than any other program. He's just gotta figure out how to finish another one off. Only a matter of time IMO.

So we may win it again in 2022 and then sometime in the 2030's.

Based on past history that is about what we can expect and hope for.

 

[ubtrapper]

So we may win it again in 2022 and then sometime in the 2030's.

Based on past history that is about what we can expect and hope for.

Lol I guess that wouldn't be to bad considering we have 8 in a century!

 

[turismo3088]

I told friends and acquaintances when John Calipari was hired that all I wanted was for UK to be a contender each year. Especially after the Billy Clyde debacle.

I wasn't very optimistic vs UCLA and less so against UNC, but we had our chances to close it and couldn't (or wasn't allowed to).

That being said, the late tourney losses still sting like hell and I'm going to miss the Dom, and Willis chipping in their part.

Next up.

 

[WildMoon]

The ironic thing is... (Excluding how UNC ends).

This season actually improved the gap between 1st and 2nd place.

UK's all time win gap increased
Cal's tourney record gap between him and Coach K increased by 2.

Like you said we won regular / tourney SEC.

I still wish we had gotten to Final four.

Felt like UCLA game makes us far to focused on UCLA, and not the whole weekend.

 

[flappyflappy]

This is the best post on the board. All you can realistically hope for is to be a contender - to be in the hunt. The tournament is random, and Cal's record has been great. Dean Smith had the best program for 25 years, and won 2. K has won 5, but he's been there almost 40 years, and lucked into at least 1 if not 2 of them. Self and the great Izzo - one each. It's just really hard.

And I think our fan base has become way too unrealistic. It's ok to always want a championship, but it's not ok to treat everything short of that as depressing. We are in the hunt and in the conversation almost every year. In a random one-loss-and-out tournament, that's all you can hope for. It's irrational to expect more than that.

I remember the tubby/gillespie years - the worst part was the irrelevance. I'm upset too, but I think we need some perspective to see how lucky we are to be experiencing this historically great period in our program.