How would Cal fare with UConn's roster?

[seccats04]

I think it's obvious to most of us that Cal can only win with highly ranked players, who are good enough to overcome his lack of coaching. This got me thinking, how would Cal do with UConn's roster this year? They had a roster full of 4 stars and a bunch of transfers from mid major schools. UConn's 4 stars got a lot better the last few years because they have a coach who develops players over the course of their career. Let's look at Cal's guys who have stuck around for more than 1 year recently:

Wheeler- worse the 2nd year, bad enough for him to quit
Toppin- same player for 2 years, got marginally better his 3rd year but was maddeningly inconsistent
Ware- came in a garbage player, still a garbage player, has not developed even one offensive move
Oscar- good his 2nd year but not as good as the 1st year
Collins- didn't improve at all, same player as 1st year
Fredrick- DNP 1st year due to injury but was terrible this year and a big step down from his Iowa career
Brooks- same player for 3 years, never got better, just played more minutes
Allen- never developed
Hagans- never got better
Montgomery- never got better
Richards- improved a lot his 3rd year
Quickley- really improved his 2nd year but played behind Dragon until he quit the team
Gabriel- never got better

Cal's track record is not good with retaining players and when they actually do return, his results are terrible for guys actually improving over the course of 2-3 years. So, what would Cal have done with UConn's roster this year? We'll never know but if recent history is any indicator, they would've had at least 10 losses and an early round exit.

 

[BlueBomb]

Right now, I have no faith that Cal can succeed with ANY roster. He's lost all his mojo. He's done.

 

[Magilla Gorillla]

NIT

 

[Lempface]

Not sure this means anything at all. Part of what makes sport interesting is differing philosophies.

In football you have the air raid vs the wish bone offense. If you swapped coaches from one to the other would you expect either coach to be as good with the other rosters? Probably not because they didn’t have a hand in building the roster to their philosophy.

I also don’t think Cal wins a title with their roster but I also don’t see that as a negative on Cal.

You can argue his philosophy is outdated, not fun to watch, can’t win against new philosophies etc, but it’s disingenuous to shit on a coach because you don’t think he can win with a roster built with an opposing philosophy.

I think a better question is if Cal was at UConn for the same length as Hurley would he have won a championship?

 

[ukjenning44]

Would‘ve probably been another 9-16 season honestly.

 

[Untouchables22]

UCONN’s secret sauce in the post season….was that they ran a very large amount of SET PLAYS on offense on almost every possession. They also frequently changed the set plays during the tournament run and installed new stuff so the opponent couldn’t scout them very well. So obviously Cal would never employ that strategy and he would NEVER install new plays during the NCAA tournament. Additionally the reason UCONN ran all those set plays was because they had to in order to get Hawkins and Calcanterra open looks for 3. Cal can’t get his players to run a set play for an outside shooter to save his life. So no he wouldn’t have done anything with UCONN’s roster this year. He would have forced his offense on players who weren’t equipped to run it.

 

[seccats04]

Not sure this means anything at all. Part of what makes sport interesting is differing philosophies.

In football you have the air raid vs the wish bone offense. If you swapped coaches from one to the other would you expect either coach to be as good with the other rosters? Probably not because they didn’t have a hand in building the roster to their philosophy.

I also don’t think Cal wins a title with their roster but I also don’t see that as a negative on Cal.

You can argue his philosophy is outdated, not fun to watch, can’t win against new philosophies etc, but it’s disingenuous to shit on a coach because you don’t think he can win with a roster built with an opposing philosophy.

I think a better question is if Cal was at UConn for the same length as Hurley would he have won a championship?

As stated above, Cal's best teams have had superstar freshmen players (2010, 2012, 2015, 2017) and the teams where he didn't have NBA all stars struggled a lot of the time. Could Cal have convinced those superstar players to UConn? I dunno.

 

[kartmd]

Cal couldn’t win with the 2015 UK roster, so pretty much any other roster aside from maybe early 70s UCLA, Cal is going home early to pet his dogs

 

[Catfan2226]

Right now, I have no faith that Cal can succeed with ANY roster. He's lost all his mojo. He's done.

Exactly

 

[GoToTexas]

He almost assuredly would have played Clingan (the big 7 footer) with Sanogo (the star big) waaaaaaay too much and ruined everything. Calcaterra wouldn’t have played. Ever. And at least one of those other stud guards (Hawkins, Newton, Jackson) would have transferred for being buried at the end of the bench so some 6’8 dude could play the 3 along with the other two bigs and brick long jumpers game after game.

Sound about right?

 

[jedwar]

I have zero faith in Cal to build a roster, coach a roster, develop players on a roster or to just manage a program in today's climate. None.

 

[Catfan2226]

I have zero faith in Cal to build a roster, coach a roster, develop players on a roster or to just manage a program in today's climate. None.

My sentiments as well

 

[Farsight]

Why can't folks get it through their head it's NOT the roster. It's COACH CAL.

If it was the Roster, FAU, SDSU would have never made the Final 4.

It's all COACHING. Talent is apart of it yes, but what makes it cohesive is the COACH.

 

[Lempface]

Cal couldn’t win with the 2015 UK roster, so pretty much any other roster aside from maybe early 70s UCLA, Cal is going home early to pet his dogs

Lol couldn’t win with the 2015 roster, who lost one game all season. It’s a one and done tournament. How many NBA champions ran through the playoffs without dropping a game?

Save you some time, it’s never been done.

 

[Chitown Terry]

My sentiments as well

That's why he's in the Hall of Fame and I believe ranked 16th all-time in wins among college coaches. You're talking nonsense. The average fan may be frustrated but doesn't believe your nonsense. What do you and all of the people on this forum know about coaching? Most real fans will continue to support the team and the coach.

 

[ukjenning44]

UCONN’s secret sauce in the post season….was that they ran a very large amount of SET PLAYS on offense on almost every possession. They also frequently changed the set plays during the tournament run and installed new stuff so the opponent couldn’t scout them very well. So obviously Cal would never employ that strategy and he would NEVER install new plays during the NCAA tournament. Additionally the reason UCONN ran all those set plays was because they had to in order to get Hawkins and Calcanterra open looks for 3. Cal can’t get his players to run a set play for an outside shooter to save his life. So no he wouldn’t have done anything with UCONN’s roster this year. He would have forced his offense on players who weren’t equipped to run it.

Spot on!

 

[GoToTexas]

Lol couldn’t win with the 2015 roster, who lost one game all season. It’s a one and done tournament. How many NBA champions ran through the playoffs with out dropping a game?

Save you some time, it’s never been done.

Damn, didn’t know NBA champs only had to win 6 games.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

What's sad is that Cal 10+ years ago probably gets an Elite8 out of this team or beyond. Andre Jackson would be perfect for Cal's tougher style of play back then.

Now? He likely misuses half of these guys en route to missing the tournament completely.

Really is such a weird scenario.

 

[jedwar]

That's why he's in the Hall of Fame and I believe ranked 16th all-time in wins among college coaches. You're talking nonsense. The average fan may be frustrated but doesn't believe your nonsense. What do you and all of the people on this forum know about coaching? Most real fans will continue to support the team and the coach.

Fans know what we see is not working. To say real fans support the team and coach is weak. Yes fans support, but fans also want better and more accountability.

 

[littlecreek]

I have no faith that Cal would have won it with them. If he couldn’t win it in 2015 with that roster there’s no way. You know, we should have seen this coming when he didn’t win in that world basketball competition several years ago. I don’t remember what it was but he was really embarrassed by his coaching with all of the talent he had. Maybe it was just prior to one of the Olympics.

 

[Lempface]

Damn, didn’t know NBA champs only had to win 6 games.

Damn, didn’t know you were unable to compare two similar but different things. Obviously they need to win 16 and not 6.

I don’t know where to find the data but I’d bet you there is a significant number of champs that lost one of their first 6 games in the playoffs.

 

[Lempface]

Damn, didn’t know you were unable to compare two similar but different things. Obviously they need to win 16 and not 6.

I don’t know where to find the data but I’d bet you there is a significant number of champs that lost one of their first 6 games in the playoffs.

So just last year the Warriors went 16-6 and 4-1 in the first series. With an NCAAT style playoff they are out.

Lakers in 2020 went 4-1 in first round.

That’s about all I have patience to look up, but clearly the parallel should be visible for you now.

Only 1 out of last 5 champions has not lost in the first 6 games.

 

[GoToTexas]

Damn, didn’t know you were unable to compare two similar but different things. Obviously they need to win 16 and not 6.

I don’t know where to find the data but I’d bet you there is a significant number of champs that lost one of their first 6 games in the playoffs.

Good grief just stop.

 

[Lempface]

Good grief just stop.

Lmao you’re a mess. Enjoy your self prescribed misery.

 

[Catfan2226]

That's why he's in the Hall of Fame and I believe ranked 16th all-time in wins among college coaches. You're talking nonsense. The average fan may be frustrated but doesn't believe your nonsense. What do you and all of the people on this forum know about coaching? Most real fans will continue to support the team and the coach.

Newsflash dunce,I am a real fan but I will never settle for mediocrity.Calipari is a piss poor in game coach.I don't give a crap about hall of fame..that's in the past,what has he done lately.

 

[BBNWildcat]

Lol couldn’t win with the 2015 roster, who lost one game all season. It’s a one and done tournament. How many NBA champions ran through the playoffs without dropping a game?

Save you some time, it’s never been done.

Apples and oranges. It’s astonishing the pretzels you’ll bend yourself into in order to protect cow.

 

[Chitown Terry]

Fans know what we see is not working. To say real fans support the team and coach is weak. Yes fans support, but

Most

Newsflash dunce,I am a real fan but I will never settle for mediocrity.Calipari is a piss poor in game coach.I don't give a crap about hall of fame..that's in the past,what has he done lately.

He has finally decided to stop listening to his critics. He is going back to recruiting the one done recruits that made him so successful at UK. I am expecting a great season next year. I will always support my team and coach.

 

[Lempface]

Apples and oranges. It’s astonishing the pretzels you’ll bend yourself into in order to protect cow.

I'm not protecting anyone, but when someone says Cal couldn't win with 2015 is laughable. Shit on him all you want, there is plenty to complain about without inventing and twisting things. He had one subpar game all year.

It's not apples and oranges either, even eventual champs in the best league on the planet lose games they "shouldn't" or have off nights. Even the team with the best winning percentage (Warriors only 9 losses all season) in the NBA ALL TIME failed to win the championship.

We made the final four and went 38-1, to say that's "can't win" is simply ridiculous and just people piling on anything and everything because they are fed up with the coach. Like I said, plenty legit shit to choose from, so harp on those things.

 

[know1]

Barely make the tournament - or maybe miss it - and early exit. That's all he's going to do here moving forward...and looking back a few years.

 

[Catfan2226]

Most
He has finally decided to stop listening to his critics. He is going back to recruiting the one done recruits that made him so successful at UK. I am expecting a great season next year. I will always support my team and coach.

Absolutely nothing wrong with supporting the team or coach BUT you can't live in a fantasy land and not see that the program is in a downward spiral under Caliparis leadership.All of us want Calipari to make things better.We want to win the big games,go deep in the dance,win SEC regular season and tourney titles..we all want that but that's no where we are currently and I doubt next season is any better.I don't know what our roster will look like a month from now but I do know if Calipari is still the coach it won't matter.
Next season will be the same..preseason hype galore with a top 5 ranking.Early season losses in high game matchups,a likely loss to a mid major with experienced players,ho hum thru the SEC where we finish anywhere from 3rd to 5th,an early flameout in the SEC tourney,a possible 6-9 seed in the dance with another early exit.now if I'm wrong,I'll gladly eat my plate of Crow but I'm going to be right...it's what we have come to expect.Rinse,lather and repeat.

Most
He has finally decided to stop listening to his critics. He is going back to recruiting the one done recruits that made him so successful at UK. I am expecting a great season next year. I will always support my team and coach.

 

[blackcat714]

NIT

First round exit no doubt

 

[Magilla Gorillla]

Cal is the only coach in America who will have seven 5 star players on roster with a fanbase screaming we don’t have enough talent.

 

[*CatinIL*]

NIT

That was my first thought.

 

[Catfan2226]

Cal is the only coach in America who will have seven 5 star players on roster with a fanbase screaming we don’t have enough talent.

Cal is the only coach in America who doesn't use a full roster,has no leverage for injuries and can't manage a roster worth a shit.

 

[Larry Skaggs]

Cal would have won the title by much bigger margins and would have had five fewer regular season losses and had seven or eight players drafted in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft

 

[UKBB4Ever]

He would have won the title this year. And most likely in the FF last year.

Cal is 10 times the coach Hurley will ever be.

Now give Hurley our roster and he has a losing record.

 

[dl51344]

When Cal had freshmen teams he said he couldn't teach typical basketball plays because they were so young it took all his time getting them adapted to college play. I heard him make this type comments. That seemed reasonable at the time. But the last 2 years he had older experienced players and still taught nothing. Why? Maybe he just doesn't know how.

 

[blueskidmark]

He would have won the title this year. And most likely in the FF last year.

Cal is 10 times the coach Hurley will ever be.

Now give Hurley our roster and he has a losing record.

Can't tell if serious or not...🤣🤣🤣

 

[kartmd]

Lol couldn’t win with the 2015 roster, who lost one game all season. It’s a one and done tournament. How many NBA champions ran through the playoffs without dropping a game?

Save you some time, it’s never been done.

Are you one of those idiots who also thinks seeds don’t matter? Maybe sit this one out champ

 

[Lempface]

Are you one of those idiots who also thinks seeds don’t matter? Maybe sit this one out champ

What in the world? How did seeding get into the conversation and why are you assuming what I think about the importance of them? Maybe be part of the conversation or perhaps you sit this one out then. Champ.