Hypothetical question, but what would happen to UK if Big Z...
- Thread starter lyngz
- Start date
What would be the point?
We’ve already got a core that is easily capable of winning a national championship. At this point, I doubt we could even fit him into the rotation even if he were ruled eligible. Do you really wanna torch the whole season just to make some defiant statement?
We’ve already got a core that is easily capable of winning a national championship. At this point, I doubt we could even fit him into the rotation even if he were ruled eligible. Do you really wanna torch the whole season just to make some defiant statement?
As easily capable as anyone else.
Ivisic isn’t playing this season. That ship has sailed.
Even if he is cleared, he is so far behind he isn’t going to get meaningful minutes, unless we have an injury to one of our bigs.
Even if he is cleared, he is so far behind he isn’t going to get meaningful minutes, unless we have an injury to one of our bigs.
You're implying that this team compares to 1996, 2012, or even the 2015 team. It's laughable.
Wrong. I did not imply that at all. I didn’t say they’ll be the favorite to win it, but instead only one of the teams “capable” of it. Do you not understand the difference between these words?
Now you're deliberately cherrypicking YOUR OWN WORDS. You most definitely did not say we are "only one of the teams capable of it." You said "easily capable of winning a national championship." There's no GALAXY where this team is even a remote favorite to win the title. We're missing one of our best players, probably for the season, and we're starting the wrong players, one of which is a total bust. We just lost to a 9-6 aTm team where we gave up 97 points. Calipari is making excuses for our lack of defense and he has no intention of rearranging his starting lineup, which should include putting Edwards on the END of the bench. He doesn't start Sheppard (the nation's top shooter) and he doesn't run plays for him, instead choosing to baby his favorites.
We will end up a 4-6 seed and face a 1 on the second weekend and be gone. This team is a SS team in the tournament, at best.
This team could most definitely use Big Z. And has he not been practicing with the team? This is in response to people saying how far behind he is. Hell, was he not practicing with the team while Ugo was still injured? Give me a damn break. The only valid scenario I could come up with, is that playing him could hurt team chemistry. Any other program in America would start playing the kid when he became eligible though. But for whatever reason, some people have watched our bigs play this year, and think we don't need the kid. When we lose in the tournament, it'll be because of our bigs.
Why not??? The football schools effectively hold the NCAA to be irrelevant...realigning at will...why not basketball?
You seem to struggle with understanding what words mean. I never said they were a "favorite", instead I said they were "easily capable" of making the run. These words mean distinctly different things, even if you can't comprehend the difference.
Perhaps you weren't aware, but in the wild crapshoot that is today's NCAAT, there's a good number of teams that are "capable" of making the run if they peak at the right time and things fall in place. Hell, for proof of this, you need only to look at last year's tournament where NONE of the teams that reached the final four were seeded any higher than a four seed. Do you really think this team is less talented than SDSU, Florida Atlantic, UConn and Miami were last year?
And, yes, UK "easily" falls within the group that's capable this year. Nobody else has four guards more talented ours. We've got a senior frontline stud in Mitchell. We've got tons of size, including two seven footers in the middle. And we've probably got more future NBA players than anyone else as well.
So I find your suggestion that this team has no potential to do any better in the tournament than the Sweet 16 "at best" to be asinine. Sounds like a comment I'd expect only from someone who's never actually watched the tournament. I'm sure you probably once thought the same thing about the 2011 and 2014 teams (both of looked worse than this one at mid-season) ...before their final four runs.
Please demonstrate how this team, which is injured and highly dysfunctional, is "easily capable" of defeating six tournament level teams in a row. Especially with Cal at the helm. It's a remote, 1/30 chance at best.
You also presented yet another straw man. I never said that this team has "no potential" to go beyond the SS. But based on our track record that seems to be the most likely outcome. It certainly won't be "easy" as YOU suggest.
I made my case. All you've cited is talent, which our head coach is misusing.
Last edited:
Man... you don't know much about basketball. Ask around on this board... many could help you .
Man...you don't know how to construct an argument. Your "proof by assertion" fallacy is glaring.
Play an ineligible player, sure let's do it. If he becomes eligible it is too late in the season for him to help us. That seems to be the 2 schools of thought in this thread and on the board. Has the board really descended to this level?
See, this is yet another example of you seeming to not understand what words mean. You explicitly said that this team in the tournament was only a SS team "at best." I suggest you google the definition of the phrase "at best", it is meant to connote the most optomistic best case scenario.
So, yes, you DID suggest that the SS was this team's uppermost tourney potential. I posed no straw man (appears you don't understand what that term means either), instead I simply interpreted your words in the precise manner in which you stated them.
This team has only one guy currently out with injury (which is quite normal) and is not "highly dysfunctional" at all. It does have some current problems, but those are issues that can easily be addressed before March. As I see it, those issues are:
1) Their recent defensive play has been unacceptable. But it’s not a situation where this team lacks the tools to be better defensively. Instead it has ALL the physical requirements ...lateral quickness, length, athleticism, etc. ...needed to be an outstanding defensive team. There's no reason this team can't improve its D by March. They just need bear down and do it.
2) It's been starting the wrong lineup and playing the wrong lineups too much. But this is something that can easily be remedied simply by either Cal coming to his senses or Edwards starting to play better.
3) Thiero is out. Again, easily fixable when he gets healthy. But we still have a loaded 8 man rotation without him, and an even better 9 man version when he returns.
Last edited:
Three things that might be the undoing for this team...or not, are that we're young, we rely a lot on perimeter shooting and we don't play good defense nor rebound well.
Everybody loves the perimeter shooting when shots are falling but we have to shore up our interior on both ends to make a deep run. Our bigs are playing small. We've gotta fix that soon.
We WILL have games where shots aren't falling, especially in March, tired legs and domes make for that to happen, unless we just get lucky and stay on a hot shooting streak, which is unlikely for that many games. As we've seen, we could go out against an inferior first round team if we don't shore up the interior scoring
No doubt about it, our d and rebounding has got to get better but it is slowly improving and will continue to improve. Both will get better whenever Thiero is ready to go again but he's not enough, alone.
We're young but by March, no more using that excuse. Time to lace em up tight and man up.
We have the right pieces but defense and rebounding are huge. Those could carry us on an off shooting night, and I think we'll need it more than once in the tourney.
I think we're closer than it looks on d. It's like, it could all make sense and click at any moment, but who knows. Rebounding and d are a lot about wanting to do it. I think this team has the heart and that we're almost there. I hope I'm right or it could be a short run in the tourney. We'll have lapses, being young but it could come down to when and against who, those happen. The flip side is, if we're hot and running, nobody can run with us, already. I'd absolutely love for this team to all stay another year. But it's not too late and we have it in us to go all the way if d and rebounding improve and we get more from our bigs. It's there though. We need more lobs to get the bigs in the scoring column. More aggression. I'd have the bigs and guards run lob drills with ankle and wrist weights a half hour every day before practice!
Everybody loves the perimeter shooting when shots are falling but we have to shore up our interior on both ends to make a deep run. Our bigs are playing small. We've gotta fix that soon.
We WILL have games where shots aren't falling, especially in March, tired legs and domes make for that to happen, unless we just get lucky and stay on a hot shooting streak, which is unlikely for that many games. As we've seen, we could go out against an inferior first round team if we don't shore up the interior scoring
No doubt about it, our d and rebounding has got to get better but it is slowly improving and will continue to improve. Both will get better whenever Thiero is ready to go again but he's not enough, alone.
We're young but by March, no more using that excuse. Time to lace em up tight and man up.
We have the right pieces but defense and rebounding are huge. Those could carry us on an off shooting night, and I think we'll need it more than once in the tourney.
I think we're closer than it looks on d. It's like, it could all make sense and click at any moment, but who knows. Rebounding and d are a lot about wanting to do it. I think this team has the heart and that we're almost there. I hope I'm right or it could be a short run in the tourney. We'll have lapses, being young but it could come down to when and against who, those happen. The flip side is, if we're hot and running, nobody can run with us, already. I'd absolutely love for this team to all stay another year. But it's not too late and we have it in us to go all the way if d and rebounding improve and we get more from our bigs. It's there though. We need more lobs to get the bigs in the scoring column. More aggression. I'd have the bigs and guards run lob drills with ankle and wrist weights a half hour every day before practice!
Last edited:
