If we get Edgecombe in the next few weeks, it changes everything going forward.

[Fox2monk]

I think this is always going to be the report on Reddish.

Probably so, I don’t know what it is about him. Like even his peers think he’s one of the most talented. Either he doesn’t handle the bright lights, or kinda like Anyton he doesn’t care about basketball that much and just coasts off his natural talent.

 

[RunninRichie]

Jahlil Okafor -Bust
Brandon Ingram -Fringe All Star
Harry Giles - Bust
Jayson Tatum - Superstar
Marvin Bagley - Bust
RJ Barrett -Solid starter
Zion Williamson -All Star when he’s healthy
Cam Reddish -Bust
Vernon Carey -Bust
Paolo Banchero - Fiture All Star
Dereck Lively -Too soon
Kyle Flipowski

There are an awful lot of bust in this group for being the cream of the crop coming out of HS. I’ll never get why any big would choose Duke over UK at this point.

Don't forget Vernon Carey and Matthew Hurt.

 

[chroix]

Probably so, I don’t know what it is about him. Like even his peers think he’s one of the most talented. Either he doesn’t handle the bright lights, or kinda like Anyton he doesn’t care about basketball that much and just coasts off his natural talent.

Yep. And here I am calling him a bust and he’s made $24.5 million over his career. I should be so lucky to be a bust.

 

[Padsfs07]

Edgecombe will not end up top 5. The re-classify guys will end up pushing him down the list. Or he will just drop. It always happens.

 

[Fox2monk]

Yep. And here I am calling him a bust and he’s made $24.5 million over his career. I should be so lucky to be a bust.

For real. It would be nice to fail and have money for life.

 

[the stat man]

The Brotherhood and bags of money!!!

Nike funneling players to the rat face bastard plain and simple!

 

[bucsrule8872]

In order to have a true contender we really need Sheppard back plus at least one elite level wing to go with him. Hoping Edgecombe will be that elite wing.

G Sheppard/Perry
G Fland/Hart
G Edgecombe/Richmond
F Thiero/Burks
F Quaintance/Cyril

Might need another wing shooter/scorer, IMHO.

I think Knox is the best bet. Then maybe a reclassed Peterson or someone from the portal.

 

[the stat man]

Re: Boston...Interesting comment by Leach when chatting with DeCoursey this week. They were on topic of Edwards and Leach commented that his situation reminds him of Boston in the sense that BJ wasn't ready for the game physically but the team he was on demanded him to produce immediately. He didn't have luxury of what Edwards has now as his team doesn't need him to be the guy immediately.

Regarding topic at hand; there is a difference between being a hat on a table recruit vs a real recruit. Several of these guys were hat on the table recruits. Never visited UK: Bagley, Tatum, Reddish, Filipowski. JMHO, but if a recruit never visits campus there is no interest, therefore it is a hat on the table offer.

Since 2015 UK class ranking has been better that Duke's by a count of 5-4. Of note though, in that same time period Duke has landed one more 5 ⭐ than UK. That said, we've lost plenty of head to head battles with Duke for guys outside composite Top 5 over the years. Also, many of the composite Top 5 losses were real battles and we lost major recruits- Zion, Banchero, standing out the most.

Like most things it seems that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

The Lakers would have lost out on Zion with what Dook gave Williamson

 

[Fox2monk]

We recruited all the players you named but Reddish, Tatum, Ingram, and Giles never considered Kentucky all that much and we were far from all in. Cal pushed for Reddish because he coached him on team USA but he was already sealed to Duke. We were all in on Bagley, Zion, and Lively for sure.

I don’t know how all in we were, but Cal tried to get an elite SF type for years there and whiffed. Luckily we got guys like Johnson who turned out to be very good in their own right. I think those years Duke really stepped up their One and Done game and we suffered with guys like EJ Montgomery as a result filling out our rosters. While still good we always missed on piece that Duke seemed to nab that would have pushed us over the final four edge. Zion being the biggest miss IMO.

 

[Fox2monk]

In order to have a true contender we really need Sheppard back plus at least one elite level wing to go with him. Hoping Edgecombe will be that elite wing.

G Sheppard/Perry
G Fland/Hart
G Edgecombe/Richmond
F Thiero/Burks
F Quaintance/Cyril

Might need another wing shooter/scorer, IMHO.

I think Knox is the best bet. Then maybe a reclassed Peterson or someone from the portal.

I hope we get 1 or 2 really great portal options to fill the team out. I want a Reeves/Mitchell option to carry the team if a freshman struggles. I think Fland will eventually be good but idk if he is at the level our guards are this year. I’d love to get a known college scorer in the backcourt, especially if Sheppard leaves. Edgecomb would be a great piece though as well.

 

[Fox2monk]

Understand that “all in” for Cal doesn’t mean the same as “all in” for Duke/Nike. You’re right, we didn’t offer Zion a house, but I don’t think it was known during recruitment that it was what we were up against. You’re preaching to the choir, tater.

That is true, during those years cheating was off the charts. We missed on many great players due to family jobs and houses.

 

[Mike-McD]

So you REALLY want to sit there and claim that Duke has had more talented rosters than us in recent years? You want to line up their players vs ours side by side and really make that claim?

I couldn't give two ****S what the RSCI says, I know what my eyes tell me you old ****.

And KAT reclassified as a sophomore....at which point we didn't speak to Okafor ever again. But you're probably too old to remember things like this.

No NBA GM on EARTH would claim that Duke has had more talent than us since 2016- but Son of Saul knows all I suppose. Morons around here I swear.

Sorry that I don't cower in the corner and be afraid of Duke.

LOL temper temper...

 

[SaltyCat25]

Some of you all have been brainwashed to just care about recruiting. Others want on court results.

Nevermind that we have a really good team this year. Yet there are people already looking at recruiting for next year.

It’s almost like one is critical to the other.

 

[BlueBlackNWhite]

We were from like 2016 to 2021. It started with Taysom and Giles. They got their pick of the recruits for those 4 or 5 years. And I outlined in another threads, We really only got guys like Knox and EJ because there was no room at Duke.

Now that said, they did no better than us on the court during that time, and I'd argue our "2nd tier" recruits did just as good, if not better. And further, Cals recruiting has surged back, and it's Dukes that looks like it's starting to falter.

Does a Final Four equate to doing no better on the court during that time? That doesn't make any sense.

Starting to falter? Duke landed Cooper Flagg less than 2 months ago lmao. If UK gets VJ, thats a step in the right direction, but IMO it will take more than 1 recruit to sway the recruiting dominance back in UK's direction. I mean, 13/1 is massive, at least steal 2 or 3 of Duke's guys over the next couple of years.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Does a Final Four equate to doing no better on the court during that time? That doesn't make any sense.

Starting to falter? Duke landed Cooper Flagg less than 2 months ago lmao. If UK gets VJ, thats a step in the right direction, but IMO it will take more than 1 recruit to sway the recruiting dominance back in UK's direction. I mean, 13/1 is massive, at least steal 2 or 3 of Duke's guys over the next couple of years.

That's all they have for their 6 years of recruiting dominance. 1 final 4 on us. And several bad flameouts.

Wasn't Dukes class gonna be the greatest of all time? Lmfao.

 

[docholiday51]

You keep creating a secondary argument that I've never argued. The debate isn't on whether or not Duke's players have uniformly turned out better than Kentucky's alternatives. The point is that Duke has dominated in landing top 5 RSCI recruits that we've gone head to head against them for since 2014.

You don't want to acknowledge that, which is strange because it's factual. Why deny the reality that we faced when going up against Duke? I don't expect a lot of fans to back me up on this from an emotional standpoint, but I have seen that no one has been able to dismiss my position in this entire thread, including you. Why? Because my position is factual.

The ultimate point is that landing VJ Edgecombe would be huge in setting a potential new precedent, one that I've been optimistically anticipating for some time.

In addition ,it doesn't matter if the Duke recruits were NBA "busts" or not. Duke got great mileage out of them as college players. Honestly I don't give 2 hoots in hell what players do in the NBA, if they are productive in college that is what matters.

In the time frame being discussed 2013 to current Duke players have out preformed UK players in terms of winning college games and advancing in the NCAAT

 

[Fox2monk]

Does a Final Four equate to doing no better on the court during that time? That doesn't make any sense.

Starting to falter? Duke landed Cooper Flagg less than 2 months ago lmao. If UK gets VJ, thats a step in the right direction, but IMO it will take more than 1 recruit to sway the recruiting dominance back in UK's direction. I mean, 13/1 is massive, at least steal 2 or 3 of Duke's guys over the next couple of years.

It’s not just about getting Flagg, it’s about you all not getting the locks that are starting to go to others schools as well. Obviously Duke will still get players but they won’t rack up 1,2,3 players anymore.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

In addition ,it doesn't matter if the Duke recruits were NBA "busts" or not. Duke got great mileage out of them as college players. Honestly I don't give 2 hoots in hell what players do in the NBA, if they are productive in college that is what matters.

In the time frame being discussed 2013 to current Duke players have out preformed UK players in terms of winning college games and advancing in the NCAAT

Duke did NOT get great mileage out of their 1AD dominance in the late 2010s. They had monster classes and they got just 1 final four. I'm not sure where it's coming from that Duke did well with their 1AD recruiting. They haven't. It's that simple. And there was even talk that Coach K wanted to go back to more experienced classes.

On the other hand, Cal's dominance in HIS 1AD era (2009 to 2016) WAS a great success, with several Final 4's, two title game appearances and a title. And sure enough after 2016, our recruiting fell off a bit, and that's when we ran into issues. But Duke didn't exactly take advantage of that..

 

[DaProdigy23]

The idea that we lose recruiting battles to Duke is actually quite overblown. Here is the truth-

Kentucky staff has had a bad habit of going after guys once Duke is deep with them
Duke does not usually pursue guys Kentucky is deep with.

So the PR looks like we always lose when that isn't entirely accurate.