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Impact of losing Big Z

He's always played to the talents of the team. He doesn't have a system he fits players into. He plays the players. And he's never once promised playing time or a position to a player. That's the stuff of the internet warriors and the CHC.

You guys are trotting out a non issue with Z just to have something to whine about.
So you're saying he didn’t play Skal as a post player?

He has 1 offense and 1 defense, that’s it.
 
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Rim protection WAS pretty important in the 2012 national title game.
There are times it's an advantage, but also, AD was a generational talent and he was not a post player. He also wasn't a shooter. But he controlled every game he played in.
We don't get AD level players every year. Only seen 1 since (Zion).
Also, the game changed around 2016, it's just different now.
 
ON court:
We have 80 minutes of PF and Center. I was thinking it would work out
- Mitchell 32 mpg (20 as Center and 12 as PF)
- Bradshaw 28 mpg (20ish as PF and 5 as C)
- Big Z 15-20 mpg as Center mainly
- I imagined Ugonna being out of rotation by January
- Thiero was going to log basically no minutes either by Jan

Now with Big Z out
- Those extra 20 minutes will split between Ugo and THiero depending upon which combination was most effective. I tend to lean towards Bradshaw will play more Center and Thiero will absord more PF minutes. I think our defensive rim protection will suffer and probably shooting will suffer as Thiero is a bad shooter. I jsut think Ugo isn't ready for this outside of rim protection....he is slow reacting, no offense and isn't a strong rebounder which will show up with this roster.

2. Off court:
UK fans will not let this go easy into the night. If we fall to a top 15-25 level team and that potential big man costs us games/seed lines. Mitch will be held to fire by fanbase. Another year that we aren't in the hunt for titles will see fan apathy grow. Cal will run his never ending mouth (with or without reason) and alienate more and more of fanbase. And further fraction of fanbase will occur.
Big Z as some call him was never in. He was nothing more than a distraction that Cal tossed to those who routinely chase after Cal's spoken nonsense. If the kid had a realistic chance of playing, some other school would have gotten him before Cal ever reached out to him.
 
Calipari publicly said he would find more minutes for Hopkins and then never did. It's on record.

Hopkins forced his hand by playing well and then Cal was exposed for playing politics the rest of the way. Showed everyone that Cal's a liar and a loser for how he handled THAT situation alone, forget about how he blew the title in the undefeated season, and hasn't managed a bench well for most of his time here.

I hope this year's players do well for their sake and UKs, though they'll have to overcome his coaching, and I cringe thinking what that will mean for UKs future, if it keeps Cal embedded
 
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Cal has everyone thinking that rim protection is more important than scoring.

Spread the floor with effective shooting, pressure the ball on defense and use quick guards to drive.
Not true. It’s not Cal saying that. It is pure and simple observation, that most of Cal’s best teams have had that. And no one is saying don’t have scoring, don’t have shooting or spread the floor. But you also have to stop the other team from scoring (more than you). Having that allows your quick guards to take chances, play passing lanes, be aggressive on D.
 
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Not true. It’s not Cal saying that. It is pure and simple observation, that most of Cal’s best teams have had that. And no one is saying don’t have scoring, don’t have shooting or spread the floor. But you also have to stop the other team from scoring (more than you). Having that allows your quick guards to take chances, play passing lanes, be aggressive on D.
Huh? What do you mean "it's not Cal saying that"? He most certainly has and his literal actions have backed that up.

That guy craves bigs that can defend the rim and bigs that can score in the post and that’s simply a fact.

So, if defending the rim is so important, why has every team but one (2012 UK) that won a title since 2010, NOT had a shot blocker? I listed each team in another thread.

2021 Baylor had Mark Vital at the 5, guy was 6'5".
Jack Salt (2019 UVA) certainly wasn't a shot blocker.
None of the UConn, or Nova title teams had shot blockers.

You win titles with excellent guard play and offenses that can score at will, usually by spreading the floor.

You don't need shot blocking to win titles, it has been proven 12 out of the last 13 years and the one year shot blocking played a part, it was a generational talent that was doing it.
 
I'm not sure any of this matters. 2017 showed me that the NCAA isn't letting Cal win another title. Think what you will.
 
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Big Z as some call him was never in. He was nothing more than a distraction that Cal tossed to those who routinely chase after Cal's spoken nonsense. If the kid had a realistic chance of playing, some other school would have gotten him before Cal ever reached out to him.
sound just like a used car salesman, telling the public what they want to hear
 
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ON court:
We have 80 minutes of PF and Center. I was thinking it would work out
- Mitchell 32 mpg (20 as Center and 12 as PF)
- Bradshaw 28 mpg (20ish as PF and 5 as C)
- Big Z 15-20 mpg as Center mainly
- I imagined Ugonna being out of rotation by January
- Thiero was going to log basically no minutes either by Jan

Now with Big Z out
- Those extra 20 minutes will split between Ugo and THiero depending upon which combination was most effective. I tend to lean towards Bradshaw will play more Center and Thiero will absord more PF minutes. I think our defensive rim protection will suffer and probably shooting will suffer as Thiero is a bad shooter. I jsut think Ugo isn't ready for this outside of rim protection....he is slow reacting, no offense and isn't a strong rebounder which will show up with this roster.

2. Off court:
UK fans will not let this go easy into the night. If we fall to a top 15-25 level team and that potential big man costs us games/seed lines. Mitch will be held to fire by fanbase. Another year that we aren't in the hunt for titles will see fan apathy grow. Cal will run his never ending mouth (with or without reason) and alienate more and more of fanbase. And further fraction of fanbase will occur.
Didn’t see the post about we aren’t getting him. Where did you find that information?
 


idk, maybe one of these guys will be ready to go. Bradshaw's facial expression is intense. I hope he plays. Looks like a stud
 
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There are times it's an advantage, but also, AD was a generational talent and he was not a post player. He also wasn't a shooter. But he controlled every game he played in.
We don't get AD level players every year. Only seen 1 since (Zion).
Also, the game changed around 2016, it's just different now.
I was actually thinking of MKG's block at the end of the game.
 
Not true. It’s not Cal saying that. It is pure and simple observation, that most of Cal’s best teams have had that. And no one is saying don’t have scoring, don’t have shooting or spread the floor. But you also have to stop the other team from scoring (more than you). Having that allows your quick guards to take chances, play passing lanes, be aggressive on D.
Cal bragged in 2011 that he took Terrence Jones out of a game for not catching the ball "at eight feet" (meaning on the low block). TJ was an incredibly versatile player and Cal only had one job for him and he was verbal about it.
 
It's kind of like someone said they can't stand for UK to be THAT loaded adding Big Z. What other school would make this big a deal over something so small? Why I would like seeing the picture of the person causing this. A kid wanting to come here and looks like a very bright person but we don't want him over a trivial who gives a care matter.
 
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On the flip side, there has been teams that made final 4 and title runs with less.

Our 2011 team didn't have much behind Jorts. Maybe Vargas?

Our 2012 team had AD and Vargas.

2019 UVA had Jack Salt, his only backup was Huff, who was Eloy Vargas level.

2011 UConn had Okwanda and Orlander as their only options above 6'9". They combined for a total of 4.4ppg.

2014 UConn had 3 guys over 6'9", combined, they scored 9ppg.

2015 Duke and 2015 Wisconsin both had 1 good big each and Okafor couldn't play a lick of defense.

2016 Villanova had 1 big guy (Ochefu) and no back up.

2017 uNC had Tony Bradley as their only guy over 6'9" and he only scored 7ppg. They had mostly guards and forwards

2018 Villanova had Spellman (6'8") and Paschall (6'9"). That’s it.

2021 Baylor had a guy at 6'5" as their main 5 man (Vital). They had 6'10" Thamba, but he was an athletic forward, like Bradshaw, he wasn't a center. This team was extremely guard heavy.

2022 KU had McCormack… that's it. He only played 22 mpg.

The moral of the story, you win with guards in todays game. It’s been that way for quite some time now.

We already have more front court depth than all the teams I listed above and I didn’t even bother to go through each final 4 team. Heck, Florida Atlantic didn’t have a beast down low either.

Look what happened to Purdue, they were too focused on Edey that their guards couldn’t beat a 16 seed once Edey was neutralized.

It's a guards game, has been for a while. Put Mitchell and/or Bradshaw out there with 3 or 4 guards and spread the floor.
2024 KY has Cal.
 
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Mitch being held to the fire? As if he hasn’t been for the last 20 years by the fans? Cap just gave him a 5 year extension. That alone shows he obviously has low standards when it comes to his AD. Otherwise a change would have already been made.
 
Any update on big Z lol
Unless we get a miracle tomorrow, we will just be adding this to yet another "What might have been..."

We will never get one, but UK Admissions owes an explanation on this one. He will go to DePaul or some where else with a lower admittance rate while UK breaks it's elbow patting itself on the back for protecting it's academic standards. There's no defense of this really.
 
Unless we get a miracle tomorrow, we will just be adding this to yet another "What might have been..."

We will never get one, but UK Admissions owes an explanation on this one. He will go to DePaul or some where else with a lower admittance rate while UK breaks it's elbow patting itself on the back for protecting it's academic standards. There's no defense of this really.
When bradshaw and ugo miss games because of injury and we have one frotncourt player in mitchell, I hope everybody involved realizes how ridiculous they are/were being
 
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Did the fat lady sing? I didn't see a thread confirming he's not coming. Plenty of time for gloom and doom after the final decision is made. Op loves the attention you give him and post what if or it could be true bs. No one knows what's happening, so let's just chill.
 
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I think he has until mid October technically. But the bigger question is will Z want to wait that long?
At this point I think he waits it out. It wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't already worked out and Z shows up at bbm.
 
There are times it's an advantage, but also, AD was a generational talent and he was not a post player. He also wasn't a shooter. But he controlled every game he played in.
We don't get AD level players every year. Only seen 1 since (Zion).
Also, the game changed around 2016, it's just different now.
And Duke bought Zion.
 
Mitch being held to the fire? As if he hasn’t been for the last 20 years by the fans? Cap just gave him a 5 year extension. That alone shows he obviously has low standards when it comes to his AD. Otherwise a change would have already been made.
I thought he said about 20 years ago he wanted to go overseas and do missionary work.

Guess he doesn't have enough money to retire yet, hard to save money when you only make a million a year.
 
And I would bet that both are a lot better than anything you can do. Where do you coach at?
No kidding, I'm not a coach with 40 years under my belt, but get this, he's getting outcoached by guys half his age with a lot less talent.

He’s losing at a historic rate. The facts are the facts and if I was coaching this team, I would at least try to spread the floor, know why? Because that's what wins in college ball right now.

I damn sure wouldn't have 4 guys standing there watching 1 guy fend off 2 defenders and one other guy force feeding the post with a telegraphed entry pass.

Don't hate on me because I'm calling out what's happening.
 
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