I've been negative recently.

[ryanbruner]

I started to hate Cal. I can admit when I'm wrong. It's obvious the Welch hire is igniting whatever flame Cal had left. We may look back at that hire and realize that its the thing that turned Kentucky basketball around. I was so tired of watching that slow plodding offense and this weekend I saw all of the things that I've been asking we do for years. This is the most excited for a team I've been since Monk/Fox/Bam. Again I was wrong....and I can't wait for this season to start.

 

[entropy13]

My negativity has somewhat abated. I'm extremely happy the guys looked good, won, and seemed to gel as a group in Canada. I'll remain skeptical until I see how we perform against top-tier D1 programs.

 

[ORCAT]

My negativity has somewhat abated. I'm extremely happy the guys looked good, won, and seemed to gel as a group in Canada. I'll remain skeptical until I see how we perform against top-tier D1 programs.

This is pretty much where I kind of am. But, unlike OP, I can never say I hated Cal. Didn't like, at all, where we've been the last several years and was very ready for a coaching change but never hated the man. Still waiting to see how this group does in the real season but I admit, they are really fun to watch so far.

 

[ck-2]

I get it. I’m sick of Cow and it will take more than this Canada trip for me to think he’s changed. That being said I like the players on this team and think there’s a lot of talent and potential.
But I have little confidence in their coach. Hopefully he will defer to his staff this year.

 

[bbncal02]

Jury is still out on, on the court Cal. #sorrynotsorry

But his recruiting seems to be somewhat back.

He's got a ways to go to get out of the dog house though. This was a good first step though.

 

[bbncal02]

This is pretty much where I kind of am. But, unlike OP, I can never say I hated Cal. Didn't like, at all, where we've been the last several years and was very ready for a coaching change but never hated the man. Still waiting to see how this group does in the real season but I admit, they are really fun to watch so far.

Did I hate Cal the person? No.
Was I beginning to hate Cal the coach? Yep. I mean the man sat there and said, "Go home and pet my dogs" after a gut wrenching inexcusable performance. Not cool.

He cuts the cutesy comments out after loses and it will go a long way towards regaining some trust.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Calipari needs a final four this season to give me any reason to want him around beyond the season.

We can find a lot of guys that can go 12 years without a title and 9 years workout a final four. Tubby can come back and do that.

 

[KYFOSSIL]

I get it. I’m sick of Cow and it will take more than this Canada trip for me to think he’s changed. That being said I like the players on this team and think there’s a lot of talent and potential.
But I have little confidence in their coach. Hopefully he will defer to his staff this year.

At least stop with the childish nickname…..hes lost wgt 😎

 

[ORCAT]

Did I hate Cal the person? No.
Was I beginning to hate Cal the coach? Yep. I mean the man sat there and said, "Go home and pet my dogs" after a gut wrenching inexcusable performance. Not cool.

He cuts the cutesy comments out after loses and it will go a long way towards regaining some trust.

Yes, and I don't care to hear him make the same old remarks as usual. Hoping he doesn't drag out those old quotes again this year. But, I did hear him same several times that we may be the youngest team in college basketball. Don't care to keep hearing that, he's the one who built this really young roster.

 

[Swan Song]

I started to hate Cal. I can admit when I'm wrong. It's obvious the Welch hire is igniting whatever flame Cal had left. We may look back at that hire and realize that its the thing that turned Kentucky basketball around. I was so tired of watching that slow plodding offense and this weekend I saw all of the things that I've been asking we do for years. This is the most excited for a team I've been since Monk/Fox/Bam. Again I was wrong....and I can't wait for this seasons to start.

I wouldn't be to hard on myself if I was you. You just had a natural reaction to the situation we have been in the last 3 years. It's been a negative time and Cal has some responsibility for that.
I think most of us would like nothing better than to see Cal get the elite talent again and start winning big. I think he's on the right track if he'll continue. I do think Cal also needs to get a thicker skin with the fans, too. He's getting there if he'll stop being stubborn. Time will tell but I'm hopeful!!! I'm excited for the first time in years for Kentucky basketball!!

 

[know1]

I've never hated Cal at all. I've just hated the fact that he refuses to put any effort at all into actual coaching and I've hated how he's put individual players above the welfare of the program.

I've always liked the teams and all of the players. I have felt sorry for them giving effort for a coach that isn't giving effort.

 

[YardCat]

I’m still not happy with the coach, maybe I’m more of “What have you done for me lately”
We are going to play better teams and better coaches, so I just want to see how the season shakes out. Would love to win it all then Cal retire.

 

[gbl97]

There was still a lot of one-on-one offense. We just have guys this year who can score that way. A bunch of them.

The crisp passing was encouraging.

 

[Ukgold]

My negativity has somewhat abated. I'm extremely happy the guys looked good, won, and seemed to gel as a group in Canada. I'll remain skeptical until I see how we perform against top-tier D1 programs.

I think this is the temperament of most rational UK fans.You have protect your heart a little bit. when you love something with your heart, soul and spirit it's easy to put up guards. This team and the fan base needs a big win early.

 

[chroix]

There was still a lot of one-on-one offense. We just have guys this year who can score that way. A bunch of them.

The crisp passing was encouraging.

We averaged over 25 assists a game for the tournament. Not a lot of one on one at all.

 

[ryanbruner]

I get it. I’m sick of Cow and it will take more than this Canada trip for me to think he’s changed. That being said I like the players on this team and think there’s a lot of talent and potential.
But I have little confidence in their coach. Hopefully he will defer to his staff this year.

Jury is still out on, on the court Cal. #sorrynotsorry

But his recruiting seems to be somewhat back.

He's got a ways to go to get out of the dog house though. This was a good first step though.

I think from what we've seen out of this trip, he's almost completely deferred to someone it seems.

There was still a lot of one-on-one offense. We just have guys this year who can score that way. A bunch of them.

The crisp passing was encouraging.

We should have always had these guys though thats the problem. I think Cal started overthinking the kinds of players he wanted based on their relationships and who was in their camp and who he felt he could control. The best players now are all represented by some higher entity thats pulling strings from behind the curtain. Cal didn't like not having control over those guys so we'd just let guys walk on the recruiting trail. There are countless names that we could have had that Cal stopped pursuing based on them having a handler, or someone in their camp wanting a certain role, etc.

 

[ck-2]

There was still a lot of one-on-one offense. We just have guys this year who can score that way. A bunch of them.

The crisp passing was encouraging.

I agree that there was a lot of one on one “dribble drive” offense. Sometimes it resulted in a pass to a teammate for an assist. But this is what you’ll see this year
IMO. Triple C’s favorite offense is “go beat your man.” And he’s already bragging to the media that he doesn’t have to run plays for these guys to get shots because they are “basketball players.” That’s his new spiel for this season.

 

[ryanbruner]

My negativity has somewhat abated. I'm extremely happy the guys looked good, won, and seemed to gel as a group in Canada. I'll remain skeptical until I see how we perform against top-tier D1 programs.

Yea I mean I came into last season telling people that the team was going to be really bad offensively. I was scolded over that take.

Just from what I know about basketball and these kids that I've watched for 2-3 years.....this team is going to be far better than recent years and it will be one of the better teams in Cal's tenure.

 

[ryanbruner]

I agree that there was a lot of one on one “dribble drive” offense. Sometimes it resulted in a pass to a teammate for an assist. But this is what you’ll see this year
IMO. Triple C’s favorite offense is “go beat your man.” And he’s already bragging to the media that he doesn’t have to run plays for these guys to get shots because they are “basketball players.” That’s his new spiel for this season.

He's not wrong. We've had some pretty shitty teams recently. Thats his fault though.

This team is different. The talent level from 1-13 is a lot like the better Cal teams in this era. This is modern basketball.....you need guys who can get to the rim and hit moving jumpers and spot up. We haven't had more than 1 guy who could do all 3 in recent memory. I think there are 5-6 guys who can do all 3 on this team.

 

[ck-2]

He's not wrong though. We've had some pretty shitty teams recently. Thats his fault though.

This team is different though. The talent level from 1-13 is a lot like the better Cal teams in this era. This is modern basketball.....you need guys who can get to the rim and hit moving jumpers and spot up. We haven't had more than 1 guy who could do all 3 in recent memory. I think there are 5-6 guys who can do all 3 on this team.

It’s his fault he stopped recruiting “basketball players” and went after guys because they were tall, or their wingspan. It’s been complained about on here for several years.

 

[Wildcats1st]

We have more talent without a doubt. There’s some real deal bb players on this team. That’s exciting.

The college game is much different than international basketball. These teams we played also really sucked. It’s a very physical games. Can the young guys hang? College competition is going to be far more difficult.

Cal will still be cal. He’s on cloud 9 right now after this when he should be serious and focused. Instead he’s trying to become swaggy cal again.

There is as much room with this team for excitement as there is concern. Both of our bigs have foot/ankle issues already.

I see a sweet sixteen maybe elite 8 ceiling with this team. Can’t get too excited about that. If we get a seasoned big in august then we can talk. Mitchell at center as cal is proposing is nonsense. We will get killed on the boards and down low.

On the plus side wheeler is gone. Watching this team the last week it’s obvious how bad wheeler was and how much of a negative impact he had on the program.

 

[ryanbruner]

It’s his fault he stopped recruiting “basketball players” and went after guys because they were tall, or their wingspan. It’s been complained about on here for several years.

Thats what I said. He stopped recruiting basketball players. I wouldn't say it was for tall guys or guys with wingspan though. We've lacked length and athleticism for years.

He stopped recruiting basketball players because all of these guys started having handlers and camps behind them and Cal doesn't like players that he can't control. He's slowed down on some of that thankfully but he was far too stubborn for a long time. Good players control their futures now. You have to be willing to give some of the power back to the guys actually producing on the court.

 

[ryanbruner]

We have more talent without a doubt. There’s some real deal bb players on this team. That’s exciting.

The college game is much different than international basketball. These teams we played also really sucked. It’s a very physical games. Can the young guys hang? College competition is going to be far more difficult.

Cal will still be cal. He’s on cloud 9 right now after this when he should be serious and focused. Instead he’s trying to become swaggy cal again.

There is as much room with this team for excitement as there is concern. Both of our bigs have foot/ankle issues already.

I see a sweet sixteen maybe elite 8 ceiling with this team. Can’t get too excited about that. If we get a seasoned big in august then we can talk. Mitchell at center as cal is proposing is nonsense. We will get killed on the boards and down low.

On the plus side wheeler is gone. Watching this team the last week it’s obvious how bad wheeler was and how much of a negative impact he had on the program.

Mitchell should be playing the 5. This is modern basketball and if you are trading offense for defense you are wrong. We need swaggy Cal. We had far too many years of serious Cal and serious Cal is a dumbass who steps on his own toes.

A far as the ceiling this is a national championship ceiling squad. Last year was a sweet 16 ceiling. Last years team was also extremely crappy on all fronts. This team has a very high ceiling with the one singular flaw being length but you shouldn't trade guys who can make shots in order to get more length on the floor. We had a guy who averaged 15 boards a game the last 2 seasons and it did nothing for us. He was more of a hinderance to the rest of the offense than anything else.

 

[Mike-D]

Well we're running a 5 out motion offense, and we ran some inbounds plays. There's reason to be excited about that. I'm still waiting to pass judgement until I see what we run when the season starts. We averaged around 60ppg in the tournament last year. That crap has to stop.

 

[ryanbruner]

Well we're running a 5 out motion offense, and we ran some inbounds plays. There's reason to be excited about that. I'm still waiting to pass judgement until I see what we run when the season starts. We averaged around 60ppg in the tournament last year. That crap has to stop.

I totally agree. From what I've seen this is just a modern basketball team with elite talent. We had far too many one dimensional players running an archaic system for years. Even in these preseason games we'd look better because of the teams we were playing but it was the same offense. What we saw this weekend was something completely different.

 

[mebeblue2]

i never started hating Cal
i really hated that the recruits he was getting were going to Duke and a couple to other schools
as with everything in life there will be ebbs and flows, recruiting is the same way

many fans got spoiled when Cal was landing every major recruit
then when Cal starting missing on those recruits and adversity hit some fans could not deal with it (some still can't)

 

[STL_Cat]

I’m excited about the upcoming season and the team, but I’m going to hold off on too much praise until I see us actually pull off a successful season and post season run again. Been a loooong time.

 

[ck-2]

i never started hating Cal
i really hated that the recruits he was getting were going to Duke and a couple to other schools
as with everything in life there will be ebbs and flows, recruiting is the same way

many fans got spoiled when Cal was landing every major recruit
then when Cal starting missing on those recruits and adversity hit some fans could not deal with it (some still can't)

What I can’t deal with isn’t his recruiting and missing out on major recruits. It’s his inability to coach the team he has. He refuses to adapt to the players on his roster and play to their strengths. He wants to coach every roster like it’s 2012 or 2015.
Square peg in round hole.

 

[Wildcats1st]

Mitchell should be playing the 5. This is modern basketball and if you are trading offense for defense you are wrong. We need swaggy Cal. We had far too many years of serious Cal and serious Cal is a dumbass who steps on his own toes.

A far as the ceiling this is a national championship ceiling squad. Last year was a sweet 16 ceiling. Last years team was also extremely crappy on all fronts. This team has a very high ceiling with the one singular flaw being length but you shouldn't trade guys who can make shots in order to get more length on the floor. We had a guy who averaged 15 boards a game the last 2 seasons and it did nothing for us. He was more of a hinderance to the rest of the offense than anything else.

The college game isn’t “modern” basketball. It’s imo nothing like intl or nba basketball. It’s a 30-35 game grind. More if you’re really good. Officials control the game with fouls, there isn’t a 24 second clock, the 5 out crap is nice offense but no defense. When we Run into teams that take away midrange and getting to the rim with zone defense we will not look as good. Anyone who is all the sudden thinking things are going to be different are setting themselves up for disappointment.

 

[PhattyJ4UK]

Half this board has let a few disappointing seasons fill them with venom and vitriol personally toward our coach … few bad seasons erased the decade of greatness and made him public enemy number 1

It’s very obvious that a ome of you need a life that isn’t defined by college kids winning or losing a basketball game.

 

[UKBB4Ever]

Welch has nothing to do with it. He's just another assistant. But if you need an excuse his hiring can provide one.

 

[ryanbruner]

The college game isn’t “modern” basketball. It’s imo nothing like intl or nba basketball. It’s a 30-35 game grind. More if you’re really good. Officials control the game with fouls, there isn’t a 24 second clock, the 5 out crap is nice offense but no defense. When we Run into teams that take away midrange and getting to the rim with zone defense we will not look as good. Anyone who is all the sudden thinking things are going to be different are setting themselves up for disappointment.

The college game is very much modernized. We also have 4-5 guys who can shoot and pass once a team decides to move into a zone. Trading defense for offense is idiotic and its an echo chamber take.

 

[Wildcats1st]

What I can’t deal with isn’t his recruiting and missing out on major recruits. It’s his inability to coach the team he has. He refuses to adapt to the players on his roster and play to their strengths. He wants to coach every roster like it’s 2012 or 2015.
Square peg in round hole.

You can count on cal trying to pound that peg. People who are giddy need to realize the college game isn’t wide open the way intl bb is. It’s a rock fight. In the tournament it will be at least 3 rock fights maybe more. The other thing is we can’t afford early losses and lose a shot at a high seed. We will see our seeding come tourney too low enough to make a legit run. The team will have fun moments but I’m not sure it’s built for the long term cbb grind and the single elimination ncaa T format. At least not with out a legit wide bodied big.

 

[YardCat]

Well we're running a 5 out motion offense, and we ran some inbounds plays. There's reason to be excited about that. I'm still waiting to pass judgement until I see what we run when the season starts. We averaged around 60ppg in the tournament last year. That crap has to stop.

Calm Down Mike D - I also thought I saw some inbounds plays but the motion is just the weave and in the first half Canada ran those zones that shut down penetration. I’m with you on watching and waiting before passing judgement

 

[mebeblue2]

What I can’t deal with isn’t his recruiting and missing out on major recruits. It’s his inability to coach the team he has. He refuses to adapt to the players on his roster and play to their strengths. He wants to coach every roster like it’s 2012 or 2015.
Square peg in round hole.

you picked two years that the last 3 years have been nothing alike
both those teams could shoot and run much like this years team

the last 3 years we have been missing more than 1 piece of the puzzle and Cal has been playing "force the ball in the middle"
having 3 elite wings goes a long way in making a contender

 

[ryanbruner]

Welch has nothing to do with it. He's just another assistant. But if you need an excuse his hiring can provide one.

He was brought in to provide an analytical perspective and because Cal trusts him. The shot charts from this year and last year speak to his impact. Even if you compare the Bahamas games to this years Canadian games.

You can watch the games and see the difference. Fewer long mid range shots, more threes, 10 foot jumpers, and layups/dunks. Basketball is really that simple. I understand the skepticism but coming from a skeptic, to this point I am surprised. I expected to go to Canada....run the same motionless.....stale offense and win by 10-15-20. The result was the same but the process was just much different.

 

[dl51344]

Yes, and I don't care to hear him make the same old remarks as usual. Hoping he doesn't drag out those old quotes again this year. But, I did hear him same several times that we may be the youngest team in college basketball. Don't care to keep hearing that, he's the one who built this really young roster.

Yes, why does a coach continue making statements like that? Like he is thrilled that they may be the youngest team. Statements of that nature is expected from commentators as talking points but not the coach. These type of things are the reason I can't listen to him anymore.

 

[ck-2]

Half this board has let a few disappointing seasons fill them with venom and vitriol personally toward our coach … few bad seasons erased the decade of greatness and made him public enemy number 1

It’s very obvious that a ome of you need a life that isn’t defined by college kids winning or losing a basketball game.

Or I could say some on this board are living in the past and can’t accept the reality of we’re not that anymore.
And as far as “venom and vitriol’ towards the coach. He has brought that upon himself acting like a jerk towards the fans, talking down to them while sucking at his job.

 

[jca4446]

I started to hate Cal. I can admit when I'm wrong. It's obvious the Welch hire is igniting whatever flame Cal had left. We may look back at that hire and realize that its the thing that turned Kentucky basketball around. I was so tired of watching that slow plodding offense and this weekend I saw all of the things that I've been asking we do for years. This is the most excited for a team I've been since Monk/Fox/Bam. Again I was wrong....and I can't wait for this season to start.

Do not agree with your comments about Welch. He is a great addition and we have seasoned assistants a great head coach.

 

[ryanbruner]

Cal was always a jerk to fans. We didn't care when he was winning. Like most things if you are winning nothing else matters.

Fans used Cal being a smarmy asshole as an excuse to call for his head over some terrible seasons. They had every right to call for his job. They just used the wrong excuse.

As far as length being an issue.....UConn won a national title playing a small ball lineup and running some 5 out. Kansas and Baylor with a similar formula as well. This isn't 1998 and some of you need to give up on that. Your dream for what basketball is supposed to be is one of the many reasons we watched the kind of basketball we did the last few years.