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Jay Williams sends message to Kentucky fans over Cooper Flagg

Maybe I'm biased because he's a Dukie, but I'm not seeing the hype. Don't get me wrong it is impressive for a 17 year old to compete right away, but he he was under 50% FG% and only made one of his five 3s. I'm sure he'll be good and probably be an NBA level player but instant #1 pick hype I didn't see.
I'm biased too, and I get your points about Flagg still having a way to go on development to reach what his potential portends. But knowing what draft decisions are usually based on, I can definitely see why Flagg is considered the #1 draft pick. He’s young, skilled, athletic, and plays hard. All that bodes well for becoming an NBA impact starter in the not too distant future. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that he’s probably viewed as pretty marketable.

Moreover, Flagg’s ups & downs over the season are unlikely to change that draft position. Although, Ace Bailey or possibly even Dylan Harper could steal that #1 pick status if they seem to present even more UPSIDE - because that’s what the draft is all about, not winning college games and certainly not about being the “best” player in college – but I would still bet on Flagg at #1 and Bailey at #2, and then maybe a half-dozen better (defined as most impactful to winning a championship) college players who might not even get drafted or go in the 2nd round.
 
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LOL--I mean....Jay Williams would be surprised to know how many Duke alums/coaches and ex coaches can't stand him. Heard everything from he's a pathological liar to fraud of a human to self promoting prick from DUKE people. Not general people in the industry. Andrew Slater can tell some stories about Jay and also KAT so it must be a Metuchen thing from Jersey. LOL

I have no issue with Cooper Flagg. He plays hard. Talented kid, it's good for the sport to have great talented guys every year. Duke is a brand that doesn't need to promote one guy and with all the Media Mafia they have-let's face it we're used to it by now. It was a big win for Mark Pope and just the psyche of the Kentucky fanbase as they've been accustomed to hearing that BS Cal's spewing about the Baylor loss to his Arkansas followers after EVERY big game loss that was becoming the norm. Non conference didn't matter. Early season Conference didn't matter. Conference Tournaments didn't matter. Nothing mattered except what we were told mattered by the guy losing games. "The Process"--which is funny because the 2 men who used that phrase the most didn't lose much and were always prepared and a step ahead of the game (Saban and Belichick).

So if he followed the sport he'd realize WHY UK fans are excited and basking in the win. Also those who don't follow things and realize the dominance of voice in the sport from Duke and control in general with Silver/Grant Hill running the NBA/USA Basketball are starting to get sick of hearing about one guy from a team that is always highlighted, its going to make sense. At least Jay is back covering CBB after his attempts to try about 100 different things and backstab many people along the way. Evil Knievel he wasn't.
Yes. It's a shame one of those other 100 things didn't stick. College basketball is now stuck with him.
 
He’s right. You know what? No one should understand this more than us. We have had a ton of copper flags over the years. But really who cares? Why do you need vindication from a talking head? We won. I could give a shit what anybody on my tv says.
 
I'm biased too, and I get your points about Flagg still having a way to go on development to reach what his potential portends. But knowing what draft decisions are usually based on, I can definitely see why Flagg is considered the #1 draft pick. He’s young, skilled, athletic, and plays hard. All that bodes well for becoming an NBA impact starter in the not too distant future. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that he’s probably viewed as pretty marketable.

Moreover, Flagg’s ups & downs over the season are unlikely to change that draft position. Although, Ace Bailey or possibly even Dylan Harper could steal that #1 pick status if they seem to present even more UPSIDE - because that’s what the draft is all about, not winning college games and certainly not about being the “best” player in college – but I would still bet on Flagg at #1 and Bailey at #2, and then maybe a half-dozen better (defined as most impactful to winning a championship) college players who might not even get drafted or go in the 2nd round.
Maybe my scouting ability is garbage but as a scout I'd have him on the list to focus on if I was a lottery team but to peg him a clear #1 is just something I don't see so far.
 
He was exceptionally fair in his take after the game and in this video, our fan base at times can be irrational. ESPN did the same thing when UK had AD years ago and we made that title run, it's how the system works. JW was just spitting our facts, on both occasions!
 
Maybe my scouting ability is garbage but as a scout I'd have him on the list to focus on if I was a lottery team but to peg him a clear #1 is just something I don't see so far.
No. As I said, I understand your scouting perspective. And I certainly don’t know who should be the #1 draft pick by any NBA team. For one thing, I haven’t seen even a tiny fraction of the players this season. So I’m starting out accepting the talking heads’ premise that Flagg is the #1 pick, and I’m just saying I see the attraction he would have to an NBA team.
 
There is a lot of truth to what he said, but...if a kid like Tayshaun guards Flagg, does he score 26 points and grab 12 rebounds?
 
What Jay don’t realize is that we have Mark Pope now. The Duke bias is no longer a concern. They can market or whatever they want to do, but bottom line is that the game was played on a floor for 40 minutes and the team that played with more heart and effort won. Can’t twist that into some kind of moral victory or somehow change the outcome. It’s OVER. Duke LOST !!!!

Is Flagg a good player? Absolutely,
but we must have some pretty good players too being as we WON!!!!!!!!!!
 
All I know is that I’m extremely happy and utterly floored that Pope was able to assemble a team - completely from scratch and literally at last minute - good enough to beat Duke in the Champion’s Classic.

That was a seriously incredible accomplishment.

After watching our could-have-been team that is Arkansas this year, no way those guys good have pulled this off.

As far as I’m concerned, from this point on, everything else is gravy.
 
I mean.....that's what five titles will do for you. Imagine if Rupp was round and had his four titles today. He would have a lot of influence.

It also doesn't hurt Duke has produced some decent NBA talent in Hill and Reddick (who's coaching the Lakers for goodness sakes)

This is why I hate when people down play the Duke hate/rivalry. They are one of the BIGGEST threats to us in CBB. They have money, they have NBA presence, they have influence.
I hate how they have badass throwbacks as their uniforms. They wear a version of the 2001 uniforms, updated on a new template. Why can’t we wear our 1978’s or 1992’s permanently? We get shafted hardcore by Nike in the uniform department.
 
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This year? Where's Jay been the last 20?

I mean we don't need a damn heart strings editorial on ESPN's love of Duke and their players as if it's new.

Good thing is Cooper doesn't seem like a cock sucker.

Honestly, I'm kind of flattered he took the time to write us a letter. Really shows you who the big dog is because big dogs don't bark they get barked at by all the other little dogs in the neighborhood who feel like they have something to bark about.

Big dog goes into little dog's yard and big poops. Little dog writes an op-ed about it.
 
I mean. In principle I don’t have any problem at all with what he said. Business is business ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In practice I wonder how honest he’s really being. ESPN has been in business a really long time and most of us have been watching them for decades. Do they *really* have a business model of making all the talk and vid about the number one prospect in the postgame even if he loses? Maybe this is a Mandella Effect thing but to me that story doesn’t hold water. To me it seems like whenever I’ve tuned into an ESPN postgame since the 90s (which admittedly hasn’t been *all* that many times——but I’ve got an awful lot more experience watching postgames if you also include other networks, and I don’t see why ESPN in particular would be any different), if there was an upset they focused on the winner because man that was news. In fact, the bigger the upset, the bigger the news.

If lower-ranked Indiana beats higher-ranked Kansas you make some noise about Indiana. And if sixteen seed UMBC beats 1 seed Virginia then you go absolutely hog ####ing wild over UMBC. I don’t personally remember any number 1 draft picks ever changing that equation. I don’t remember John Wall getting much press outside Kentucky after the game the night West Virginia sent us packing.

I don’t remember Anthony Davis getting an awful lot of press after the game the night Christian Wattford’s “the shot” helped Tom Crean best us with maybe a little help from selfish MFr Terrence Jones’s girlfriend. In fact, even as a huge rabid and disappointed CATS fan on that night, I think I would have found it a little creepy if more than half the coverage had been about us that postgame. Hey reporters: maybe do a little reporting, would have been my take.

So in my mind it seems pretty obvious that what really happened is ESPN literally had no expectation that we could have won that game, and so they were entirely unprepared to cover anything else.

And also I think that’s only half of the story. It’s not like anyone expected UMBC to be able to beat Virginia that night. And that total lack of anticipation didn’t hurt the coverage of the actual story that night. In fact, it helped it. It was legitimately part of the news and so the more ethical (in my mind) sportscasters in that situation were right to show their raw reactions. It made everything better.

It seems to me like some combination of laziness and narcissism must have been responsible for ESPN coming across with so very much the opposite of that dynamic Tuesday night.

Which is kind of bad.

And then to lie about it when people objected vocally and say it was instead just a matter of business constraints that in reality don’t even exist, that to my mind would be an extra level of douchebaggery.

BUT, honestly, all of Western Civilization has gotten a little strange these past five years or so. If, in fact, for whatever reason, ESPN played it the way they did for purely business reasons…..

Or if, which, you know, seems honestly a lot more likely, if they wouldn’t have *had* to play it that way for business reasons (history proves pretty convincingly that actual business purposes favor hyping the underdog after an upset), but still there was some dumb new programming manager involved, running things, who was entitled somehow and who *thought* ESPN had to play it that way for business reasons…… and so the sportscasters just had to “yessir” or “yess’m” a stupid idea that was rammed down their throats and then hush up about it to keep their jobs?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ As I said, there is nothing actually wrong with what Jay said, IF it’s true.
 
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Guess what Jay, you’re not explaining anything we don’t already know. So I guess that makes you the clueless one.

And we still don’t like it. How can that be? Well that’s a little too subtle for you to grasp at your age. Maybe someday a thoroughly unlikable toad such as yourself will mansplain it to you.
 
Hey Jay Williams , I am sure you are reading BBN , since you wanted to lecture us…. Cooper FLagg is talented but sorry buddy, he is not worth the hype. If the refs would call the carrying the balls on his spin moves , or the arm bars when he sets screens and pushes defender to create space or the double dribble his production will not be as much…. Just watch the tape of his first 3 games at Duke and you will knee what your Duke tinted glasses refused to see.

This guy who worked at Monteverde seems to agree that your boy is overrated.


If you still don’t want to admit, watch the last 3 possessions of the Kentucky game: losses the ball twice,


and fails to rebound on a FT miss being easily tricked by Oweh with a spin move in the block … And is Oweh is far from 6’9 … watch video below starting at 1:04.


Your boy is far from number one lick ( sorry pick)or superstardom….his still needs work on basics…
 
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Flagg is really good. ESPN is bias as hell.
Ky sh** on their post game script and highlight reels. Those are facts.

We call them out on it and they don't like it.
Flagg deserves some hype but Ky and and it's players deserved to be featured more in the highlight reels and post game analysis than the kid that lost the damn game.
ESPN can do individual hype AND fair
coverage but chose hype.
That is the glaring bias and why BBN called it out.
 
I smell a straw man. No one cares if ESPN highlights Flagg. They could do a 2 hour Cooper Flagg show every week if they want. Kentucky fans were not annoyed that ESPN covered Flagg. They were annoyed that ESPN aired a Cooper Flagg highlight package in lieu of actual game highlights. Jay knows that, and all the defensiveness is just over compensating because he knows our fans are right. So he has to deflect and create a straw man to argue against.
 
BBN you won but it doesn’t matter. You will be washing Flagg’s car in 5 years. Jay Williams. Put Jay on a motorcycle and kick the Mouse in the nuts. F ESPN for permitting this rant from one of their employees. Williams is a pretentious bastard.
 
Flagg is good but not worthy of the overhype. Exactly how is Flagg's game suited for today's NBA? I have my doubts. He better be getting in the gym & getting off a lot of shots. Good college player though.
 
I don’t have much issue with what he said other than the first 30 seconds of the video where he says he decided to give give credit to the team that won the game and then that he decided to give props to Mark PopeWhat other choice did you have you clown? The results were there, in black and white on the scoreboard and could not/would not be ignored whether you blessed BBN or Pope with your approval or not. GTFOH
 
Next year it will be the Boozer twins. ESPN slurping on the newest Duke prodigy every year pushes kids Duke’s way.
 
Yeah well I got a message for the dookie:

Your boy pooper fag is shooting 23% from 3 going into the game and he went one for five today.
So you tell me how he's going to get drafted if you can't shoot threes at the college distance LOL?
They won't be talking about no pooper fag number one draft pick I'll tell you that.
 
I have zero problem with Flagg..he’s talented and seems to be a decent human being. He played a helluva game
That being said…who really gives a shit what ESPN does? They can hype anyone they want ..hype doesn’t win games
I’m not mad about it, personally. It is what it is…and it didn’t change the outcome
 
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