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Locked on Arkansas

I’ve said for years Cals decline is a product of 2 things.
1. High School players coming into College are not nearly as good as they used to be. AAU ball ruins them. They don’t work as hard in the weight room and usually can’t guard a lamp post. Depending on freshman rosters was not sustainable as the talent level declined.
2. Steph Curry….. with the advent of guys shooting much further out Cals dribble drive, take your man one on one was getting harder and harder. He wanted athleticism over shooting. The game changed and he didn’t.
I don’t think he completely got lazy. With these 2 things happening no coach could continue to win with young, athleticism. The blueprint was broke.
5* freshman went from Wall, bledsoe, Bam and those beasts to Boston, Edward’s and Collin’s.
Skinny runts that had zero toughness, no shooting ability and couldn’t defend.
Agree with your points CRZ
I will add:
1. An 18/19 year old boy coming into college has neither the body or experience to compete with 22/23 year old men
2. AAU reinforces bad habits; no defense, no team play just 1 on 1, and lack of hard work. These kids all think they are the greatest player ever to Grace the court and only get their comeuppance when they arrive on campus. Yes there are exceptions (AD) but most of these kids must be shocked when practices/games begin. Give me a 22 year old 3* instead of an 18 year old 5*.
Good, not great, college players with experience who understand team play and have experienced the highs and lows.
Our present UK team is a great example of these points.
 
Calipari pretty much told Arkansas fans he doesn't care about winning because he wants his guys drafted.

Arkansas fans can put the blame on Kentucky fans all they want because in the end, it's Arkansas who persuaded him to leave Kentucky in the first place.

I will never feel sorry for Calipari or Arkansas fans because Calipari deliberately sabotaged our program to hurt Pope in his first season.

Calipari's intentions was to try and convince people that without him, Kentucky would fail. The only problem is we called his bluff.

I love this team and even though Kentucky's defense is bad at times, they still play hard.

Not trying to get emotional here, but I watch every game with my mother because of her cancer. I get more enjoyment by making memories with her.

Pope helped bring back a lot of fans Calipari ran off. With that being said, Kentucky's chances of winning the title this year is just as good as anyone else. If we beat Alabama this weekend, that will be more top 15 wins than Calipari in the last few years combined.
The Arkansas media is now trying to say that we only warned them about losing in the tournament, we didn't warn them about losing the way he's losing now.
Well, we had no idea the SEC was going to be this good, but aa soon as we saw how increfibly deep the league was, we knew Arkansas was in deep trouble.
But there aew so many things those guys need to know about Cal and I guess they're just going to have to find out the hard way, because they didn't do their due diligence when Cal was hired.

You aren't going to win by playing iso streetball, you aren't going to win by not playing team ball and instead focusing on individual goals and accomplishments, you aren't going to have different results by doing the same things over and over and at some point, he has to look at what he's doing to understand why so many players struggle in his system.

I wish I could sit down with John Neighbors (Nabors ???) And take the time to explain what they are all seeing and get them to undersrand that he isn't going to change. DeAaron Fox wasn't lying when he said that. Cal literally doesn’t care how mad you are at him, he's not changing.
 
Agree with your points CRZ
I will add:
1. An 18/19 year old boy coming into college has neither the body or experience to compete with 22/23 year old men
2. AAU reinforces bad habits; no defense, no team play just 1 on 1, and lack of hard work. These kids all think they are the greatest player ever to Grace the court and only get their comeuppance when they arrive on campus. Yes there are exceptions (AD) but most of these kids must be shocked when practices/games begin. Give me a 22 year old 3* instead of an 18 year old 5*.
Good, not great, college players with experience who understand team play and have experienced the highs and lows.
Our present UK team is a great example of these points.
The only time I'll take a 5* over a seasoned 3 star, is if that 5* is a top shelf guy, like a Fox, Wall, AD, Randle, Townes, Monk etc… , once you dip down below those top shelf guys, you are getting dudes that need to be developed and since they are only there for a year, it's usually not worth it.

But, if you can add them as a piece and they don't have to carry the load, they win and the program wins.

Give me Lamont Butler and Otega Oweh over Askew and Boston any freaking day.
 
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The Arkansas media is now trying to say that we only warned them about losing in the tournament, we didn't warn them about losing the way he's losing now.
Well, we had no idea the SEC was going to be this good, but aa soon as we saw how increfibly deep the league was, we knew Arkansas was in deep trouble.
But there aew so many things those guys need to know about Cal and I guess they're just going to have to find out the hard way, because they didn't do their due diligence when Cal was hired.

You aren't going to win by playing iso streetball, you aren't going to win by not playing team ball and instead focusing on individual goals and accomplishments, you aren't going to have different results by doing the same things over and over and at some point, he has to look at what he's doing to understand why so many players struggle in his system.

I wish I could sit down with John Neighbors (Nabors ???) And take the time to explain what they are all seeing and get them to undersrand that he isn't going to change. DeAaron Fox wasn't lying when he said that. Cal literally doesn’t care how mad you are at him, he's not changing.
I must have missed this interview of Fox. Was he saying he won’t change in a negative context towards Cal? Did they have a falling out or?
 
“EVEN YOU IDIOT KENTUCKY FANS NEVER THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE THIS BAD”

It's true that the results are even worse than a lot of us expected, but what is also true is that the issues that are causing the results are EXACTLY what we warned you about. Just because it's worse than we even thought doesn't mean we weren't right.
 
“EVEN YOU IDIOT KENTUCKY FANS NEVER THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE THIS BAD”

It's true that the results are even worse than a lot of us expected, but what is also true is that the issues that are causing the results are EXACTLY what we warned you about. Just because it's worse than we even thought doesn't mean we weren't right.
That has to be the worst retort in the history of retorts....Hey idiots we're worse than you said we'd be. Sounds like an SNL skit.

On another note, this guy ranted for 30 minutes about how awful this team is without mentioning any specifics about why other than a few game stats. No comment about Calipari's lineup, substitution patterns, or game plan/plays. He barely mentioned his name. Either this guy knows nothing about basketball or he's been told not to criticize the coach.
 
I must have missed this interview of Fox. Was he saying he won’t change in a negative context towards Cal? Did they have a falling out or?
I might have the quote incorrect, but if this is tge one I was thinking of, it's probably worse than "Csl's not changing". The quote in this interview is "Cal doesn’t give a damn about winning college basketball games… ".

Arkansas fans need to see this.

De'Aaron Fox says John Calipari "couldn't give a damn about winning college basketball games" - On3

 
The decline of Cowipari and the Hawgs this year is very simple. After year of intense scrutiny and scouting the college basketball world has developed an antidote on stopping the complicated GO!!!!!!, RUUUUN!!!, and Make a Play!!!!! offenses that CCC initially introduced years ago.

Unlike the simple CMP's offense which you can understand with much film watching, it has been difficult to figure out what exactly makes the GO!!, Ruun!!, and Make a Play offenses tick. The success of this COW gem revolved around the fact that it was always changing and CCC in his brilliance understood that if he, a HOFer, could not figure it out, how could opposing coaches, not HOFers, figure it out!
 
I might have the quote incorrect, but if this is tge one I was thinking of, it's probably worse than "Csl's not changing". The quote in this interview is "Cal doesn’t give a damn about winning college basketball games… ".

Arkansas fans need to see this.

De'Aaron Fox says John Calipari "couldn't give a damn about winning college basketball games" - On3

You can thank the refs for that Elite 8 loss against UNCheats. It was a one sided affair with Kentucky having to play against 8.

And what Fox said about Calipari was dead on. Calipari turned our beloved program into a G-league draft camp.

So glad he's Arkansas's headache now. How many times did Kentucky faithful tell Arkansas fans be careful what you wish for?!

Now, they're eating crow and Arkansas's schedule doesn't get any easier either. I know we can't beat our chests (bad losses to Ohio State and Georgia) but they lost to LSU in their gym. LSU is atrocious this year and it's a possibility that Arkansas could be winless in the SEC when they come to Rupp on February 1st.

I hope Kentucky beats Arkansas by 30+
 
Agree with your points CRZ
I will add:
1. An 18/19 year old boy coming into college has neither the body or experience to compete with 22/23 year old men
2. AAU reinforces bad habits; no defense, no team play just 1 on 1, and lack of hard work. These kids all think they are the greatest player ever to Grace the court and only get their comeuppance when they arrive on campus. Yes there are exceptions (AD) but most of these kids must be shocked when practices/games begin. Give me a 22 year old 3* instead of an 18 year old 5*.
Good, not great, college players with experience who understand team play and have experienced the highs and lows.
Our present UK team is a great example of these points.
I agree with you 💯 when you mentioned taking a 22 year old 3* over a 5* freshman. I wouldn't trade this team for any 5* freshman coming out of high school.
 
You can thank the refs for that Elite 8 loss against UNCheats. It was a one sided affair with Kentucky having to play against 8.

And what Fox said about Calipari was dead on. Calipari turned our beloved program into a G-league draft camp.

So glad he's Arkansas's headache now. How many times did Kentucky faithful tell Arkansas fans be careful what you wish for?!

Now, they're eating crow and Arkansas's schedule doesn't get any easier either. I know we can't beat our chests (bad losses to Ohio State and Georgia) but they lost to LSU in their gym. LSU is atrocious this year and it's a possibility that Arkansas could be winless in the SEC when they come to Rupp on February 1st.

I hope Kentucky beats Arkansas by 30+
I don’t think Georgia will turn out that bad.
 
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