Losing interest in UK basketball

[mebeblue2]

i see people in this thread saying because a player only stays one year that they have no connection to the player
yet almost every player that has played for UK/Cal has proven that they have a very strong connection to UK/Cal

 

[The_Answer1313]

i see people in this thread saying because a player only stays one year that they have no connection to the player
yet almost every player that has played for UK/Cal has proven that they have a very strong connection to UK/Cal

exactly

 

[Old_Red]

Actually he wa a very highly recruited player who went to IU, not state, and was freshman of the year I believe in the Big Ten and then transfered to Kentucky. You ought to know this history because we won the N.C. in 1978 with him.

What? I was at Purdue when Macy was there. I graduated the same year he was eligible to play Lexington. How could you mix up Indiana and Purdue? To someone from Indiana that is a cardinal sin.

 

[Poetax]

What? I was at Purdue when Macy was there. I graduated the same year he was eligible to play Lexington. How could you mix up Indiana and Purdue? To someone from Indiana that is a cardinal sin.

I’m sorry Red when he said Indiana State it stayed in my mind, my bad.

 

[morgousky]

Just because something hasn't happened before doesn't mean something can't happen in the future.

There's always a first for everything.

Yeah a team full of freshman have never won a title but lets be honest here, however how many schools construct their teams to be full of freshman. Not many right, if any. Heck even Cal's teams had SOME upperclassman or at least sophomores.

It hasn't happened yet because it can't happen. Because there's no team that constructs their teams that way.

But come on tho 2012 was damn close. Miller was the only upperclassman that played major minutes.

I don't think Cal wished it to be this way btw. I mean he has to recruit players before knowing who is exactly going and who is staying. This is the first season where it's been EXTREME like this. I don't think this will be the norm going forward especially with the one and done rule likely ending.

2012 was not close to “all freshman”. It wasn’t close to “nearly all freshman”.

Frosh, Frosh, Frosh, Soph, Soph, Senior. Those are your significant contributors and the senior Miller was necessary to the title.

I don’t think Cal is aiming for all freshman either, not today anyway.

 

[morgousky]

Oh I had holy hell raised with me for that exact point. I said "no team with all freshmen has ever won it, so why is Cal trying it"? I had posters saying it had already been done

I don’t think Cal was necessarily trying to win with a starting unit of all freshman. I think he wanted some returnees but needed to promote an image of young NBA talent that revolved. That how he set the table to be the nba guys coach.

The truth is there’s little difference in a Freshman in March and a Sophomore in December. I think this is the philosophy Cal was shooting for. I don’t think he ever thought he wouldn’t get some guys to stay, adding a few older guys to “March freshmores”. It works, but the issue was he sold the OAD’s so hard it might have scared off a lot of good recruits who would have loved to go to UK and stay multiple years. Kennard May be one. We ended up being younger than we need to be as far as winning the titles go, at this point. I see it changing.

All imo. Could be totally wrong. That’s just a theory.

 

[SmoothRunner32]

Yup, its about that time of the year to take a long break from this message board. This site is becoming unreadable with all the trolls that are allowed to write stupid stuff on here.

 

[KyFaninNC]

Somebody go nuclear so this embarrassing thread gets deleted. TIA.

HINT, do not click on a thread, much less read it, if you do not like it.

 

[KyFaninNC]

Yup, its about that time of the year to take a long break from this message board. This site is becoming unreadable with all the trolls that are allowed to write stupid stuff on here.

So you want all posts that you do not like zapped? You are not a lover of free speech? Maybe you should ban yourself, if your feelings are hurt.

 

[awf]

I knew that Macy led UK to the title in 78....I just didn't recall where he started out. I knew it was in Indiana.......

 

[The_Answer1313]

2012 was not close to “all freshman”. It wasn’t close to “nearly all freshman”.

Frosh, Frosh, Frosh, Soph, Soph, Senior. Those are your significant contributors and the senior Miller was necessary to the title.

I don’t think Cal is aiming for all freshman either, not today anyway.

The point being is before that what team won a national title where 5 of their main contributors were underclassman?

No one right.

And up till that point all we heard was that you can't win titles with youth.

I don't think Cal is aiming for all freshman either. I think it's just hard for him to know what his teams are going to look like a year from now cause he doesn't know who is going and who is staying.

But if we had the right freshman could a team with all freshman win a title? Yeah I think so. It would have to be one hell of a special group but it could happen.

If we said it couldn't happen, we'd be making the same mistake many did prior to 2012.

It's like we've debunked the myth that you cant win with underclassman and now people want to just one up and say well you can't win with all freshman.......well yes, yes you can.

It's just never going to happen because seeing teams constructed in that fashion never happen. And probably won't in the future either.

FWIW even if we won the title this season, people would say "well u had two sophomores on that team so it's still not all freshman" lol

 

[VFO]

Christ. This is why our fan base catches some of the sh!t it does. Spoiled. Who would you complainers rather have as coach? We are in contention virtually every year. Seems like some of you armchairs think you know more about basketball than our hall of fame legend coach does.

Contenders is the word. Is that all we hope for. I just don’t believe we will ever win a NC with the players we now recruit unless some “quality” players with great leadership ability decide to forego the money and fame of the NBA for the experience of a NC.

 

[pessimisticat]

Im tired of rebuilding EVERY year. Id like to see a class stick around for a few years. Personally I don't think we win another NC with Cal. Too many other teams recruiting O and D but mixing them with upper class men. Im not done with em as the original poster said but not as enthused as I once was. Face it. We have had some enormous talent here and one NC to show for it. Perhaps we need a mix of O & D with juniors and seniors. I dont know but it just isn't the same. As for all of you who ripped the OP. Im sorry but you all sound like Louisville fans. Telling others to think like you or Kiss your A^%. Its kind of delusional to think our team has all the answer and no one should disagree with you. Sad really

 

[The_Answer1313]

*sighs

There is no magic formula. There is no right set of upperclassman and lower classman. The best you can do is put together a talented team AND get lucky.

 

[UK90]

Actually he wa a very highly recruited player who went to Purdue, not state, and was freshman of the year I believe in the Big Ten and then transfekred to Kentucky. You ought to know this history because we won the N.C. in 1978 with him.

If you were gonna edit this post to correct your mistake, then your edit should've also deleted the "ought to know your history" part where you condescendingly chastised others for not knowing their history, considering you also made the exact same historical mistake.

He said ISU, you said IU (until you edited after someone revealed your blunder), you were both equally wrong. The lesson: Don't rip others for a mistake unless you're sure you haven't done the exact same thing.

 

[Poetax]

If you were gonna edit this post to correct your mistake, then your edit should've also deleted the "ought to know your history" part where you condescendingly chastised others for not knowing their history, considering you also made the exact same historical mistake.

He said ISU, you said IU (until you edited after someone revealed your blunder), you were both equally wrong. The lesson: Don't rip others for a mistake unless you're sure you haven't done the exact same thing.

Sorry mother I’ll try harder. At least I picked a P5 school.

 

[kev69]

It seems as though this board is becoming hostile.

 

[ZenCatFan73]

Contenders is the word. Is that all we hope for. I just don’t believe we will ever win a NC with the players we now recruit unless some “quality” players with great leadership ability decide to forego the money and fame of the NBA for the experience of a NC.

All you can ask is to be in the mix. Cal has done that for us. Winning the title is hard. As @The_Answer1313 said, there is no magic formula.

 

[wildcat_bigd]

In only 2 years has cal not gotten us deep in the tourney. I mean damn, he coaches his teams for that. I wouldn’t want anyone else as our coach.

 

[Old_Red]

It seems as though this board is becoming hostile.

Reflecting society. It used to be that you could disagree with someone and be congenial, i.e. you just disagree about something. Now, we seem to have to prove the other person is not only wrong, but stupid, probably malevolent. I try not to take things too seriously, but the general attitude is definitely, chip on the shoulder and it is contagious.

 

[KyFaninNC]

Reflecting society. It used to be that you could disagree with someone and be congenial, i.e. you just disagree about something. Now, we seem to have to prove the other person is not only wrong, but stupid, probably malevolent. I try not to take things too seriously, but the general attitude is definitely, chip on the shoulder and it is contagious.

Yep, the mentality, which is I get my way, or I will throw a tantrum. Several tantrums in this one thread.

 

[ThePhoenix]

Sadly I have too. I haven’t got over that Wisconsin loss. It changed something for me. I have zero patience with Cal now and I just don’t like him like I used to.

I wanted Cal more than anything in the world 10 years ago. I couldn’t have been more happy when we got him. The man walked on water in my eyes his first three years. The Archie year didn’t sit well with me but I was able to let it go by the next year. 2014 was a frustrating year with the highest high in the tournament only to blow it. That’s when I started to lose faith in Cal. 2015 felt like the first 3 years again but that Wisconsin game was the breaking point for me. I haven’t had the same excitement and desire to watch the Cats since.

Hell, I didn’t even watch the Kansas game the other night just because I didn’t want to get pissed and be in a bad mood. I’d just flip over every half hour to see the score. That’s crazy to me because before 2015 I would have missed my own wedding or a family funeral to watch the Cats play.

Part of why I’ve lost interest besides Wisconsin and Cal’s lack of coaching is losing so many players each year. I don’t mind losing the Fox/Monk types. They earned that right to go. It’s the Briscoe/Humphries/Teague/Goodwin types that piss me off.

That's sad on multiple levels honestly. I don't believe sports in general is really for you.

And so many whiners in here. We lost to Wisconsin to just miss going 40-0 and y'all can't recover? Jesus. How soft are y'all?

 

[TankedCat]

my question is - is this year an anomaly or is what UK teams will look like for the next 3 or 4 years?

 

[Fox2monk]

Thats why I'm stoked about Herro's commitment. We need two of him per class. A Two to three year guy that will contribute his freshman year then blosssom and lead the superstar freshmen we get.

 

[TeleTubby]

It's no secret every Southern fanbase (probably every fanbase, to be honest) has a percentage of people who grew up in a time where racism was promoted in the household; I still have older family members who refer to black players as "colored."

Yep. I remember in the 80s when to be a UK fan was to be a racist. I had a friend who was a U of L fan and so was his dad, who played football for the Cards. Was watching a U of L game at his house one night in the early 80s and this guy yells "Wagner, give up the ball you dumb n*****!"

I had an internship working for a guy who played on the UNC jayvee team with Billy Cunningham. He told me he used to love to watch UK come down and play Florida just to watch "those two big white kids (Robey and Phillips) knock those Florida n***** around."

UK had more than our share of these people. But that's because as the Yankees of college basketball we have more than our share of every type of fan. We were just part of the times. Hell, a friend of mine's dad used to cover IU basketball for the Courier and Knight told him he wanted to win a national title with an all-white team. Don't believe me? Read Frank DeFord's story on Knight that was reprinted a couple years ago.

 

[BluCroo]

I think some of the dis-satisfaction comes from the fact that the fans no longer get to see the better players develop as college players. As soon as they show a bit of promise, it's off to the NBA. It's difficult to maintain an interest in a team when its core just touch here for a few months and then are gone.

I don't blame anyone. It's just the nature of the game these days.