March 1st, 2014

[FiveStarCat]

Kentucky lost to 11-18 South Carolina. A little over a month later they were playing for the national championship.

I know everyone is sick of the 2011 and 2014 references but you'd have to be stupid to count out Cal at his point. Especially in this garbage year.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400506454

 

[BourbonBalz]

That team had a lot of talent that just took a season to gel and mature. This team has much less talent, especially in the paint. It's just not happening this year. Considering the seed we're likely to get, I'd say Sweet 16 is the ceiling. They just can't put it all together for an entire game.

 

[TNCatfanforever]

Ha. That team was under achieving. This team has over achieved to win this many games. This is the worst team we have had since BCG era. The 2013 team was better until Noel went down

 

[JFCats22]

2014 had the pieces to make that run possible.

This team doesn't. Pretty simple

 

[JerseyCat84]

Julius Randle. Dakari Johnson. Willie Cauley-Stein.

 

[jwhite123]

The difference: 2011 had T Jones inside, 2014 had Randle. We have nothing.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Ah, yes.

Perspective.

 

[aceman509]

Ha. That team was under achieving. This team has over achieved to win this many games. This is the worst team we have had since BCG era. The 2013 team was better until Noel went down

Yeah, I'm sure the 2013 team would have beaten Bama by 16 on the road, Arkansas by 14 on the road, beaten Duke on a neutral court, a top 20 UofL team, and played a top 5 Kansas team to OT on their court. They clearly would have done all that and more.

 

[Roe07]

2014 had the pieces to make that run possible.

This team doesn't. Pretty simple

This!

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Julius Randle. Dakari Johnson. Willie Cauley-Stein.

And exponentially better guards this season.

WCS missed almost all of the Louisville game, and all of the Wisconsin, Michigan, and UConn games.

If you want to count Randle and Johnson, have at it, but I'm not sure that '14 team was much better than this current team. Randle was a beast on the interior, but the guards/wings were hardly much to write home about, especially in early February of 2014.

 

[crawfords corner]

If this team had Julius Randle it might work.

 

[FiveStarCat]

That team had a lot of talent that just took a season to gel and mature. This team has much less talent, especially in the paint. It's just not happening this year. Considering the seed we're likely to get, I'd say Sweet 16 is the ceiling. They just can't put it all together for an entire game.

Who did UCONN have in 2014 that we don't have this year?

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

This!

Oh, like the Harrison twins? Because in early February of 2014, our fans were just gushing about how good they were and how capable they were of taking UK on a run.

 

[blubo]

Ha. That team was under achieving. This team has over achieved to win this many games. This is the worst team we have had since BCG era. The 2013 team was better until Noel went down

worst team since bcg? don't think so. now we just have to play to make the tourny, seed be damned.

 

[Kentucky fan 1989]

I remember people were complaining about that team too.

 

[BourbonBalz]

Who did UCONN have in 2014 that we don't have this year?

Guards that we could not keep out of the lane, just like tonight, because of Cal's total refusal to play any zone.

 

[aceman509]

2014 wasn't nearly as good as everyone is trying to claim it is.

Sure Randle was a beast but let's not pretend he was an unstoppable force. So many frustrating turnovers and at best was a slightly above average defender, much worse than he should have been given his size (I blame his tiny t-rex wing span).

Dakari wasn't anything special. He came on a little bit late in the season and he played very well for a stretch again UofL in the tournament but other than that he wasn't anything great.

WCS wasn't really great either, and we didn't have him for pretty much that entire run minus the first 2 games anyway. Sure he played good defense, but his scoring was horrible (obviously he was a better scorer last year, and yeah he wasn't a great scorer last year).

Young is basically a mirror-image of Murray.

Twins were pretty bad most of the season. Tyler blows Andrew away, and Briscoe is at the very least equal to Aaron.

Poy this year is better than Poy that year too.


So, actually when I break it down, I might take this team over 2014. The only variable is how much you want to praise Randle, and while he was a fantastic rebounder and pretty good scorer, I think people remember him as being better than he was.

 

[FiveStarCat]

Julius Randle. Dakari Johnson. Willie Cauley-Stein.

Cauley-Stein went down in the sweet 16 game. We then relied on freshman Marcus Lee to give us a boost to the Elite 8. Also, that 2014 team lost to a UCONN team with a similar makeup to this year's UK team. That UCONN team lost by 33 points to Louisville in early March by the way.

 

[HenryMuto]

 

[JerseyCat84]

Cauley-Stein went down in the sweet 16 game. We then relied on freshman Marcus Lee to give us a boost to the Elite 8. Also, that 2014 team lost to a UCONN team with a similar makeup to this year's UK team. That UCONN team lost by 33 points to Louisville in early March by the way.

We had him in the regular season and that gave me hope.The interior players were there. None of our bigs this year can sniff Randle or WCS' jock.

 

[cats#1again]

People always forget that regular season road games mean absolutely nothing. The refs call these games a certain way that make for a good watch on TV.
The tourney isn't like this. Neutral court,and cal is a demon to mess with.