Maybe What Pisses Me Off The Most...

[North Carolina Blue Wildcat]

We still don’t get it.. other than AD, who over the years could have won Cal a title? He has pissed away year after year with much better players than anyone listed in this thread. He is a terrible in game coach that has no idea how to manage his roster and rotations.

 

[Rockfly78]

Not trying to toot my own horn, really I'm not, just a point. But me and kyjeff1 were saying this years ago. Cal's best rosters were made up of returnees and talented elite freshmen. Keywords being returnees and elite.

Y’all weren’t the only ones. I think he’s always been too arrogant in this regard. “You want to leave? Fine, I’ll replace you with an upgrade”

 

[Jazzycat]

I think what we are seeing is that players are now "under contract" in much the same way as the NBA functions and will come if the money is right. Do they care about winning? Do they care about championships? I would say that the competitors do, but let's face it, most just want the money.

Couple that with our current coaching staff focusing more on being NBA scouts and agents who assist the players in getting to the next level and therein is the issue. Why will they go get portal players when the NBA wants fresh, young talent that can develop in the G league or can flourish in a more one on one situation?

There are still quality coaches out there who care about winning and care about their players getting to a championship game. Unfortunately, the Kentucky coach is not one of them. I appreciate all that Calipari has done - the first 10 years - but, the university needs to make this year his last. His philosophy, his goals and objectives do not line up with what he was originally hired to do. As much as I like Barnhart and all that he has done while at UK, if he can't let this guy know that nothing is acceptable short of a Final Four next year, he should follow Calipari out the door. This basketball program deserves more than what is currently being offered.

 

[UkMccurdy]

You could give Cal the 1992 Dream Team and he would drop a game v Peru in the tourney of the Americas and say we’re young and he is figuring out how we need to be playing.

In pool play we would lose to Angola and he’d say some guys have been out and we need to wait for the medal round.

Then we would drop the first round of medal play to Curaçao when some dude goes off from deep.

CAL IS ABSOLUTELY DONE WINNING BIG HERE OR ANYWHERE ELSE AND THE TALENT DOESNT MATTER.

 

[sluggercatfan]

Sick of hearing him talk about breaking hearts!!!! Maybe he needs to go back to calling guys selfish mofos in front of the whole country.

 

[Ky_Bred_Cat]

Here's why Cal likes the green freshmen. They come in as puppies with eyes wide open like a deer in the headlights and don't question anything Cal says or does. Cal has that NBA track record which is all the tots care about.

Whereas seasoned, blue collar upperclassmen know what's what and Cal knows they may question the methods.

 

[bucsrule8872]

Is the roster building.

We had real, serious odds to land transfers these past 2 years that is seems we barely even tried on.

And I am sitting here watching those guys deep in the tournament.

Baylor Schiermann- remember he supposedly wanted $500K in NIL and Cal said no, we don't promise NIL, so he went to Creighton and has been HUGE for them for 2 years.

Terrance Shannon- remember the Chin connection? The rumor was we could have had him and he entered the portal with UK in mind...but we never seriously pursue, he goes to Illinois...and he has been HUGE for them for 2 years.

Dalton Knecht- We flirted with him a little bit and then backed off since we had Edwards coming in. Imagine him and Reeves together on the wings.

Just a few examples.

HALF of our rotation this year should have been transfers.

And we're signing up to make the same mistake again by taking 6 freshman in this year's class, only two of which are supposed to be big impact (JQ & Fland).

Need to take the best available portal guys this year, and if that scares off guys like Knox, Richmond, etc. and they decommit, so-be-it.

I'm actually rooting for that- I hope all 6 of these guys don't make it to campus- we need TRANSFERS and RETURNERS.

So true.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Can you imagine if this Kentucky team had Schiermann or Knecht instead of Edwards?

Put either of those guys alongside Reeves, Sheppard, and Dillingham, and Kentucky would have made a lot farther...probably to the 2nd round, instead of the first!

 

[Tampa_cat54]

Wrong answer. Lack of coaching is the most egregious issue.

I didn't say what the biggest issue was....I said what pisses me off the most. But nice try.

 

[Tampa_cat54]

You need a good mix. Because not many proven experienced players will transfer in to be 7th, 8th, 9th guys.
6 is to many FR, 0 is too few, 3-4 is ideal.

In my opinion, this upcoming year, 3 is perfect but you almost HAVE to take 4 because you can't turn Perry away.

JQ
Fland
Richmond
Perry

That should be it from a freshman standpoint.

If Perry wasn't a KY kid, I would nix him as well.

That's 3 freshman who could see the rotation, and round out the roster with nothing but older, more experienced guys beyond that.

 

[bucsrule8872]

In my opinion, this upcoming year, 3 is perfect but you almost HAVE to take 4 because you can't turn Perry away.

JQ
Fland
Richmond
Perry

That should be it from a freshman standpoint.

If Perry wasn't a KY kid, I would nix him as well.

That's 3 freshman who could see the rotation, and round out the roster with nothing but older, more experienced guys beyond that.

Six Freshmen are fine as long as 3-4 are willing to wait their turn and develop.

The problem is six Freshmen demanding to start, be in the rotation, and/or play big minutes.

 

[catlogic15]

Is the roster building.

We had real, serious odds to land transfers these past 2 years that is seems we barely even tried on.

And I am sitting here watching those guys deep in the tournament.

Baylor Schiermann- remember he supposedly wanted $500K in NIL and Cal said no, we don't promise NIL, so he went to Creighton and has been HUGE for them for 2 years.

Terrance Shannon- remember the Chin connection? The rumor was we could have had him and he entered the portal with UK in mind...but we never seriously pursue, he goes to Illinois...and he has been HUGE for them for 2 years.

Dalton Knecht- We flirted with him a little bit and then backed off since we had Edwards coming in. Imagine him and Reeves together on the wings.

Just a few examples.

HALF of our rotation this year should have been transfers.

And we're signing up to make the same mistake again by taking 6 freshman in this year's class, only two of which are supposed to be big impact (JQ & Fland).

Need to take the best available portal guys this year, and if that scares off guys like Knox, Richmond, etc. and they decommit, so-be-it.

I'm actually rooting for that- I hope all 6 of these guys don't make it to campus- we need TRANSFERS and RETURNERS.

Nice analogy. This is the problem with our program in a nutshell.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Reeves wouldn't have returned if Knecht came here. Knecht is too much of a volume shooter.

 

[bnewt]

Cal doesn't like proven talent... only question marks with great potential

No, he can't judge talent. He just goes by the number of stars

 

[ralphdaltonfan]

So JQ is supposed to be one of our difference makers coming in at the age of 17? Yeah I mean that’s just not going to happen,

I'm down on Cal and state of program but JQ is the real deal. He'll be an impact player and is skilled beyond his age in terms of passing/handling/and footwork. He'll be fun to watch and a productive player.

 

[bnewt]

We didn't need Knecht when we had a future top 5 draft pick, All SEC Player known as Justin Edwards joining the team.

Don't think anyone thought knecht would be this good. But just watching him, you could see he was very talented. But you are correct, ccc had to honor his promise to start and play edwards

 

[bnewt]

I'm down on Cal and state of program but JQ is the real deal. He'll be an impact player and is skilled beyond his age in terms of passing/handling/and footwork. He'll be fun to watch and a productive player.

Hope you are right, but afraid ccc will remove whatever skills he has now instead of improving them

 

[AzubuikeandFitch]

We can absolutely get better players in the portal than most of the guys coming in.

That much I am not worried about.

Not when you have 6 freshmen coming. 2 or 3 is fine but any more than that and you've hindered returnees/portal player opportunities.

 

[catfan220]

Is the roster building.

We had real, serious odds to land transfers these past 2 years that is seems we barely even tried on.

And I am sitting here watching those guys deep in the tournament.

Baylor Schiermann- remember he supposedly wanted $500K in NIL and Cal said no, we don't promise NIL, so he went to Creighton and has been HUGE for them for 2 years.

Terrance Shannon- remember the Chin connection? The rumor was we could have had him and he entered the portal with UK in mind...but we never seriously pursue, he goes to Illinois...and he has been HUGE for them for 2 years.

Dalton Knecht- We flirted with him a little bit and then backed off since we had Edwards coming in. Imagine him and Reeves together on the wings.

Just a few examples.

HALF of our rotation this year should have been transfers.

And we're signing up to make the same mistake again by taking 6 freshman in this year's class, only two of which are supposed to be big impact (JQ & Fland).

Need to take the best available portal guys this year, and if that scares off guys like Knox, Richmond, etc. and they decommit, so-be-it.

I'm actually rooting for that- I hope all 6 of these guys don't make it to campus- we need TRANSFERS and RETURNERS.

The thing is, guys like Knox and Richmond should totally be welcome here with the expectation they play some their freshmen year and then watch their role expand. But the culture at UK has become one where if you don't succeed at an NBA prospect level year 1, you transfer out for fear of the next round of NBA hopefuls passing you in the rotation. If you keep some of those players around your program the need to find the perfect transfers each offseason is way diminished.

 

[FrankUnderwood2.0]

Baylor got a million dollars from Creighton. All these guys you listed didn't come here because of nil money. That's not on Cal if we don't have it to give
We didn't get knecht and we got Reeves, it wasn't Edwards. Edwards was already coming

It definitely is on Cal.

 

[yoshukai]

I agree with this. But are the top portal guys coming here with all these freshman already signed up? I have my doubts, we’ll see. That’s why I’m afraid that even if Cal gets it he can’t really fix the problem this season. He has to quit taking so many freshmen. Two or three tops.

That’s the thing