McNeeley to UConn
- Thread starter LXWildcat
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It depends on if he can get the good ones.Just because they are older doesn't make them better.
You are being unreasonable is the thing. You and others are complaining without the roster even being close to set. We have 4 players and 6 days left for players to enter the portal.
Pope been on the job since last week. Give the man a fair shake before shitting on a certain player cuz he doesn’t meet your criteria. Dude is tryin to build a team from scratch cuz our last coach was a complete clown. Didn’t think it would be that hard for fans to understand that when we fired cal.
Then why have our 5 star freshmen had their @$$es handed to them every year at tournament time for the past 5 years and the teams that have won the NC are playing almost all upper classmen. Many of who were low rated coming out of high school????
I agree you have to have the players to be successful. Where I think you’re caught up in misdirection is believing freshmen are the best players. They’re not. In fact, they are rarely even one of the better players at their position in a conference. None of the freshmen Calipari is bringing in will be All-SEC players next season – All-freshmen team maybe, but not All-SEC.
But I get it, and can’t say I blame you. 5-star one-and-done (OAD) freshmen are exciting for Ark fans. They don’t really expect to compete for championships and will be content to get some pre-season hype for recruiting classes. A lot of casual UK fans liked that hype and attention too. But most UK fans want to compete for titles almost every year, and occasionally win one. 5-star freshmen simply aren’t good enough to carry teams to titles, especially in the era of the transfer portal. Maybe one OAD freshman in the starting lineup would work if he’s more of a role player, but two or more and expecting them to be your teams most productive players is basically a guarantee you’re not a serious contender.
No doubt but the teams who won had top rated portal guys.IT may change but right now we don't.
I think that remains to be seen. It depends on who is replacing the unproven freshmen.
Bottom line is you still need talent to win titles.
Rick Pitino went 14-14 his first year and the fanbase was ecstatic.
Why? Because we loved the style of basketball and we had hope for a better future for the basketball team.
Most of those (us) fans are still around.
We will give Pope time to rebuild the program that Cal literally destroyed on his way out the door.
Anyone who would rip Pope for this is insane. This was a guy UConn had focused on the entire Spring and was the only HS guy they were recruiting. They put all their focus into him and were the heavy favorites.
Some of you will now know why I wrote what I did in the thread other day to prep for this and other UConn targets. Mahaney is going to weigh things out and is not done deal for anyone so UK got him on campus and has a shot. All we can ask for with how late of a start Pope/Staff have gotten.
Loving what they are doing in short time and expect 2/3 more commits soon and a chance to focus on some big priorities who are waiting for NBA Combine to evaluate their options. Staff can recruit that week too. Good days ahead guys but don't get caught up by people spreading lies to get hits or pretend they know something they don't know (worst being the Hurley leaving for UK nonsense).
Some of you will now know why I wrote what I did in the thread other day to prep for this and other UConn targets. Mahaney is going to weigh things out and is not done deal for anyone so UK got him on campus and has a shot. All we can ask for with how late of a start Pope/Staff have gotten.
Loving what they are doing in short time and expect 2/3 more commits soon and a chance to focus on some big priorities who are waiting for NBA Combine to evaluate their options. Staff can recruit that week too. Good days ahead guys but don't get caught up by people spreading lies to get hits or pretend they know something they don't know (worst being the Hurley leaving for UK nonsense).
Grow up. Where did you come from any way? Cal leaves and instead of following him you hang around here bitching about everything. Get out.
Osobor for sure. I think they get this done with him when he visits. I think the OK (Oweh) kid is going to go public soon and think there's a surprise commit coming that none of us know is even going to visit to replace the visit Smith was going to take.
Mahaney has gone by the book-he's taken his visits and he'll make his decision when he returns home to discuss things. Maybe it's quick, but he just seems to be does as he says. So we'll find out what he thought of things then.
Ok…we’ll see how the strategy works out. Any good coach will tell you he’s as good as the players on the court.
Indeed in this case they won’t be though. Davis will be “the guy”, Garrison/Aidoo will be the post, Z will play significant minutes, then I assume of the other 8 spots there will be portal guys there to make their contributions. I mean we have 3 freshman, not sure if you expect us to sign 8 more or what, but I don’t know how we would construct a roster without transfers.
We've already seen how that strategy works out relying on 5 star freshmen.
Missed the NCAA tournament. Check.
First round loss to a 15 seed. Check.
First round loss to a 14 seed. Check.
One SEC tournament win in 5 years. Check.
One NCAA win in 5 years. Check.
That's a pretty good sample size, wouldn't you think???
I think y’all will see, the grass ain’t always greener. Not in reference to Cal, but in reference to recruiting.
Good point. Appears you guys got lucky with only 3 of the freshmen agreeing to come to Ark; and it's too late for Calipari to get more. I don't understand why DJ Wagner hasn't agreed to transfer to Ark yet, although I still expect he will. Contrary to some of my fellow UK fans, I think Wagner is going to be a good one for you (Big Z as well). He was young even for his class, and I think a year under his belt will help him a lot.
If Johnell Davis goes to Ark, it'll be interesting to see who starts. If history holds, Calipari starts 5-star freshmen over better upperclassmen - actually he doesn't recruit transfers he thinks may push freshmen for the starting position. I know it sounds crazy, but his first priority at UK anyway was to get freshmen drafted in eight months (so he could continue to get the OAD kids). So, unless Wagner doesn't go to Ark, Calipari is likely going to start Fland, Wagner and Knox at the PG, 2G & SF spots. Davis will have to be ok with a 6th man role, like All-American Antonio Reeves had to accept.
We good over here. You can have all those Prima Donnas at Arkansas.
Is there not anything going on over at the Arkansas site???
Oh yeah. Basketball is the #2 sport... or #3 behind football and baseball.
Cal is going to loooovvve that.
Help me out, do we want one n dones or no?
Half of you people cried about having them, now the same ones crying because Pope can't get one.
Which is it? I'm referring to the Chicken Littles here btw.
Half of you people cried about having them, now the same ones crying because Pope can't get one.
Which is it? I'm referring to the Chicken Littles here btw.
Yeah for sure, lots of commits and visits, should be a great weekend. Hopefully y’all have a great weekend too.
We also won a national title relying on Freshmen too lol.
TBH, I feel like under Cal we had better teams when it was mostly freshmen/two year guys. It all started going downhill when we actually started getting the transfer guys and getting somewhat older.
I feel like this narrative pushed is false. You win with talent. Ideally you'd take a talented upperclassmen over a freshman but just take people to be "old" doesn't work either. There's no secret sauce here.
The last few years didn't go well not because we were young but rather we weren't getting the same caliber of players that we were in the past. If you think about the top 10 players in this Cal era, most of them came at the beginning.
Cal doesn't have a NC without Darius Miller, Terrance Jones, and Doron Lamb on that team.
If you remember, those 5 star freshmen couldn't buy a basket in the NC game.
Fortunately, AD and MKG had way more to their game than just scoring.
Fab 5 was the closest any all freshman team will ever come to winning a NC IMO.
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With the NIL now firmly in place, a coach who knows the game, and 25 yr run second only to UCLA under Wooden, UConn could well go on a crazy run of titles. It’s not like they got lucky twice and squeeked by some nail-biters on their run. They blew people away. In the tournament.
They seem to be in the position Cal was in the first few years of his tenure in being able to get just about anybody they want. And they also have a coach who knows what to do with them.
They seem to be in the position Cal was in the first few years of his tenure in being able to get just about anybody they want. And they also have a coach who knows what to do with them.
Biggest memory I have from that is Gilchrist getting beat on the baseline, only to catch up to his guy and block the shot under the basket. Don’t know if we have seen that kind of determination since. Also, remember how it looked like we might lose him early in the game? Only to have him shake off what looked like a significant blow, and soldier on. Loved that guy.
That kid was the ultimate team player. All heart and guts, and hustle.
Yeah....but even Jones and Lamb were just second year guys.
That team was still very young.
How many teams in Division 1 sports run out all freshmen teams? No one.
Its just a numbers game. Most teams start upperclassmen and thus most teams that win titles have those guys.
I think too much is made of it to be honest. It comes down to having great players and having great teams. I feel like that could occur with any mix of players.
I can tell you from personal experience as an 18 yo player I was a boy.
As a 22 yo player, I was a man.
Huge physical difference from 18-22. And mental toughness. Maturity quite often trumps young talent.
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Yep. Not to mention the steep learning curve a freshman has to go transitioning from HS ball to college. Even the highly rated guys don't always perform right away. It took PJ Washington a year and a half for the light to really go on.
Probably the reason why you don't see it in college basketball. I just find it funny tho when we look back at all of the years Cal was here, those young teams in 2010, 2012 and 2015 were actually our best ones lol. Once u had some key guys return for year two that seemed to work. Unfortunately, that stopped happening at some point and the quality of the incoming classes just wasn't quite there.
Yeah probably easier to win with older guys. But ultimately those older guys still also need to be very good to get where u want to get.
Why does having a legitimate concern = a Cal supporter? We get so cult like it's ridiculous. Any discussion about a concern is being negative or a Cal fan. Some of us live in reality. Some of us talk like Pope will make it to the 2nd weekend in March when we don't even have a roster yet. I'm letting it play out like we all should but it's asinine to just act like things are going well so far.
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