Optimism

[ssorg]

Hmmm ....... Scrappy .... active hands and move their feet well on defense ...... rebound well for their size .... share the ball ... and big guys coming.
I'm very optomistic............. GO BIG BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[blue cincy]

Hopefully we will get 100% from Cal and the staff to coach this team and let them play to the best of their abilities. It would be fun to have a fun and gun team with board crashers, shot blockers, high flying dunks and so forth.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

These team has so much upside it frightens even me as a fan.

 

[UkMccurdy]

As far as UK goes, it’s the first time I’ve been hopeful in some time. I’ll take that.

A month ago we had 7 guys.

Then a lot changed.

Reeves comes back, Mitchell transfers in, Bradshaw should play this year.

Then we saw the freshmen are really good, Reeves and Mitchell looked great, and Thiero looks like a new man.

Thus, there is now hope.

And there should be!

 

[bbncal02]

 

[IL Wildcat]

Yeah, the return of Reeves and the addition of Mitchell made me think the team would be decent but I still believed that the only real chance for this team to be great lies in the hands of the freshmen. And I know this group of freshmen is one of the highest rated classes UK has ever had. But we've seen some highly rated recruits come in and lay an egg while looking lost. None of us really knew how good these guys would play or look.

These guys had moments where they looked like freshmen (I think all of them did in these 4 games) but they had more (by far) where they looked and played well beyond their years. We've seen freshmen do that also. These guys made plays in tough spots and under pressure. That bodes well for the team.

Clearly, the level of pressure for exhibition games in Canada is not at the same level as these guys will face this coming season, but these were some good initial tests and they passed with flying colors. I see something in these guys that I haven't seen in recent years at UK. I can't quite define it- maybe that's it, it's just some intangible qualities that they have. They have talent, but others have had talent. They made plays at key moments when the game was in the balance. They put the game away when the opponent made their run. They're not a bunch of muscle-bound strong guys but they made plays when they had to be made.

 

[Woodrow_Call_1998]

I think this team has the talent to be special. I was worried about it, since I had read so many times that this freshman class was considered to be weak. I’m no talent scout but from what Ive seen, we got some darn good freshman basketball players. I knew Reed had potential to be good, but I had no idea he was as good as he is right now.

Hearing Cal say we needed to shoot more three pointers in the halftime interview of the Germany game really shocked me lol that’s exactly what I’ve wanted to hear Cal say in the past.

 

[mebeblue2]

I think this team has the talent to be special. I was worried about it, since I had read so many times that this freshman class was considered to be weak. I’m no talent scout but from what Ive seen, we got some darn good freshman basketball players. I knew Reed had potential to be good, but I had no idea he was as good as he is right now.

Hearing Cal say we needed to shoot more three pointers in the halftime interview of the Germany game really shocked me lol that’s exactly what I’ve wanted to hear Cal say in the past.

yep we were told by the talent evaluators on this board that
this was a weak class
they could not shoot
they were to skinny

did i miss anything?

 

[IL Wildcat]

I think this team has the talent to be special. I was worried about it, since I had read so many times that this freshman class was considered to be weak. I’m no talent scout but from what Ive seen, we got some darn good freshman basketball players. I knew Reed had potential to be good, but I had no idea he was as good as he is right now.

Hearing Cal say we needed to shoot more three pointers in the halftime interview of the Germany game really shocked me lol that’s exactly what I’ve wanted to hear Cal say in the past.

Yeah, we've seen some weak classes at times. You get several highly rated guys from a weak class and then you realize the entire class was just not all that good. The class that included Skal Labissiere is a prime example. Jamal Murray is a clear exception but the rest of that class just wasn't good. Briscoe wasn't ready. Charles Matthews was a head case. Isaac Humphries wasn't an impact player.

So, you really don't know for sure what you've got until they lace them up and face real competition. Now, I know these teams in Canada aren't Auburn or Tennessee or Duke or Kansas. But I think we have seen enough to know these players are the real deal. They're more in the mode of DeAaron Fox than Isaiah Broscoe, more Doron Lamb than Devin Askew. I think we have reason for optimism.

 

[StubbornPenny]

Always upvote for futurama. Possibly the best show of all time.

 

[Woodrow_Call_1998]

Yeah, we've seen some weak classes at times. You get several highly rated guys from a weak class and then you realize the entire class was just not all that good. The class that included Skal Labissiere is a prime example. Jamal Murray is a clear exception but the rest of that class just wasn't good. Briscoe wasn't ready. Charles Matthews was a head case. Isaac Humphries wasn't an impact player.

So, you really don't know for sure what you've got until they lace them up and face real competition. Now, I know these teams in Canada aren't Auburn or Tennessee or Duke or Kansas. But I think we have seen enough to know these players are the real deal. They're more in the mode of DeAaron Fox than Isaiah Broscoe, more Doron Lamb than Devin Askew. I think we have reason for optimism.

You make some good points. That class was definitely weak