Shannon Sharpe saying what we all think about the last 15 years

[kyjeff1]

They're right but for the wrong reason. Cal should have more titles but some literally awful officiating robbed him of at least one, probably two more.

However all this talent in the NBA was only potential at UK. AD, randle, and fox were really the only great NBA playoff guys dominant in college. He won with ad, would've won with fox, and nearly pulled off the miracle with randle.

The other guys really were raw at UK compared to their NBA form. Could also argue Shai started rounding into form before he left. Murray was great but on an a really mediocre team.

Wall, Cousins, Towns, Murray, Ulis, MKG, Booker, Bledsoe, SGA etc… were all legit studs at UK.

Heck, everyone gets better in the NBA if they have the size, skill and length, it's a more spread out game with extreme pro talent all over the floor.

That raw talent was still better than what was on the teams we have been losing to.

The issue is, in order for a new team to beat teans that have been playing together for years and has been in a college weight room for as long, is to have generational talent surrounded by some very special players.

 

[kyjeff1]

Ah, let's play the ole "life's bigger than basketball" routine when one runs out of actual logical rebuttals.

Yeah and meanwhile, he’s on this forum every day. He definitely doesn't care. Eyeroll.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Yeah and meanwhile, he’s on this forum every day. He definitely doesn't care. Eyeroll.

They never "care that much" when you back them into a corner and they run out of arguments. Then it's "I went golfing today" or "tucked in my grandchild after a long story time and a day filled with ice cream and Thomas the Train" - ya know, the more important things in life.

 

[Runnin'Ramel]

Cal should have 2 titles, minimum, and dumb luck should have gotten a second. The fact that he only has 1 will be a bit of a cloud on his legacy as a coach post-retirement. Losing in Dallas to that UConn team was easily the biggest miss, in terms of talent and UK being favored by 6 points in the title game. Hard to assume a title when you lose in the semifinals (Wisky, UConn), but easy to make an argument that one of those should have been a title, as well, for a total of 3.

 

[kyjeff1]

Man
We ran that lob for years and it always worked. Cal put it up too in the closet. All of Cals first teams ran that shit. Up until 2015 anyways.

I've been saying this for a long time. I have no idea why those baseline lobs went away.

Some will say it's because our point guards weren't good enough. Well that's just wrong. Fox, Ulis, Hagans, Tyty, SGA and Andrew were all good enough to get in the lane and draw defenders. Teague had no problem with it.

AD and TJ would just sit on the baseline on both sides of the basket, get position and just wait for Teague to drive. It was too easy. Haven't seen it since.

 

[kyjeff1]

I dislike Cal as much as most. But it's totally unfair to compare Freshman UK players to 2-6y NBA players. We are not seeing the same type of player. If he could have kept every NBA all star one extra year, we would have many more titles. The margin of error with O&D talent is to small. I hate this system, and really dislike that our coach feeds it.

Then I have to ask, why is he building teams out of one-and-done kids then?

We all know, if you're going to build teams out of freshmen, they better be top shelf kids at minimum and he has had that in spades. He’s had 3 #1 draft picks plus a host of lottery picks and all were polished, long, athletic and had no problem making immediate impacts in the NBA in year 1.

I get it, teams get upset, but damn, it has happened far too often in Cal's tenure. All but one NCAAT loss has been to an underdog.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

Wall, Cousins, Towns, Murray, Ulis, MKG, Booker, Bledsoe, SGA etc… were all legit studs at UK.

Heck, everyone gets better in the NBA if they have the size, skill and length, it's a more spread out game with extreme pro talent all over the floor.

That raw talent was still better than what was on the teams we have been losing to.

The issue is, in order for a new team to beat teans that have been playing together for years and has been in a college weight room for as long, is to have generational talent surrounded by some very special players.

Booker was definitely not a stud at UK. I mentioned sga. None of the rest are great NBA playoff guys.

 

[TankedCat]

I haven't jumped on the "we should x amount of titles" with the talent we had.

No one is going to argue Cal is a better coach than Dean Smith, and UNC was the most talented team multiple times in Dean Smith's career without winning a title.

No, what makes Calipari particularly bad for UK is his historic lows.

A coach of his supposed caliber, with the resources available to him - should never ever be responsible for the worst season in our history.

That is not debatable, and he should absolutely be gone for it

When you have a worse season that Billy Gillispie, its time to pack your stuff and leave. You tanked the program and its not going to recover as long as you're coach, even if there is another final four in the near future (which based on the supporters of the coach here, there is no reason to expect it)

 

[bbncal02]

Crap happens as we just saw with the Bucks. Sometimes you just don't win. The problem is it's happened too many times under Cal....

 

[JRS_OH_Cat]

Gotta admit, never thought Shannon Sharpe would be the one articulating how I feel anytime I hear about one of our former players going off in the NBA playoffs that shot 15% from 3 for us in the tournament.

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Crap take. Would Saban win all those titles if he only had players for one year? Not a chance.

 

[CRZ4UK]

Lol duke has a couple of titles with half the talent we’ve had in the same period of time. UK has had 1960s ucla level talent. The only ones who don’t see it are straight John calipari fans and nba lovers

Duke is also loved by ESPN and the NCAA. I think we have 3 titles if not for the blatant hate officials and the NCAA have for Calipari. Tim Donaghey the official that was caught cheating said he could control a game with 4 or 5 timely calls. We don’t even get a good whistle at home anymore. Have you watched Kansas play at home lately? We get beat to death in the tournament every year. UCONN was gifted that title by Higgins. Remember the clip that still plays everywhere where we land 2 feet behind their point guard on a missed free throw and he falls out of bounds with Higgins standing one foot from the play and he blows the whistle. 4 or 5 timely calls. Cal will never win another title but it’s not talent or coaching. He has pissed off too many officials with his constant screaming and complaining the entire game and season.

 

[bbncal02]

I haven't jumped on the "we should x amount of titles" with the talent we had.

No one is going to argue Cal is a better coach than Dean Smith, and UNC was the most talented team multiple times in Dean Smith's career without winning a title.

No, what makes Calipari particularly bad for UK is his historic lows.

A coach of his supposed caliber, with the resources available to him - should never ever be responsible for the worst season in our history.

That is not debatable, and he should absolutely be gone for it

When you have a worse season that Billy Gillispie, its time to pack your stuff and leave. You tanked the program and its not going to recover as long as you're coach, even if there is another final four in the near future (which based on the supporters of the coach here, there is no reason to expect it)

I mean everybody gets one. Every coach has a season they wish they'd just not sent out a team that year. Even the best pro scouts missed on evaluating the talent that season. Ish happens.

The problem is we thought it was going to be just a one off and not a major red flag. Looking back though it was a huge warning sign. The man has lost his edge and it's painfully obvious to most.

 

[bthaunert]

Booker was definitely not a stud at UK. I mentioned sga. None of the rest are great NBA playoff guys.

Devin Booker was exactly 1 ppg from being the leading scorer on that 2015 squad and was only 7th on the team in minutes played and was all SEC. He was a very good player at UK.

Why are you being specific with playoff guys? Here are the guys under Cal that were on the all rookie team in the NBA. You don't make all rookie based on potential, you make it based on talent. All 14 of these guys who were all rookie in the NBA were also all SEC at UK. These guys were all very talented at UK:

Quickley
Herro
PJ
SGA
Murray
Towns
Booker
WCS
Nerlens
AD
MKG
Knight
Cousins
Wall

This list doesn't include guys like Fox, Monk, Bam, Jones, etc. who were all very good at UK. I'll give you guys like Orton, Skal abd TyTy being drafted on potential, but that list above were all very talented in college and right away in the pros.

There is no excuse for us only having 1 title with all the talent that has come through here.

 

[jjsomer]

Gotta admit, never thought Shannon Sharpe would be the one articulating how I feel anytime I hear about one of our former players going off in the NBA playoffs that shot 15% from 3 for us in the tournament.

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I see shit like this and it pisses me off at how lazy media types are at research.

Is the Devin Booker that is playing today for the Suns the same player he was at UK? Now replace Devin Booker's name in that question with any player that played at UK and now plays in the NBA. The answer is NO!!!!

You can't say "damn UK had Devin Booker, KAT, Lyles all on the same team and didn't win the title!". Those players had flaws at UK. They have since worked to hone their skills and perfect their game.

I agree that we "should" have had more titles. But, the best team doesn't always win the championship. Players in college have off nights. Other teams shoot above their heads. It happens.

 

[kyjeff1]

Booker was definitely not a stud at UK. I mentioned sga. None of the rest are great NBA playoff guys.

Booker was really good for the first half of the year, if he was open, it was in, if he got a run at the rim, he was going to score, the problem as I saw it was Cal leaned too heavily on post play. He didn't use the weapons he had in the backcourt and on the wings.

As far as the other guys you claim weren't on that top shelf, why is your criteria centered on the NBA playoffs? How is it a single players fault if their team didn't get to the playoffs, or get there and the kid not play well? It’s a team sport. Not only that, but Wall has been injury plagued.

The guys I listed were lottery picks and guys like Booker, SGA, Quickly, Towns and Cousins were/are great players at the NBA level and all of them were phenominal at UK.

 

[kyjeff1]

I mean everybody gets one. Every coach has a season they wish they'd just not sent out a team that year. Even the best pro scouts missed on evaluating the talent that season. Ish happens.

The problem is we thought it was going to be just a one off and not a major red flag. Looking back though it was a huge warning sign. The man has lost his edge and it's painfully obvious to most.

Nah, even a mediocre bench coach wins more than nine f*cking games with that 20/21 team. Cal gets an F- for everything he did and tried to do that year.

It all started when he got the bright idea to have Devin Askew reclass to come run pg ……………………… at UK.

Cal is supposed to be the king of talent recognition and he seriously thought DA was good. WTF?

Nobody got better that season, except maybe Mintz.

The exclamation point is Cal barking back at the fans while shitting his pants on a daily basis.

 

[kyjeff1]

Devin Booker was exactly 1 ppg from being the leading scorer on that 2015 squad and was only 7th on the team in minutes played and was all SEC. He was a very good player at UK.

Why are you being specific with playoff guys? Here are the guys under Cal that were on the all rookie team in the NBA. You don't make all rookie based on potential, you make it based on talent. All 14 of these guys who were all rookie in the NBA were also all SEC at UK. These guys were all very talented at UK:

Quickley
Herro
PJ
SGA
Murray
Towns
Booker
WCS
Nerlens
AD
MKG
Knight
Cousins
Wall

This list doesn't include guys like Fox, Monk, Bam, Jones, etc. who were all very good at UK. I'll give you guys like Orton, Skal abd TyTy being drafted on potential, but that list above were all very talented in college and right away in the pros.

There is no excuse for us only having 1 title with all the talent that has come through here.

If I could 'like' this post a million times, I certainly would. Damn good post.

 

[kyjeff1]

I see shit like this and it pisses me off at how lazy media types are at research.

Is the Devin Booker that is playing today for the Suns the same player he was at UK? Now replace Devin Booker's name in that question with any player that played at UK and now plays in the NBA. The answer is NO!!!!

You can't say "damn UK had Devin Booker, KAT, Lyles all on the same team and didn't win the title!". Those players had flaws at UK. They have since worked to hone their skills and perfect their game.

I agree that we "should" have had more titles. But, the best team doesn't always win the championship. Players in college have off nights. Other teams shoot above their heads. It happens.

Welp, this thread went from one of the best posts I've ever seen to this pile of dung. This might be the worst post I've ever seen on here. Holy crap man, you should get a brown ribbon for this one.

 

[bbncal02]

Nah, even a mediocre bench coach wins more than nine f*cking games with that 20/21 team. Cal gets an F- for everything he did and tried to do that year.

It all started when he got the bright idea to have Devin Askew reclass to come run pg ……………………… at UK.

Cal is supposed to be the king of talent recognition and he seriously thought DA was good. WTF?

Nobody got better that season, except maybe Mintz.

The exclamation point is Cal barking back at the fans while shitting his pants on a daily basis.

I'm not defending him at all. He absolutely deserves crap for it....especially since it's been mostly downhill from there.

Just commenting that at the time, it seemed like a one off. We now know it was just a bad omen of things to come.

 

[BlueWhite21]

I've been saying this for a long time. I have no idea why those baseline lobs went away.

Some will say it's because our point guards weren't good enough. Well that's just wrong. Fox, Ulis, Hagans, Tyty, SGA and Andrew were all good enough to get in the lane and draw defenders. Teague had no problem with it.

AD and TJ would just sit on the baseline on both sides of the basket, get position and just wait for Teague to drive. It was too easy. Haven't seen it since.

Yes, and Jeff man I remember Calipari specifically running it straight out of timeouts often when we very much needed it and out of options and it'd look as if we were sinking many times and it making JVC look good. I know we beat the man to death on here but I almost wonder if this was a Robic call or Cal call. They had had 2-3 different sets on how they would get the lob in sometimes thru a series of screens and then it'd end up with a big on the right side all by himself and the guard throwing a easy ass lob pass.from weak side is the one I remember it most.

Then I remember a version Where PG comes down and you had option on left or right and what we could call clogging the lane now. Those were usually for guys like T. Jones and Darius and fairly just a quick hitter play. That always seem to result in 2 pts. I remember WCS getting his on that lob pass too. I'll give Cal Credit but I have to wonder to myself (quietly) since we've not seen it for awhile if that may been someone else's idea. I actually wish I could give Cal the credit bc it was often run out of times outs. Most important I'm just glad someone else thjnks of this often as well because I sure do too. All the time. Almost every game. Heck. It was always good for 2-4 pts ppg. If wasn't something you could milk but it was something you knew could be depended for a basket or 2 a game if needed. I even remember it being used when we came out flat and it may be responsible for getting us into a different gear afterwards. Good call Jeff.

 

[kl40504]

It would be different if we didn't lose to underdogs with half the talent all but 1 time.

Not only that, but with the way the BBN travels, it's damn near a home environment whenever UK plays in the tournament.

When you have as much NBA talent as Cal has had, the odds of winning a one-and-done game, especially against a team with less talent, is greatly in your favor.

You just can't defend Cal here, he has had every advantage one could possibly have and he keeps coming up short.

Cry me a river

 

[Verbal Kint II]

Cry me a river

All he had to do was fix the offense. People like you make excuses for the glaring obvious problem.

 

[kl40504]

All he had to do was fix the offense. People like you make excuses for the glaring obvious problem.

What excuses? Never said anywhere we had a great offense.

 

[CUJO_1970]

There is no excuse for us only having 1 title with all the talent that has come through here.

This X 1 Million.

Jeez we got taken for such a ride by this 9mil per year charlatan.

 

[Verbal Kint II]

What excuses? Never said anywhere we had a great offense.

You’re the first one to fire off when anyone gives a legitimate criticism of the offense.

 

[TankedCat]

I mean everybody gets one. Every coach has a season they wish they'd just not sent out a team that year. Even the best pro scouts missed on evaluating the talent that season. Ish happens.

The problem is we thought it was going to be just a one off and not a major red flag. Looking back though it was a huge warning sign. The man has lost his edge and it's painfully obvious to most.

I can see a coach having a bad year

but 9-16 isn't a "everyone gets one" unless you're the coach of Mississippi Valley

that's beyond the scope of coaching margins at a program like UK

 

[bbncal02]

I can see a coach having a bad year

but 9-16 isn't a "everyone gets one" unless you're the coach of Mississippi Valley

that's beyond the scope of coaching margins at a program like UK

Again, not defending Cal, nor using at as an excuse per se, but I wonder if we had no Covid mess going on if it would've been any different. Just a wonder thing. Not an excuse at all, because yes, 9-16 is indefensible. But again.....that damn contract was in the way.

 

[billCgmx]

I'm sorry but anyone who doesn't believe we should have won at least one more title under Cal is just delusional at this point.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

Devin Booker was exactly 1 ppg from being the leading scorer on that 2015 squad and was only 7th on the team in minutes played and was all SEC. He was a very good player at UK.

Why are you being specific with playoff guys? Here are the guys under Cal that were on the all rookie team in the NBA. You don't make all rookie based on potential, you make it based on talent. All 14 of these guys who were all rookie in the NBA were also all SEC at UK. These guys were all very talented at UK:

Quickley
Herro
PJ
SGA
Murray
Towns
Booker
WCS
Nerlens
AD
MKG
Knight
Cousins
Wall

This list doesn't include guys like Fox, Monk, Bam, Jones, etc. who were all very good at UK. I'll give you guys like Orton, Skal abd TyTy being drafted on potential, but that list above were all very talented in college and right away in the pros.

There is no excuse for us only having 1 title with all the talent that has come through here.

Booker was really good for the first half of the year, if he was open, it was in, if he got a run at the rim, he was going to score, the problem as I saw it was Cal leaned too heavily on post play. He didn't use the weapons he had in the backcourt and on the wings.

As far as the other guys you claim weren't on that top shelf, why is your criteria centered on the NBA playoffs? How is it a single players fault if their team didn't get to the playoffs, or get there and the kid not play well? It’s a team sport. Not only that, but Wall has been injury plagued.

The guys I listed were lottery picks and guys like Booker, SGA, Quickly, Towns and Cousins were/are great players at the NBA level and all of them were phenominal at UK.

Because it's the playoffs and these performances are what drove the discussion?

Quickley and maxey definitely can't be included because their season was cancelled. That team was set for a deep run though, that's for sure

 

[bigblueinsanity]

Man
We ran that lob for years and it always worked. Cal put it up too in the closet. All of Cals first teams ran that shit. Up until 2015 anyways.

Yep. Suddenly that screen/rim run completely disappeared. No idea why. It put so much pressure on the defense that one of those options were always open. I guess we stopped getting those guys in recruiting either by choice or just losing them

 

[Patriot202]

Man as bad as I wanna agree with you those 2 championships, plus that FF that Ratface played in last year where UNC Smacked em on Coach Ratface s night / Sr night and then UNC ended it again in 😂. I jus wanted to take time to mention that. As bad as I would love to agree with you tho, the 2 titles s a whole lot more than 1 from over 10 yrs ago and in a shorter span as K didn't go OAD fully til after Cal.

I hate to give hate give that lil bitch his credit but he beat Cal at his own game. Also It sucks to see this shit but bc it is ashame. We should had 2015, 2017:more than any in my opinion. I felt 2014 was a horrible year where I lost confidence in that team but they showed up for awhile at the tourney. Loved the tourney part but sucked through reg season . 2010 may just be my favorite team of the Cal era if Darius Miller would've been able to hit shots like he did in 2012. Or if Meeks returns, or if Dodson does what he do. I feel that 2010 team is as good as 2012 if we had a damn knockdown shooter. As for skip he should go find him a job coaching JV just like he played as a Jr. in HS. Cal still did win one. So screw em. Even if I agree with them.

That 2010 team they had was a good college team no NBA talent at all. Kyle syngler dude was barely in the league and lance ehh. I’m talking about 1 and done NBA ready talent lotto picks type

 

[kyjeff1]

Cry me a river

No thanks, troll.

 

[WildcatNC]

2010, 2012, and 2015 should have been titles. Even accounting for upsets, one of those teams like with Knight or Fox should have made up for it.

 

[bbncal02]

2010, 2012, and 2015 should have been titles. Even accounting for upsets, one of those teams like with Knight or Fox should have made up for it.

We won in 2012......

If you mean the following year.....Nerlens getting hurt derailed that year, and we had been depleted by the mass exodus of the previous year's title team.

 

[Deli owl]

Ah, let's play the ole "life's bigger than basketball" routine when one runs out of actual logical rebuttals.

Wasn’t looking for a rebuttal. I don’t even watch all the games.

 

[WeWant9]

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve accepted winning the NCAAT isn’t easy; regardless of the talent. I don’t hold that against anyone, but there are many other things that are hard to believe as a UK fan under Cal.

The last three years have been pretty bad, only one NCAAT win and one SECT win; and the 9-16 season sprinkled in. Before that we blew the E8 game vs an AU team we beat the brakes off a few weeks beforehand. Throw in losing the all time wins and all time NCAAT wins. Those things are hard to stomach as a UK fan.

If Cal leaves with only one title it’ll be disappointing, but these last several years have started to overshadow the success he had early on here.

 

[TankedCat]

I think they have absolutely overshadowed what he has accomplished

There is no argument that there has never been a higher state of apathy with the program than there is now. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't get outside their bubble.

I think the amount of angst with how Cal has mismanaged the program and fan relationships that even if he has a great season, he still won't change the fanbase perception of him.

Maybe after he leaves, 15 years from now people will be grateful again for what he did when he first got here, but he's killed whatever goodwill he built from the early years.

People are over speaking in cliche's, his priorities (or lack thereof), the player revolving door and more importantly - the loss of Kentucky history under his watch.

 

[MidseasonTweak]

Neither of these goons watch college basketball.

 

[true blue1]

It's hard to argue the facts. We should've had at least 2 more Championships.

 

[WeWant9]

I think they have absolutely overshadowed what he has accomplished

There is no argument that there has never been a higher state of apathy with the program than there is now. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't get outside their bubble.

I think the amount of angst with how Cal has mismanaged the program and fan relationships that even if he has a great season, he still won't change the fanbase perception of him.

Maybe after he leaves, 15 years from now people will be grateful again for what he did when he first got here, but he's killed whatever goodwill he built from the early years.

People are over speaking in cliche's, his priorities (or lack thereof), the player revolving door and more importantly - the loss of Kentucky history under his watch.

In my perfect world (which I know is fantasy), the incoming freshman exceed their hype and will UK to a title. Cal retires from coaching college bball and takes whatever his next steps are in life- outside of KY. Both parties take a long break from one another and then down the road come back together to remember the good times.

I’m over Cal, but I’d rather not see the bridge burned between BBN and him; but next year is really his last change to make some noise. The last three years when stuff was really bad, all I heard was you can’t let him go because of Wagner and company. Now he has them for the upcoming season, so better do some winning.