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Skal Labissiere vs. Thomas Bryant

MdWIldcat55

MdWIldcat55

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Dec 9, 2007
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I remember back in 2015, a guy named Thomas Bryant made it clear he was dying to play for Kentucky. He was 6'10,'' 245-250 with a massive wingspan, but recruiting services had him as a 4-star. And Kentucky already had the #1 overall recruit at the same position - Skal Labissiere. So Bryant settled for Indiana.

Even before the season started - you'll have to take my word for it -- I had a bad feeling that Kentucky could really use a massive, powerful guy inside when it was pretty clear the team was going to be built around Jamal Murray, Tyler Ulis, and Isaiah Briscoe.

Thomas Bryant turned out to be a lot better than advertised. I still believe that team had a real shot at the Final Four with him in the paint, given the way Murray and Ulis could score. Skal struggled to fit in. His finesse game wasn't ready for college. Even if Skal had been better, he wasn't the body type to be a rebounding machine.

I guess you never know how things will turn out. But with Sharpe, Livingston, Clarke and maybe Wallace on the perimeter it'd be nice to have a Thomas Bryant type in the paint...
 
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It's never a guarantee that a top5 recruit is better than a top20 recruit.

I wanted Lively, obviously, but I did write last week how Bona could have some benefits that Lively doesn't have. We don't need to promise him anything, he can play a more reserve role with the top recruits we already have, and he might be a 2-year player. On top of that, I don't think he'd go G-League, where as someone like Lively could (or Sharpe for that matter).
 
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I want to point out that Poythress, our senior PF, ended his collegiate career with a 6 and 6 game against IU, with 4 fouls, and shooting 20% and 2 TOs..

I think Skal, for being a freshman and out of position, gets a bad rap.. Poythress should have been better by this point. And if he ever became what we thought he'd be, maybe he'd have been a better help to Skal and the team.
 
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I would be surprised if Oscar is gone next year, Bona can work in and not force feed him to the wolves. It will help the team the next year when Bona is the mighty oak in the paint.
 
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LineSkiCat14 said:
I want to point out that Poythress, our senior PF, ended his collegiate career with a 6 and 6 game against IU, with 4 fouls, and shooting 20% and 2 TOs..

I think Skal, for being a freshman and out of position, gets a bad rap.. Poythress should have been better by this point. And if he ever became what we thought he'd be, maybe he'd have been a better help to Skal and the team.
Click to expand...

Poythress played that SR year with his knee at about 80%.
 
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JJBlue06 said:
Ironically enough, he ended our season
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Yep, but in our defense, IU was ridiculously underseeded. They’d won the Big 10 and were projected as a 3 seed, but instead the committee inexplicably gave them a 5. There didn’t seem to be any rational explanation for it …other than wanting to set up that marquee TV matchup.

No way we should’ve had to face a team that good in the first weekend.
 
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MdWIldcat55 said:
I remember back in 2015, a guy named Thomas Bryant made it clear he was dying to play for Kentucky. He was 6'10,'' 245-250 with a massive wingspan, but recruiting services had him as a 4-star. And Kentucky already had the #1 overall recruit at the same position - Skal Labissiere. So Bryant settled for Indiana.

Even before the season started - you'll have to take my word for it -- I had a bad feeling that Kentucky could really use a massive, powerful guy inside when it was pretty clear the team was going to be built around Jamal Murray, Tyler Ulis, and Isaiah Briscoe.

Thomas Bryant turned out to be a lot better than advertised. I still believe that team had a real shot at the Final Four with him in the paint, given the way Murray and Ulis could score. Skal struggled to fit in. His finesse game wasn't ready for college. Even if Skal had been better, he wasn't the body type to be a rebounding machine.

I guess you never know how things will turn out. But with Sharpe, Livingston, Clarke and maybe Wallace on the perimeter it'd be nice to have a Thomas Bryant type in the paint...
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Kind of reminds one of this year when Calipari told 7'0" 285 pound All-American Kofi Cockburn that he wasn't wanted here. Calipari & UK fans will rue the day that Cal turned Cockburn down.
 
MdWIldcat55 said:
It is the exact opposite, which real basketball fans understand. Oscar is this year's Bryant equivalent.

Cockburn would have totally changed the offense, significantly handcuffing Grady, Washington, Fredrick, Mintz, Allen and Wheeler with the need to run the offense through a black-hole in the paint.
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You need a balance attack my good man. There will be games where the 3 pointers aren't falling. What happens then if you have no inside scoring?
 
MCottle said:
People freaking out over recruits need to relax. Freshmen don't win titles. This class is also super weak compared to previous classes. We still got 2 top 5 players and the consensus #1 player (and honestly I don't think it's even close. Sharpe, to me, is far and away the best player in this class.)
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Are you talking about the 22 class? Cause its considered one of the strongest deepest classes in recent memory. There are guys in the 10 to 15 range in this class that would be too 5 in some classes and guys in the 15 to 20 range that could be too 10.. other than that I agree with u. Bona is no slouch and if he was in last year's class he 8s probably too 10.
 
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Dablueman said:
Watched Illinois go home as a one seed losing first weekend to a smaller team cause Kofi couldn't guard the pick and roll. He also was an average shot blocker for his size. Inside scoring is great but if you give up as many points as you score it's moot.
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Yup it’s crazy people want Cal to play a different style but if Kofi came we would be playing two bigs the entire game pounding paint touch’s with horrible spacing.
 
LineSkiCat14 said:
I want to point out that Poythress, our senior PF, ended his collegiate career with a 6 and 6 game against IU, with 4 fouls, and shooting 20% and 2 TOs..

I think Skal, for being a freshman and out of position, gets a bad rap.. Poythress should have been better by this point. And if he ever became what we thought he'd be, maybe he'd have been a better help to Skal and the team.
Click to expand...
Poy did the best he could manning the paint. He was undersized and out of position. He was the reason we didn’t go 40-0 in 2015. His role was perfect on that team. We were balanced on both groups before he was hurt.
 
Fox2monk said:
Poy did the best he could manning the paint. He was undersized and out of position. He was the reason we didn’t go 40-0 in 2015. His role was perfect on that team. We were balanced on both groups before he was hurt.
Click to expand...

But can't we say that about Skal? As a freshman, playing out of position, with almost zero help inside, didn't he sort of "do the best he could"?

Poythress got injured very early that year. Would he have helped against Wisconsin.. sure? If he didn't have 3 fouls by the half, though. But that team had a lot of time to adjust, and we had Wisconsin outmatched at pretty much the other 4 positions. I think that loss was a combo of poor coaching choices by Cal, and a case of the yips. 38-0, almost got clipped by ND, a team we should have waxed, we got tight. I'm not ready to assume Poythress was THE missing piece.

IDK, I sometimes think we as fans like to pinpoint some guys as the sole problem. Skal wasn't great, by any means. I also don't think it's fair to pin all the problems of 2016 on him, though.
 
MdWIldcat55 said:
It is the exact opposite, which real basketball fans understand. Oscar is this year's Bryant equivalent.

Cockburn would have totally changed the offense, significantly handcuffing Grady, Washington, Fredrick, Mintz, Allen and Wheeler with the need to run the offense through a black-hole in the paint.
Click to expand...
who knows if UK is going to change their offense............it hasn't in 10 years
all the fans have is a used car salesman's talk
If he didn't change style to take advantage of the 2015 depth, he won't this year
regardless of who is the center, they will want chances to score
they just aren't going to rebound & play defense with out scoring
 
LineSkiCat14 said:
But can't we say that about Skal? As a freshman, playing out of position, with almost zero help inside, didn't he sort of "do the best he could"?

Poythress got injured very early that year. Would he have helped against Wisconsin.. sure? If he didn't have 3 fouls by the half, though. But that team had a lot of time to adjust, and we had Wisconsin outmatched at pretty much the other 4 positions. I think that loss was a combo of poor coaching choices by Cal, and a case of the yips. 38-0, almost got clipped by ND, a team we should have waxed, we got tight. I'm not ready to assume Poythress was THE missing piece.

IDK, I sometimes think we as fans like to pinpoint some guys as the sole problem. Skal wasn't great, by any means. I also don't think it's fair to pin all the problems of 2016 on him, though.
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You fail to give ND credit for their year. That was a very respectable ball club that could have kicked anyone’s ass on the right night
 
kybassfan said:
Haters like to forget that. AP was a defensive show stopper before his injury.
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That injury was at times, more than a whole year removed. His first game back was still like 11 months after injury. And I don't know if I'd classify Poythress as a "defensive show stopper", that's a bit of a stretch. Defensive show stoppers were guys like Davis and Noel, and to a lesser extent, guys like MKG, Liggins and WCS. Poythress is not on their levels IMO.

A lot of people keep bringing up Poythress' injury as some form of scape goat. If he indeed was just at 80%, do people really think he was adding much more in his senior year? Because I don't. Poythress' lackluster final year was more about him as a player than his injury. I don't think he liked basketball all that much, and I dont see his senior year being much different than if the injury didn't happen. Plenty of players, every year, are not at 100%.
 
kybassfan said:
You fail to give ND credit for their year. That was a very respectable ball club that could have kicked anyone’s ass on the right night
Click to expand...

I will agree with that, but more so in retrospect. I don't think anyone thought we'd only win that game by 1-2 points. But they were well coached and disciplined.

Regardless, that win took a lot out of the team it seems. I don't think Poythress is the difference maker.. the team had already played roughly 20 games without him, and with only 200 minutes.. idk if his 20-25 were more valuable if they went to someone else. Not a bad player or anything, I just don't really agree with the "what if" side of the AP argument.

You look at a game like the one with Cincy that year. Trey Lyles had an 11/11 game with 2 blocks and ZERO PF's.. What happens if AP's ate into those minutes? IDK.
 
LineSkiCat14 said:
That injury was at times, more than a whole year removed. His first game back was still like 11 months after injury. And I don't know if I'd classify Poythress as a "defensive show stopper", that's a bit of a stretch. Defensive show stoppers were guys like Davis and Noel, and to a lesser extent, guys like MKG, Liggins and WCS. Poythress is not on their levels IMO.

A lot of people keep bringing up Poythress' injury as some form of scape goat. If he indeed was just at 80%, do people really think he was adding much more in his senior year? Because I don't. Poythress' lackluster final year was more about him as a player than his injury. I don't think he liked basketball all that much, and I dont see his senior year being much different than if the injury didn't happen. Plenty of players, every year, are not at 100%.
Click to expand...
I think you assume because a few return from an ACL injury sinner that all should. That’s just nonsense. He was injured. You don’t get that far in athletics by not caring.
 
LineSkiCat14 said:
But can't we say that about Skal? As a freshman, playing out of position, with almost zero help inside, didn't he sort of "do the best he could"?

Poythress got injured very early that year. Would he have helped against Wisconsin.. sure? If he didn't have 3 fouls by the half, though. But that team had a lot of time to adjust, and we had Wisconsin outmatched at pretty much the other 4 positions. I think that loss was a combo of poor coaching choices by Cal, and a case of the yips. 38-0, almost got clipped by ND, a team we should have waxed, we got tight. I'm not ready to assume Poythress was THE missing piece.

IDK, I sometimes think we as fans like to pinpoint some guys as the sole problem. Skal wasn't great, by any means. I also don't think it's fair to pin all the problems of 2016 on him, though.
Click to expand...
Poy maybe underachieved relative to what we thought but he contributed to some great teams. Skal just didn’t have it for whatever reason. I agree we needed a true center but he wasn’t physically ready either
 
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Poy was a replica of Derrick Hord, even had a similar body tye
Hord was one of the better athletes that had been at UK at that time, yet imo,
he never lived up to the hype. The same with Poy
Both were graceful, fluid and strong, but just didn't produce to their ability
 
LineSkiCat14 said:
But can't we say that about Skal? As a freshman, playing out of position, with almost zero help inside, didn't he sort of "do the best he could"?

Poythress got injured very early that year. Would he have helped against Wisconsin.. sure? If he didn't have 3 fouls by the half, though. But that team had a lot of time to adjust, and we had Wisconsin outmatched at pretty much the other 4 positions. I think that loss was a combo of poor coaching choices by Cal, and a case of the yips. 38-0, almost got clipped by ND, a team we should have waxed, we got tight. I'm not ready to assume Poythress was THE missing piece.

IDK, I sometimes think we as fans like to pinpoint some guys as the sole problem. Skal wasn't great, by any means. I also don't think it's fair to pin all the problems of 2016 on him, though.
Click to expand...
A healthy Poy playing defense on Decker might have allowed us to be off in other parts of the game and still win.
 
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