What is really going on with this talented team.Is it Cal or the players.Something is not right
Something is going on.
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Cal- outdated and won’t change, can’t coach
Players- not talented enough, quit when things get hard
Players- not talented enough, quit when things get hard
Where is your "it will be all right" type post that you like to troll with?
Maryland is >>>>>>that way
Oddly enough despite the loss we looked much better against Michigan State and seem to have only gotten worse as the season has progressed.
It is all systems failure.
The team is not talented enough. Still some talent, they are good enough to be a tournament team/fringe sweet 16 team.
Cal's system is outdated to the point where it actively hurts us. He also doesn't scout teams/players, and he doesn't make any adjustments at all. None of this is really new, but it gets exposed more without elite talent. Cal also seems checked out and is too stubborn to even acknowledge there are problems.
Lastly there is clearly some chemistry issues off the court between both Cal and the players and amongst the players themselves.
Put all those ingredients together and you've got this mess.
The team is not talented enough. Still some talent, they are good enough to be a tournament team/fringe sweet 16 team.
Cal's system is outdated to the point where it actively hurts us. He also doesn't scout teams/players, and he doesn't make any adjustments at all. None of this is really new, but it gets exposed more without elite talent. Cal also seems checked out and is too stubborn to even acknowledge there are problems.
Lastly there is clearly some chemistry issues off the court between both Cal and the players and amongst the players themselves.
Put all those ingredients together and you've got this mess.
It’s either the players have quit on the coach or the players don’t like playing together or both.
I honestly think it’s a combination of both.
Not as talented as we think, even Oscar as great as he is, presents problems because we rely on him so much, he doesn’t defend that well, doesn’t pass out of double teams well, and can’t score on length at all. Now it’s not all his fault but combined with Cal’s awful approach it magnifies it.
Collins is almost useless outside a play here and there. Cal never utilizes Livingston correctly. He lets guys sit for too long, and he is determined to have at least 2 big men on the court no matter who they are. It was amazing how much better we looked when CJ and Reeves played together but we are so bad on defense it can’t stay that way for long stretches.
Cal should try a different defense to help some of our guys who don’t defend well which is most of them but he won’t. It’s a shitshow all around.
Combine that with Toppin and Wallace being out and we just have little to no production from the 4. Also Cal forgets Adou exists and doesn’t try Ugonna. We have a bunch of role players that we think should be stars but they aren’t.
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I think this as well. Nobody seems to have fun and we have long stretches where nobody even moves the ball for even a single pass.
Robic
That guy was apparently doing everything
That guy was apparently doing everything
They seemed to have good chemistry in August. Wtf happened?! And those saying Oscar I don’t get it. They all loved him last year and now this year they don’t? I mean middle school drama clubs don’t spin this much.
If Cal is instructing them and they aren’t following him he has done something (or multiple things) to lose their trust. “Attitude reflects leadership.”
I said a month ago this team is the most disorganized team with the worst body language outside maybe the year before last of any Cal team. It comes from the top down.
Some of you say the team lacks talent. Almost same team which crushed UNC, Tenn and Kansas last year? It is totally coaching or the lack thereof. Plus Cal continue to send them mixed signals. Cal has been under pressure since 21. It has continued to grow with each loss. The players are feeling that pressure from Cal. Team shows it every game and gets worse.
I've said it a few times now. The players have fully realized their coach isn't doing any coaching that will not only put them in a position to win games, but also to improve them personally or portray them in a positive light that might help their draft stock or pro prospects. It's kind of difficult to put much effort when you know the effort is just going to make you look worse and have worse results.
Team is not talented enough? Well that's wrong.
Do they look piss poor and mid-majorish? Yup.
But this team has a lottery pick, a NPOY, a 2 time SEC assist leader, anther NBA talent, juniors and seniors, all with size and athleticism.
We have more talent and awarded athletes than everyone we have played so far.
Heck, you might be able to find 1 or 2 teams in all of college basketball that has more talent.
I think what you meant to say is, this team is playing like they have no talent, that’s definitely true.
Talent is not the problem here. Cal is problem #1, but there is obviously a riff in the locker room. These players don’t like each other and that explains why the team keeps getting worse.
Cal should have nipped this in the bud weeks ago. He's too busy doing other shit.
I said they are talented enough to be a fringe sweet 16 team. Saying there are only 1 or 2 more talented teams in CBB is false and shows you only follow Kentucky.
If you really break down the roster we have:
-NPOY who is coming off surgery and is one of the worst big defenders in the power 5
-A fringe lottery pick (not convinced he is a lottery pick, even if he is there is a massive difference in a top 3 pick vs. a guy picked at 14)
-2 time SEC assist leader that is below average in every other aspect of basketball. One of those years his team finished 14-12 and 10th in the SEC.
Those are easily your 3 best players. The rest of the roster is:
- A transfer from Rhode Island who is highly inconsistent and soft for his position, but is our only other top 100 NBA prospect
- A transfer from a 13-20 Illinois State team
- A transfer who was a role player on Iowa coming off multiple season ending injuries
- A 5 star who shows flashes of being decent in the right system, but looks in over his head and is not currently listed as a top 100 NBA prospect
- A 5 star in his second season who is a confirmed bust at this point as they are undersized, can't score, and rebound very poorly for a big. Will never see an NBA roster
- A 4 star in his third year that will never see an NBA roster and isn't skilled enough to start for any power 5 team in college basketball, and was only ranked as a 4 star out of high school due to size
Like I said in my original post, this is only one piece of this puzzle. This team should still be good enough to flirt with the sweet 16, but Cal's coaching and chemistry issues means they aren't making the tournament. So I'm not using the lack of talent as an excuse for Cal, if anything I'm using it as another knock against Cal because he is the one responsible for building the roster.
They are talented enough to beat South Carolina. No excuse for the lack of effort in this loss.
I came to that conclusion after he left, every aspect of how we play went downhill, and now it’s totally crumbled.
We just aren’t good, they aren’t having fun, the players are stressed going into the game. Allen felt it, this year they a feel it.
These kids aren't put in a position to succeed. There is a reason most analysts picked us as a Final 4 team preseason and list us as the biggest disappointment mid -season. The talent is there, we just aren't showing it.
Roster that is 9-10 deep, yet we hardly push the pace, rarely press, and play guys 35 minutes or more per game.
Two really good shooters that aren't good on D, yet we never play zone to alleviate that.
Big man who is bad in pick and roll situations, again no zone.
Can't hit free throws, don't practice them.
And Cal has admitted time and again he doesn't watch tape on other teams. How can we exploit their weaknesses our strengths without knowing them?
I read an article somewhere a week or so back that another coach said you don't have to watch tape on UK's offense it's the same Cal ran at UMass. They only scouted player tendencies. We don't even do that.
Roster that is 9-10 deep, yet we hardly push the pace, rarely press, and play guys 35 minutes or more per game.
Two really good shooters that aren't good on D, yet we never play zone to alleviate that.
Big man who is bad in pick and roll situations, again no zone.
Can't hit free throws, don't practice them.
And Cal has admitted time and again he doesn't watch tape on other teams. How can we exploit their weaknesses our strengths without knowing them?
I read an article somewhere a week or so back that another coach said you don't have to watch tape on UK's offense it's the same Cal ran at UMass. They only scouted player tendencies. We don't even do that.
Wheeler and Oscar HATE each other and have since last season, not sure why they were both allowed to come back.
Its not even a rumor at this point anymore the way Oscar talks about teammates in the media.
Jack Pilgrim and Travis Graf leak this stuff to a bunch of kids with big mouths and its finally gotten out lol
I played a lot of hockey growing up and have been on some teams like this current one. A coach who plays the same players and keeps trying to force the same style of play, can only say the team needs to play and work harder. No real solutions, with bad losses piling up.
You just get to a point you want the season to end. No one is happy, people break off into their own groups, and there is a lot of friction. It seems like this UK team has reached that point, and there really isn’t much that can be done to change the current course. It sucks, but this season is pretty much done.
You just get to a point you want the season to end. No one is happy, people break off into their own groups, and there is a lot of friction. It seems like this UK team has reached that point, and there really isn’t much that can be done to change the current course. It sucks, but this season is pretty much done.
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I disagree about PG. we have a PG. Yes he is flawed but he's good enough that we should be able to win. He was the point guard that led us to a 2 seed last season. it went to shit against st peters but that's not on wheeler. He gets too much flack
Who are all these teams that have better talent than UK?
Purdue is #1, do you honestly think they have a mire talented roster?
Take a look around college basketball right now, there are no dominant teams. If we had a real coach, this UK squad would look 100 times different than it does right now
FYI, I watch college bball every night, with the exception of Friday night, those games are lame. I don't just watch UK.
It’s more talented than 98% of college basketball, but it doesn’t look like it's even a D1 team. That’s how bad if a job John Calipari is doing. He has taken a legit title contending roster and turned it into a team that isn't going to win enough games to qualify for the NIT.
So if you're John Calipari, knowing Wheeler and Oscar don't like each other, why the hell would you play them both together as much as they have been?
Cal needs to learn how to read the room if this is actually the case.
It’s obvious to everyone that “personalities” aren’t meshing. Cal needs to grow a pair and take care of the problem or problems. He may have to bench somebody, maybe even dismiss somebody. Do whatever it takes for the good of the team. “Just do your job”
