The fan base is insufferable right now.
- Thread starter DaBossIsBack
- Start date
Yeah seriously. What's stupid is some think that if you have a different opinion at all your a troll. I'm a troll because I got mad about Newman, Zimmerman, and Diallo not coming. Hell. If I was a troll I'd be raising hell, not getting pissed about recruits not coming here. LMAO. Ha.
Part of the correct perspective is allowing people to vent about and discuss sports. For some, sports might their only positive outlet. If they want to describe positional needs or areas of concern - let them. The world has Nepal, Baltimore, and cancer. If some people want to occasionally get their mind off of those things by discussing the need for a legit small forward, then really, who cares?
I haven't read through the entire thread, but I pretty much agree with the OP.
You'd better be enjoying this ride. What in the world do you think it's going to be like when Cal leaves??
You'd better be enjoying this ride. What in the world do you think it's going to be like when Cal leaves??
Count me in as another who agrees with the OP.
Next year's team has 5 high school All-Americans, a four-star wing, a four-star JUCO transfer and two 3-star juniors who are in-state kids. Our recruiting class is top 3. Our team will be in the preseason Top 10.
Yet, I keep reading posts about us not being able to compete in the SEC with the current roster. Wait, what?
The hand wringing is ridiculous. The fact college kids playing a game works its way into some people's self worth is sad.
I know this run won't last forever and am enjoying as much of it as I can. Lessons learned in real life have taught me to NEVER take anything for granted and to always be grateful for the good things in life.
Next year's team has 5 high school All-Americans, a four-star wing, a four-star JUCO transfer and two 3-star juniors who are in-state kids. Our recruiting class is top 3. Our team will be in the preseason Top 10.
Yet, I keep reading posts about us not being able to compete in the SEC with the current roster. Wait, what?
The hand wringing is ridiculous. The fact college kids playing a game works its way into some people's self worth is sad.
I know this run won't last forever and am enjoying as much of it as I can. Lessons learned in real life have taught me to NEVER take anything for granted and to always be grateful for the good things in life.
I was upset when we lost but thought man that was an awesome year, if he keeps recruiting like he has in the past, were always gonna be in the hunt for a deep run in the tournament, now we gotta wait five months till next season starts and I hate this time of year, thank god for my monthly fix of the Cats pause magazine.
Yep, posters that start threads about how lousy any school and coach is that beats us out of a recruit, makes this board look like crybaby.com.
The great thing about the US Constitution is it protects freedom of speech. The bad thing about the US Constitution is it protects freedom of speech. Being yourself is not protected.
Well, it's pretty much been that way since Cal got here, with the exception of this past season. Even in 2012, we had to depend on a freshman pg, and a rail thin freshman center (next John Henson?).
And you know what, every season but one, Cal and the players have lived up to those somewhat outrageous assumptions. And that season was derailed by injury. As usual, I like our chances.
I get it. The Wisconsin loss was a punch in the gut. No reason to believe it did any permanent damage, though.
Every big time college basketball fan base is "insufferable" and wants to get the best players. We're just the ones that are in a little bit of a rough stretch for the first time in a while and need some good news. This entire month has felt like one big gift to our haters and detractors, we let one slip away and it hurts and coupled with this confusing recruiting period it's one of the few times since Cal has been here that it really feels like momentum might actually be turning against us. I don't expect it to last long, but it is a bit strange and scary.
There's also a fine line between criticism/concern and flat out panic, being overly critical, and wanting rid of a coach. There are certain things I think Cal could do better at, like valuing shooting/basketball skills at times instead of always putting the emphasis on landing dominating size/athleticism at every single position on the floor, but honestly there's no better fit in all of sports than Cal and UK. Our program is in 1000 times better position today than it was 10 years ago. Future recruiting will be fine and we'll still get our fair share. The kids in the '16 class will make wiser decisions than the kids in the '15 class, I truly believe that.
I really think that next year's team can be a very fun team even as is, but in order to make a deep run in March and be a contender by the end it's going to require Cal to do things a little differently. For one thing, this really doesn't have the makings of a great half-court team unless we add another shooter. We're going to have to be more of a fast break, run and gun, dribble drive, lob throwing type of team. It probably will be the UK team that's most similar to how his better Memphis teams played. We'll have the athletes and guards to do it. If not and we play mostly half-court, then we're going to have to find a way to play the guys that can shoot. Add Murray or Brown and it makes this team a true contender from Day 1, but we already know that.
There's also a fine line between criticism/concern and flat out panic, being overly critical, and wanting rid of a coach. There are certain things I think Cal could do better at, like valuing shooting/basketball skills at times instead of always putting the emphasis on landing dominating size/athleticism at every single position on the floor, but honestly there's no better fit in all of sports than Cal and UK. Our program is in 1000 times better position today than it was 10 years ago. Future recruiting will be fine and we'll still get our fair share. The kids in the '16 class will make wiser decisions than the kids in the '15 class, I truly believe that.
I really think that next year's team can be a very fun team even as is, but in order to make a deep run in March and be a contender by the end it's going to require Cal to do things a little differently. For one thing, this really doesn't have the makings of a great half-court team unless we add another shooter. We're going to have to be more of a fast break, run and gun, dribble drive, lob throwing type of team. It probably will be the UK team that's most similar to how his better Memphis teams played. We'll have the athletes and guards to do it. If not and we play mostly half-court, then we're going to have to find a way to play the guys that can shoot. Add Murray or Brown and it makes this team a true contender from Day 1, but we already know that.
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The funny thing to me is that people get their panties in a bunch about UK fans thinking we are different than other schools and focusing solely on our players and such, but then their criticism is that the UK fanbase is the worst. Basically doing the same thing.
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anon_9qtxg60vqzy0y
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It's all AGE driven. I'm 52. When I was your age, I was the same way. I don't see a problem with you or anyone else expressing your fanhood in the manner which you do. The older folk such as myself need to realize and understand we were all like this when we were younger. Like you said young brother, we're all cheerin' for the same team.
Went to the final four with an undefeated team (#1 overall seed) who everyone picked to easily win it all but lost. Then watched the heart and soul of the team leave for the pros, even some who probably should have stayed. Then missed on some high end recruits that UK fans never expected to miss on. Yep, it's all in the perspective.
When has it not been insufferable? Nothing is ever good enough for many in the fan base (although it's still a small but rather vocal minority). I remember people even complaining after the 2012 title game because we took the foot off the gas and didn't beat Kansas by a big enough margin. Not quite sure why you would be a Kentucky fan if winning the title isn't even good enough. What else are the supposed to do?
I'm all good with looking at what one has vs. what one doesn't have, but there is no denying that disappointment happens when expectations are not met. The expectations were almost unrealistic so when they were not met (no NC, no undefeated season, no additional impact recruits) you're going to have many severely disappointed fans who need to and will vent. It's therapeutic!!
Instead, we could have followed a team that was as fun to watch as being constipated for 4 months, see their starting PG constantly get suspended to the point of being booted near the end of the season, see a dream NCAA bracket open up only to see them blow a Final Four opportunity when 7 of the 21 feet of suck missed a free throw to win the game, see their only 2 quality players declare for the draft, the only additions to the team will be freshmen who Pitino will brow beat into shitty play as well as a couple of mid-major seniors who will suddenly be expected to carry an ACC team.
Even worse, none of the several elite recruits saw that roster turnover at UofL and considered so much as visiting Da Ville with the wiiiiiiide open lane towards playing time.
So, it IS all about perspective.
Celebrating the team is part of the whole thing. We love our basketball, and yes, when they win, there's a small part within each of us that finds some additional - although trivial - happiness. Can I assume that the feeling I describe is part of the reason you've offered at least 700 posts on the topic of Kentucky basketball? Have you always offered hopeful, positive posts, or were there times you offered concerned posts? Would your presumable concerned posts ever be construed as "hand-wringing?" If not, what's the difference between what constitutes "hand-wringing" and what doesn't?
I'm not sure if I would equate having concern with finding "self-worth", but I would certainly call it part of enjoying life. We love Kentucky; the good and the bad of it. Passion is part of enjoying life, and passion brings out the good and the bad. Some take it too far, but the minority who do probably aren't worth the level of berating this thread is pushing for.
So what's worse - the people doing the overtly negative hand-wringing, or the people hand-wringing about the 5% of the people who employ the negativity? Both are more likely to be fruitless crusades that merely offer a chance for people to find a soap box and offer hollow, postured sermons to the choir.
Wow! Just tried to articulate why some fans may feel justified in feeling disappointed/dejected over the past month and I get this negativity? But looking at your earlier posts on this thread I can see a pattern... don't discuss, attack. Wondering if you just might be the reason for this thread.
Outstanding!! I love that movie and that scene fits this situation perfectly. We just finished the season 38 - 1, have more talent in the bag than nearly every other program in the country. And we have whiners screaming "GAME OVER".
Only one thing left to do. Send in Ripley!
I do have a question. Are the Aliens what the Duke, UL and Indiana fans evolve into in the next 100 million years? I mean, consider the average Indiana fan. Slimy egg sac > face hugger > Alien. It could happen.
Your are correct in what you say. But, the small sample that posts here is made up of the more zealous fans. The vast majority of UK fans do not know this board exists, nor do they think the world has ended when a recruit chooses KU over UK.
It's OK to be passionate, but when you have people making posts suggesting they can't get out of bed or acting as if they're literally depressed for days or weeks over the result of a game they have ZERO control over, yes, that teeters on insanity and it's not healthy to invest that much emotional energy into kids playing a game.
You can go back at look at all my posts, and you won't find me throwing kids or coaches under the bus. I also don't express a lot of concerns because I'm a fan. I don't play. I don't coach. I can bitch for days and it would change nothing, so I deem it as a waste of time.
I would be lying if I said I'd never criticized players or coaches, but that's when I was young and I did take this stuff too seriously. I went through a lot personally over the last 5 years or so, (lost a cousin to suicide, a mentor to cancer, an uncle to Alzheimer's, a great friend to a drug overdose, faced eviction after getting laid off from my former job, etc.), and those lessons taught me, in the grand scheme of things, UK basketball isn't life or death and shouldn't be treated as such. It's entertainment.
And you're kidding yourself if you think a lot of people in this fanbase don't let how this team does affect their mood and/or daily interactions with other humans. Hell, my mom has to force my dad to eat on days UK loses because he gets so upset. That's crazy, IMO.
And yes, I will continue to roll my eyes at the people who freak out if we don't sign 5 of the top 6 guys every year. It's like they think this is a real-life franchise mode in an NBA video game. This board has been insufferable with the sky is falling posts since the loss to Wisconsin and every recruit who goes elsewhere. I can acknowledge that loss hurt bad, but it's been a month, our roster for next year is more talented than 3/4 of the country's, but some people are freaking the hell out like BCG is still here.
I guess I don't get the "passion" some people have.
The expectations have always been to contend, that is why those coaches are out of here and we are now contending at about the highest consistency we have ever and this at the top program in the sport. Big boys nothing, this is Kentucky Basketball there is no bigger boy and while they aren't all coming our way yes we are contending at an incredible level.
There is a difference between unbridled passion and all but utterly unappreciative and all but incapable of joy.
I think it is thoughtlessly arrogant that some folks think that if another doesn't think every dish of ice cream that doesn't get whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry on top is a bowl of turds.
You think it doesn't hurt like hell because others aren't throwing a terrible twos tantrum in sack cloth and ashes?
It was in our hands and we didn't come through so no doubt it is gut wrenchingly awful but embarrassed? No way we consistently have great, embracable kids and almost without fail by one means or another right in the thick, I think we are one one of the most incredible stretches in the history of the game to keep putting together different teams with few upperclassmen.
What the folks on the ledge won't deal with is only us and UCLA can even make a case that this wouldn't have been easily a top 10 best season in program history and even for us biggest of boys this is inarguably top 20 and probably deep in that top 15 if not also top 10.
I treasure every game too much to dismiss the journey of each season just down to winning the last game of the season. I don't see how the game has almost any value from that point of view, the all around misery index has to be through the roof even at the very, very best of outcomes.
Other than Rupp we have never had a coach with a better run and guess what it is certainly possible, plausible, and even likely that this train is solidly on the tracks.
Do we want more championships? Of course! Are we consistently and seriously competing for championships? At the highest level by any standard.
Such a standard that before Calipari got here we probably could have collected millions of left side crown jewels in exchange for a contract that called for constant top 3 classes (and usually #1), an Elite 8, a NIT debacle, four Final Fours, and a Championship the 1st 6 years and then we'll see how it goes from there.
This at Kentucky after some hard by elite standards times.
Keep knocking hard on the door, hopefully avoid the occasional fiasco and even then without the major injury a solid effort is possible not a real run but grab a few more wins overall and maybe win a game or two in a downturn season and on the next little stretch a few more bounce our way.
You keep on knocking you probably going to get in sometimes. Enjoy the ride there a little bit.
Would you prefer "crap fan" callers?
What else are you supposed to think when someone who was absent from late March of 2014 until this month starts to (voluminously) post their (negative) opinion of everything? Is everyone supposed to ignore that, with no suspicion that there might, just might, be something a little wrong with an alleged fan who basically vanishes for a year when UK is having an historic season?
You can choose to be a regular poster here or not, but don't act offended if you vanish when things are going right, but try to make your voice heard loud and clear when there are some disappointments. That may or may not describe you, but it does describe a lot of people who have suddenly been around a lot for the last 3 weeks. And those people may or may not be "trolls", but regardless, they earn being called out for their hypocrisy.
^^^^
Nailed it.
Either fairweather at best; one of those terrible people who only shows up to bitch when times are tough at medium; troll at worst.
Nailed it.
Either fairweather at best; one of those terrible people who only shows up to bitch when times are tough at medium; troll at worst.
seriously dude? just think if we went 40-0 and won the National Championship how insufferable we would be
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I think most of us by now is just used to most of the trolls that come on here and act like they do when they post. I agree with the fan that said how many SEC Tournaments have you been to or even how many NCAA Tournament games have you been too? When you go to the SEC tournament and there are 20,000 fans inside the arena cheering for the Big Blue and then another 20,000 outside the arena and you have 40,000 -50,000 fans in Tenn. to watch the SEC Tournament that is what you call the BEST NCAA FANBASE in America! I have been at the last 3 SECTourney's and I have followed the team to the NCAA Tourney in Louisville to Cleveland back to INDY and there is always 20,000+ fans supporting the Cats. Most on here not fans but trolls!
Many if not most of the whiners are just incapable of seeing things from the 10,000 mile view. Instead, zooming in with a microscope on something negative and then blowing it out of proportion. For some I think it's age, others personality.
In the big picture, we just went to a final four, went 38-1, undefeated in SEC and have the current #2 recruiting class. As you get older, your panorama expands and you see UK basketball not like a movie but like a ongoing series. The trials and tribulations of UK Basketball.
Duke would be the aliens I think, Coach K's nose is already looking like it's evolving.
Nope. Not true. Either you didn't say what you mean and you're being sloppy, or you don't really know the deal. I'm not being finicky with fine lines either. The models I saw before the tournament said UK had a 49% chance of winning the title - a heavy favorite certainly, but we weren't supposed to win, let alone "easily." At those odds, it's more likely than not that you don't win. 51 really is > 49. In the Wisconsin game we opened as a 6 point favorite, I think, and ended up at 4 or 4.5. That's not a situation where a team is supposed to "easily" win.....
Lol...name the team that had a 51% chance to win in your model. (I hate all these models by the way).
If you can't name the team, or if ur answer is that the remaining 51% was apportioned among the remaining 60 something teams, then we were supposed to win..
You must be great at revising history.
Nobody intelligent said that. Only people who are complete statistical ignoramuses made claims like that.
The team ended up with like a 41% chance in the statistical models before the tourney started even after one of the most impressive regular seasons of all time. That's nothing close to "being picked to easily win it all". And that number is incredibly high for even the most dominant of teams in a single elimination tourney that is 6 games long against the top 64 teams in the country. If you know how probability works, you'll understand why.
The #1 overall seed has won how many times in the current format, which started 30 years ago?
4 times. 4 times in the last 30 years.
Just off the top of my head, just talking about some modern examples from HOF coaches..
K had the #1 overall seed in '11 and didn't win it, and also in '99, which was an all-time legendary good regular season team just like ours. That's not to mention mercer, lehigh, etc.
Self had the #1 overall seed in '10 and didn't win it. That's beside bradley, bucknell, niu, etc.
Roy Williams, #1 overall seed in '97 and didn't win it.
Tark coached possibly the best team of all time in '91 and they lost in the F4 to another 1 seed just like we did.
People who don't understand how probability works are the most frustrating in the world to communicate with. If you don't have a basic grasp of what is likely or unlikely, your expectations will eternally be wrong. For everything. In the world. Life must be so confusing for you.
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