You mean the "basics" of the game...........today's players only want to dunk, run & jump.......not many understand the basics of boxing out, setting picks..........
UK now trending for Vick
- Thread starter RondoBaller21
- Start date
You mean the "basics" of the game...........today's players only want to dunk, run & jump.......not many understand the basics of boxing out, setting picks..........
Good thing you aren't wagering real money on all these predictions/bets you have made this spring.
Did you watch the season? To say this past year's UK team had no killer instinct is just dumb. They won plenty of close games and made huge plays to win them. Just because they finally lost one close game (where they got repeatedly jobbed by the refs in the final 5 mins) and made some mistakes does not mean they had no killer instinct.
I'll say this....for me personally I REALLY trust Coach Cal's high school evaluating ability. Arguably the three biggest duds in recruiting in the Cal era (excluding KY kids) were 1.Stacey Poole 2. Darnell Dodson and 3.Ryan Harrow. So if someone wants to question the Mulder signing I'll listen because Cal's record at UK with transfers has been so-so. However he found complete diamonds in the rough in both Bledsoe and Cauley-Stein. He correctly evaluated Kanter as an NBA caliber big man well before the Hoop Summit when all the National Recruiting guys got on board. In fact I just went to Rivals and checked and in his time here at Kentucky if you exclude transfers and KY kids the only non-5 star kids he has signed were: 1.Stacey Poole 2.Willie Cauley-Stein and 3. Devin Booker. Yes Poole was a strike out but both Cauley Stein and Booker were overwhelming success stories so if Cal sees something in Vick I trust his high school talent evaluating abilities. Yes, we are a little desperate for bodies right now and I understand under ordinary circumstances we wouldn't offer someone like this BUT after reviewing the evidence I think Cal deserves the benefit of the doubt when it comes to evaluating players.
When Cal takes a transfer, it's usually out of desperation. I think that's why his success with transfers has been mediocre.
I wouldn't call Bledsoe a diamond in the rough. He was a 5 star PG.
Yeah, 1. quitter 2. Drugs 3. Quitter. Not a great streak, but none of those guys quitting or doing drugs were Cal's fault. I thought Dodson did solid for a soph season where he was a key bench player with 6 points a game and canned 50 3 pointers. He would have been solid on the 2011 and 2012 teams as well IMO. And as rough as Harrow was mentally he was not terrible on the court, just above average with his stats. I think he would have gotten better as well, once again, just IMO. Poole was just no good, and a big bust.
And it changed to the schools I listed, which means I was right. See how easy it is to admit that, meteor?
4 star, actually.
While that's true, as mentioned, a lot of it was personal issues. Dumb decisions and whatnot, but I believe we have a good one in Mulder. If we can't trust Cal's eye for talent in the JUCO pool, let's trust Gregg Marshall's. He offered the kid, and you could say he's had a bit of a raging success from JUCO kids.
Well, the general consensus had him as a 4 star, and Rivals was right (which doesn't surprise me).
Matthews will be here longer than 2 years unless he transfers. If Murray reclassifies, it will be UK or Oregon.
This is the only part of your post that I find to be FOS. If Cal adds anymore players for 2015, it will be players who are talented and can help the team.
We had Davis, Jones, MKG, and Miller. All above 6'7. The only player on next season's team as good as any of the players previously mentioned is Skal.
respectfully disagree. Most college teams don't have a big bruiser. Being overly big has hurt us in the past when we run into a team that's quicker at the 4 and 5 positions combined with having the talent to hurt us. You normally run into these teams elite 8 and on.
We are currently built to run the DDMO which I believe is when Cal is at his best. Lee and Skal will anchor the 5. Skal has more offense but Lee will still give us great rebounding, shot blocking and outback dunks and lobs. He'll honestly give us everything WCS did and potentially more consistently.
Poy and Lee splitting the 4 gives us a pure athlete at the 4 with 3 dangerous quick guards running the show. A big slower guy clogs up the lane and hampers the flow of what this team is built for while creating a mismatch for us defensively. Johnson killed us on Defense against Wisconsin and was Cals biggest mistake. Lee should have had those minutes when we needed to sub for Kat or WCS. He was taken advantage of on screens all day.
MKG was actually 6'6, and all of 190# at UK. He was hardly a whopper.
Skal is taller (and more filled out) than Davis, Poy is taller (and much more filled out) than Jones, and Matthews/Mulder are only 1 inch and around 5 or so pounds smaller than MKG.
We didn't know that any of those players would be great. When you say "the only player on next season's team as good as any", you're basing it off of hindsight. We won't know who will be better college players until the season is played, but unlike you, I'm not going to try to determine their careers for them before they even start.
More importantly though, this backcourt should be a lot better than the 2012 backcourt. I would take Ulis at the point over every PG that UK has had besides John Wall. Just a natural leader. Briscoe will also be in the discussion for one of the better college guards at UK under Cal.
A great backcourt can take you a long way, but that's all besides the point. My point is, we are not "too small" in the frontcourt.
I didn't even read the rest of your post after SO MANY errors in the first couple of sentences.
MKG was listed as 6'7.5", and weighed 225 pounds his freshman year at UK.
Poy is taller and more filled out than Jones was?!
Poy is listed at 6'8, 238 pounds.
Jones was listed in 2011-2012 as 6'9.5", 255 pounds.
Sorry, couldn't even read the rest of your post after that.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but if you ask anyone that is seriously involved in the program, we are not in need of anymore "Instant Impact" players.
Cal is looking to sign 2 more players that he can develop, put up a good fight in practice, and help us down the road unless something crazy (and unexpected) happens with Murray, our 7-8 man rotation is already set and on campus in Ullis, Briscoe, Matthews, Mulder, Lee, Poythress, Skal and Willis/Hawkins.
That is a team built to win BIG in the COLLEGE game next year. Backup NBA caliber 7 footers are not needed to win the NCAA championship. Poythress and Lee can both play the "5" more than adequately enough when Skal is not in the lineup.
I cannot believe how vehemently people are screaming about us not having a backup C when we have a JR McD AA and a SR McD AA to go along with the consensus #1 recruit/#1 NBA draft pick all with the skill set to play the 5 in today's COLLEGE game in Cal's preferred O/D.
I am sorry if that upsets you, but it is what I have been told to be true by some people that would know (Since it is their job LOL).
Again, though, please just assume I am entirely FOS and have no idea what I am talking about! I am most likely posting this from a room with padded walls. Ha ha!
Go Big Blue!
First off, I didn't question your whole post. I only questioned what I initially replied to. Cal has stated that he won't offer players that can't help. He has also said many times that he can't hide players, so if a player comes to UK they better be able to play. If Cal offers Vick, it will be because he can help and contribute on next seasons team and the future.
By the way, I highly doubt the person who gave you this information wants this information out there. I mean, this is the message being sent to players being looked at for 2015, "come be a practice player at UK with little chance of seeing the floor next season."
I agree that it would be ideal to add some depth down-low. Doesn't necessarily have to be a big-bodied, bruiser, but at least someone to provide help if someone gets hurt or in foul trouble. Wynard could definitely help if he plays second semester. Adding a player like Thon (even tho thats not looking likely) or someone that comes available real late could come in really handy.
That's something bizarre to disagree about. Why not just look it up? TJ was stout - more muscular than those other guys.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011–12_Kentucky_Wildcats_men's_basketball_team
Okay, checked the roster on the UK Athletics site. Based on my memory of the bulkiness of the 2012 team, I'm surprised AD didn't actually weigh 240# when he came in as well. I've made our team out to be a bunch of stick men in my mind.
Oops.
Oops.
The current team doesn't resemble 2012. They're a mix between 2011 and 2013 IMO.
LOL at Jones weighing 250 . He was in the 230's . But your post is spot on Rhavicc , we had one bruiser in 12' and his name was Vargas.
You were way off on the weights but the concept does hold true. We were an athletic long team. Not a big bulk team. This next years team won't be as long at the 234 positions but they'll still have elite athleticism and above average length. Very Memphis-y
Good God, are you seriously saying you would not want a Gerald Fitch on your team? If that is what you're saying, then I have to question your basketball IQ...
You agreeing with him is more proof that he has no idea what he was saying.
Don't drag me back into it, tool.
Really though, 2012 was not a bulky team. Used athleticism more than brute force.
In what way? 2011 had a plethora of project bigs (minus Jones, who was very good), and 2013 had incredibly underwhelming and inefficient guards. I can see a very tiny mix of 2013 because Poythress is going to be on the team, but that's about it, and that was considered one of the very, very few bright spots of that 2013 team, which was drastically damaged when Noel went down. Both guards are visibly much better than the ones we had in 2013, and I think our overall big man talent surpasses 2011.
Skal can match, and probably surpass what Jones brought to the table, Poythress should be able to give us at least what Harrellson produced, and it's hard to see a scenario where Ulis, Briscoe, Matthews, and Mulder can't give us much more juice than we seen in 2013 from that group.
I was just having a little fun with Cane. Calm down.
Rhavicc said:
I said they were a mix. The guards are little more comparable to 2011 and the bigs are a little more of a comparison to 2013.
I agree ... I do think they are close to the 2011 team (maybe a little more talent).
I dunno if you can really compare this backcourt to any certain one. We've never had a point guard who was lightning quick and was as good of a facilitator as Ulis. Especially considering how accurate he is. He can turn it on for instant offense if he needs to. We've lacked that skill in recent years.
Briscoe is also refreshing. He can bully others around like Andrew or Aaron, shoot it more accurately, but the distinctive difference is his ball handling and passing.
You can never have too many great passers and ball handlers, and we have 2 elite passers and ball handlers in our backcourt next year. Both have a nice offensive game as well, and it's diverse.
Also, just to get back to topic and contribute to the thread, the NextCats website is saying that Vick is planning to reclass back to 2015. Really hoping we get the kid on board. Instant offense, very versatile. Can't have enough of that. I guess at the very least, we won't have our guards going cold on us.
Sounds like it may come down to KU or UK for Vick. After taking Diallo and Bragg, Bucknell Bill has the taste of blood in his mouth.
http://247sports.com/Bolt/Kansas-Kentucky-strong-with-Vick-37149241
http://247sports.com/Bolt/Kansas-Kentucky-strong-with-Vick-37149241
We knew Kansas would at least get a vote. I expect Cal to have his way with the Memphis area in recruiting though.
I vividly remember many on this board arguing about not having a "banger" inside the summer before the 2011-12 season.
At this time of the year, Davis was listed at 215-ish and Jones was about 230-ish. Vargas was not expected to contribute much (which turned out to be the case). A lot of people on here were already in panic mode about our lack of muscle.
Heck, some were upset that Cal didn't leave a spot open for Jarnell Stokes to come in second semester.
I'm not worried about the lack of bulk.
At this time of the year, Davis was listed at 215-ish and Jones was about 230-ish. Vargas was not expected to contribute much (which turned out to be the case). A lot of people on here were already in panic mode about our lack of muscle.
Heck, some were upset that Cal didn't leave a spot open for Jarnell Stokes to come in second semester.
I'm not worried about the lack of bulk.
Similar threads
Latest posts
-
-
-
-
-
The Ukraine war. (Yes, we'll mind our manners)- Latest: CastleRubric