Teams used to look at UK, Duke, Indiana, UNC basically the Blue Bloods when the Blue Bloods were warming up before a game. Many times you would see players at mid court watching our drills. Today no team fears a Blueblood or anyone else, most of the players played against each other regularly in weekend tournaments. Every team has 5 solid starters and in today's game anybody can beat anybody on a given night.
We get everyone's best is a fallacy!
- Thread starter LmdCat
- Start date
A team built around one and done players is at a greater disadvantage defensively now than ever before. Covid year eligibility, NIL and the transfer portal have enabled many more teams to match up with us by emphasizing strength, toughness and experience. Radford at TAMU is a wily sixth year veteran and he presents monumental challenges to someone like Dillingham who was competing against immature teeny boppers just last season.
Kansas has had quite a long time of the B12 absolutely crapping itself. I would gladly "switch jerseys" with them, especially if we get their home court.
This is espoused by fans who attempt to explain repeated poor performances by overpaid coaches. Your explanation sounds as if the players prior to Cal's UK teams didn't play against each other too. Acceptance of mediocrity is the downfall of great institutions. I simply can't wait until Cal is no longer here brainwashing our fanbase.
We lose because Cal places individual players above the team. He repeatedly starts Edwards when there is no reasonable explanation for it other than he is committed to the individual player promises made to get him here. By no means am I suggesting that Edwards is the only player getting playing time that isn't earned. He is just one of the best examples.
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You left out the 3 point shooting that was stellar. Some of those shots were from way behind the 3 point line and some were contested and some were just crazy shots. If they simply shoot their norm, we win in regulation.
I do agree that their rebounding was also stellar which is their strength. But, without the 3's, we win. Missing FT's were also a factor in the final result. If they hit them, they win by more.
They won because they are better coached which is not the same as having a better coach. They have a team of blue-collar players who understand they have to work their butts off for everything they get, and because UK would fail at guarding a statue.
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It’s pretty apparent that teams in the SEC get more hyped to play UK than any other team in the league. The fans circle the game on their calendars. The administration makes the game an “Orange out” or “Red out” or whatever every time UK comes to town. They give out free t-shirts for the game. The players hear it all week about mighty UK coming to town. The media spins it as a big game. Teams need to beat us because it’s a Quad 1 win almost every time UK comes to town. It’s a must-win situation for their tourney hopes most of the time. Teams play out of their heads in those situations. Mediocre teams look like contenders when UK rolls in, then come back down to earth the next game. It happens too many times. Anyone who doesn’t see that hasn’t been watching UK basketball for very long. It’s been that way since I have been watching.
They hit a lot more than their average but overall it was basically a wash from 3. We shot 38% they shot 37%.
Overall effective FG% UK 52%. Texas AM 48%
But as with any game that goes into OT you could basically point to anything..........one additional made shot, a defensive rebound, a free throw...........could have been the difference in this one.
Stupid thread. All you have to do is look at the home atmosphere at A&M for the LSU game versus the Kentucky game. For the OP's premise to be true, it means that home crowd has no impact, which is clearly false.
I personally think Cal really believes Edwards will become a much more of a force. I also think Cal wants to keep Edwards on a positive trajectory. He starts him, yes. But if I am not mistaken, Edwards plays less minutes than anyone else in the regular rotation. You mentioned that Edwards is just an example of a player getting minutes they do not deserve. In your opinion who are the other players getting playing time that is not warranted?
Getting everybody's best shot may be a bit much(or it may not) What I do know is that in the previous game TAM just went thru the motions of playing. In our game they played with their hair on fire. More effort, better play and more emotion does anyone disagree with that?
Yup.
A&M was in a must win situation. They couldn’t start 0-3 in SEC play, especially playing two of those three at home. They were desperate. They knew it. The fans knew it. They had to win this one to save their season.
I don't think anyone debates this but I think what the original post was getting at is it's not different from any other big school. UK isn't the only school this happens to.
Heck this even happens AT UK. We play 300th ranked teams at Rupp all the time and go through the motions. Whenever there's a big game at Rupp, it's rocking and our team plays with way more emotion.
It's just natural.
Moron post of the week right here. What are you watching? Or are you? This is just an asinine statement.
The only morons on this board are those who think that teams can just magically improve their play against higher competition while sucking against much less competition. It makes you and the rest of the Cal defenders appear more comical than Cowboy fans thinking each new year is their Superbowl year. Well, if other coaches are so good at getting their teams to play so much better against superior competition, why does Cal suck at it? Not matter how you try to phrase your excuses, your boy Cal still sucks. No one will ever accuse a Cal coached team of playing better than they are against superior competition. However, there is an extremely long list of examples of Cal's teams playing down to much less competition. So, if this nonsense that other teams are so skilled at magically playing their best games only against UK and a psychologist on retainer is what keeps you in an upright position after each embarrassing loss due to an inept coach, more power to you. Lol
What is different for UK than the other blue bloods is that UK is “The Team” in the SEC traditionally. UK is the basketball school in a football conference. No one else is in that situation. Nobody. Even when UK sucks, they are still the biggest game of the year for the rest of the SEC.
I hope you realize that all minutes are not equal. Cal rolls out Edwards at the start of each game which is essential to starting games 4 against 5. The early minutes of each game are critical for setting the tone. So, when Cal rolls out Edwards for the first 4 to 5 minutes of each game, he isn't just wasting 4 or 5 minutes because the newly inserted player needs minutes to get into game rhythm. So, instead of just blowing the first 4 to 5 minutes, you have effectively screwed away 7 to 8 minutes of play by playing shorthanded. Those critical early minutes when games remain closer than they should because of playing shorthanded gives opponents confidence that they can play with us. It is a boneheaded decision that is only being done because of recruiting promises and his desire to get his highest level recruits to the NBA.
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Along those lines of thought, Cal is probably afraid of shattering Edwards confidence by pulling him out of the starting lineup. But maybe he should give him a chance to come off the bench like Sheppard and Dillingham and take the pressure off him and see what happens. Edwards should not see it as a demotion (do you think he thinks he’s better than Sheppard and Dillingham, right now?). It might actually get Edwards going if he can come in and go against the other team’s subs. I don’t know if that’s a solution, but it might help with the slow starts and help Edwards gain some confidence gong against reserves.
If you are correct, this is another reason why Cal should be fired. Basketball is a team sport and no coach should be making decisions that hurts the team just because he doesn't want to shatter the confidence of a player who simply hurts the team's chances of winning. If Edwards isn't ready to play starter minutes, he should be coming off the bench as he would be if he was on any other team in college basketball.
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I was speaking from my observations in late 60's and 70's. We had more talent than the majority of our opponents then and most were in awe of the athleticism of our players. We have had too many players leave early and were not drafted or were early exits in NBA. I enjoyed the college game more when the players were there 4 years, some of the change is Cal, some is today's environment. I still believe you have to have a mix of old and new to win it all, but, you have to have the right chemistry also. Getting the experience from the portal has downside as well
Coming in to this season, Edwards was very highly regarded by most everyone. If Cal believes that Edwards has the potential to be the player that everyone expected him to be, it is reasonable to start him in spite of the what the fans say. Early in the season we had a number of posters complaining about DJ starting. I recall when many of our posters complained about not starting Allen a few seasons back.
Bottomline is that the coach calls the shots based on what he believes. Saying he should be fired for starting a highly ranked player is pretty ridiculous. Having said that, if I were the coach, I would not start Edwards. But, I might have started Allen (who hasn't even been a star at Western) or I might not have started DJ.
This is true but I really don't think it changes things.
Duke goes on the road in the ACC and you don't think that's the biggest game of the year for those home teams?
Kansas goes on the road in the Big 12 and that's not the biggest game of the season?
Having multiple good teams in a conference IMO doesn't really change thing much. I'm sure that Georgia Tech is absolutely rocking whether that's for UNC coming to town or Duke coming to town.
Yes he probably thinks he is better than both,that is how most 5* 18/19 year old kids think
We must have treated their defense the same, it was tied at the end of regulation. I say things sometimes I wish I hadn't. It may be that time for you, if you don't think teams take it up a notch when they see KENTUCKY on that jersey you are wrong.
No. I’ve checked around. You’re a moron. The announcers only mentioned it in the game 3-4 times. Watch their name game, will come out flat as a pancake, score about 60 points. Geez must be a snow day Monday
Your problem is that you confused checking around with checking yourself in. You were told to check yourself in so that you can get the help you seriously need. I am placing you on ignore just in case your level of craziness is contagious. PLEASE SEEK HELP IMMEDIATELY!!!!! Lol
If they can so easily take it up a notch because they are playing Kentucky, they are damn fools for not keeping it up for the sake of a better record. This may come as a shock to you, but athletes can't simply manufacture skills they don't have just because they are playing Kentucky. However, any player including those who play for Kentucky are capable of playing above their norm, but that is the exception and it can't be summons on demand. They play better against Kentucky because our players couldn't play good defense if their lives depended on it. It is the simple arrogance of Kentucky fans to still think we are still special in college basketball. We are just another team around the league. Fans and coaches like kicking our butts whenever possible because they know we are one of the whiniest fanbases in college sports as opposed to thinking that it gives them some type of extra credibility. Considering some of Kentucky's recent embarrassing losses, why would anyone still think we are special? We are acting as if we have done something remotely close to the successes of teams more than 8 years ago. When was the last time Kentucky was a real threat to win an NC? Some of our fans are as out of touch as Dallas Cowboy fans. Lol
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Your opinion. It sucks. I really do not care who starts as much as who ends. You say Edwards starting is like playing 4 on 5. Yeah doofus, like every member of the opposing team is better than Edwards. God, what stupidity can be found on this board. You just need to bitch about something.
Yes, based on his performance every player he has faced at his position is better than him and it isn't even close. This might come as a surprise to you, but Kentucky isn't so good that they can piss away minutes on an undeserving player and still win enough to return to a level of greatness.
Thank you for putting me on “Ignore” I hope it works and I won’t have to see any more of your moronic posts. There’s dumb then there’s Lmdcat dumb. Thanks for clarifying.
A&Ms offense is trash. We gave up 97 to a TERRIBLE offensive team. Part of that IS our defense. But they nailed some lucky shots they would never normally make. Taylor went off on us. Cal had no answer for him.
You seem to say a lot of things you can't back up. Earlier you said that players, other than Edwards, have not earned playing time. Who, you won't say. Now you say that every player that Edwards has faced has outplayed him. What a crock. You have no idea who guarded Edwards or who Edwards was assigned to guard in any game. Like I said earlier , you just want to whine about something.
Taylor was only 7-24 on Saturday but problem is he hit 6 3’s. A lot of them were shots you’d want him to take also. And he had an even better game against Houston earlier in the season. Even a clueless moron like LmdCat knows Houston is a great defensive team lol. Against LSU he only shot 3-12 from 3. Just goes to show how random basketball can be.
It’s not the same. UK’s position in the SEC is unlike anyone else’s position in any other conference. To go one further, their situation is unique to all of college basketball. UK is the greatest college basketball program of all time. No one else can make this claim.
So when UK comes to town in the SEC, it’s not only a chance to get a quality win, it’s a shot at the greatest program of all time. It’s a story a player can tell their grandchildren about.
No other program has that kind of target on their back. There’s only one GOAT in college basketball.
I guess your so-called established fact stop being one under Cal? Is this why it needs to be restated? News flash: There is no longer a fear of playing Kentucky. Combine that with a laughable defense is why teams shoot much better against us than other teams. A&M demonstrated their lack of respect for UK by treating the victory like they expected to win. Only the out-of-touch portion of the UK fanbase still believe UK is the mecca of college basketball. That ship has sailed and won't have a chance of returning until after Cal is replaced.
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At this point considering our coach, I think most fans would have been happy with just a win against an inferior opponent.
They may not always play better against us but there is no question they play harder. Energy is a great equalizer in sports and its a fact that teams play harder and are more energized when they are playing at home in front of a big crowd against a big opponent. And the UKs, Dukes, Kansas of the world face that much more than others do. So yeah we get a better version of most teams
I agree with this, but what has that average attendance done over the last 5 years or so? I think that the road fans aren't showing up as much as they used to.
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