Why do people talk of the 2019-20 team so glowingly?

[Montana81]

The SEC was pretty bad that season. We were the best the league had to offer and finished 29th in Kenpom and i think 20th in the NET. The best team we beat all year was Louisville. And they weren’t a title threat either.

A lot of the Calipari apologist and cult members like to use that team to support their argument because it’s impossible to prove otherwise. But statistically, they did not fit the profile of a title threat.

Average UK fans like to think they could have made a run because we like to think any of our teams can make a run until they show us they couldn’t.

I agree with Final Four ceiling. But it would have been nice to see Quickley, Richards and Maxey get a chance. Maxey is a little overrated for his freshman year. He was pretty inefficient. But he had some of his better games in the biggest spots. Nick and IQ were one of the best inside outside duos in the country however.

 

[hamidousvertical]

Cause Cal (Cow).

People love to hate.

Unfortunately I think it’s as simple as that.

 

[CB3UK]

Show me one championship team that has a loss like Evansville on their resume.

 

[Montana81]

Show me one championship team that has a loss like Evansville on their resume.

Depends on what you mean by “loss like evansville”


2000 Michigan State lost to Wright State but it wasn’t at home and was without all american point guard Mateen Cleaves.

2005 UNC lost to Santa Clara. But again, it wasn’t at home(game was in oracle arena), and UNC was without starting point guard and future lotto pick Raymond Felton.

Kansas lost to Dayton in 2022. Again, not at home.

I don’t think a title winner has lost to a mid major at home in the 64 team era. Even 1990 UNLV, who played in a mid major conference, didn’t lose any conference home games.

Unfortunately that’s a bad omen for this season as well.

There’s something to be said for being able to have your team consistently prepared mentally, even against lesser competition. Something else Cal has really struggled with in recent years.

 

[The_Answer1313]

We were projected as a 2 seed by most bracketologists.

http://bracketmatrix.com/matrix_2020.html

Not really.

I mean we were playing much better towards the end of that year so it’s possible we could have made a run but we were definitely not going into that one as one of the favorites.

 

[KentuckyMildCats]

Yeah I remember the Hagan's dysfunction at the end of the year, and was ready to have that spoil the tourney run

 

[know1]

Who does? I don't really remember them. They didn't do much.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

Who does? I don't really remember them. They didn't do much.

25-6 (15-3 in SEC) 12-2 last 14 and 9-1 their last 10.
They didnt get the chance to do much; clearly you dont remember that team.
You will remember this one though.

 

[JonathanW]

I watched that whole season. One notable thing was that we had trouble putting teams away. We would build leads and then hang on to win by single digits, over and over. But we did win 25 games.

The way that team shot FTs, you just felt if we had the lead late we were going to win.

 

[JonathanW]

Who does? I don't really remember them. They didn't do much.

Uh…only because the tournament was canceled

 

[ThroughBlue]

Didn’t our starting point guard just quit the team?

 

[JonathanW]

http://bracketmatrix.com/matrix_2020.html

Not really.

I mean we were playing much better towards the end of that year so it’s possible we could have made a run but we were definitely not going into that one as one of the favorites.

I have seen ratings/rankings that had us as high as 6th best team, so yes we were one of the favorites, not “the favorite”, but one of 8 or so.

 

[YardCat]

Hear me out. I actually enjoyed that team but often hear them brought up and it’s with a great deal of hyperbole in recalling how good they were.

Yes, that team won the SEC. They also beat a solid Michigan St team, a UL team that would have been seeded 3 or so and won a dog fight against TTech on the road in a filthy, hostile environment over a NCAA team.

It also had home court losses to Evansville who was atrocious, UT (who wasn’t making tourney)… also lost to marginal Ohio St and Utah teams and a dreadful USC jr team in Columbia.

Yet, when people harken back to that team it’s like they think that team probably going to make a deep run. To my recollection, the last week of the season UK lost a 17 pt second half lead in Rupp and lost to UT. We had money phone Hagans video surface, he wasn’t with team after that and then needed the EJ miracle put back to beat a mediocre Florida team. It’s not like that team was ramping up for a run.

The team had good parts. I loved Maxey, Qucikley and Nick… but that team had deficiencies and would have been lucky to make it past a Sweet 16.

Maybe it’s just Cal defenders or maybe it’s we had good guards who often are key in March. I don’t know. I’m just confused why so many thought that team was special or something.

25-6 was good but SEC was down that season. The Cats had as many bad losses as good wins as well.

Good team but not some title threat.

Am I just clueless on this and getting senile?

Thoughts?

The answer is because it never happened and everyone can say we would have won it. Cal says that every year along with his love of the players.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

25-6 (15-3 in SEC) 12-2 last 14 and 9-1 their last 10.
They didnt get the chance to do much; clearly you dont remember that team.
You will remember this one though.

That team won something that matters in the SEC that season. UK sure hasn't won anything that matters since.

 

[Cats192]

Hagans had a complete childish meltdown v Tennessee and had to sit at home when we played at Florida because of it. You can't have your PG doing shit like that in March. Plus Evansville.....totally inexcusable.

Anyone who thinks that team was complete enough to win the title is lost in revisionist thinking.

It's not revisionist. I thought they could make a run at the time.

 

[Oboro3]

We were one of the hottest teams in the nation at the end of that season with a lot of positive momentum and peaking the way you would want a team to at that point in time. It was a shame a team like that did not have a shot of playing in the tournament,

 

[the nail at the foul line]

http://bracketmatrix.com/matrix_2020.html

Not really.

I mean we were playing much better towards the end of that year so it’s possible we could have made a run but we were definitely not going into that one as one of the favorites.

4, 2 what's the difference? Joke.

The 2019 team had pole axed the Auburn tigers in February 2019. Then Auburn loses their best player and still beats Kentucky. How anyone can have the belief that any team coached by Cal was guaranteed a final four is beyond me.

The Auburn game in 2019 rivals the Kansas game in 2022. Those are probably the two top performances from a Kentucky team since 2017.

 

[CatFanInIlliniLand]

Dayton says that was their year

😉

 

[mdlUK.1]

How can anyone that watches college basketball not think Maxey and Quickley couldn’t easily get a team to the final 4. Nobody will ever know but that certainly had a chance.

You are never going to convince the crowd with the agenda. Three guys from that team are still in the nba. And Maxey is kicking ass.

 

[crestcat]

The way that team shot FTs, you just felt if we had the lead late we were going to win.

I never feel that way with a Cal team.

 

[March 22]

How can anyone that watches college basketball not think Maxey and Quickley couldn’t easily get a team to the final 4. Nobody will ever know but that certainly had a chance.

I loved those guys as much as anyone, but "easily getting a team to the Final Four" is just fantasy. Getting to the Final Four almost always takes some favorable matchups and luck, along with talent, health, preparation, and game management (+ non-corrupt officials) to get there. Otherwise, the Wall/Bledsoe/Cousins/Patterson talent-loaded team would have easily got the team to a Final Four in 2010.

 

[Disappointed Cat]

Hear me out. I actually enjoyed that team but often hear them brought up and it’s with a great deal of hyperbole in recalling how good they were.

Yes, that team won the SEC. They also beat a solid Michigan St team, a UL team that would have been seeded 3 or so and won a dog fight against TTech on the road in a filthy, hostile environment over a NCAA team.

It also had home court losses to Evansville who was atrocious, UT (who wasn’t making tourney)… also lost to marginal Ohio St and Utah teams and a dreadful USC jr team in Columbia.

Yet, when people harken back to that team it’s like they think that team probably going to make a deep run. To my recollection, the last week of the season UK lost a 17 pt second half lead in Rupp and lost to UT. We had money phone Hagans video surface, he wasn’t with team after that and then needed the EJ miracle put back to beat a mediocre Florida team. It’s not like that team was ramping up for a run.

The team had good parts. I loved Maxey, Qucikley and Nick… but that team had deficiencies and would have been lucky to make it past a Sweet 16.

Maybe it’s just Cal defenders or maybe it’s we had good guards who often are key in March. I don’t know. I’m just confused why so many thought that team was special or something.

25-6 was good but SEC was down that season. The Cats had as many bad losses as good wins as well.

Good team but not some title threat.

Am I just clueless on this and getting senile?

Thoughts?

It just gave Cal another excuse when the season was canceled. The team was NO title contender.

 

[Oboro3]

Discussions like this draw the posters with ulterior motives out in droves...

They have to try to pounce anytime anything resembling success at UK comes to light...

 

[Wildcats1st]

I loved those guys as much as anyone, but "easily getting a team to the Final Four" is just fantasy. Getting to the Final Four almost always takes some favorable matchups and luck, along with talent, health, preparation, and game management (+ non-corrupt officials) to get there. Otherwise, the Wall/Bledsoe/Cousins/Patterson talent-loaded team would have easily got the team to a Final Four in 2010.

We probably make a run if hagans isn’t on the team. He was a chemistry killer on and off the court.

 

[natchezrule]

Primarily because of the huge 2nd half comeback in Gainesville the last gm of the season. Plus the team finished 13-2 and 25-6 overall.
That team probably wins the National Title.
Us, Kansas or FSU.

Not with Hagans

 

[tapemaster8]

Hear me out. I actually enjoyed that team but often hear them brought up and it’s with a great deal of hyperbole in recalling how good they were.

Yes, that team won the SEC. They also beat a solid Michigan St team, a UL team that would have been seeded 3 or so and won a dog fight against TTech on the road in a filthy, hostile environment over a NCAA team.

It also had home court losses to Evansville who was atrocious, UT (who wasn’t making tourney)… also lost to marginal Ohio St and Utah teams and a dreadful USC jr team in Columbia.

Yet, when people harken back to that team it’s like they think that team probably going to make a deep run. To my recollection, the last week of the season UK lost a 17 pt second half lead in Rupp and lost to UT. We had money phone Hagans video surface, he wasn’t with team after that and then needed the EJ miracle put back to beat a mediocre Florida team. It’s not like that team was ramping up for a run.

The team had good parts. I loved Maxey, Qucikley and Nick… but that team had deficiencies and would have been lucky to make it past a Sweet 16.

Maybe it’s just Cal defenders or maybe it’s we had good guards who often are key in March. I don’t know. I’m just confused why so many thought that team was special or something.

25-6 was good but SEC was down that season. The Cats had as many bad losses as good wins as well.

Good team but not some title threat.

Am I just clueless on this and getting senile?

Thoughts?

Even our man in the middle could hit clutch free throws. That’s what beats is in the tourney most years. That’s why I liked that team!

 

[DCFseattle]

Hear me out. I actually enjoyed that team but often hear them brought up and it’s with a great deal of hyperbole in recalling how good they were.

Yes, that team won the SEC. They also beat a solid Michigan St team, a UL team that would have been seeded 3 or so and won a dog fight against TTech on the road in a filthy, hostile environment over a NCAA team.

It also had home court losses to Evansville who was atrocious, UT (who wasn’t making tourney)… also lost to marginal Ohio St and Utah teams and a dreadful USC jr team in Columbia.

Yet, when people harken back to that team it’s like they think that team probably going to make a deep run. To my recollection, the last week of the season UK lost a 17 pt second half lead in Rupp and lost to UT. We had money phone Hagans video surface, he wasn’t with team after that and then needed the EJ miracle put back to beat a mediocre Florida team. It’s not like that team was ramping up for a run.

The team had good parts. I loved Maxey, Qucikley and Nick… but that team had deficiencies and would have been lucky to make it past a Sweet 16.

Maybe it’s just Cal defenders or maybe it’s we had good guards who often are key in March. I don’t know. I’m just confused why so many thought that team was special or something.

25-6 was good but SEC was down that season. The Cats had as many bad losses as good wins as well.

Good team but not some title threat.

Am I just clueless on this and getting senile?

Thoughts?

I think in general, people look back fondly because they don't wake up and shit in their own Cheerios first thing in the morning, so they're not looking for new ways to be unhappy about random nonsense.

 

[storm1507]

Because they didn't have the opportunity to lose their last game in the tourneys. We still had/have hope.

 

[The_Answer1313]

I have seen ratings/rankings that had us as high as 6th best team, so yes we were one of the favorites, not “the favorite”, but one of 8 or so.

I mean the vast majority doesn’t agree with that at all based on the list.

The site when taken in the aggregate doesn’t miss much. And it certainly doesn’t say top 4 worst 3 for an overall 6th best team. Most people are usually in the consensus on the top teams. UK wasn’t one of them that year.

 

[rob_47]

We probably make a run if hagans isn’t on the team. He was a chemistry killer on and off the court.

This is absolutely the truth. We played much better with Hagans out of the game especially toward the end of the year. He thought he was something he wasn't. It is funny to think that Quickly sat the bench that first year while Hagans played as much as he wanted. Towards the end of that year we were playing well and it seemed like Cal was moving on from Hagans being the lead guard. Ashton was also letting guys drive right by him there at the end of the season and defense was suppose to be his thing.

 

[CatFanInIlliniLand]

Forget the Big 3 with all the old NBA players.

In 2040, let’s bring all tournament teams back. All the guys in their mid 40’s can settle this once and for all. Kansas would love to hang that banner.

 

[Aike]

Hear me out. I actually enjoyed that team but often hear them brought up and it’s with a great deal of hyperbole in recalling how good they were.

Yes, that team won the SEC. They also beat a solid Michigan St team, a UL team that would have been seeded 3 or so and won a dog fight against TTech on the road in a filthy, hostile environment over a NCAA team.

It also had home court losses to Evansville who was atrocious, UT (who wasn’t making tourney)… also lost to marginal Ohio St and Utah teams and a dreadful USC jr team in Columbia.

Yet, when people harken back to that team it’s like they think that team probably going to make a deep run. To my recollection, the last week of the season UK lost a 17 pt second half lead in Rupp and lost to UT. We had money phone Hagans video surface, he wasn’t with team after that and then needed the EJ miracle put back to beat a mediocre Florida team. It’s not like that team was ramping up for a run.

The team had good parts. I loved Maxey, Qucikley and Nick… but that team had deficiencies and would have been lucky to make it past a Sweet 16.

Maybe it’s just Cal defenders or maybe it’s we had good guards who often are key in March. I don’t know. I’m just confused why so many thought that team was special or something.

25-6 was good but SEC was down that season. The Cats had as many bad losses as good wins as well.

Good team but not some title threat.

Am I just clueless on this and getting senile?

Thoughts?

You are 100% right.

That team overachieved and was honestly a great coaching job by Cal, imo.

With the Ashton Hagans meltdown heading into the SEC Tournament, their hard-earned seeding was even in jeopardy. If he doesn’t play and they drop an early tourney game, how does the committee treat that?

We were at best going to be a 2 seed. Maybe down to a 4. I honestly think anything above Sweet 16 would have been a success for that team.

 

[BlueSince92]

Number 1 reason:

It would be hard to make a case that we absolutely would have won the title that year.

But it would be VERY hard to make a case that Nick Richards wasn’t the best big man in the country by the time things got shut down, with a good bit of breathing room behind him before whoever was number 2.

I’m not one that claims we would necessarily have won that title. But I don’t think saying their natural ceiling looked like Sweet 16 is any less outrageous than saying their natural ceiling looked like title champions.

It was a solid team. Very battle tested. Incredibly consistent at the end, to the point where that Senior Night loss looked more like a source of extra motivation and focus than a cause for pessimism.

There’s not really a dimension of basketball where you couldn’t make a sober case they were among the best in the nation at the end: guard play, defense, perimeter shooting, consistency, emphatically post play.

All of that goes a really long way.

I’ll tell you what’s funny though. There are people here right now who are certain that team would have taken home the hardware if we’d played the tourney that year. AND they’re also certain that Keith Bogans’ team would have lost that game to Marquette even if Bogans hadn’t been injured, because of some fantasies about Spring 2003 Dwayne Wade.

If that doesn’t convince you that people believe what they want to believe, nothing ever will.

2020 was a strong team. Earned a shot at the title and didn’t get to take it.

Also earned this right:

Since they didn’t get to determine their own destiny, surely no one else deserves to determine it in retrospect.

 

[crestcat]

You are never going to convince the crowd with the agenda. Three guys from that team are still in the nba. And Maxey is kicking ass.

The 2010 teams starting lineup and half the bench played in the NBA, how did that turn out?

Number 1 reason:

It would be hard to make a case that we absolutely would have won the title that year.

But it would be VERY hard to make a case that Nick Richards wasn’t the best big man in the country by the time things got shut down, with a good bit of breathing room behind him before whoever was number 2.

I’m not one that claims we would necessarily have won that title. But I don’t think saying their natural ceiling looked like Sweet 16 is any less outrageous than saying their natural ceiling looked like title champions.

It was a solid team. Very battle tested. Incredibly consistent at the end, to the point where that Senior Night loss looked more like a source of extra motivation and focus than a cause for pessimism.

There’s not really a dimension of basketball where you couldn’t make a sober case they were among the best in the nation at the end: guard play, defense, perimeter shooting, consistency, emphatically post play.

All of that goes a really long way.

I’ll tell you what’s funny though. There are people here right now who are certain that team would have taken home the hardware if we’d played the tourney that year. AND they’re also certain that Keith Bogans’ team would have lost that game to Marquette even if Bogans hadn’t been injured, because of some fantasies about Spring 2003 Dwayne Wade.

If that doesn’t convince you that people believe what they want to believe, nothing ever will.

2020 was a strong team. Earned a shot at the title and didn’t get to take it.

Also earned this right:

Since they didn’t get to determine their own destiny, surely no one else deserves to determine it in retrospect.

where are the Helms people when you need them?

 

[BlueSince92]

where are the Helms people when you need them?

But my whole point was against the Helms people.

 

[mdlUK.1]

The 2010 teams starting lineup and half the bench played in the NBA, how did that turn out?

where are the Helms people when you need them?

I rest my case. Enjoy your misery.

 

[gojvc]

Am I just clueless on this and getting senile?

Yes.

 

[track42]

I doubt they would have won it all but they were a very good team and fun to watch.IQ and Maxey were the real deal.

 

[crestcat]

But my whole point was against the Helms people.

My tongue was in my cheek

 

[BlueSince92]

My tongue was in my cheek

Right on. I'm not always the sharpest tool in the shed.