Would you rather....

[DrH. Lecter]

Would you rather....

- Assemble a team of one-n-done "seniors" who transfer in from the portal. Players who are best players from their teams but do not get the national attention. Who still aspire to play for pay.

or

- Assemble a team of 5-star One-n-Done who know they are next playing for "The League" and are using their one year in college to improve their draft status.

 

[BigBlueFanGA]

Would you rather....

- Assemble a team of one-n-done "seniors" who transfer in from the portal. Players who are best players from their teams but do not get the national attention. Who still aspire to play for pay.

or

- Assemble a team of 5-star One-n-Done who know they are next playing for "The League" and are using their one year in college to improve their draft status.

A good mix would be best but I have no use for a team full of freshmen.

 

[dl51344]

Portal like our guys this year.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

Id rather assemble a team of upperclass transfers that are all really good players and Ill beat your young five stars.

 

[Fox2monk]

Pretty easy answer, obviously portal guys. The only way would be getting guys like AD, MKG, Zion, Fox, Wall, Murray level talents you know will play together their one year and can dominate on talent alone. I love the balance Pope is going for. A top 5 freshman, another top. 12 freshman, a four star number 1 Center, and a really solid top. 30 guard everyone loves who we can get 2 years out of probably. 5 returnees who played this year, 3-4 portal studs. That is a winning formula to me.

 

[BlueBomb]

Cal once said he’d prefer freshmen talent over experience. His reasoning was that talent would always win out.

I wonder if he’s changed his tune.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

A good mix. You need returning experience along with the portal guys and freshmen.

 

[Fox2monk]

Cal once said he’d prefer freshmen talent over experience. His reasoning was that talent would always win out.

I wonder if he’s changed his tune.

Have you seen Arkansas roster? I mean he has a couple older guys but mainly Freshman and sophomores. Next year I’m sure he will bring in 5-6 freshman as well since he has 2 top 10 guards already so I’m guessing he still wants the same ole stuff.

 

[megablue]

Would you rather....

- Assemble a team of one-n-done "seniors" who transfer in from the portal. Players who are best players from their teams but do not get the national attention. Who still aspire to play for pay.

or

- Assemble a team of 5-star One-n-Done who know they are next playing for "The League" and are using their one year in college to improve their draft status.

This is an excellent question and one that begs to be answered. It will be interesting to see if CMP's program will have what it takes to retain players from year-to-year. If because of playing time, NIL$$$ and the portal, it turns out that assumptions made by many about roster continuity are incorrect, fans will have to accept this reality. Firstly, we'll see if Garrison, Oweh, Chandler, Perry and Noah all return. I sure hope they do, but am hesitant to "assume" they will. The season needs to play itself out.

Now ... to your question, I would much prefer the portal vets and only a sprinkling (however few that might be) of unproven high school phenoms. My reasoning is simply the predictability: offensively, defensively, maturity, focus, attitude, heart, hunger, effort, etc ..., as opposed to all the unknowns that high school phenoms bring with them. Of course, with that approach, there will be intense pressure to rely on what is available in the portal and it also puts more pressure on recruiting high schoolers before portal candidates are even known or available. Accordingly, roster additions will necessarily have to be a mix of returners, portal transfers and freshmen. With NIL$$$ and the Kentucky brand, CMP's chances for success should be better than most schools, it seems to me ... but I'm not even sure of that. It all depends on what particular players are looking for ...

 

[yoshukai]

This is an excellent question and one that begs to be answered. It will be interesting to see if CMP's program will have what it takes to retain players from year-to-year. If because of playing time, NIL$$$ and the portal, it turns out that assumptions made by many about roster continuity are incorrect, fans will have to accept this reality. Firstly, we'll see if Garrison, Oweh, Chandler, Perry and Noah all return. I sure hope they do, but am hesitant to "assume" they will. The season needs to play itself out.

Now ... to your question, I would much prefer the portal vets and only a sprinkling (however few that might be) of unproven high school phenoms. My reasoning is simply the predictability: offensively, defensively, maturity, focus, attitude, heart, hunger, effort, etc ..., as opposed to all the unknowns that high school phenoms bring with them. Of course, with that approach, there will be intense pressure to rely on what is available in the portal and it also puts more pressure on recruiting high schoolers before portal candidates are even known or available. Accordingly, roster additions will necessarily have to be a mix of returners, portal transfers and freshmen. With NIL$$$ and the Kentucky brand, CMP's chances for success should be better than most schools, it seems to me ... but I'm not even sure of that. It all depends on what particular players are looking for ...

This^. Also , bringing in 5stars can make a program less attractive to portal players that may just have 1 year and don’t want to have that kind of competition at their position.

 

[BlueSince92]

One Mashburn is all this team lacks from being all but invincible. Nobody in his right mind wants a Cal roster.

 

[yoshukai]

Would you rather....

- Assemble a team of one-n-done "seniors" who transfer in from the portal. Players who are best players from their teams but do not get the national attention. Who still aspire to play for pay.

or

- Assemble a team of 5-star One-n-Done who know they are next playing for "The League" and are using their one year in college to improve their draft status.

I would take a proven, battle tested veteran like Carr over taking a chance on almost any high school dude that you “hope “ is what he is supposed to be.

 

[jwphelps]

Would you rather....

- Assemble a team of one-n-done "seniors" who transfer in from the portal. Players who are best players from their teams but do not get the national attention. Who still aspire to play for pay.

or

- Assemble a team of 5-star One-n-Done who know they are next playing for "The League" and are using their one year in college to improve their draft status.

Well I prefer experience, second the older team may have the drive to win it all where the one and done player is more concerned about draft status. But overall I will take a coach who actually coaches and doesn't just roll the ball out and yell.

 

[bucsrule8872]

Give me 2-3 OAD guys, 4-5 portal guys, and 5-6 returning players. That’s the recipe, IMHO.

 

[JonathanW]

Just win. Don’t care how as long within the rules.
I’ve said for many years the best formula for sustainable success is a good mix.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

One Mashburn is all this team lacks from being all but invincible. Nobody in his right mind wants a Cal roster.

I'd argue a 2010 to 2019 cal roster is fine, minus cal as the coach. A lot of guys would have won multiple national titles with those rosters. To be fair, the best cal teams had some good experience along with the super talented frosh.

2010 had Patterson, Miller and liggins and even Ramon and perry.
2011 had Miller, liggins, Josh h.
2012 had Miller and Jones and lamb.
2015 had a bunch of key returnees.
2017 and 2019 did as well.

 

[BlueSince92]

I'd argue a 2010 to 2019 cal roster is fine, minus cal as the coach. A lot of guys would have won multiple national titles with those rosters. To be fair, the best cal teams had some good experience along with the super talented frosh.

2010 had Patterson, Miller and liggins and even Ramon and perry.
2011 had Miller, liggins, Josh h.
2012 had Miller and Jones and lamb.
2015 had a bunch of key returnees.
2017 and 2019 did as well.

Cal built boneheaded rosters with missing roles, redundant roles, and one-dimensional players able to fill roles on paper but not in actual Div-1 basketball. Other coaches could have done better with those rosters but that doesn’t lift them to the level of fine. The problem was better in some years and worse in others but very few of Cal’s rosters wouldn’t have benefited greatly from being a little lighter in the star-power department and a little heavier in the this-is-an-actual-basketball-team department. Feel free to disagree.

 

[MdWIldcat55]

Cal once said he’d prefer freshmen talent over experience. His reasoning was that talent would always win out.

I wonder if he’s changed his tune.

John Wooden said roughly the same thing: “I’d rather have a team with a lot of talent and a little experience than a team with a lot of experience and a little talent.”

Kentucky fans naturally are jaded from seeing Calipari waste so much great talent. But I’d like to see Pope given a chance to groom Caleb Wilson and Lewis and Moreno and Johnson. Kentucky fans might fall back in love with young talent.

 

[DrH. Lecter]

I would argue that 5star freshmen are playing to protect their draft status.

Portal Seniors are playing in a way to GAIN draft status.

One is cautious. The other hungry.

 

[DrH. Lecter]

John Wooden said roughly the same thing: “I’d rather have a team with a lot of talent and a little experience than a team with a lot of experience and a little talent.”

Kentucky fans naturally are jaded from seeing Calipari waste so much great talent. But I’d like to see Pope given a chance to groom Caleb Wilson and Lewis and Moreno and Johnson. Kentucky fans might fall back in love with young talent.

I'd be Jaded by Coach K. How many Nattys did he win with Zion et al?

 

[mebeblue2]

Would you rather....

- Assemble a team of one-n-done "seniors" who transfer in from the portal. Players who are best players from their teams but do not get the national attention. Who still aspire to play for pay.

or

- Assemble a team of 5-star One-n-Done who know they are next playing for "The League" and are using their one year in college to improve their draft status.

the problem is you can not find 5 freshmen that are elite like AD, MKG, Wall, Cousins ect...
so you end up taking 5 freshmen with one ready to play and the four others not ready to play on the big stage

 

[Bluesbrother]

Would you rather....

- Assemble a team of one-n-done "seniors" who transfer in from the portal. Players who are best players from their teams but do not get the national attention. Who still aspire to play for pay.

or

- Assemble a team of 5-star One-n-Done who know they are next playing for "The League" and are using their one year in college to improve their draft status.

A mixture of both. No one better to assemble and then coach them than Pope. The core of the team should be older players that have two or three years of college under their belts and can sustain the roster year over year with OAD talent coming in every year.

 

[Stan the caddy]

It’s a tough question.

I’d rather have Cooper Flagg than Andrew Carr, for example. But there aren’t exactly a lot of Cooper Flaggs to go around, but there are a bunch of Andrew Carrs. The difference is, you can actually get 10 guys who are a lot like Andrew Carr, but you can’t get 10 Cooper Flaggs. I like the way Pope is going about things.

 

[tf4fun]

Give me 2-3 OAD guys, 4-5 portal guys, and 5-6 returning players. That’s the recipe, IMHO.

I'm seeing more and more how important those 4-5 portal pieces are!