I still believe Bolden waited so long because his heart was telling him Kentucky, and he waited to see how his opportunities would open up. However, in the end, I think you are onto something here. When Bolden sat down and took his final look, he saw Humphries, Wynyard, Adebayo at Kentucky. If he had signed with Kentucky, Bolden would have had a serious battle for playing time on his hands. This isn't sour grapes - I said this same thing here several times before Bolden announced. Bolden and Adebayo are the same size, but Adebayo is quicker and more skilled. I agree with you that Humphries will be a vastly improved player, and I think Wynyard is better than people realize. I do not believe Bolden would have been an impact addition at Kentucky. Bolden's opportunity for playing at Duke is much better. He probably made a good choice.
Was Bolden just scared?
- Thread starter Danspicer1976
- Start date
Probably because Duke is gay, they play in a high school gym, and their coach is a lying 2 faced b!tch.
Yes. Cal ruined Skal.
Dropped a sure fire top two pick, to the bottom of the lotto.
Anywhere else, he would've gained 20-45 pounds and turned into Tim Duncan in his first year of college ball after not playing the previous year.
I know there would have still been some sour grapes with the Duke choice, but I really don't think that's the problem most people have. It was the games he played - and you can't tell me, being a member of the generation he is, that Bolden didn't know what he was doing on social media. Add in some of the other stories (mostly the one where he was allegedly told not to announce until it was too late for Cal to get another player), it is no wonder the BBN is irritated.
I always thought he'd be going to Duke- no sources or other inside info, just a feeling. It was the other stuff that he pulled that left me annoyed.
Oh yeah Skal sure had it rough huh? Cal Allowed him to play minutes all year without ever having to earn them. EJ would've put up the same numbers given those same amount of minutes. Heck, I might've. Now Skal heading to the lottery to become a millionaire. Poor Skal, how dare Cal.
Not to take anything away from good recruiting, but the actual "winning" happens on the court, not on social media and high school gym announcement feeds.
Last time I checked, we handed Duke their *** last time they stepped on the same court as us. That's winning.
To me, that doesn't make sense. Let's assume Bolden considered development and success of previous bigs at Duke and Kentucky. Karl Towns and Anthony Davis were taken 1st overall in their NBA drafts. DeMarcus Cousins, Nerlens Noel, and WCS were lottery picks. Josh Harrelson vastly overachieved, and directly credits Calipari. Then there is Marcus Camby. So if he considered the success of other bigs coached by Calipari, that probably would have favored Kentucky although Duke has also had many good players. I could give you a list of highly rated players who have struggled at Duke, but that's beside the point. Both programs recruit highly rated players, and most thrive at both schools. I have great respect for Krzyzewski, but Calipari and Payne are the best in the business at developing bigs based on the record. I rate either Krzyzewski or Calipari favorably compared to Bill Self, Mark Few, Sean Miller, Rick Pitino. Everyone knows Skal Labissiere is an unusual case. In high school, Labissiere missed his junior season because of an injury, then missed his senior season after being declared ineligible. Labissiere's only action as a high school senior was in AAU, where no defense is typically played. Labissiere is physically weak, immature, and needs another year of development. It was Labissiere's decision, not Calipari's, to come out for the draft this year. Calipari may get a bad wrap on how he handled Labissiere from people who don't know better, and he will accept it to protect his player because that's how he is. But anyone who has watched Harrelson, Cousins, Davis, Towns, WCS will know better. I suspect Bolden knows better, but his opportunity to receive playing time at Duke is far better than his opportunity to receive playing time would have been at Kentucky. So there's that.
Is it not plausible that he liked Duke?
I know some of you want to think Kentucky is the only big time program
But Duke is a major basketball program, with tons of crazy fans, and they're always in the spotlight there as well.
I'd take issue with saying Duke has tons of crazy fans. 3rd most in their own state, and some bandwagon buccaneers that "claim" Duke. The rest are just foreign exchange students.
To be fair, they have the second most fans in the state, although they are pretty close with NC State.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2015/PPP_Release_NC_40615.pdf
They have 21% of fans in NC. To compare that, Kentucky has 66% of fans in KY.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2015/PPP_Release_KY_62915.pdf
At first, you'd think UK has a crazy amount more fans from their home state than does Duke. But the population of NC is roughly 10.09 million compared to Kentucky with roughly 4.43 million.
10.09 * 21% = 2,118,900 Duke fans in NC.
4.43 * 66% = 2,923,800 UK fans in KY.
Yes, UK does have roughly 800,000 more in-state fans than Duke, but it's much closer than you'd think given the percentages. Also, given that Duke, as well as UK, both have sizable national followings and I'd say that Duke does in fact have a ton of fans.
buckshit.
66% of Jefferson county is probably UK fans. Don't believe anything you see claiming Louisville nearly has 4 out of ten IN STATE fan support. It's total crap.
Duke has drawn it close, but UNC is still above them in fan support in state. Duke has a smaller fan base if you don't count the douchebag 16 year old that hopped on.
But if you didn't include douchebags Duke wouldn't have a fan base.
Just as an FYI, the poll says that Louisville has 19% of the fans in Kentucky, which seems somewhat correct.
My point, that is missed by so many, was that Cal was playing him out of position. But he did admit he ruined Skal.
I think Cal meant his confidence at UK...I don't think he meant that he "ruined him" as a ball player.
and everyone knows, he was trying to help Skal, the same way he helped KAT...developing more of an inside game. Skal nor Cal were up to the task.
NOT a big deal.
He would not have done any better, anywhere else.
Skal's problems were not the way he was 'handled' by Cal.
His problems were that he couldn't 'handle' a rebound.
He also couldn't play inside of 6 feet, or shoot a free throw. He was given every chance on the big stage for 9 months, and failed miserably all on his own. I cannot image why he didn't go to Europe immediately, and begin making money for his family right away. He had no business in the NCAA system.
I missed the news when Cal said 'I RUINED SKAL'. Figured the big news outlets would have jumped on that. My apologies.