"This season was undoubtedly a success"

[CatsnRoses]

11 losses, 4th in the SEC and a Sweet Sixteen exit to one of the worst at-large teams in the field isn't a success in my book. I take pride in having high expectations for Kentucky basketball and I've always loved how our fanbase demands excellence and won't settle for anything less. With that said, would be great if the official Kentucky basketball Twitter account would realize this and stop trying to frame this underwhelming season as some sort of success story.

/endrant

 

[WCSPlayedWRInHS]

Yeah why be positive when you can be negative?

 

[CatfanMike47]

I bleed blue threw in threw! But, logic will tell you this team was a couple levels below Cal teams to start off! Youngest team ever! Started off the season two players injured one of those projected a first round pic in Vanderbilt. Then your starting PG gets injured.

You finish the season 4th in the SEC and then go into the tournament and no only win it but in the way they did! I’d say did good with a sweet 16 finish. Could’ve been the NIT

 

[CatsnRoses]

Yeah why be positive when you can be negative?

Spoken like a true sunshine pumper.

It's not about being positive or negative. It's about being realistic about what the expectations are here. Sorry if that offends you.

 

[WCSPlayedWRInHS]

Spoken like a true sunshine pumper.

It's not about being positive or negative. It's about being realistic about what the expectations are here. Sorry if that offends you.

so be realistic with expectations then. Practice what you preach. We had 2 season long injuries on the youngest team ever assembled. We still were right there in the thick of things at the end. That’s freakin crazy. Sorry your life is so miserable that you can’t enjoy what we watched this season.

 

[CatsnRoses]

so be realistic with expectations then. Practice what you preach. We had 2 season long injuries on the youngest team ever assembled. We still were right there in the thick of things at the end. That’s freakin crazy. Sorry your life is so miserable that you can’t enjoy what we watched this season.

Right there in the thick of things? We lost to one of the worst at-large teams in the field. We beat Davidson and Buffalo to get there. You've lost the plot, man. Time to adjust your expectations, this isn't Ole Miss or Missouri, we don't celebrate Sweet Sixteen appearances here on the heels of a very disappointing regular season.

 

[Xception]

I disagree and it’s rare that I take the pessimistic view. It would have been a success if not for our bracket crumbling in the most opportunistic way possible and we didn’t even come close to capitalizing on it. Since the regular season was poor by our standards and the sec tournament was a resounding success, that leaves us with the tournament result as the tie breaker.

I wouldn’t call it a poor season but the sec tournament is the only thing keeping it from that. I certainly wouldn’t call it a success either, it’s somewhere in between. I’m not hearing none of that s16 bs either, that was true under normal tournament conditions.

 

[CatsnRoses]

Anyone else enjoy what they watched this season like @WCSPlayedWRInHS? Would love to see how many people can actually claim that with a straight face.

 

[WCSPlayedWRInHS]

Right there in the thick of things? We lost to one of the worst at-large teams in the field. We beat Davidson and Buffalo to get there. You've lost the plot, man. Time to adjust your expectations, this isn't Ole Miss or Missouri, we don't celebrate Sweet Sixteen appearances here on the heels of a very disappointing regular season.

it was a fluke loss. It happens. No we won’t be talking about this season for years to come, but given what we had coming back and what we brought in and the injuries we had, this season was a success. I just refuse to sit around and be miserable every time we miss the final four.

 

[CatsnRoses]

it was a fluke loss. It happens. No we won’t be talking about this season for years to come, but given what we had coming back and what we brought in and the injuries we had, this season was a success. I just refuse to sit around and be miserable every time we miss the final four.

Big difference between "sitting around and being miserable" and taking issue with the framing of a 11-loss season in which we nearly finished .500 in the SEC and lost to a horrific team in the NCAAT as a success story.

 

[WCSPlayedWRInHS]

Big difference between "sitting around and being miserable" and taking issue with the framing of a 11-loss season in which we nearly finished .500 in the SEC and lost to a horrific team in the NCAAT as a success story.

but it was a success. No it isn’t a success by our normal standards but sometimes you have to adjust expectations. This was never our year and yet, if not for an injured pinky were probably in the final four right now.

 

[CatfanMike47]

I can’t say I’m not disappointed how we went out. Especially considering how we were playing! But the odds were against us from the start of the season we could’ve been in the Nit like others we know

 

[Bkocats]

It wasn’t the best, it wasn’t the worst; but it’s over
I will say if the bulk of the team returns to go along with the incoming fresh, then it’s worth it as a building year

 

[CatfanMike47]

It wasn’t the best, it wasn’t the worst; but it’s over
I will say if the bulk of the team returns to go along with the incoming fresh, then it’s worth it as a building year

I say we loose two and gain two on top of what we signed

 

[WCSPlayedWRInHS]

It wasn’t the best, it wasn’t the worst; but it’s over
I will say if the bulk of the team returns to go along with the incoming fresh, then it’s worth it as a building year

ill also agree with that last tidbit. If we have a mass exodus then this season wasn’t worth the struggles, but I feel like we’re gonna bring back quite a bit for once.

 

[antiduke_99]

Why do people feel they need to tell others how they should view our season? I don't get it. If you want to feel down about this season, go for it. If you feel good about this season, that's fine too! As Cal says, noone is stealing my joy. I am able to form opinions and not rely on what other people tell me I "should" feel about the season.

FWIW, I really enjoyed seeing the turnaround of this team. We went from "is this an NIT team?" to "Holy ****, we could win the whole damn thing." Can you think of another season that has had a feeling like that? And that with a significant piece sidelined with an injury. Obviously wish we could have gone another round or two, but that is the nature of a one and out tournament. Oh, how I wish it was a 3 game series.. but alas, it is not.

 

[billoliver40]

If it were not the OAD era, we would be happier with an SEC tourney title and a sweet sixteen run, because we would be thinking of the next couple of years development.
As it is, we are spending lots of posting time speculating on who will be here next season.
I imagine Duke fans are wondering the same thing.

Just basketball today.

 

[Bkocats]

ill also agree with that last tidbit. If we have a mass exodus then this season wasn’t worth the struggles, but I feel like we’re gonna bring back quite a bit for once.

I am hopeful too
And we’ll have some experience next year which will be nice

 

[CatfanMike47]

If we get 4 back along with Baker better than we started and Cal will add Five more in. I think Cal knows who is leaving. He said he wanted to add two more

 

[Kats23]

I wouldn’t call it undoubtedly a successful season. It was a season. This was a very misconstructed team with a couple guys that didn’t live up to the hype and couple of injures.

 

[UKWildcatT]

I’d say an extremely average season

 

[Looksbetterinblue]

It wasn’t the best, it wasn’t the worst; but it’s over
I will say if the bulk of the team returns to go along with the incoming fresh, then it’s worth it as a building year

This!! It happens. Could have gone better or worse, but it’s behind us.

 

[$Z71$]

Spoken like a true sunshine pumper.

It's not about being positive or negative. It's about being realistic about what the expectations are here. Sorry if that offends you.

To put it in perspective we won 71% of our games this season. Overall program histories 71% would put you in 4th just above Dukes all time winning percentage and only behind Kansas 72% UNCheat 74% and UKs 76%. So you can’t possibly think 71% winning percentage with lots of injuries and a sweet 16 appearance was a failure of a season. We did well with the hand we were dealt this season. To think otherwise is plain unrealistic expectations.

 

[UK90]

Guess it depends on your perspective.

I've noticed some of the same fans who acted like it was an abomination when Tubby had a 10 loss season now seem far less bothered by an 11 loss season that ends with us eliminated by a crappy 9 seed without its best player.

Go figure.

 

[kyboy1998_rivals34276]

it was a fluke loss. It happens. No we won’t be talking about this season for years to come, but given what we had coming back and what we brought in and the injuries we had, this season was a success. I just refuse to sit around and be miserable every time we miss the final four.

I'll remember the season for ending the three point streak. Still pisses me off.

 

[ImUTGagain]

Spoken like a true sunshine pumper.

It's not about being positive or negative. It's about being realistic about what the expectations are here. Sorry if that offends you.

Spoken like a true idiot

 

[CatsnRoses]

Guess it depends on your perspective.

I've noticed some of the same fans who acted like it was an abomination when Tubby had a 10 loss season now seem far less bothered by an 11 loss season that ends with us eliminated by a crappy 9 seed without its best player.

Go figure.

Yep. Tubby used to get killed for seasons just like this.

 

[GonzoCat90]

Guess it depends on your perspective.

I've noticed some of the same fans who acted like it was an abomination when Tubby had a 10 loss season now seem far less bothered by an 11 loss season that ends with us eliminated by a crappy 9 seed without its best player.

Go figure.

Because there's reason for optimism. We aren't stuck with the same guys, or worse, for the next four years.

 

[CatsnRoses]

To put it in perspective we won 71% of our games this season. Overall program histories 71% would put you in 4th just above Dukes all time winning percentage and only behind Kansas 72% UNCheat 74% and UKs 76%. So you can’t possibly think 71% winning percentage with lots of injuries and a sweet 16 appearance was a failure of a season. We did well with the hand we were dealt this season. To think otherwise is plain unrealistic expectations.

This is really silly. You're breaking our season down by winning percentage? Just stripping it of all context whatsoever? C'mon. You can't seriously think that's a legitimate argument.

 

[CatsnRoses]

I’d say an extremely average season

That's fair. I used the word underwhelming, which I stand by. But I also think "average" is a reasonable way to describe it.

"Undoubtedly a successful season," though? To me, that's not a reasonable take.

 

[JC43]

Is the 3pt streak really important? I mean I'd rather the win than the meaningless streak alive

 

[WCSPlayedWRInHS]

Yep. Tubby used to get killed for seasons just like this.

no he didn’t. Tubby got killed for having mediocre seasons from start to finish. Cal assembles essentially a new team every season, sometimes the talent is so overwhelming that we take very few lumps. Sometimes it takes until late January or early February to gel. Tubby didn’t take 10 losses but also have us playing well enough to contend like Cal consistently does.

 

[Rideordiewildcat]

At the end of the day I believe we would have been happy with it had we lost to a different team. We did lose to a team we shouldn't have, but we were there until the very end. In a year when we saw top seeds blown out by 20+ by weaker opponents. With all the craziness in the South a lot of people starting booking rooms for the final four. The south ended like it began and we were just another causality. It was that kind of year. I think we all knew it would be very hard for this team to put together 6 straight in the tourney. At least we won another title n the SEC when it was wide open this year.

When you take into account the youth combined with 2 major injuries (Baker who was brought in to shoot 3s and JV who led us in rebounding) it wasn't too bad a year, just not what it could and probably should have been. I too want natty's every year, but with us out at least Dook and UNCheat can't add one. Hopefully neither will KU. I hope we are never this young again. We need guys like Willis and Dom. Hump would have been nice. I'm really hoping this was just the beginning of something great and we return all, but 2 or 3. It wasn't what we demand, but maybe better than we expected this year the way it was heading and it could have gone a lot worse.

 

[Wildcats1st]

I wouldn’t call it a success. We were top 5 preseason and had a bracket that parted like the Red Sea. We lost that tournament game to the worst team we lost to all season and made baffling errors in doing so. It was one of the strangest losses I’ve seen from a UK team based on the trajectory they were on up until that point.

I will say this too though. These guys as young as they were coulda packed it in on that 4 game losing streak. Instead they fought and finished the best team in the SEC in winning the sECT and advancing the farthest in the big dance of any sec team expect TAMu. It depends on at what point you begin to evaluate the team and if Vanderbilt is there all year maybe they lived up to the top 5 hype. Also if pj wenyen Vanderbilt quade etc return then you could view it as a giant success. If we are building a team with some continuity that changes the discussion entirely and we won’t know for a few weeks. If it’s a team with only shai and diallo going then it will have been off the charts success.

 

[anon_013cn8yrfncx2]

Two comments based on what I've read in this thread.

First, this team was never in danger of missing the tourney and settling for the NIT. That was and is an absurd take.

Second, it didn't end with a fluke loss. It was a fluke that UK got to the point of being the favorite in the region after two rounds; a fluke they couldn't take advantage of.

My take is you can look at any way you want. Most rational fans knew from day 1 this team was in no way a threat to win it all. To me it's always a disappointment to start the year when you absolutely know that's the case.
Hopefully the Cats will have a better prognosis next November.

 

[Wildcats1st]

no he didn’t. Tubby got killed for having mediocre seasons from start to finish. Cal assembles essentially a new team every season, sometimes the talent is so overwhelming that we take very few lumps. Sometimes it takes until late January or early February to gel. Tubby didn’t take 10 losses but also have us playing well enough to contend like Cal consistently does.

In all reality this was a typical tubby season based on w/L and tournament success. This team didn’t achieve any huge feat and the poster is right. Tubby was raked over the coals bc this was the norm for him. It’s not the norm for cal though so it has to be looked at in the entire context of what has been achieved as the head coach. If we return big numbers then cal will have a roster with as much talent as perhaps tubby had with his top 10 guys through out his tenure. That means elevated expectations

 

[Rideordiewildcat]

I wouldn’t call it a success. We were top 5 preseason and had a bracket that parted like the Red Sea. We lost that tournament game to the worst team we lost to all season and made baffling errors in doing so. It was one of the strangest losses I’ve seen from a UK team based on the trajectory they were on up until that point.

I will say this too though. These guys as young as they were coulda packed it in on that 4 game losing streak. Instead they fought and finished the best team in the SEC in winning the sECT and advancing the farthest in the big dance of any sec team expect TAMu. It depends on at what point you begin to evaluate the team and if Vanderbilt is there all year maybe they lived up to the top 5 hype. Also if pj wenyen Vanderbilt quade etc return then you could view it as a giant success. If we are building a team with some continuity that changes the discussion entirely and we won’t know for a few weeks. If it’s a team with only shai and diallo going then it will have been off the charts success.

K ST was not the worse team we lost too. Remember we lost to SC and UCLA. K ST wasn't a juggernaut, but they were by far not horrible. They played in a power 5 conference and beat some good teams. They beat TCU twice, OK ST twice, Creighton, OK, Texas twice, Baylor twice, went 3-0 against the SEC and lost @KU by 1. They weren't great and I still think we should have beat them, but they were far from the worst at large bid.

 

[WCSPlayedWRInHS]

In all reality this was a typical tubby season based on w/L and tournament success. This team didn’t achieve any huge feat and the poster is right. Tubby was raked over the coals bc this was the norm for him. It’s not the norm for cal though so it has to be looked at in the entire context of what has been achieved as the head coach. If we return big numbers then cal will have a roster with as much talent as perhaps tubby had with his top 10 guys through out his tenure. That means elevated expectations

i guess injuries and having the youngest team in history just aren’t enough to lower some of y’all expectations. We had the youngest team ever, combined with a season full of injuries(vandy and Baker all season, Quade spent time on the shelf and PJ played with an injured pinky for a while) and yet by the end of the year we were playing like a top 10 team and if PJ was able to overcome his pinky and sink a few more free throws, were probably talking about a final four birth right now. To me given everything this team dealt with, it was a success for me. Because they easily could’ve folded up and mailed it in at any time but they kept fighting and getting better. I enjoyed the transformation. Sorry you guys weren’t able to enjoy it, solely because we played a bad game and barely lost in the sweet 16.

 

[CatsnRoses]

i guess injuries and having the youngest team in history just aren’t enough to lower some of y’all expectations. We had the youngest team ever, combined with a season full of injuries(vandy and Baker all season, Quade spent time on the shelf and PJ played with an injured pinky for a while) and yet by the end of the year we were playing like a top 10 team and if PJ was able to overcome his pinky and sink a few more free throws, were probably talking about a final four birth right now. To me given everything this team dealt with, it was a success for me. Because they easily could’ve folded up and mailed it in at any time but they kept fighting and getting better. I enjoyed the transformation. Sorry you guys weren’t able to enjoy it, solely because we played a bad game and barely lost in the sweet 16.

You think that's the sole reason people consider this season a disappointment? Be honest- you don't process anything anyone says to you in reply. You just continue off on your own tangent about how we're all miserable because we haven't lowered our standards for UK basketball down to your bar of mediocrity.

 

[Xception]

Davidson
Buffalo
Kansas State
Loyola Chicago

If we were told at the beginning of the season that this was the path to the final four would it be considered a success to reach the s16? I don’t think a single person would