I have a question if you care to give your opinion.....do you see any possible way out of this mess? I only see two options.
1) Dominate recruiting again. Get the best of the best every year. Guys that actually are worthy of one and done. Guys like Wall, Boogie, KAT, AD, Murray and many more. I can't see this happening since Cal has not gotten these guys in a while, but more importantly, they aren't going to be available now as the cream of the crop will all go to the G league.
2) Change the one and done style of recruiting. I honestly think Cal would change this if he could. Every guy that comes in now either heads to the NBA after a year (whether ready or not) or feels they have to transfer as they are going to get recruited over. I'm not sure how we keep people like Johnny Juzang going forward. I think kids with NBA aspirations are afraid they are viewed as a failure if they can't do it in a year at UK. The multi year guys either don't come or they leave.
I'd love to see something change but I just don't know how you can change recruits'/players' line of thinking with Cal at UK. I'm not sure this is fixable with the current landscape in college basketball.
Great post bowfreak.
There is a way out of this mess. The short term fix for this particular team begins with retaining several of these players and working with them this offseason to prepare to be a better team in 2021-22. I believe we will see a good number of these players return. Losing Boston and Clarke may not be such a bad thing.
Retain players... There is no question in my mind, the guys this team needed were
Johnny Juzang, Jermarl Baker, Ashton Hagans, and EJ Montgomery. It wasn't so much the guys who left with legitimate NBA offers awaiting. It was the guys who left to transfer or with no real NBA prospects. If Cal could keep those guys, the full roster turnover wouldn't keep happening. Now, I don't know what is being said behind closed doors- if Cal is pushing these guys out the door or if the mind-set of returning to UK for another season is seen as a failure- or if they are being recruited over and just want out. Whatever is happening needs to change.
New philosophy: it is better to return players who may not have had a great season (known commodities) than to take a bunch of new guys and transfers of similar talent who will be starting from scratch at this school, with this staff, and playing with each other. A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush.
I think that as a long term philosophy would completely change the direction of the program. It might mean we miss out on some freshmen recruits, but
the wholesale rebuild every year just can't keep happening. I really do think that would fix the whole thing.
He can still go out and try to recruit the best players every season, even guys who could potentially leave after a year, but he's got to keep the other guys around to have some continuity and some experience entering the next season.
And by the way, I think Calipari sees this- he just mentioned that the game is changing and recruiting is changing in his final Monday call-in show. I hope we see changes.
And listen folks, I get irritated at many of you, but I understand the frustration. I've been very frustrated this season. I fume when I see Juzang winning the game for UCLA when I know he should still be at UK. That's the guy we needed on the wing at small forward. And I also know that, though Calipari isn't going anywhere right now, if something doesn't change, his time is coming. I don't think he wants to go out that way, so I fully expect he's working his butt off to fix this thing right now.