It's a fool's errand to place blame for a season of underachievement on one player or a handful of players. So, I won't do that, but I'll just observe this could have been another Final Four team -- our fifth in six years (?) -- if Dakari Johnson had made the sensible decision last year to return. I wonder if he ever ponders that on those long bus rides...
Dakari
- Thread starter CatBlue in LR
- Start date
dakari's draft stock did nothing but go down and it would have continued to go down this year
I doubt that very seriously. He would have been featured in a way he never could be on last year's team. I'm not saying he had every tool in the drawer, but the ones he had could have been polished this year at UK in a way that would make him much more attractive for the next level.
For the love of pete......PLEASE STOP WITH THE " IF (INSERT NAME) HAD OF ONLY CAME BACK " TALK !!!!! PLEASE
what does being featured have to do with draft stock? nigel hayes was featured at wisky, kid is a JR, 2nd rounder at best. same with wayne seldon.
you either have the tools for the nba or you dont. and if you dont...you better work on it 24/7 to develop something that an nba team wants. cant do that in college
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anon_013cn8yrfncx2
Guest
It's not about Dakari. Whatever he did, there is NO EXCUSE for UK not even having a serviceable 5 on the roster .. at least one thought serviceable. It's on Cal, not Dakari.
i bet the "no excuse" folks have perfect lives where everything is perfect, 100%, all the time.
Ah, but you can! This is considered the year of the senior. The national POY will likely be a senior. Either one of the top two contenders for that award is twice the player he was his freshman year. Both developed skills while in college.
But my main point is not about Dakari's improvement, it's about what he would have given this year's team even if he were exactly the player he was last year. Anybody who can't see how he would have impacted this year's UK team (cough, all-caps Tru55), is blind (no offense to the sight impaired).
he was far worse last year then in his freshman year. as someone else said he did not want to be here. so I highly doubt he would have put the work in to become a next level big man, which is why he is in the d-league right now. but by this logic do you think the twins draft stock went up by staying past their freshman year? (most people agree that they hurt themselves by coming back after the tourney run their freshman year)
file this with "Ulis is a role player"...purely contrived contrarian pov.
its considered the year of the senior because college basketball sucks this year.
i dont see what dakari could have given uk this year would have benefited him and his draft stock. sure uk would have likely been way more successful...but it likely would have had zero impact on his draft position. late late first rounder at best. is anyone going to take dakari over poeltl, ellenson, skal, jones, rabb, stone? nope
wut? He did not have a good soph year but he had worked to lose weight. SMH at people calling 19-20 yo bigs a finished product.
Yeah, world class training in Bakerfield, Ft. Wayne, Idaho, etc...
kid had a great season in a terrible year of basketball. but elite guards got the better of him time and time again. its a crappy draft, he may break into the first rd. no chance at a first round next season.
kay: Dig in. You had many other terrible quotes about him. Pls list the "time and time again" guards that got the best of him. opcorn:hindsight is always 20/20...but i also wonder about DJ and Aaron coming back...
Ulis
Murray
Harrison
AP
DJ
...DJ would have been a legit front court/post threat...his presence would have taken a lot of attention and pressure of AP and Skal...not being able to got down low and get some easy buckets would have really opened things up for Jamal, Tyler, and Derek as well...DJ had sure hands and would have helped out on the boards as well...
Aaron would have provided another scorer and clutch shot maker...
I honestly think both Aaron and DJ got some bad information and let some people influence them...both could have helped themselves and improved draft potential by coming back...
Ulis
Murray
Harrison
AP
DJ
...DJ would have been a legit front court/post threat...his presence would have taken a lot of attention and pressure of AP and Skal...not being able to got down low and get some easy buckets would have really opened things up for Jamal, Tyler, and Derek as well...DJ had sure hands and would have helped out on the boards as well...
Aaron would have provided another scorer and clutch shot maker...
I honestly think both Aaron and DJ got some bad information and let some people influence them...both could have helped themselves and improved draft potential by coming back...
Most of these high rated recruits come here to get drafted asap, they don't really care about coming back just to make UK a champ.
I will say this in every one of these threads. I am sure boston and others were miserable in 2010 (Patterson), 2012 (Jones), and 2015 (WCS), watching those teams keyed by those returnees who were so stupid to come back (and have stated they were glad they did). Oh, the humanity.
Even if Dakari didn't improve one bit he would have gotten drafted higher just because last year there was an abundance of big men and this years draft is one of the weakest of all time . IMO.
yes he lost weight but had a terrible year, if he had stayed I don't think he would have become any better. I never said he would have been finished at the end of last year but he had a worse season then he did his first, thus his draft stock went down, in reference to what I was talking about, draft stock, he would not have put the work in to be any more desirable to the NBA than he was coming right out of high school. again DRAFT STOCK....let me say it again DRAFT STOCK.. SMH at people not understanding the NBA drafts on potential not finished product (something I never talked about)..just sayin
Well it is a message board for people to talk about things , including scenarios . If you can't handle don't read it .
What stupid take. Yep, Brice Johnson and Denzel Valentine were as good as freshmen as they are now. GTFOH.
I never heard of Buddy Heil his freshman and sophomore year .
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anon_013cn8yrfncx2
Guest
No we don't. But we live in a world where you are accountable. Every year I was in the work force I had an annual review and there were certain minimum goals I was expected to meet.
Having a serviceable 5 is not a TOP performance requirement or perfection as you term it, but more like a minimum requirement expected to be met EVERY year.
Yeah, it's not PC to Cal (as though he would be bothered by a fan's comment.)
How can you look at his NBDL stats and say that? In a down year in cbb at that. And it's not like he is making a couple hundred grand.
You would have been extremely disappointed if you expected him to come back and have that kind of impact.
Where lives are changed!!!!! Who doesn't get better playing in Idaho in front of few hundred fans making a few hundred a game?
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anon_013cn8yrfncx2
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Sure, we might think too highly of Willis too. Could probably make money in Israel or China, He should leave now.
Generally when the highly rated guys start dropping, they keep dropping. The guys people keep listing weren't big names coming into college.
Expecting him to come back and be the difference maker people seem to think he would be is unrealistic. If Dakari had come back these same people would be saying how he should come back for his senior year because I don't think you can reasonably say he's significantly better than anybody who is currently on the team.
Expecting him to come back and be the difference maker people seem to think he would be is unrealistic. If Dakari had come back these same people would be saying how he should come back for his senior year because I don't think you can reasonably say he's significantly better than anybody who is currently on the team.
because he is "chasing his dream now" vs playing at UK another yea. he looked at coming back to UK as helping them not UK helping him, that is a big difference in attitude. I mean the dude decided not to sign with the team that drafted him, for go a contract in the hopes of playing in the d-leauge for one year to get a better deal. I'm sorry he didn't want to be here anymore, and with the attitude of I would rather play in the d-leauge vs playing in college one more year does not scream he would have put in the he is putting in now.
so you pick 1 or 2 guys out of literally hundreds? brice johnson by the way....probably a 2nd round pick which is the point of all this. valentine...late lottery, mostly because the draft sucks.
i wish fans would just come out and tell the truth. you want guys like dakari back because it gives uk a better chance to win. most dont care if they get better and improve their stock. but these kids dont see it the way you do. and neither does cal.
again....dakari didnt want to be here. lets start with that.
I think it's too early to say whether he made a mistake or not.
I'm just saying seeing him play here two years just makes me doubt he could shed his obvious limitations in one offseason. I'd take him back just to have had an extra body, but he wasn't the difference between what we were and a one seed.
Nope, two (actually three) different cases. That's a red herring assuming I would say the same thing about Aaron or Andrew that I do about Dakari. What does one have to do with the other two?