It all comes down to recruiting

[Anon1736655161]

If you don’t get those elite players that make your system work and win, then you have to adjust your system to fit what you have. CCC is still running plays that don’t fit his team skill set.

 

[Kyben23]

Anthony Davis isn't walking through the door. It took a generational talent plus a very good supporting cast for Cal to win a title.

 

[Crawfords Corner]

Cal has become a MLB pitcher who can only throw the 1. His 1 isn't an Aroldis Chapman fastball though. It's an average fastball that MLB'ers smack around the park because it's easy to adjust to. Even Chapman new MLB'ers could adjust to his fastball so he developed a slider. Cal, where's your slider, Bro?

Greg Maddux, otoh, he only had that fastball, but he kept hitters uneven. In, out, up, down by changing the speed and location of it. Cal's crap is right down the middle. Nobody is off-balance.

 

[kybassfan]

If Ty leaves for the draft then I'm calling him a bust as well.

You are always wrong do Ty won’t be a bust.

 

[dc513]

Cal has not been successful post 2015 due to Justus and Barbee and their recruiting. Mike Pratt said this and it makes sense


Wynard-Bust
Gabriel Jr-Bust
Skal-Bust
SKJ-Bust
Green-Bust
Askew-Bust
Boston-Bust

There have been so many players at UK the past 5 years that just aren't up to UK standards. Think of Cal's early teams. Or the 2017 team. We need these composite top 5 guys to win. Mintz, Toppin, and Keion Brooks starting are not going to get us to the final four. Saint peter's guards abused us. Mintz, Wheeler, Grady just aren't good enough. We need Ulis, Murray, Fox, Monk, Wall, Knight, Lamb. Not Askew, BJ, Green, Grady, Mintz. Cal needs to go out and get some talent this summer. While guys like Wheeler, Toppin, Brooks etc are good depth pieces they are not starting material. Sharpe, Wallace and Livingston are a step in the right direction.

I think in tournaments most comes down to coaching.

 

[Crawfords Corner]

I think in tournaments most comes down to coaching.

Coaching and execution.

 

[billCgmx]

Watching a replay of the UNC/UCLA game and I have to ask...

Did Cal even consider going after Brady Manek when he transferred out of Oklahoma? Would have been to nice to pair him up with Oscar as a stretch four.

 

[Yardeth]

Cal needs the talent to get his offense to work. He needs 6 foot 5 guards to drive to the hole and springy centers to block shots.

I didn’t particularly like the Harrison’s but they could get in the lane all the time. They could take contact and still score.

 

[sluggercatfan]

Cal has not been successful post 2015 due to Justus and Barbee and their recruiting. Mike Pratt said this and it makes sense


Wynard-Bust
Gabriel Jr-Bust
Skal-Bust
SKJ-Bust
Green-Bust
Askew-Bust
Boston-Bust

There have been so many players at UK the past 5 years that just aren't up to UK standards. Think of Cal's early teams. Or the 2017 team. We need these composite top 5 guys to win. Mintz, Toppin, and Keion Brooks starting are not going to get us to the final four. Saint peter's guards abused us. Mintz, Wheeler, Grady just aren't good enough. We need Ulis, Murray, Fox, Monk, Wall, Knight, Lamb. Not Askew, BJ, Green, Grady, Mintz. Cal needs to go out and get some talent this summer. While guys like Wheeler, Toppin, Brooks etc are good depth pieces they are not starting material. Sharpe, Wallace and Livingston are a step in the right direction.

How many of these guys does St. Peters have? Cal proves beyond a shadow of a doubt it's more than recruiting

 

[Spica Orbit]

How many of these guys does St. Peters have? Cal proves beyond a shadow of a doubt it's more than recruiting

---
Maybe Saint Peters proves it's more than recruiting.

 

[UKat51]

Cal has not been successful post 2015 due to Justus and Barbee and their recruiting. Mike Pratt said this and it makes sense


Wynard-Bust
Gabriel Jr-Bust
Skal-Bust
SKJ-Bust
Green-Bust
Askew-Bust
Boston-Bust

There have been so many players at UK the past 5 years that just aren't up to UK standards. Think of Cal's early teams. Or the 2017 team. We need these composite top 5 guys to win. Mintz, Toppin, and Keion Brooks starting are not going to get us to the final four. Saint peter's guards abused us. Mintz, Wheeler, Grady just aren't good enough. We need Ulis, Murray, Fox, Monk, Wall, Knight, Lamb. Not Askew, BJ, Green, Grady, Mintz. Cal needs to go out and get some talent this summer. While guys like Wheeler, Toppin, Brooks etc are good depth pieces they are not starting material. Sharpe, Wallace and Livingston are a step in the right direction.

I actually think our recruiting will improve now that zjustice and Barbee are gone. The addition of Antigua and Chin have already seen improvement in recruiting.
#1 Sharpe
#
#9Livingston

really good start to better recruiting. All will be ok. Still have to evolve roster through attrition graduation or transfer

When Cal first came to Kentucky, he practically eliminated Tubby’s and Gillespie’s players to bring in his own. Antingua was on the new staff. He was brought back because he is a very good recruiter. Had good classes at Illinois. They were crap until Antigua got there. We will be back

 

[FinalF]

Cant Coach Cal really only needs one thing to turn into "can kinda coach cal"
And that is...... are you ready for it?

SHOT BLOCKING.
Thats it. The only reason we're losing. The only reason the last few years have been off. Lack of dominant shot-blocking. A defense built around shot-blocking.
Give can kinda coach Cal couple shot blockers and I'll give you a national championship.

100% fun fact: the 2012 team holds the record for the most blocks in a season in the history of the sport.
The 2022 team holds the record for the least amount of blocks for Calipari the entire time at the coach at Kentucky.


I wonder what cant coach cal is going to change in the offseason? Shot-blocking if he can get Brazil (2 blocks a game) from LSU. that's his first shot blocker. Then he'll need one more and he'll be ready. I know how he operates and I know exactly what he's going to do. BRING BACK SHOT BLOCKING

I think he believed Collins would do that for us this year but Collins just wasn’t ready hopefully he packs on some muscle and we’ll see what he does next year.

 

[megablue]

He can’t recruit the elite high school kids- losing time and time again to Duke. The portal is not going to offset.

Losing kids to Duke is nothing new to Kentucky. It goes all the way back to Pitino and probably further. When we run head-to-head with Duke, they always seem to choose Duke. It has been that way for decades.

Jeff Mullins played for Lafayette HS and chose Duke. Vince Taylor played for Tates Creek and his Dad was a UK professor … and he went to Duke. Both were stars.

Thankfully, there are enough players to go around …

 

[JC CATS]

Well its obvious he is not changing. So if hes going to run his plowhorse basketball at least get the talent that can make it work.

Wait! I'm as pissed as anybody about the flameout against St Peters. I have advocated hiring an offensive Coach, but plowhorse? You realize UK was the 14th leading scoring team in the country?

 

[o_turkeywildturkey]

No question. The better players Cal has, the better he coaches. There must be a correlation there.

 

[blackcat714]

CCC needs to retire he is outdated and lazy

Could just be getting old and senile one can tell by the way he talks and acts .

 

[DreadLox]

Cal has not been successful post 2015 due to Justus and Barbee and their recruiting. Mike Pratt said this and it makes sense

A million years ago (or so), I had my single conversation with Katherine Hall. (Joe B's wife) It was in the spring and I had commented on the list of prize recruits that her husband had signed. She said that a certain % of the recruits just never pan out. That was 40 years ago and the art of predicting human physical development hasn't improved much. Some people are as good at 17 as they're going to get. Some people lose interest. Some never had it. Some get distracted. Some people keep growing and become awkward. Some thrive under pressure. Some buckle. When you're a coach you make guesses, but being a coach doesn't give you omniscience.

 

[Neue Regel]

Watching a replay of the UNC/UCLA game and I have to ask...

Did Cal even consider going after Brady Manek when he transferred out of Oklahoma? Would have been to nice to pair him up with Oscar as a stretch four.

I don’t know the answer to your question but that was one hell of a pickup in Manek. Good grief is he a tough cover. He has such a quick release and is such a good shooter he’s just lethal at the 3 point line. Combine that shooting touch with that height, sheesh. He’s been terrific for them all year.

 

[crxohio]

Watching a replay of the UNC/UCLA game and I have to ask...

Did Cal even consider going after Brady Manek when he transferred out of Oklahoma? Would have been to nice to pair him up with Oscar as a stretch four.

Cj probably would neutralize that need tho. Always something, and it has gotten old

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

Cal needs the talent to get his offense to work. He needs 6 foot 5 guards to drive to the hole and springy centers to block shots.

It would be nice if he mixed the dominate defensive/rebounding/shot blocking/talent with the upper class shooters he had this year.

 

[NoDef]

The problem with Cal having to continually pilfer the portal is the number of players he has to rely on, not the quality. Yes, it sure looked like it might work in January but as Cal went to the half-court style in late February, it became pretty obvious why some of the transfers were playing at lesser programs the year before. Players like Grady and Toppin couldn't create in the half-court, the entire team struggled all year defensively against better competition, even Oscar. You also saw some of these guy buttholes tighten up in the tournament bc they weren't ready for the spotlight. Cal needs elite talent and the elite talent isn't in the portal from the way of Davidson and Arkansas State.

Here lies the conudrom. Cal has lost his recruiting fastball when it comes to getting multiple Top 10 players so he tried the portal but that didn't work out in the end when it comes to results. So what do you do and where do you go if you're Cal.

Even with those great guards, they couldn't guard like Cal wanted them to for us to win. We couldn't stay in front of Uconns guards that led to losing two times to them and couldn't stay in front of Auburns small guard and beat them. We had an elite shot blocker in 2012 to cover up Cals insistence that we pressure the ball even if we are not capable of staying between our man and the goal..