I loved it when Tyler Ulis signed with UK. Finally, I thot, a kid who's a baller who will stay all 4 years.
But no, had to run him off to make room for Fox, and who wouldn't want Fox. But was one year of Fox better than 2 more years of Ulis?
And don't give me the BS about getting to the NBA as soon as possible. Ulis's NBA career/money would have been the same no matter when he left.
The answer is to recruit basketball skills (not pro potential), especially shooting and quickness. Of course there will be some overlap but if you only recruit potential that's going to be realized post-UK you'll wind up exactly where the Cats are today. At home.
Regardless of where Ulis is today, he needed to and did strike when the iron was hot for him. He had an outstanding year and being that he had physical limitations, his draft stock was not likely to get any better. In fact, it was probably only likely to go down, not because of age, but because he might get less PT and might not have players as compatible to play with him (like Booker). I wouldn’t say that scared him off as much as it just didn’t make sense to return to school. He had a major issue holding him back from being an NBA player (height) and that wasn’t going to change from sophomore year to senior year and nothing he could show on the court was really going to change that.