Titles for Cal
- Thread starter treuxbleux
- Start date
If Cal won another Title and had 2 by now everyone would be happy. I think if you ask Kentucky fans we would take two in 15 years. So if he can get another one in the next 5 years he';s done a GREAT job.
Now his talent he had from 09-15 should have been another Championship and that should have came in 14/15 or 16/17 seasons
Now his talent he had from 09-15 should have been another Championship and that should have came in 14/15 or 16/17 seasons
A
anon_013cn8yrfncx2
Guest
I was young and I thought we would get 3. And honestly, we should have 3 at this point. We’ve had all the chances in the world. Just the fact that Cal could even live up to those incredibly lofty expectations is astounding. I applaude the man for the job he has done busting his *** for our program and our fans. He’ll get another before he leaves.
Cal had 4 teams which could have won it all in his first 6 years. One did. I sure would have liked that second. I’m beginning to think he’ll leave UK with only one, and Rupp will remain our only coach to win multiple titles. Cal dominated the OAD’s in the beginning, but times change and now everyone is recruiting them, even those who said he was ruining college basketball. Hypocrites all of them.
We should have 3, maybe 4 if you count losing to UConn with Knight, but the best team doesn't always win a one game tourney. A ball takes a weird bounce in, or the opponent hits a shot after the shot clock hits 0.....luck plays more to it then most will admit.
He's done well.
He's done well.
Good post. Personally I don’t think he’ll get another title but I hope I’m wrong. Other programs are recruiting head to head with him now and they’re getting more than their share of the players he used to get.
Good lord, now I know why we get labeled as entitled morons. Who in their right mind would heap that kind of expectations on any coach is crazy! I like reading and getting different takes from people on this board but some of you are in for a rude awakening sometime in the near future.
We can't use the Knight team because during that season we couldn't win a road game until the UT game. We all thought that team wasn't going to get past the Sweet 16 in mid Feb. Cal and his team did a hell of a run and won the SEC and got to the FF.
But we had it all IMO with Mock Fox and Bam team. The refs killed us in the UNC game. We won that game no bashing on Cal ever again. Because it meant UK/Cal back in a big way.
When Calipari arrived we had just gone through Gillespie, so I’d be surprised if the majority of the fan base expected multiple titles from a coach we didn’t anticipate would stay this long. I expect 1 title from every UK coach by default, or otherwise you’re a bust. But multiple? Can’t expect that from scratch.
Now after 2012? You bet fans, myself included, were expecting 1-2 more titles. Calipari is suffering from his own raised expectations at the moment. As others have said, if he’d gotten one other in 2014, 2015 or 2017, as he well could have, everyone would be pretty content.
But never completely content. We’re UK after all, a certain part of us wants to win 1 every other year until we pass UCLA.
Now after 2012? You bet fans, myself included, were expecting 1-2 more titles. Calipari is suffering from his own raised expectations at the moment. As others have said, if he’d gotten one other in 2014, 2015 or 2017, as he well could have, everyone would be pretty content.
But never completely content. We’re UK after all, a certain part of us wants to win 1 every other year until we pass UCLA.
In the last 10 years, four schools have won two titles each. Luck seems to be finding the same people over and over.
Here’s what I remember from cal day 1 or so
I want to catch UCLA in titles
I want to have an undefeated season
Those were his expectations for a marriage between him and UK not ours. We should have more than 1 and be knocking on the door of another by his standards maybe even three titles by cals standard.
Since then it’s been all about the nba. How many guys we have in the nba how many we put in each season. It hasn’t been about titles. This is what angers many fans. Cal is talking out of all sides of his mouth. “We eat first”, “im overrated recruiter” “we have the most guys in the nba” “i probably held some guys back” I mean the list goes on and on of inconsistencies in what he says one day then the next. That’s the nature of the OAD though. So much turn over leaves you to have to explain an awful lot and it’s all over the board
I want to catch UCLA in titles
I want to have an undefeated season
Those were his expectations for a marriage between him and UK not ours. We should have more than 1 and be knocking on the door of another by his standards maybe even three titles by cals standard.
Since then it’s been all about the nba. How many guys we have in the nba how many we put in each season. It hasn’t been about titles. This is what angers many fans. Cal is talking out of all sides of his mouth. “We eat first”, “im overrated recruiter” “we have the most guys in the nba” “i probably held some guys back” I mean the list goes on and on of inconsistencies in what he says one day then the next. That’s the nature of the OAD though. So much turn over leaves you to have to explain an awful lot and it’s all over the board
If he wraps up here with one more title and numerous more final fours, he will have had an amazing run here. If he just continues doing what he has done, it will be great. I will take a couple down years in recruiting and on the floor for a title.
I can’t be mad at him. He truly works harder than any head coach out there as far as recruiting. He runs the program better than any coach out there could and our kids are truly good kids. I don’t know that we can ask for much more as fans.
I can’t be mad at him. He truly works harder than any head coach out there as far as recruiting. He runs the program better than any coach out there could and our kids are truly good kids. I don’t know that we can ask for much more as fans.
Dean Smith was at UNC 36 years and won only 2 championships. That is how hard it is to do. And for most of those years you had to win your conference to go to the tournament which meant it was much easier to win because fewer good teams were in the tournament.
And yet, Jay Wright, Uconn and Coach K have 2 titles in Cal's tenure...And Cal has had more talent then those teams. Not to mention Duke stole our 2014-2015 title. Oh and Uconn stole BOTH of our other titles. Brandon Knight year in the final 4 and when we were the 8 seed when the Harrison twins were freshman. 2013-2014 year.
Technically Kentucky should've had 4 titles and we would have 11 now
Oh what could've been!
Technically Kentucky should've had 4 titles and we would have 11 now
Oh what could've been!
Evidently, we won't win another title now that video games are keeping kids away from pickup games.
93% of our last fourteen offers to top 5 players have said, "No thanks" to UK. Gotta change that trend for a program that can't even keep most of its second tier players around for a second season.
93% of our last fourteen offers to top 5 players have said, "No thanks" to UK. Gotta change that trend for a program that can't even keep most of its second tier players around for a second season.
And yet, Jay Wright, Uconn and Coach K have 2 titles in Cal's tenure...And Cal has had more talent then those teams. Not to mention Duke stole our 2014-2015 title. Oh and Uconn stole BOTH of our other titles. Brandon Knight year in the final 4 and when we were the 8 seed when the Harrison twins were freshman. 2013-2014 year.
Technically Kentucky should've had 4 titles and we would have 11 now
Oh what could've been!
Losing in the tournament in the early years of Cal at UK didn't hurt as much when we knew we'd replenish the roster with equal to better players.
Those days are done. We're relegated to hoping guys like Nick Richards will stick around for us to have a legitimate chance at a title.
After their freshmen years where would you rank Murray, Fox, Monk, and Alexander in their respective classes? Not their high school ranking but how they actually produced on the court.
You honestly think Murray and Fox weren’t top 5 in their classes?
It's not easy to win a national championship. Lots of factors go into winning a single elimination tournament: Seeding, matchups, injuries, officiating and especially luck. How many times do you believe the best team actually wins the title?
I'd have to look back and analyze that, and I'm not willing to do that at this moment.
Having said that, Cal's best teams didn't feature solo acts. They featured teams with multiple threats and typically multiple lottery picks.
The point is to get as much talent as you can. Elite kids help more than they hurt.
And? UK has had its fair share of disappointments. 1993, 2010, 2015.
At some point, you've got to take advantage of your opportunities. Cal's teams have had those opportunities and been the more talented team when they lost in 2010, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018.
That stuff haunts you as program.
Coach K, in my opinion, is the best college coach ever and he has been to four final 4’s in the past 18 years. He has cashed in at a high rate once he gets there.
I don’t disagree entirely but in 2014 we beat 3 teams seeded higher to get to a team seeded lower. I don’t know if it’s fair to include that year. 2017? Man that team wasn’t winning the title. I feel like we are punishing Cal for winning games he shouldn’t have.
You have to go back and research to determine if Murray and Fox were top 5 freshman? Murray is a no brained and Fox was 6th in the class behind Harry Giles.
Since Calipari arrived here only one team has won the title after finishing the regular season ranked #1 in the AP Poll...
Kentucky 2012
Kentucky 2012
“Top 5” players is such an arbitrary cutoff. The real cutoff should be elite OAD (a la AD) vs not. 90% of the time there’s no marker difference between #3 and #8. For instance De’Aaron Fox wasn’t a top 5 recruit but clearly demonstrated that he was a top 5 talent in the draft. Maxey and Whitney have that same level of potential. That said, I do agree he has missed more on the “elites” than I expected. He had a much easier time with the John Wall’s, Anthony Davis, etc. in the past.
That team lost those road games by very close margins or in OT on the road with slanted refs. When you lose by 1-2 points on the road and the refs are blantantly against you, they are some warriors. I remember Arkansas and UNC being tough losses.
I’ll also add, that I do think his OAD strategy is no longer a recipe for titles. We can easily stay relevant pulling top kids routinely; however I think there needs to be more emphasis on staying more than 1 year. Teams are just so much more polished with multi-year guys because it takes awhile, for even elite recruits, to adjust to the college game.
Take a look at who constitutes the top five in those years and you'll see it's not so arbitrary because almost all of those 14 offers are legitimate players. Guys like Fox are undoubtedly legit, but he and Murray essentially represent the best players we've landed since 2015. That's not enough, not for a system built on feeding guys to the league as soon as the NBA sniffs in their direction.
Also, we have three commitments for next year as of this point. Three. We're likely losing at least seven.
Looks like another springtime of creative scrambling is on the way.
But that's the problem. Your whole solution is based on "the emphasis" of the need to stay for more than one year. What does it matter if the coaching staff exerts that emphasis, but the kid leaves anyway?
UK's second issue is the lack of second-tier retention. We can't keep those guys while at the same time we can't land the guys in the elite tier.
What the solution? How do we create that emphasis in the minds of recruits?
Well I think UK has a branding problem. We excel at getting the 10-30 ranked recruits that use UK as a pipeline to the NBA. We have ended up with a lot of players who saw themselves as OAD regardless of whether they can actually get drafted. In order to avoid having kids who come here planning to leave after their freshman year, we need to start finding at least a mix of kids who want to come to UK to develop.
Not that it matters but I still say top 5 is arbitrary. The top 5 changes based on the recruiting service you’re looking at. For instance, 247 has E.J. Montgomery at #6 higher than Zion. Also, 247 captured Anthony Edwards reclass from 20 to 19 and placed him in the top 5 which pushed Isaiah Stewart to #6. He didn’t become a worse basketball player overnight. Khalil Whitney rose 16 places in the last ranking and is now #7. He could perhaps rise into the top 5 which would instantly change perception based on the basis of this argument.
Funny the guy you use as an example is maybe the biggest underachiever in history. Lucky for him he may not be known as the biggest anymore when Cal retires.
Guess we need to get the checkbook! Seems to be working well for other teams doing! SMH
Oh I agree. I think if we can get Green, Richards, Montgomery and one of the three, Quickley/Hagans/Herro to come back next year, that would be ideal and great. I think Herro might be a two year player. Montgomery has an opportunity to be a lottery pick. You can already tell the potential he has. If he gets it by January he will be super explosive.
Does that make Cal crazy? When hired, Cal himself said he was at UK to help us catch UCLA in titles. He also said "I can recruit the best of the best." Cal set the bar high. He didn't need help from the "crazy" fans.