UK v MSU game thread???

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

Yeah, but look at the talent disparity. Did we have more talent than the teams we lost to? According to Cal, talent is what wins. It's just not true.

The bottom line is, we made mistakes in those post season losses, bad mistakes. Mistakes that good veterans don’t make. You simply can't teach experience and if you look at the teams winning at the highest levels, they are junior and senior laden teams, most of the time, they are 3* kids too.

I've said it many times, since 2015, we have beaten 1 power 5 team in the NCAAT and that one team had a freshman pg that had a terrible game.

If you're going to roll with freshmen, they have to be transcendent.

Cal does say that between talent and experience he'd take talent every time. No doubt.

I'm not that extreme. Ideally, you'd want a mix of both.

To me, they don't even have to be juniors or seniors either. Our best teams were 12 and 15. In both years 2nd year guys were huge for us.

But you made the point........it's not just about veterans. It's GOOD veterans.

We couldn't close out a game all season long. Askew as a freshmen...........was terrible. But we let Sarr take last second shots and he couldn't convert either.

I think finding those guys who 1) will stick around for 3/4 years and 2) will get better over time to have that senior leadership is extremely hard.

I think with Cal, the best we can hope is some stay a 2nd year.

But I also think some of this is selective memory. It's not as if a FRESHMAN brandon knight didn't hit some big shots for us in the 11 tournament. Or a FRESHMAN Harrison didn't hit big shots for us in 14. They clearly came through in the clutch.

To me the biggest problem is.............these guys aren't those guys. It's not even about transendent.......just be a Knight or a Harrison.

 

[Cowtown Cat]

Askew isn't even a guy that Morehead state would start

I’ve said that on here several times!

 

[LmdCat]

It was just shocking to me.

It seemed like all season long he never had any clue to what our best lineup was. And he never got it correct. There's been so many puzzling lineup decisions.

And his automatic 2 foul u sit rule was just crazy in this game that you had to win.

I think that's what bugs me the most.

Listen we aren't good. We probably weren't winning 4 in 4 days. But you go down with your best players. We didn't do that in the first half of this game. And despite an amazing comeback, the hole was too big.

He knew his best lineup. He also knew he didn't want his obviously best lineup to be the best lineup. You have to know the difference between the signal and the noise.

 

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

In Cal's defense, he had to sit Jackson in the 1st half. Ado knew Jackson had 2 fouls and could only stand there. He was scoring at will.

At least he could have been a presence down low and maybe rebounded some balls lol. Jackson would have had to been really cautious playing D but man we had no one else but him.

 

[kyjeff1]

Cal does say that between talent and experience he'd take talent every time. No doubt.

I'm not that extreme. Ideally, you'd want a mix of both.

To me, they don't even have to be juniors or seniors either. Our best teams were 12 and 15. In both years 2nd year guys were huge for us.

But you made the point........it's not just about veterans. It's GOOD veterans.

We couldn't close out a game all season long. Askew as a freshmen...........was terrible. But we let Sarr take last second shots and he couldn't convert either.

I think finding those guys who 1) will stick around for 3/4 years and 2) will get better over time to have that senior leadership is extremely hard.

I think with Cal, the best we can hope is some stay a 2nd year.

But I also think some of this is selective memory. It's not as if a FRESHMAN brandon knight didn't hit some big shots for us in the 11 tournament. Or a FRESHMAN Harrison didn't hit big shots for us in 14. They clearly came through in the clutch.

To me the biggest problem is.............these guys aren't those guys. It's not even about transendent.......just be a Knight or a Harrison.

Yeah, sure there are outliers (Knight & Aaron), but you have to admit, the game has changed since 2015. College basketball changed and so has the recruits that are going to college.

there has been 1 transcendent player since AD and he went to duke. You can't do this one and done stuff with unskilled AAU kids, that's all he's getting now.

As far as the junior and senior thing being hard, it can't be that hard, 348 other programs manage to have good junior and senior players.

 

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

Yeah, sure there are outliers (Knight & Aaron), but you have to admit, the game has changed since 2015. College basketball changed and so has the recruits that are going to college.

there has been 1 transcendent player since AD and he went to duke. You can't do this one and done stuff with unskilled AAU kids, that's all he's getting now.

As far as the junior and senior thing being hard, it can't be that hard, 348 other programs manage to have good junior and senior players.

Well no not really. 348 teams have juniors and seniors but a small fraction of them have good to very good ones lol.

Even post 15, we had two seasons where we were 2 seeds. We had seasons that were better than 340 other teams a good portion of those teams drivin by seniors and juniors.

I do agree with you about the talent discrepancy tho between what we were getting and what we are currently getting. You cannot win with players the caliber of Askew, Boston, Ware, Toppin etc etc. IMO you don't need a Davis or Wall but you do need some Fox/Monk type guys.

 

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

This season was just a complete miss on recruiting. Clarke was MIA most of the season. Boston was ineffective most of the year and Sarr turned out to be ..........well just bad.

 

[kyjeff1]

Well no not really. 348 teams have juniors and seniors but a small fraction of them have good to very good ones lol.

Even post 15, we had two seasons where we were 2 seeds. We had seasons that were better than 340 other teams a good portion of those teams drivin by seniors and juniors.

I do agree with you about the talent discrepancy tho between what we were getting and what we are currently getting. You cannot win with players the caliber of Askew, Boston, Ware, Toppin etc etc. IMO you don't need a Davis or Wall but you do need some Fox/Monk type guys.

This is UK though, not Central Iowa, surely we can get good veteran players.

Yeah, 2017 and 2019 made the E8, but they l0st to veteran teams.

You simply can't deny we lost that 2019 (sorry, had 2015 there before) game because our young guys missed free throws and threw the ball away in the worst possible moments.

2017 if you look at it, had two transcendent guys on the roster, look at the contracts Bam and Fox just signed. If Cal could get guys like those 2 every year, great, but he isn’t and those guys aren't goung to college anymore. It’s time to use the Baylor/Gonzaga/Villanova method. Get old.

 

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

2017 if you look at it, had two transcendent guys on the roster, look at the contracts Bam and Fox just signed. If Cal could get guys like those 2 every year, great, but he isn’t and those guys aren't goung to college anymore. It’s time to use the Baylor/Gonzaga/Villanova method. Get old.

With the G league, the landscape is definitely changing. The talent level in recruits isn't the gap it once was.

There's still some out there. If UK landed Cunningham or Skuggs this might have played out differently.

Hopefully next season is better.

 

[kyblue'92]

Now to get ready for everyone and their 'sources' on staff changes and players staying, going pro or transfers.

 

[jameslee32]

https://ukathletics.com/mens-basketball/2020-21/boxscore/vs-mississippi-state-university/8578/pdf

 

[KyFaninNC]

Ugh I sure hope not! He doesn’t do anything well. All he does is pound the ball in the floor. Then picks his dribble up way too early.

Saul Smith did that.