One more in the books

[40bill]

I dunno, since my wife passed I've lost some steam, including for college sports. Quick thoughts:

We expected a lot from this crew. Maybe over expected. Trouble with a returning POY is everybody has film, everybody knows his shortcomings.
Maybe we should start counting on injuries every year.
Wheeler struggled, flamed out, got injured, got lost.
Frederick was counted on, but it just didn't work.
Cal's coaching style seems to have played out....maybe he has too.
glory days seem way in the past....maybe they are.

Anyway, thanks to the players for some nice times. We see who stays, likely not many.

Man, long haul to football.

[Will Lavender]

Cal's coaching style seems to have played out....maybe he has too.
glory days seem way in the past....maybe they are.

I've said a few times this year that Cal needs traditional talent more than any coach, partly because he's not as clever as most coaches as far as X's and O's, but also that top-shelf talent was the reason he got back in the college coaching game to begin with. He fashioned himself as a kingmaker when he went to Memphis after the New Jersey disaster. Then he came to Kentucky and one of the throughlines of his introductory press conference was, "I'm here because I can recruit the best of the best."

As that's gone away I think you've seen a more shelled-out, exhausted Calipari. As he's missed player after player in recruiting you've begun to see a guy who honestly looks like he's retired on the job. He talks about playing with his dogs, going home because he's tired, how hard it is, etc. You didn't see that in his first few years here.

I tend to think that these players will inject more life into Cal. This team we'll have coming in "looks" like what we all thought every team was going to look like back in 2009 or '10.

[Catgrad7072]

This team we'll have coming in "looks" like what we all thought every team was going to look like back in 2009 or '10.

Honest question(s) on my part; I'm not a student of the game (like most on WCN) nor so I follow recruiting.
1. Is the incoming class really that strong or are they just the best HS players available?
2. If the class is 'all that and a bag of chips', are they good enough to win it all and send Cal out in a blaze of glory.?

[lilproUK98]

There's a lengthy list of issues with Cal and Kentucky Basketball, but I think the loss of Robic is at the very top.
And what exactly happened between Cal and Robic has been virtually swept under the rug.

[Will Lavender]

Honest question(s) on my part; I'm not a student of the game (like most on WCN) nor so I follow recruiting.
1. Is the incoming class really that strong or are they just the best HS players available?
2. If the class is 'all that and a bag of chips', are they good enough to win it all and send Cal out in a blaze of glory.?

Both these things remain to be seen.

I've seen it said that the class is weak. I don't follow it closely enough to know whether that's true. However, and I've said this before: I've seen some version of "This class is weak" virtually every year I've been posting on the boards about recruiting. It's usually this echo chamber thing; one guy says it and then it gets parroted on message boards. One issue with this particular class is that the very best of the best aren't in high school; they're on Ignite or they're overseas. That alone likely waters the class down.

That doesn't speak particularly to our players, because those players they're not playing against in high school/AAU are never going to play in college anyway.

What you'll notice about Cal is that if he covets a player, that player *usually* turns out to be a legitimate college star. (There are exceptions, the obvious one being Skal.) The problem has been that the players Cal has coveted the last five years have gone elsewhere. You know how badly he wanted Trae Young. I'd put Zion in there. James Wiseman. Jalen Duren. Cade Cunningham.

This year is the first in awhile where Cal has picked out players and gotten them. We'll have to see if the scouting ability--at one point the very best thing Calipari brought to the table--still holds after all these years.

[justford]

I believe that since Cal is a proponent of “positionless” basketball, that he tends to recruit the best he can get regardless of their natural position and tries to make it work after he gets them.

[Jody Porter]

I tend to agree. Fans like to freak out about "AHHHHHHH who's going to play PG, only one of them can at a time!!!.!" And while that's not completely false, it's not going to be a problem because of the interchangeability of these players (on paper...and on YouTube). I have my issues/concerns with Cal, but this is absolutely not one of them. He might be the best in the business at this. ("This" being getting players involved regardless of traditional basketball "positions")

[Will Lavender]

I believe that since Cal is a proponent of “positionless” basketball, that he tends to recruit the best he can get regardless of their natural position and tries to make it work after he gets them.

Interestingly Justin Edwards who's coming in next year is probably the first true wing Cal has had in quite some time. Almost always we play a sort of three-guard lineup, partly because Cal's had a mysteriously hard time recruiting true small forwards.

B.J. Boston was supposed to be that type of guy but...well, we all know what happened there.

[lilproUK98]

MJ running down the list of things that contributed to the issues this team had... Man, this team was just a mess. On and off the court. So much drama, bad chemistry, and bad injury luck. Just a mess, and extremely mismanaged by Cal.

Just glad it's over. Sahvir and Oscar moving on clears alot of it up, but I'm sure there will be plenty more drama and nonsense coming around the bend next season 😞

[Lighthouse]

Honest question(s) on my part; I'm not a student of the game (like most on WCN) nor so I follow recruiting.
1. Is the incoming class really that strong or are they just the best HS players available?
2. If the class is 'all that and a bag of chips', are they good enough to win it all and send Cal out in a blaze of glory.?

My opinion of the incoming class is this. They are fresh out of HS, and at this point they have much to learn about playing college basketball. They're probably weak and need to beef up. They have been the star of their HS and AAU teams. The individual athletic talent is there, but they must learn to play as a team. That is one thing Cal has been good at, and if this team comes together and plays for each other, they could be special.

[Will Lavender]

MJ running down the list of things that contributed to the issues this team had... Man, this team was just a mess. On and off the court. So much drama, bad chemistry, and bad injury luck. Just a mess, and extremely mismanaged by Cal.

Just glad it's over. Sahvir and Oscar moving on clears alot of it up, but I'm sure there will be plenty more drama and nonsense coming around the bend next season 😞

I didn't catch any of this but I'm not surprised. That team was definitely not together from the first moments all the way through.

[Will Lavender]

Over on Rivals there's a thread where they're talking about what lilpro mentions and one guy says, "The big news is that next year we're gonna run an offense called Run Go Run."

For some reason that cracked me up lol.

[lilproUK98]

I didn't catch any of this but I'm not surprised. That team was definitely not together from the first moments all the way through.

I recommend listening to the podcast of today's show. And Ryan was about to speak about what sounded like an issue for next year's team but Matt cut him off.

There has been a lot of talk about the incoming class not being the quality of a typical number one class, which is true. But there is definitely an issue that Matt and Ryan were not quite ready to speak on. It may come out sooner or later. Matt said he'd rather just wait and see.

Drew is very adamant that they need Reeves and Livingston back. Which I absolutely agree with.

[Will Lavender]

Rivals guys thought it might be about a player/players not showing up next year. Dillingham is the one mentioned most of the time.

A few were also speculating that KSR was suggesting Livingston might not return.

Nothing would surprise me really. After a season like we just had you have to expect some pretty bad fallout. UK's brand, already shaky coming into this season, wasn't really helped by any of what went on.

[Lighthouse]

The "We are Kentucky" saying sure isn't what it used to be.