The House of Blue

The fan base is on those players because they don't give effort or display an ounce of heart. That has nothing to do with being a freshman, it's not age specific. A ten year old could go out and bust his butt to win. Many people would agree with you if the fan base was on a kid for not being talented enough...that's not the case here and the criticism of these players is justified and their age isn't an excuse.

We are beyond spoiled. Look we cannot win at the level of last year consistently. Anyone who believes so has not played hi level sports or cannot see the forest for the trees.

I am so proud of UK for all they are doing all the way around and we as fans expect miracles always and with 18 year olds. Really. Come on. We are spoiled to the max.

This is the kind of thing that allows national sports writers to beat us up. Come on gang. We stink for a year with primadonnas? Sorry sp?.

Be real though. GBB.

Last year was a fluke, an anomaly , NBA lockout kept a couple players who under normal situations, would have gone pro. This will be the norm, for a calamari coached team, get used to it.

Wow, really? He was a 5* recruit and the #5 ranked SG in the country on 247. I would say that qualifies as a supposed "superstar" coming out of high school.

And what he is doing is a far cry from routine freshman mistakes. Your average freshman doesn't repeatedly lower his head, dribble into a crowd and just throw the ball up over his head....not at this level of basketball, or even at the D-3 level. Hell, not even at the high school level. His problems go well beyond typical freshmen mistakes of poor shooting, court vision, defense, spacing, leadership and so on.

LOL,

#5 Shooting...is superstar? lol. REALLY? can i have what you are smoking?

I'm sorry, top 2/3 players in the class would maybe considered a superstar depending on depth of the class. Now you are saying #5 shooting guard is going to be a super star? LOL, that's hilarious.

See below:
1. Steven adams (4th ranked)
2. Sam Dekker (8th, not playing bad but no super star and MUCH higher ranked than goodwin)
3. Rodney Purvis (10th ranked, not playing bad but not better than Goodwin either.)
4. Kris Dunn (11th, not good at all)
5. Grant Jerret (12th ranked, not playing much)
6. Glenn Robinson ( 15th, better than goodwin, but small margin)
7. Kaleb Tarczewski (16th, nope much less production)

All players ranked ahead of him that's not performing. What's funny is i can name more players that producing similar. Only difference is that Goodwin is ASKED to be the star and others are asked to be role player. HUGE difference and difficulty.

All it took was 1 or 2 of last year's players to return. Teague or Lamb would have made Goodwin look much better.

So then do you blame Cal for missing out on Shabazz? There has to be some sort of blame on somebody. Its not an awww shucks everybody is just so great.......Its just a tough year situation. Somebody has to shoulder the blame. Please let us know who in your opinion or what in your opinion gets the blame for this year. Since you aren't willing to blame the guys that actually play the game.

Congrats for Goodwin for achieving so much high school accomplishments.

LOL, you didn't even respond to the fact that many of the top recruits aren't even performing. I named bunch of players RANKED AHEAD OF HIM who isn't performing. Usually you don't PLAY these players. Is that so HARD to accept? BTW, Marcus smarts has just as much TO as goodwin. He makes a lot of bone head plays. That is why OkS are struggling at times, not just smart obviously as a team.

Also, superstars for me are people who can come in college and dominate right away. Davis, MKG, John Wall, Demarcus Cousin, and Brandon Knight. Pretty sure Kanter would have too. You know, who comes into college and dominate. Unfortunately those are rare and usually a top 5 talent. Even surefire player like Derrick Favor didn't dominate like he could have. Josh Selby #1 recruit out of high school didn't do jack his freshman year. Andre Drummond? What happened to Perry Jones? What happened to Quincy Miller?

Are there better player than Goodwin... OF COURSE. He wasn't top 10 in a WEAK class. Don't expect him to dominate. Goodwin is 13.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 3 apg...as a FRESHMAN.

Also, don't you think Goodwin is forcing the issues at times because there is no GO TO PLAYER? like Davis or like MKG. No Lamb. No Knight. No Wall. No Cousin. SO he tries to take it in himself without having the skill yet. He plays hard, but out of control. He will improve.

No, whats being said is that Goodwin is playing like a freshman but being asked to play like an experienced player. Call it who's ever fault you want but shit happens. We had absolutely no experience returning like has ben said, and we lost out on multiple recruits like Bazz, Bennett, Lyons and oriaki sp? Lamb and Teague who could have helped us tremendously and could have helped themselves but they left and we lost our best player and fighter, our heart and soul an most ill affordable player to lose and we got this. Kinda like a perfect storm and we still won 20. I hope they all come back and give us some experience next year and some the year after. They probably won't but I wish they would. They all just need more time an a different season. This one has worked out how it's worked out so learn from it and come back buy in with a new team learn your role and win number 9. They didn't turn out to be Davis and MKG but not many do. And I seriously doubt even they could have done what they did without Miller, lamb, and Jones. Now take them out of the equation and MKG goes down midseason and how far does that team go with better players and better maturity for average college freshman?

And when that #1 recruiting class all turn pro next year, then what? You cant continue to constantly depend on a group of freshmen to carry a team. There needs to be some continuity and leadership. Where is that going to come from? Some 3 and 4 year type players need to be recruited along with the superstars. You should not be loading your bench with walk ons and throwing scholarships at players like Mays and Harrow.

MKG was very good leader last year. If we get Randle and Wiggins, i will say this. We won't need any of these players to return and still be a top team.

I will say it again...playing hard doesn't require you to be a veteran and it doesn't require you to be over 20 years old.

These kids represent the state, university, and the people (us) that make up the fan base. They have EVERYTHING a college basketball player could EVER want and that's because of us.

Coach Cal doesn't believe they are above criticism because he has been critical of them...REPEATEDLY.

If some of us believe they should be held to SOME standard then I think it is more than fair we are able to express that. Forgiving them of most everything simply based on age is akin to not keeping score in little league for fear of someone's feelings might get hurt. This team is given everything and we have a right to expect something in return.

You are blaming everything on playing hard.

Archie PLAYS HARD.
WCS PLAYS HARD.
NERLENS PLAYS HARD.
Mays PLAYS HARD.

you are blaming all the losses on playing hard. THAT"S FALSE. That's not why we keep losing. Yes we have players who don't play hard, just 2 to be exact. To be honest, one just doesn't know how to.

Let's look at WCS's plays. He was trying and attacking. Everything was a miss. He has no post game. Which isn't surprising because he hardly played basketball. he can play college ball for next 2 years and he still would have less experience playing basketball than players coming in. He over extends on defense, leaving the paint completely undefended as well. He isn't strong with the basketball and he losses the ball too easily. (Remember Harrelson until he learned to develop that. took him till his senior year.)

It's funny how easy people blame lack of skill to not trying hard. Maybe can be applied to Poythress, but the dude has no clue in terms of angle, timing, spacing, defending, and etc. The dude is completely confused out there. I bet if he had better understanding of HOW to play, he will look like he is PLAYING HARD.

I think Cal was hoping WCS was 2 year player.

I mean..he was ranked 40+...

To think he was coming straight and be a lotto..that's got to be a bit shocking.

We also had Poole Transfer too. I think that hurt more than we think. He would be a solid senior right now, if he learned to change.

Cal's been recruiting multi year player...none seems to workout. They all think Cal will have dominating class every single year and never a chance to shine. I think players like Anthony Hick would not have developed here as well as other places, and i think that's the case with Jon Hood.