The House of Blue

Polythrese? Oh my.

This is why coaches don't last at Kentucky. Nothing they do is ever right. Tubby didn't recruit well enough so he had to go. Gillispie was a mess so he had to go. Calipari goes to an Elite Eight, a Final Four and wins a title and then has one year where the formula doesn't work and people are angry. If you can't understand the connect between these types of criticisms and why the national perception of Kentucky fans is so low, well, I don't know that anything will ever make that point.

Calipari has made mistakes this year. He hasn't handled this team well. They've been worse in terms of their ability to buy in. But are we really to the point where there is an entire message board of complaining and freaking out because UK is struggling a year after a title and with what it's accomplished the past three years? Sheesh. No wonder people think UK fans are out of control.

Someone else said it best, 3 and 4-star guys want to play. They ain't coming to a place where they sit the bench for 3-4 years. You can't have it both ways. Either you're cool with the way Calipari does it (i.e. - his first three years) or you're not. You can't suddenly rip the guy and claim you can't construct a team like that when the pieces don't fit one year. Truth be told, I don't agree with the way Calipari does it but he's proven the blueprint works more often that not.

Serious question. What specifically do you not agree with? Recruiting the best of the best?

Congrats on being the most uninformed poster on the board. Vargas had 2 years of eligibility. Harrelson had three and was recruited by BCG. Don't count on any kid coming back and unfortunately "fans" like you are the reason Cal won't be around long either. Cal did what he always does, recruit the best talent in the country and does his best to win with them. Again, elite 8, FF and NC. Got it?

I think the UKAA and Cal all know that the fans who would actually apply any pressure for change right now are simply insane. I'm not sure there is a safer coach in the country re: his job than Coach Cal and Coach K..... and Rick Barnes, who has removed his name from the UK coaching search if it happens this year.

UK will be fine....not with THESE players, but hope is on the horizon. They'll always be as good as the relative strength of the top of a recruiting class. Most of the guys in question here were just not that special. Will be next year. Maybe if we landed Bennett and Bazz, it would be different. But I understand with Bazz it's hard to beat Adidas and with Bennett, the Findlay people REALLY wanted him at UNLV. He wasn't going to get eligible for UK is the way I understood it.

Teague would be welcomed. Lamb in combo would be fab. Another physical presence along the baseline would be amazing!

Original post = Epic fail.

I wish just once someone would present this argument without first ruining it by saying idiotic things like "this is what bad recruiting looks like." People tune out after that and go on the defensive.

Couple of misnomers so far that I've read. No one is saying that Cal should recruit any 3-4 year type of player over a one and done stud type of player. He should recruit them in addition to the stud player. Just 1 a year. Or 1 every other year. So we're not back in this same situation in 4 years.

Also I don't believe it an impossible proposition to find high character kids to come and develop their games while not getting tons of playing time. What you do is you find kids with high upside who are very raw skill wise or vice versa you find kids who might not have the size or athletic ability but have a specific skill. Kids that will understand that they need time to develop or can provide a specific skill to help the team. Like for instance outside shooters. Find a situational shooter that might be able to develop into more than that with work in a legit strength and conditioning program. Or in reference to the high upside find some foreign kid with exceptional length that is very raw offensively put him to work with Coach Robic. No matter what though these guys have got to be high character kids that are all about winning, helping the team and do great work in the classroom and community. Find kids that are great in the locker room and find kids that have a toughness about themselves.

As we've seen this can also be done every year by trying to find the 5th year transfers. Mays, Oriakhi and I believe Lyons were available this year.

Might even try to look at the JUCO ranks and see whats available. Mizzou had a heck of a JUCO player I think it was last year that BCG looked at while he was here. Ricardo something. Anyway the kid could play. From what I've seen you can find tough PF's in the JUCO ranks.

Proactively go out and find transfers. But don't go after frosh transfers find kids that will be Juniors. Kids that have played a couple of year of college ball. They don't have to be NBA type players.

Cal's recruiting has been tremendous. He's the GOAT. No question about it. But I do think making sure we have a few more kids in the program on scholly to help in practice and to provide some leadership down the road could help things. I also don't believe that guys like PPat, Harrelson, Liggins and Miller get enough credit for holding Cal's first 3 teams together and keeping them together through tough times. They were extremely instrumental in providing leadership on a daily basis on and off the court. I actually appreciate BCG quite a bit for bringing those guys in the program. Thats just my opinion. Maybe I'm wrong but thats an opinion I've held for a while now. Even before this season.

I think we need to target kids that will be juniors and seniors after they sit out a year. Kids that have at least two years of experience playing college basketball. And I'm not sure Beckham even counts since he was never offered a scholly. If we're going the transfer route we need to go after the best players possible. Mays is a 5th year transfer. He certainly fits the bill and as you've seen he's been one of our more solid players especially of late. Wish we could have a carbon copy of him for next years team. Plus its not like I'm saying that we've never done these things. We have and need to continue to do them. We need more experience and more talented experience period.

This is just a bad recruiting class, across the board. There's nobody that could do what MKG or Anthony Davis did last year. I suspect that probably about 30-40% (or less) of this year's first round draft class will still be in the NBA after the mandatory contract period is up. That's the reason that Cal didn't recruit a PG and brought Harrow in. That's the reason we brought Mays in. It is tough to fabricate a team the way that Calipari does if the recruiting base of available players is as miserable as this freshman class has been. And that's across the country.