The House of Blue

Calipari told his players the same thing and they just didn't do it. Comment from Ryan Harrow after the game:

“We had talked about, for a couple of days now, Coach was telling us if he’s driving right, that means he’s going to pull up. If he’s going left, that means he’s going to step back and if he’s facing up, you know he’s going to try to do a crossover, but he’s never going to go to the hole. So we needed to put pressure on him, but he was just knocking down shots today. I don’t believe he went to the hole once. We just didn’t do what we were supposed to do on him.”

thanks for that info Matt I had not seen that. This is exactly the kind of stuff that drives me crazy with this team. If Cal knew all this ahead of time and told them to force him left, and they don't do it, then it just drives me insane. In all honesty Matt, is it that a lot of these players have a low basketball IQ, is it youth/inexperience, or do some of these players just have an issue with listening to Coach Cal? I tend to believe that it is the IQ thing with some of them, but I just get the feeling that some of them have a real issue with Cal, Goodwin in particular. Correct me if I'm wrong.

By having such a small roster Cal loses the threat of benching a player to get their attention. These 5-6 man classes which flush each year won't work every year. He needs 9-10 guys who can play and at least one guy a year who will stay for a couple of years or more.

I agree they are young and inexperienced but after losing 5 games with 2 of them being at Rupp you would think they would have grown up a little and learned a little by now. I think that the "young and inexperienced" thing is now being used as a crutch for this team instead of the apparent fact that they dont have a great basketball IQ and arent coming together as a team as much as the previous 3 teams have. By this point in the season you would think they would have learned that talent alone isnt enough and they need each other to do the jobs Cal has been trying to get them to do so they can become a team not just a group of basketball players.

Yeah, last year was a wash.

I know, we had some other players too but its sounds childish to keep saying you can't recruit one and dones and win. YOU CAN. But surely you didn't expect EVERY group to catch on like AD and MKG, can you? If you are upset with the system now, you are two face, you can't have it both ways. Myself, I will live with 3 ups and a NC and one down season plus I do believe that the Harrison twins are way smarter in basketball IQ then what we are seeing this year.

How do you recruit the "best of the best", yet still expect them to stick around for 2 or 3 years? Does that mean you pass on better players just so you can have some "stick around" type guys? I think you fill every scholarship you have with the best talent you possibly can, whether they elect to stay or not. JMHO.

It's hard to recruit 4* kids here when they know that Cal is bringing in 5* guys and they may not get much pt. That said, you have to find the right guys that are willing to come and bid their time. That's one reason I like the signing of Derek Willis in this coming class. Kid is a KY kid and has a lot of potential. He will be here 3-4 which is what we need. Cal needs to find 1-2 of those rare kids every other year.

Also, IIRC Cal doesn't have them watch but a few minutes of tape on our opponents. Perhaps with this years team it would be beneficial if he had them do more. Heck, lots of the best players to play the game were film room junkies.

All I know is......the CATS looked pretty damn good tonight.....without WCS and a very limited Noel. We are coming together as a TEAM at just the right time.

also I will be the first to admit I have thoroughly enjoyed the first three years, and have no problem with the recruits Cal gets. I do not think any of the first three years teams would have won very many games without those talented freshmen. However, on the same note, I honestly do not believe those first three teams make it as far as they did without the upperclassmen who were here to help them develop and lead them when things got rough.

What is wrong with you? If you are going to criticize someone's post at least read it. I never said that recruiting one and done players can't work. Last year we did not have just a team of one and done players, we had 3 returning starters in Jones and Lamb as sophs and Miller, a senior. The current team has less experience than any of Cal's teams at UK and it shows. For all the one and done interest it is very often the veterans who carry these teams through the tournament. UK has been extraordinarily lucky not to have injuries, particularly last year. The point was that we don't need to have an empty bench to have a 6 or 7 man rotation.

The argument that recruiting some good players will prevent us from recruiting great players makes no sense to me. I don't see how having a 4 star guard and forward on the team would limit recruiting in any way and it would give the team more options and some insurance against losing a whole season because of injury or attitude/recruiting misses. The argument that you couldn't get good players to come to UK with all the one and done talent also doesn't make sense. I think a lot of kids would love to come to UK and play less minutes up front with the hope to develop into a better player. There are also the selling points of hanging around with a bunch of future NBA players, music stars, great coaches, great living facilities, the chance to play in really big games, girls and a free education. You can do that or be a starter at some nondescript college program that may not win a tournament game during your career. Just my take.

As a lawyer (I assume you are since you cleverly put that into your screen name) I would think you could express yourself without being such a turd. Calling people "childish" and "two face" (shouldn't that be "two faced"?) is a little over the top counselor.

When you sound like you are upset when things so south with this team, I will call you two face, sorry but the name fits. Plus Miller was NOT a full time starter last year and we did have THREE one and dones. The childish comment came from you saying this:

"These 5-6 man classes which flush each year won't work every year." To me that sounds like you said it won't work.

The two face comment came from this comment:

"He needs 9-10 guys who can play and at least one guy a year who will stay for a couple of years or more." Again that sounds to me like

sour grapes after the great job that CAL did the first three years.

So I did read and I disagree with you. I find it will be very hard to find, unless its a kid from Kentucky like Willis, a great four star player who will sit the bench for four years, to come here. I don't see it. Plus I am a CPA, not a lawyer, and calling people a turd when you are upset about being called childish and two face only shows that the childish two face name was a true statement. Have a good one z.