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2013/14 UK Basketball (1 Viewer)

S

Sinn Fein

Footballguy
I love that Calipari is not shying away from his goal of an undefeated season.

The chase may be very short, as they'll have a very tough test right out of the gate when they play Michigan State. They also have road games against Baylor and UNC, and a rivalry game with Louisville that will be at Rupp.

With the best recruiting class of his tenure at UK, and arguably the best ever, Calipari may have the deepest team he has had at UK. He also finally signed a couple of in-state players who are good enough to earn playing time down the road, which should help out in a couple of years. Recent interviews suggests that he'll still play a short bench this season, not really going beyond the top-7.

Regardless of the final record, this is a team that, barring injury, should be in the Final Four in Texas.

Should be a fun ride.

 
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:popcorn: Big Blue Madness tonight.

Last year they raised all the Championship Banners, this year I suspect they will not be looking back on last year's team.

Usually this is a recruiting bonanza, with a lot of UK's NBA alumni coming back, but they have already missed out on a few of their top choices for next year, so I don't think it will have a huge impact.

 
I will be surprised of they have more than three losses all year. My guess is they lose once on season, lost in the SEC tourney while kind of resting, and lost in the national semis.

Unless they are a bunch of knuckleheads (and apparently that is not the case) they are going to be really really good.

 
If they all play the way they should play, anything less than a national title is a failure.

The only thing that could hurt them is guys trying to do too much. I think Randle and the Harrison twins are naturally selfish players. Those 3 need to stick to their strengths and avoid the temptation to play hero ball to enhance their Draft stock

 
I'll bet they do go more than 7 deep this year, as that was one of the problems with last year's team. Cal has already uttered the magic word "press" a few times, and he's got the hosses to do it this year. This is going to be a fun ride.

 
TLEF316 said:
If they all play the way they should play, anything less than a national title is a failure.

The only thing that could hurt them is guys trying to do too much. I think Randle and the Harrison twins are naturally selfish players. Those 3 need to stick to their strengths and avoid the temptation to play hero ball to enhance their Draft stock
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Lies :cool:

Probably started by the same people who said Randle would never play with the Harrison twins.

 
Sinn Fein said:
TLEF316 said:
If they all play the way they should play, anything less than a national title is a failure.

The only thing that could hurt them is guys trying to do too much. I think Randle and the Harrison twins are naturally selfish players. Those 3 need to stick to their strengths and avoid the temptation to play hero ball to enhance their Draft stock
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Lies :cool: Probably started by the same people who said Randle would never play with the Harrison twins.
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I've watched them all play multiple times. Obviously things ccan change now they have more talented teammates, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen the Harrisons willingly pass to someone they didn't share a womb with.

Randle needs to keep his big ### on the block and punish people with his strength. He gets himself in trouble when he catches it 18 feet from the rim and needs to take a 2nd dribble (because he's susceptible to the charge, not because he's a bad balloon handler)

The sooner he realizes that he's zach Randolph and not LeBron James, the better off UK will be

 
WampusCat43 said:
I'll bet they do go more than 7 deep this year, as that was one of the problems with last year's team. Cal has already uttered the magic word "press" a few times, and he's got the hosses to do it this year. This is going to be a fun ride.
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Probably 8-deep:

G Harrison, An 6-6 215

G Harrison, Aa 6-6 218

G Young, Ja 6-6 215

F Randle, Ju 6-9 250

F Poythress, Al 6-8 239

F Lee, Ma 6-9 215

F/C Cauley-Stein 7-0 244

C Johnson, Da 7-0 265

Polson, Hood, Hawkins and Willis will get spot minutes here and there.

There is a lot of size in the line-up, which reminds me of the 11/12 team, where it made defensive switches very easy.

 
Sinn Fein said:
WampusCat43 said:
I'll bet they do go more than 7 deep this year, as that was one of the problems with last year's team. Cal has already uttered the magic word "press" a few times, and he's got the hosses to do it this year. This is going to be a fun ride.
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Probably 8-deep:

G Harrison, An 6-6 215

G Harrison, Aa 6-6 218

G Young, Ja 6-6 215

F Randle, Ju 6-9 250

F Poythress, Al 6-8 239

F Lee, Ma 6-9 215

F/C Cauley-Stein 7-0 244

C Johnson, Da 7-0 265

Polson, Hood, Hawkins and Willis will get spot minutes here and there.

There is a lot of size in the line-up, which reminds me of the 11/12 team, where it made defensive switches very easy.
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The length on this team should cause major problems. I'm excited, but I was excited at this point last year too. Was hoping to get my aunt's season tickets this year, but her son decided to take them this year :cry:

 
Didn't this program LOSE IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE NIT last year? Undefeated - yeah right.

UK epitomizes what is wrong with NCAA Basketball. Their one-and-done recruiting approach is horrible; they're just a Single-A NBA farm team. How can their hillbilly fans keep rooting for this annual bunch of whores?

 
ComfortablyNumb said:
Didn't this program LOSE IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE NIT last year? Undefeated - yeah right.

UK epitomizes what is wrong with NCAA Basketball. Their one-and-done recruiting approach is horrible; they're just a Single-A NBA farm team. How can their hillbilly fans keep rooting for this annual bunch of whores?
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:lmao:

 
ComfortablyNumb said:
Didn't this program LOSE IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE NIT last year? Undefeated - yeah right.

UK epitomizes what is wrong with NCAA Basketball. Their one-and-done recruiting approach is horrible; they're just a Single-A NBA farm team. How can their hillbilly fans keep rooting for this annual bunch of whores?
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Hey old man. Stick to golf.
 
ComfortablyNumb said:
Didn't this program LOSE IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE NIT last year? Undefeated - yeah right.

UK epitomizes what is wrong with NCAA Basketball. Their one-and-done recruiting approach is horrible; they're just a Single-A NBA farm team. How can their hillbilly fans keep rooting for this annual bunch of whores?
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Horrible.

 
I thought Lee and Young looked really good tonight. Randle will be a beast, Harrison twins were hit or miss. Poythress was mostly invisible, but played on the weaker team. He needs to get more aggressive or he will get lost in the shuffle on this team. Johnson and WCS won't be a big part of the offense, but should get some garbage baskets around the rim. Willis also played pretty well, but it won't help him get many minutes this season.

Calipari was in full recruiting mode, but they only had 3 of the recent alumni in town, Anthony Davis, John Wall, and Darius Miller, all in town for a Wizards/pelicans game.

 
Really need a new thread for 1 team? If I remember correctly, last year's thread was remarkably quiet. Probably could just use that one.

 
This team will probably be favored in every game it plays this year barring a significant injury or a major chemistry implosion (which if always possible with freshmen.) There is so much talent that Poythress and WCS are flying under the radar even though they would be 2 of the top 3 options for almost every other team in the country. It's always difficult to say national title or bust with the volatility of a one and done tournament, but anything less than a final four this year will be a disappointment. I think the undefeated talk is kooky though. There's a reason no team has done it in almost 40 years. This team compares pretty favorably with the 2011-12 version, but lags behind the 1995-96 team IMO.

 
Vegas sets line at 400-1

I wonder what the money lines will add up to this year - i.e. is it better to simply bet on UK to win each game individually.

Blue-White Scrimmage coming up on Tuesday. Its going to be interesting to see how the team is split up for the start of the game. I assume one team will be the primary starting 5. I assume it will be Harrison, Harrison, Randle, Lee, Cauley-Stein, though James Young has been getting a lot of good press, and may see some starts at shooting guard

Word from practice is that Derek Willis is playing well, but even Cal concedes that getting minutes this year will be tough for him.

Apparently there was a little mini-controversey this summer that I missed: Polson was not happy about having to give up #5 to Andrew Harrison. Polson though people wouldn't recognize him without #5 :lol: Its only a player's first program, if the player is a McDonalds All-American. At least Polson came to his senses when he realized the alternative was likely going to be no number.

 
Kentucky will not go undefeated. Calipari is crazy with talent. And he has never said that this team would go undefeated. His actual words were: "Sometime before I retire I would love to coach a team that goes 40-0." He did not say it would be this team. Many have made that assumption. This team has more talent on it than I have seen.....ever. I have watched UK since the days of Rupp. Never seen a team this deep. It's gonna be fun thats for sure.

 
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Defenze said:
Kentucky will not go undefeated. Calipari is crazy with talent. And he has never said that this team would go undefeated. His actual words were: "Sometime before I retire I would love to coach a team that goes 40-0." He did not say it would be this team. Many have made that assumption. This team has more talent on it than I have seen.....ever. I have watched UK since the days of Rupp. Never seen a team this deep. It's gonna be fun thats for sure.
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Yeah I don't think they will go undefeated either - the pressure will be crazy if they are still undefeated into February. My point was Calipari is not shying away from those expectations. The (national) media has pushed the undefeated agenda based on Calipari's post 2012 championship quote. None of the local media think it will happen. But Calipari is usually spending this time of the season downplaying his team as too young, inexperienced, etc. He still does a little of that, but he is not really doing anything to defuse the undefeated talk.

I think its refreshing that he embraces it rather than dismisses it - at the end of the day, it does not mean a whole lot because they could lose to Michigan State and put the whole story to rest, or they can make it to conference play undefeated, and it will take on a story of its own.

 
Sinn Fein said:
Abraham said:
Blue has 4 top 10 picks on it. :lmao:
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21-6 after 5:21

James Young looks really good - 10 points, including a couple of 3's. Overall team looks very mature, will be strong defensively
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He's going to go 9th or 10th and end up somewhere between Corey brewer, Trevor ariza, and mkg. Which is a good thing as the third or fourth best player on the team. Love his game.

 
Sinn Fein said:
Abraham said:
Blue has 4 top 10 picks on it. :lmao:
Click to expand...
21-6 after 5:21

James Young looks really good - 10 points, including a couple of 3's. Overall team looks very mature, will be strong defensively
Click to expand...
Its no secret that I think Calipari's offense is just rolling the ball out there and letting talented players do what they do. But I definitely respect the way he gets his teams (save last year) to buy in defensively.

 
No real surprises tonight. Randle is going to be a beast, Young will be the MKG of this team, Cauley-Stein will be active on the boards, with some points in the paint. Andrew Harrison sat out the second half with a bruised knee, but Aaron filled in nicely at point. Poythress is still an enigma - he didn't do much on the scrub team, but had some decent moments when he subbed into the blue team. Following up on practice reports, Derek Willis had a nice night - 20+ points, mostly from the outside. He needs to add muscle, but he already looks better than Wiltjer, and should be a real asset in a couple of years

 
TLEF316 said:
Sinn Fein said:
Abraham said:
Blue has 4 top 10 picks on it. :lmao:
Click to expand...
21-6 after 5:21

James Young looks really good - 10 points, including a couple of 3's. Overall team looks very mature, will be strong defensively
Click to expand...
Its no secret that I think Calipari's offense is just rolling the ball out there and letting talented players do what they do.
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Honestly, running a bunch of plays would probably do more harm than good, particularly for a typical Kentucky team. Certainly a lot of NBA teams get mucked up by too much play-calling.

 
With their size, if they can shoot from deep anywhere near as well as they did last night they'll be impossible to handle. Willis was unbelievable.

 
"Good said:
TLEF316 said:
Sinn Fein said:
Abraham said:
Blue has 4 top 10 picks on it. :lmao:
Click to expand...
21-6 after 5:21

James Young looks really good - 10 points, including a couple of 3's. Overall team looks very mature, will be strong defensively
Click to expand...
Its no secret that I think Calipari's offense is just rolling the ball out there and letting talented players do what they do.
Click to expand...
Honestly, running a bunch of plays would probably do more harm than good, particularly for a typical Kentucky team. Certainly a lot of NBA teams get mucked up by too much play-calling.
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I don't disagree. it's common sense.

It just cracks me up when the lunatic section of the UK fan base acts like he's some sort of offensive genius. You don't have to be Phil Jackson to know that you should just let talented players play

 
TLEF316 said:
"Good said:
TLEF316 said:
Sinn Fein said:
Abraham said:
Blue has 4 top 10 picks on it. :lmao:
Click to expand...
21-6 after 5:21

James Young looks really good - 10 points, including a couple of 3's. Overall team looks very mature, will be strong defensively
Click to expand...
Its no secret that I think Calipari's offense is just rolling the ball out there and letting talented players do what they do.
Click to expand...
Honestly, running a bunch of plays would probably do more harm than good, particularly for a typical Kentucky team. Certainly a lot of NBA teams get mucked up by too much play-calling.
Click to expand...
I don't disagree. it's common sense.

It just cracks me up when the lunatic section of the UK fan base acts like he's some sort of offensive genius. You don't have to be Phil Jackson to know that you should just let talented players play
Click to expand...
I realize where I'm posting this, but yeah, Kentucky basketball fans are literally some of the worst people on Earth. Not you guys, I mean the rest of them.

 
Defenze said:
Kentucky will not go undefeated. Calipari is crazy with talent. And he has never said that this team would go undefeated. His actual words were: "Sometime before I retire I would love to coach a team that goes 40-0." He did not say it would be this team. Many have made that assumption. This team has more talent on it than I have seen.....ever. I have watched UK since the days of Rupp. Never seen a team this deep. It's gonna be fun thats for sure.
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This team still falls below the 1996 team in overall depth - and that team had experienced depth too. I think we will see a year similar to the Davis/MKG team actually.

 
I think experience is a little overblown. The AAU/summer schedule is so much more rigorous now than it was 10 years ago. These guys are used to playing top competition before they ever hit college.

 
1st exhibition game: UK v. Transylvania on Halloween Night here in Lexington. I think Andrew Harrison is sitting this one out with the knee bruise from the Blue White game.

 
Ugh. Ugly game.

Andrew Harrison did sit out. Randle played well with a double-double. Young will play the MKG role on this team, guarding the opponent's best perimeter player. Aaron was ok as point guard, but he is not ready to handle that for long stretches.

Derek Willis was one of the first off the bench, and while he is probably ahead of where Wiltjer was, he is not ready to play defense the way Cal will demand, and the key to minutes from Cal is defense. But, I don't think Cal will hesitate to put him in if he needs to sit a starter for a stretch.

Marcus Lee did not play in the first half - not sure if Cal was sending a message, or if it was some type of punishment. He did play in the second half, and brought high energy to the floor.

Dakari Johnson will be a good post player someday - you can't teach size - but it might not be this year, at least offensively. Had trouble a few times in the paint against a team with only one player taller than 6'5"

Poythress started, but was again invisible for large stretches of the game. He was scoreless, with no rebounds in the first half.

Free throws were atrocious. 50%. Certainly not unusual for a Cal team, but if the Refs call the game they way they are supposed to this year, with greater emphasis on "freedom of player movement" then this team will be at the free throw line a lot, and can't afford to give away that many points. I also think team depth will be a factor across college basketball this season, at least until teams learn to defend without the arm-checks.

UK started the game with treys from Young, Harrison, and Randle, and fell in love with the outside shot, instead of pounding the ball inside against the smaller opponent. They'll need a lot more patience and ball movement against non-division III opponents.

 
Its been an interesting week - UK picked up a couple of commitments for next year't team, but has looked decidedly mediocre in both exhibition games.

Wildcats played both games without starting point guard Andrew Harrison, so its hard to get a handle on where the team is offensively. A few things are clear though: Randle will be the best player on the court when he plays this year, Young is a scorer (but not necessarily a good shooter), and will guard the opposing teams best perimeter threat.

Calipari made a few interesting comments yesterday - he is already downplaying the game against MSU on Tuesday, saying its unfair for his team to play such a veteran team so early in the season (read: we are not very good yet). He also talked about trying to find the right 7-man rotation (later amended to 8) - that is how he has typically operated at UK, but I think that is going to create challenges this year - at least one top recruit is going to be disappointed in playing time. Right now that player is going to be Marcus Lee, who played sparingly in both exhibition games - he seemed to play with enthusiasm and energy, so I am not sure why he is in Cal's doghouse. It also means guys like Polson and Derek Willis will not get as many minutes as they may like: 5-6 a game.

I expect that Randle, Young, and Andrew Harrison will all average 30+ minutes, while Aaron Harrison, Poythress, Cauley-Stein, and Johnson will be 20+ minutes players - leaving about 15-20 game minutes to split among Lee, Polson, Willis, Hood, and the end of the bench.

Foul trouble, or obviously injuries, could alter the equation. Primary starting line-up will be Harrison, Harrison, Young, Randle, Cauley-Stein, with Poythress and Dakari Johnson first off the bench.

Its going to be a quick start to the season, with 3 games by Tuesday: UNC-Ashville, Northern Kentucky on Sunday, and Michigan State on Tuesday, before a week off to prepare for dreaded rival, Robert Morris.

In many ways a loss to Michigan State would be good, both in eliminating the 40-0 pressure, and in showing how much work they still need to put in to get to Arlington in April. It was pretty easy to see how good the 11/12 team was early on in that season. Right now, before any real games have been played, I would say Randle and Young have what it takes, but the Harrisons (at least Aaron) are not quite there yet, and they will need more consistency from WCS and Johnson on both ends of the floor.

 
Randle will be the best player on the court when he plays this year,
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I admittedly have seen him a lot more than Parker and Wiggins, but I have a hard time believing there is a college freshman that is a better NBA prospect than Randle.

 
Randle looks like he's been playing in the NBA for 10 years.

Young's still a game-time decision, according to the latest on KSR (yowzah!).

 
As a Michigan State alum looking forward to next Tuesdays game. Should be a war.

 
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WampusCat43 said:
Randle looks like he's been playing in the NBA for 10 years.

Young's still a game-time decision, according to the latest on KSR (yowzah!).
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I did not even realize he was injured - but that link did get me to more Calipari quotes from yesterday (and more context to the comments above).

On the "disadvantage in playing MSU" it was more in the context of the Champions Classic, and the idea that UK always has a freshman dominated team, not MSU specifically. (Also in reference to UK starting up a similar "tourney" next year with UNC, Ohio State, and UCLA)

He did really hammer home the point of going with a 7-man rotation, talking about a conversation he had with Wooden a few years ago, about the importance of playing with a short bench.

ON IF POYTHRESS HAS FINALLY FELT THE SENSE OF URGENCY: “I don’t know. I mean, it hits kids at different times. I mean, he’s one of those kids, a straight-a student, you love him to death. You know…’I do everything right.’ Well, do a couple things wrong and play better. How ‘bout that?” :lol:

ON WHETHER THERE ARE ONE OR TWO GUYS HE NEEDS TO GET GOING: “We need to get a group of seven guys – maybe eight but more likely seven – playing together and let them play. That’s the main thing we gotta do. Just, let’s get those seven, get a rotation going and get them playing. You’ve got two point guards in that mix. You’ve got guys that can play two and three; you’ve got guys that can play three and four; you’ve got guys that can play five and four. So you can keep coming at any point. You’ve got enough post-up players. You’ve got enough shooters. Let’s go.

ON WHETHER HE WANTS THAT SEVEN-MAN ROTATION NOW OR IN MARCH: “No, we’re going to start seven, having a group of seven, and then: Is that the right seven? Does that change? Add or subtract? There’s foul trouble, there’s injuries, but we have a nice grouping of players that we have enough guys that we can start narrowing in. When you’re trying to build a team, when I talked to Coach Wooden in 2010 when he was still alive, and I asked him, ‘Did you watch my team?’ he said, ‘I really like your team.’ Well, you know what? I can’t get them to – they’re not quite a unit yet; they’re not this and (that). And he said, ‘You’re trying to play too many people.’ And he said, ‘In our time, you played six guys, maybe seven, and you fought in practice to become one of those six or seven. And if you didn’t, you were ready for your opportunity, but you weren’t in that six or seven. You have different deals now. Now you got recruiting, you got APR, you got all this transfer stuff. We didn’t have all that.’ And he’s right. But on the other side, he’s right. You can’t try to play 10 guys. Now, you can try to get 12 in the game, but in the heat of a game, you can’t play that many guys.”
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