[outdoorsman43]

The five SEC road losses are by a combined 17 points (throw in the UNC loss early in the year and that is a combined 19 points). That's not bad people. In all of these games UK has come back to take the lead only to relinquish it back in the final minutes (or seconds in a couple of games). This team can/will/has to find a way to keep that from happening from here on out.

Kentucky has two more road games; Tennessee and Arkansas. Those are two winnable games and will be a great chance for this team to steal a couple of much-needed road games and build their confidence going forward.

[outdoorsman43]

At UK, 17-7 is definitely not good either, but I agree for a down year, you can't complain too much. Cal can't have too many years like this and survive here though.
But only having six players worthy of PT, is Cals fault since he IS the best recruiter in the nation, don't ya think? I know this would be a different story if Kanter was eligible, but Cal knew the risk with him too start with.

Coach Cal did lose seven players from the 2010 team. Losing Kanter killed this year's squad as well. Cal had to take the chance though (anyone would have taken that chance) because UK was in desperate need of another solid big man. Short of Jared Sullinger and Kanter, there really wasn't a great big man in the entire 2010 recruiting class (the 2008 and 2010 classes are probably two of the weaker classes I can remember). There really were no options for big men late in the recruiting trail last spring other than picking up Eloy Vargas, Kadeem Jack, or a few other no-name players.

I think Cal is doing the best job possible on the recruiting end of things. His game-coaching isn't like Coach K does it, but is still as good as we could ask for (I'm not about to argue about that junk for anymore for a while).

[RunItUpTheGut]

Calipari's first season here bought Calipari a longer leash than Billy G had.

Honestly, i believe Cals job at UK is his as long as he wants it.
Obviously it wouldnt be his if he had some losing seasons and such but thats never going to happen.
The SEC is for the most part always going to be weak and that will allow uk and cal to pick up atleast 20 wins a year and 25 most years.
His days of running threw an easy conference usa and getting 30 wins is over however but i really dont think uk will ever get rid of cal.
Winning or not, uk hasnt done it since 98 and for those of you counting, in a couple of years we will have high school kids and 18 year olds on this site posting that wasnt even born the last time uk won it all. I also think for the coaches that are out there and the ones uk would want to get, wont ever come making cal the best choice right now. all of the "good" coaches are at teams that they will retire at and uk wont risk losing top prospects every year for taking a chance on a guy who may or may not come in and do as good as cal.
Lets just hope we can get a couple of these guys to stay so we can do some damage next year. The Kanter situation really screwed us this year and you cant blame cal for only playing 6 players with the bench we have because the others will never be able to compete with the big boys.

[outdoorsman43]

For those of you that believe Calipari will be fired or forced to resign from UK because of his record, you are fooling yourselves.

[dangerousdaneerfan]

My gosh people. Is it really that bad?

We have SIX players that are worth a half of a ****! The six players that we have are very good, but playing them 35+ minutes per game is going to make them tired, but what choice do we have? Coach Cal said after the game, "I played Brandon too many minutes. But I didn't have any other choice."

17-7 isn't that bad. We will make the NCAA Tournament. I don't know why that's even being questioned. If this is going to be considered as a down year in Kentucky basketball under Coach Calipari then I'm one **** happy camper with him as the Commonwealth's coach.

Cal was hired to win 30 games and go to Final Four's. He was not hired to be a mid-tier team in the lousy $EZ and just make the Big Dance.

[outdoorsman43]

Cal was hired to win 30 games and go to Final Four's. He was not hired to be a mid-tier team in the lousy $EZ and just make the Big Dance.

Nice to have standards like that isn't it? Oh, you wouldn't know.

[Spud6]

I didn't get to watch the game. But I did listen to a couple minutes of the first half. And it seemed to me that UK came out and was playing very well. So I thought we had it in the bag. But apparently we didn't. And also I knew Knight had a big first half I believe.

[LWC]

This is unusual for me, but here it goes. I want to go on record saying this:
"John Calipari will bring a Final Four to Lexington within 4 years."

I usuall don't do that, and I am usually the last to defend him. He was the same coach last year, as he is this year. When a team wins, the coach did it right, when they lose, they didn't. To be fair to most, I am right there with y'all saying that he is not a good in-game coach. Maybe I am just spoiled because Tubby is one of the best X's and O's coaches in the NCAA right now, and I knew watching then that he would call the right play when it mattered.

Cal brings in the talent and he manages it well while they are at UK. Look how well he did with Cousins, NOW look what Cousins is doing in the NBA, another chemistry breaking incident with my Kings. I am not saying he develops it well over a 4-year period but nobody in the game manages ego's, emotion's or inexperience better than Cal.

[Stardust]

This is unusual for me, but here it goes. I want to go on record saying this:
"John Calipari will bring a Final Four to Lexington within 4 years."

I usuall don't do that, and I am usually the last to defend him. He was the same coach last year, as he is this year. When a team wins, the coach did it right, when they lose, they didn't. To be fair to most, I am right there with y'all saying that he is not a good in-game coach. Maybe I am just spoiled because Tubby is one of the best X's and O's coaches in the NCAA right now, and I knew watching then that he would call the right play when it mattered.

Cal brings in the talent and he manages it well while they are at UK. Look how well he did with Cousins, NOW look what Cousins is doing in the NBA, another chemistry breaking incident with my Kings. I am not saying he develops it well over a 4-year period but nobody in the game manages ego's, emotion's or inexperience better than Cal.

I like what you have written LWC, nice job. There is more to being a great coach than just X's & O's, just as much as there is more to coaching than just bringing in 5* recruits. I'd love to see a better balance. I'd like to see the in-game adjustments get better. I'd like to see the most critical minutes of the game be managed better. Bottom-line, I'd like to see the kids put into position to win games.

A guy like Pitino not only took one of the best teams in NCAA history to the promise land in 1996, he also took a group of no-names deep into the tournament. That was all done by making adjustmenst and not relying on the exact same style that you have always played. I went through that for years with Huggins at UC. The Bearcats played one way and that was the only way. They never altered their defensive style or played to the natural strengths of the offensive abilities of the players at hand. I have seen Cal's history be this same way. He refuses to play a zone, even when he acknowledges that he is only playing 6 guys. He insists on playing the dribble drive, when he has players on the floor that are not capable of doing it well (This is in his history, not just at UK). He relies on the exact same plays in the exact same situations every time.

As for your comment about the Final four, I agree. The Cats during Cals time will make it to the Final Four and should do it quite a few times. But it will be based on talent being so much better than other teams. There will be many UK teams like last years talent, where all you have to do is roll the ball out onto the floor and the Cats will win 30 games. My fear is when the Cats get into a "dog-fight", they won't have the leader that wills them to win!

[Hoot Gibson]

I like what you have written LWC, nice job. There is more to being a great coach than just X's & O's, just as much as there is more to coaching than just bringing in 5* recruits. I'd love to see a better balance. I'd like to see the in-game adjustments get better. I'd like to see the most critical minutes of the game be managed better. Bottom-line, I'd like to see the kids put into position to win games.

A guy like Pitino not only took one of the best teams in NCAA history to the promise land in 1996, he also took a group of no-names deep into the tournament. That was all done by making adjustmenst and not relying on the exact same style that you have always played. I went through that for years with Huggins at UC. The Bearcats played one way and that was the only way. They never altered their defensive style or played to the natural strengths of the offensive abilities of the players at hand. I have seen Cal's history be this same way. He refuses to play a zone, even when he acknowledges that he is only playing 6 guys. He insists on playing the dribble drive, when he has players on the floor that are not capable of doing it well (This is in his history, not just at UK). He relies on the exact same plays in the exact same situations every time.

As for your comment about the Final four, I agree. The Cats during Cals time will make it to the Final Four and should do it quite a few times. But it will be based on talent being so much better than other teams. There will be many UK teams like last years talent, where all you have to do is roll the ball out onto the floor and the Cats will win 30 games. My fear is when the Cats get into a "dog-fight", they won't have the leader that wills them to win!

:Thumbs: Some of the most talented teams in the history of NCAA basketball never won championships because of bad bench coaching. Three that come to mind are Steve Fisher's Michigan Fab Five teams (Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson), Guy Louis's Houston Phi Jamma Slamma teams (included Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, and Michael Young), and Jerry Tarkanian's 1990-91 Runnin' Rebels (undefeated regular season with 4 NBA first round draft picks and 1 second rounder).

Although Tarkanian did manage to blowout Duke for one NCAA title, he always relied on signing talent over player development and Xs and Os. Tark's coaching shortcomings were exposed when he accepted the head coaching position at San Antonio in 1992-93 and was fired after only 20 games and a 9-11 record. John Lucas (who had also never coached in the NBA) took over two games later, posted a 39-22 record and led the talented Spurs team into the playoffs.

I think that Calipari is a Tarkanian-type coach, although at UK he will not need to resort to recruiting the many "troubled" type of players that UNLV signed. If he can come close to matching Tark's winning percentage at UK, Cats' fans will tolerate losing some winnable games along the way.

[Aslan]

For those of you that believe Calipari will be fired or forced to resign from UK because of his record, you are fooling yourselves.

Agreed.

Nice to have standards like that isn't it? Oh, you wouldn't know.

:lmao: :Thumbs:

This is unusual for me, but here it goes. I want to go on record saying this:
"John Calipari will bring a Final Four to Lexington within 4 years."

I usuall don't do that, and I am usually the last to defend him. He was the same coach last year, as he is this year. When a team wins, the coach did it right, when they lose, they didn't. To be fair to most, I am right there with y'all saying that he is not a good in-game coach. Maybe I am just spoiled because Tubby is one of the best X's and O's coaches in the NCAA right now, and I knew watching then that he would call the right play when it mattered.

Cal brings in the talent and he manages it well while they are at UK. Look how well he did with Cousins, NOW look what Cousins is doing in the NBA, another chemistry breaking incident with my Kings. I am not saying he develops it well over a 4-year period but nobody in the game manages ego's, emotion's or inexperience better than Cal.

I do agree.

[vundy33]

Final

Kentucky Won't Make The NCAA Tournament, If They Do They will be Out After The 1st RD and It Stinks Really Badly

You are drunk.

[Strikeout King]

You are drunk.

i thought they were 16-7 i didn't see that they were 17-7 til after i posted that.