re: Coach Cal MUST win next years championship?

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Like every year for Cal, it's still going to be ridiculously difficult to get 8 or 9 guys to play as a team when they were recruited under the promise of playing in the NBA after one year.

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Yeah, but this year is different. This is the most talent he has brought in since Wall and Cousins, and this group is much deeper with talent than that one.

FWIW I follow UK basketball under Cal and their recruiting efforts pretty closely

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Look at Chad Ford's 2014 Mock draft. You'll find 7 UK players listed in the 1st round...

I understand its one and done (no pun) in the tournament. But a team that loaded....especially if you get Wiggins. You have to get it done.

I'm not saying Cal would be a bad coach. I'm not saying his job should be in jeopardy. Just that people will come down HARD on UK if they dont win with that amount of talent.

Its viewed as the BEST recruiting class EVER (at least in the modern era)

Win it all UK...

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That's fine, but if the game was dependent on talent alone, Kentucky would not have been in the NIT this year... and lost in the first round to Robert Morris...

Mid-majors wouldn't be a factor at all on the national stage...

Low-majors would never advance past the first round of the tourney...

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I agree with what youre saying about talent not being everything in college basketball, but this group is different man. Just wait and see

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If they get Wiggins, it might be the best recruiting class in the histroy of college sports on paper

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I watched the the McDonald's game, they didn't look like Men among boys compared to the other guys on the court going else where, they are talented no doubt, but there is a lot of hype behind them as well because they are all going to play together.

We've seen this before...

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You're absolutely right brother man. But this group is deeeeep with talent. And Poythress, Cauley-Stein, and Wiljter are no joke in their own right.

It's the depth that has me excited about this group. It's going to be tough for anybody to run with them for 40 minutes

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Yeah, because there has never been a team with talent and depth that was said to be "unbeatable" never to win anything either...



It was said to be foolish and tough for anyone to run with those guys for 40 minutes as well.

NBA HOFers on that roster... Beat by a bunch of nobodies for the NC...

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Alright Encyclopedia Jones, .

I'm 19 and a huge basketball fan, just let me be excited about the biggest assembly of talent on one team in my lifetime.

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I watched the fab 5, I watched Webber call the time out his team didn't have, they were a talented team, a good team, but never won anything. These guys coming in are not better than those guys were, even as freshmen.

Something else is those guys played years together and never won anything, you expect these guys to do what they couldn't while being perfect in one year...

Phi Slamma Jamma was a team of several players from different classes, not just one recruiting class, but they were a "class" of their own as a team.

The UNLV team of the early 90s with Larry Johnson, Stacy Augmon, and Greg Anthony is another team that was absolutely stacked with NBA talent and actually did win the NC running over people including blowing out Duke in the NC game. They lost in the rematch the following year, which was considered a huge upset at the time.

Those were different times man. You didnt see a whole lot of one and dones in those days. Now it's rare to see a talented team with mostly upperclassmen. It's a sophmore/freshman dominated game.

UK won the last time they had a couple of guys stick around with a stacked class coming in, and this year they have 3 solid guys there with the best class Cal has brought in on the way.

I think there is some substance to the hype. But, we will just have to wait and see

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Those were different times man. You didnt see a whole lot of one and dones in those days. Now it's rare to see a talented team with mostly upperclassmen. It's a sophmore/freshman dominated game.

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You are correct, the game was better, the players were better.

Just because the guys are leaving after one year doesn't mean they are better than the players back then were.

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UK won the last time they had a couple of guys stick around with a stacked class coming in, and this year they have 3 solid guys there with the best class Cal has brought in on the way.

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The guys who stuck around were good enough to make it to the Final Four, not lose in the first round of the NIT.

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The guys who stuck around at UK after this year werent the guys who caused most of that teams problems, FWIW.

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But it is a given that all of the new-comers and their egos will get along just fine next year...

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their egos

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I really don't know where all this ego crap is coming from. Literally everything I've read is how well they're getting along and how theyre ok with coming off the bench if they have to and how they just want to win. Obviously things can change once the season starts, but there's no basis for the ego argument at this point.

Coach Cal needs to win to be held to the standard that Kentucky is holding this man too. He isn't Coach K or Tom Izzo or even a Pitino or Roy Williams. But for some reason Kentucky fans have him held to this great X's and O's guy when he is just an average basketball coach but a great recruiter (or a great spender). Either way he is great at assembling talent but is not a great college coach.