re: Honest question for Kentucky fans(except for Mike, apparently)

Yeah, it's not easy to make an apples to apples comparison between the sports because of that stuff. Still, more often than not it's the Kentucky's Kansas' North Carolina's etc making those deep runs every year.

A point I've made numerous times on tRant when comparing Kentucky basketball to Alabama football is that if we had the benefit of being awarded championships the same way Alabama has (poll era, BCS, playoff etc) over the years, Kentucky would have upwards of 30 national titles. Instead, we've got 8 because we have to play in the tournament. Which, incidentally, is now coming to football

When you have seven guys on the NBA all star team and more players in the league than any other school you expect that talent to translate to championships. Look we know it is hard to win the NCAA. But we don’t expect double digit loss seasons, not sniffing the SEC championship or flaming out in the tournament. We sure as hell don’t expect NIT losses.
Cal has underachieved with the talent he has. That is obvious. Why has he? He was slow to recruit shooters, preferring athletes, he refused to change up defenses and his late game decisions are baffling. Every coach in the country fouls to keep a team from hitting a three to send the game into overtime. Except Cal. Every coach knows to call a timeout when the other team goes on a run, except Cal. He just sits there. He has his best players sitting on the bench at crunch time and he lets the best player on the other team have the ball when the game is on the line. No strategy, no denial.

I also wonder how Kansas, Duke & UNC get so many good players to return while we get guys leaving that go in the late first or even second round. Especially guys that could improve their draft stock.

Of course the Shaedon Sharp debacle still rankles. We had guys playing injured and he didn’t play that prick. Maybe we beat St Peters that way. But Cal cares about the NBA more than UK.

One win doesn’t change all this. I have no doubt Mississippi State thumps us. Cal & team will still be basking in beating Alabama. Just like after Auburn.

It is difficult to win 6 games in a row in March/April, but with the talent we have year in and year out, we should be getting to the second weekend every year, and we aren't even doing that consistently anymore.

Look at this year's team. Beat Auburn and Bama, but lose to LSU. I could see this team making a final 4 run, but I could also see them as a 5/6 seed losing to an 11/12. Mostly because I just don't trust Cal's coaching style anymore.

quote:

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You also have to remember that the top players...all have huge egos.

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and lots of money in today's world.

Back to Cal, so another thing that drives me crazy, and probably others, if I look at this year's team is defense. It's one thing to not want to play zone ever, but when your team is getting layup drilled, maybe you need to try something different, anything different.

Also, I look at a player like big Z. He has tons of potential, but can't get on the floor because of his defense. He's been on the team since October. Why is his defense not better in February? That's 5 months. Why is this teams total defense not better? Yes, they have been better the last week, but they should have been better on defense months ago.
Is that Cal? Is that player ego? Not sure, but his job is to manage all of it for his $9M a year.

That is definitely a fair point. The league is a lot more competitive now than it has ever been.

Still, we need tp be winning it more often than not. That is the standard here.

I get it, but Kentucky should not be coming back to the field. If anything we should be like Secretariat in the last 1/4 of the Derby holding a steady lead on Sham the entire way.

You can be Sham in this example.

Sham ran the second fastest Derby ever. The sham is Cal’s in game decision making. He is more like Shoemaker misjudging the finish line on Gallant Man in 1957. Had the best horse but screwed up. Only that was a one time thing for him, Cal miscoaches games end often.

You may have hit the nail on the head, Cap.

UK scored the most points in the history of the program Saturday...Discuss.