9 McDonald's All Americans. Only 5 can play at a time. That means, no matter what,..at any given time during a game Kentucky will have 4 McDonald's All Americans sitting on the bench.
Of course, during the recruiting process for this upcoming recruiting class, Calipari and his staff certainly could not have expected this type of unprecedented return in talent. Aaron and Andrew Harrison, Alex Poythress, Marcus Lee, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Dakari Johnson make for an amazing core by itself, but the �Cats also have four blue-chip recruits coming in. Trey Lyles, Karl Towns Jr., Devin Booker, and Tyler Ulis are each five-star recruits according to ESPN, and they are each one of the top five players at their position based on ESPN�s rankings. While many of them probably expected to start right away, there is now a log-jam for minutes at Kentucky.
"People jumping at money is not particular to basketball," Calipari writes in his most recent book, "Or sports. It's just part of the human condition. It's what most people do, given the opportunity. And by the way, we're not talking about money that's out there for getting involved in something criminal. No, what these kids are faced with is having a big pile of money put in front of them for something they already love -- playing basketball. Are you kidding me?" ____________________________________________
Sure, Coach Cal is no saint. He will, in his own words, forever wear the "black hat" as far as the NCAA, his peers, and much of the media are concerned. But in an operation that runs on pretense, and hypocrisy, and deceit, there's something to be admired about Calipari's brazen way of getting things done. Yes, he's going to recruit the best players in the world. Yes, he's going to help make them millionaires. And yes, he's far more concerned about their ball handling abilities and their quick first step than he is about whether they're still around for senior year. College basketball has become big business, and John Calipari is the ultimate tycoon. But at least he's living in reality, and not the absurd amateurist fantasy that the NCAA so desperately clings to.
He's left a trail of collateral damage in every place he's ever been.
My prediction is that he'll continue to win at Kentucky until the shtf and then he'll skip town and go to the NBA.
One thing is for sure, Kentucky is friggen loaded. It's almost unfair!
Things are changing in big time college sports,..and right now the NCAA infraction people are under the microscope.
If they don't completely hammer North Carolina, they will lose all legitimacy.
And,...to hammer them in a manner that goes by the rules, they're going to have to make NC vacate almost 2 decades worth of wins and championships,...which will never happen.
Big time college sports have outgrown the NCAA organization.
With the loaded talent they should be up by 20 over Buffalo.
I'm the least knowledgeable person re: basketball at the fire but if the five players for a team are not playing as a team they're in trouble. If you have five players fighting each other for the glory and the limelight you don't have a game, you have a free-for-all.
With the loaded talent they should be up by 20 over Buffalo.
I'm the least knowledgeable person re: basketball at the fire but if the five players for a team are not playing as a team they're in trouble. If you have five players fighting each other for the glory and the limelight you don't have a game, you have a free-for-all.
Youth is Kentucky's issue every year. This year is a bit different. There's a bit of experience back from last year, but there's a lot of freshmen also.
The freshmen don't really understand how aggressive the college game is and there's no way to explain it to them. They've got to get beat up a while before they know.
Buffalo has some big, aggressive players. It's a good learning experience.
In any event, Kentucky is up by double figures now,..so all is right with the world in the Bluegrass.
UK fans need to get excited about basketball. Though they are used to that. After the a$$rape they took against Tennessee last Saturday, as usual, the football team needs to wear brown paper bags over their heads for a month or so.
Calipari usually tries to be a bit diplomatic in the post game interview, but you could tell,..he just wanted to holler out, "WAS THAT AN ASS WHUPPIN' OR NOT?"
I don't shiv a git. As far as I'm concerned they can all dribble their ebonic axxes back to an african ebola infested jungle. What are these "stellar" monkeyshines "studying" in kolledge? Mahdik and white women? If you haven't noticed there is a war against white people by these sons of Obozo.... I won't give them the time of day much less my money. Ef'em all
Not at all - I would no more like to see that than to have it modeled after captialism where the team that invests the most and/or the most wisely is the most succesful.
I would like to see each team composed of students from the general student body who came to the school for a rigorous academic challenge and who participate in athletics as a diversion - just my preference.
do you think they'll go undefeated this season Bristoe?
I've yet to see them play but would like to, seems they have a NBA junior team playing against other colleges from what I've read of your postings this season.
do you think they'll go undefeated this season Bristoe?
It's looking more likely than before.
They jumped out to a 24 to 0 lead on UCLA yesterday,...held them to 7 points in the first half. After that Kentucky didn't even seem to be playing hard. I wouldn't exactly say that Cal has been holding the team back against some opponents, but it's obvious that he's not pushing them real hard either.
Word has it that the toughest games they play is during practice against each other.
The hardest game they've had all season was against Texas. Texas is big and plays very physical. That's the only way to come at this Kentucky team and have any hope of winning.
That *could* be the toughest game Kentucky plays all season. Louisville doesn't have the size or the talent of Kentucky but Pitino is a hell of a game coach and he understands how to play to his strengths.
Willy Cauly Stein is Kentucky's best all around player by a sizable margin,..a 7 footer that runs the floor like a 6'3" guard. On defense he's everywhere and he's very effective against every player from the guards to the center. But he's not particularly physical. He's no wimp,...far from it, but he plays a finesse game, which is very unusual for a 7 footer.
I look for Pitino to put somebody on him and play him rough.
Seems like he may be getting Harrell worked up for it.
I certainly haven't seen any great basketball so far. Has looked sort of like two main battle tanks who have crushed (literally) the rest of the field in the Indy 500 now grinding onward, colliding with each other, and in the end someone will say, "What a great race!"
Poor shot selection, poor shooting percentage on shots with room, turn-overs, lots of uncalled travels, lots of uncalled fouls. It is closely contested, but it isn't great basketball.
I don't shiv a git. As far as I'm concerned they can all dribble their ebonic axxes back to an african ebola infested jungle. What are these "stellar" monkeyshines "studying" in kolledge? Mahdik and white women? If you haven't noticed there is a war against white people by these sons of Obozo.... I won't give them the time of day much less my money. Ef'em all
Poor shot selection, poor shooting percentage on shots with room, turn-overs, lots of uncalled travels, lots of uncalled fouls. It is closely contested, but it isn't great basketball.
That's what physical basketball looks like.
Pitino's teams *al*ways play rough. That's why he's ranked #4 in the country with rather typical division 1 talent.
What you're witnessing is a finesse team (kentucky) having to find a way to win against a team that spend its free time in the weight room. Pitino knows that he can't win playing Kentucky's game, so he's doing what he has to do,..draw blood.
Kentucky, on the other hand, is having to adapt their play and toughen up.
Hell yes,...this is as good as college basketball gets.
If you want to see "pretty" basketball, you watch NBA. they don't play defense in the NBA.
Big time college basketball is based on defense,..and some of the best games are the most physical games.
The second half is going to get even more physical.
I don't disagree with any of your assement; I just don't think it is basketball but is some other contest played without regard to the rules of basketball. In any contact sport, you can play in such a way that it takes control of the game away from the officials - "They can't possibly call us every time we do this, so we'll continue to do it the way we want to do it."
Now it's starting to stink. The refs have allowed Louisville to play bruiser ball all the first half, now they're calling touch fouls against Kentucky.
It had it all,...hostile crowd,..chitty refs,...bloody players,..Kentucky's best big man in foul trouble most of the second half, and still beat the undefeated #4 ranked team in the country.
Tyler Ulis should be seeing more time at the point. That little guy's a player.
Kentucky won the game 58-50,...but you *know* you've been jobbed by the refs when the box score total show 20 fouls on Kentucky and only 16 on a team like Louisville,...who is known far and wide for its physical style of play.
lots of great defense in that game. RP is not looking too good these days.
Actually,...I have to disagree.
Pitino came in and made a game out of playing a team that stomped #5 ranked Kansas into the ground and held UCLA to 7 fuggin' points in the entire first half,...and he ain't got a name player on the team.
Pitino did okay.
3 or 4 possessions could have given him the victory.
He's a hell of a coach,....maybe he's not much of a human being,....but he does plenty enough to keep his job.
Actually, I meant health-wise. Post-game he had that look in his eyes that almost spells out heart problems. But then he is an excitable guy. And some of that might be my fault for sitting right behind his bench when the Knicks visited the Bullets. Washington fans were brutal towards Coach P.
Oh,...I didn't see the refs calling a real bad game. They put 2 fouls on Karl Towns and removed him from the first half of the game right off the bat. After that they allowed some contact on both ends of the floor until Coach Anderson threw his fit and got a technical. Then they tightened it up.
Oh,...I didn't see the refs calling a real bad game.
You had your Kentucky blinders on then. Kentucky was bigger and they let them maul Arkansas for the better part of the game. I will admit that I do not like the current way the game is called. They let the ball handler use his free arm way too much, to ward off the defense, and they do not call palming the ball near enough. But the main thing is that underneath the basket you can get by with assault, damn near, and out front they will call a touch foul. Your Kentucky big man with the funny name, got by with Chicken winging his man on damn near every play, and he had arms long enough to do it well. Another thing about the ref's, everywhere is they give the highest ranked team better calls than the underling. Not just Kentucky but even Arkansas when they are playing a lesser ranked opponent. It happens in football too. miles
20 personal fouls called on Arkansas, 19 on Kentucky, including 4 each on our post players.
Just because it comes out even in the box scores does not mean it was even on the floor. Kentucky had the best team, by far. I am in no way trying to dispute that. miles
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