Mind boggling

[BJD]

This has been discussed ad nauseam in the recruiting forum, but he isn't on a single draft board for this year and scouts have been as aware of his situation as college coaches.

In a year when we're going to need all the help we can get at guard, Cal wouldn't have accepted a commitment from a SG who isn't going to be here next season.

He will be on those draft boards now. It never was clear that he could be in this draft until now.

And the story is now that he plans to play here next season. I clearly said, "plans change".

[BJD]

We are not as good as UCLA yet, imo.
I like us against KU at Rupp.

Fastest team I have ever seen at UK and I've watched since the Issel days.

The SEC is hot garbage so it's tough to guage, but there is no doubt we are getting better. Going to be fun in April.

According to KenPom the '96 team played a faster pace than this team.

The Professor did the numbers and the '75 and '78 teams played faster.

[George]

He will be on those draft boards now. It never was clear that he could be in this draft until now.

And the story is now that he plans to play here next season. I clearly said, "plans change".

If, come spring, we see Cal scrambling for another SG, I'll wonder if something's up.

Otherwise, I'll take Cal and the kid at their word. If they're both saying he'll be here next season I see no reason not to believe them.

Cal knows the stakes. He wouldn't have gotten into this if he had doubts.

[BobS]

Diallo will be here next year. Good grief.

He didn't have to go to college for 3 months to get drafted if that is what he wanted.

I don't care about Ken Pom or who the Professor is. I was giving my impression.

[George]

Diallo will be here next year. Good grief.

He didn't have to go to college for 3 months to get drafted if that is what he wanted.

I don't care about Ken Pom or who the Professor is. I was giving my impression.

Exactly.

[Joneslab]

Diallo will be here next year and if he steps on the court and outplays Isaiah Briscoe then I'll eat BJD's hat.

Kid is a month removed from prep basketball. He isn't going to get in and outplay a guy averaging 15/4/4 and guarding the other team's best every night.

That's silly.

[uglyduckling]

This has nothing to do with the Cats but the thread title fits. Did anyone see that Nevada-New Mexico ending last night? That was absolutely insane. Nevada down 14 with a minute and change and came back and won in OT! Two of their players went all Reggie Miller on 'em.

[BJD]

Diallo will be here next year and if he steps on the court and outplays Isaiah Briscoe then I'll eat BJD's hat.

Kid is a month removed from prep basketball. He isn't going to get in and outplay a guy averaging 15/4/4 and guarding the other team's best every night.

That's silly.

I didn't say anything of the sort about him outplaying Briscoe. What's silly is your implying that I did.

[Joneslab]

I didn't say anything of the sort about him outplaying Briscoe. What's silly is your implying that I did.

From earlier in the thread:

He is immediately the 3rd best guard on our team without question. Only Fox and Monk are better.

[Joneslab]

I'm sorry, but beating up on weak sisters just doesn't impress me.

The weak sister we just beat was a 2-loss SEC team.

We play the same types of teams every year and have for the past two and a half decades. The SEC has been pretty down throughout that time with some flashes here and there.

So every UK team is playing virtually the same competition. Some UK teams don't beat up on those teams with such ease, and very rarely do any of those teams put up 95+ every night.

It's not like this team is the one suddenly playing mediocre competition after a string of other Kentucky squads got brutal comp every night. These guys are playing what everyone else has before them. In that context the point margin and ppg are useful tools to get a feel for how good they are historically.

Because if they weren't beating teams by that much and if they were struggling to score, I'll guarantee we'd have a forum full of people who would be ready to talk about it.

[teamchemistry15]

It's tough to tell playing in the SEC. We have a few top 40 teams on the schedule but I'm really looking forward to Kansas. If we come out and put 90 on the scoreboard against them and win by 15 I'll be sold this is one of the two best teams in the country. I still put UCLA ahead of us right now.

As someone mentioned earlier, this team just doesn't let off the gas. It's nice to finally see that from a Cal team. They play so fast it worries me that down the road if we have a close game Cal might slow it down like he likes to do and the guys won't know how to handle it. He, as crazy as it is to say for the first time, has three guards out there who he really doesn't have to worry about. They rebound, play solid on ball defense, and don't turn it over. I think that might make him think twice about over coaching in a close game down the stretch.

Diallo isn't playing this year. There's no way he's ready to come in day one, a month out of high school competition, in the middle of the season, and contribute. He'll make the guys better in practice and he'll benefit from going against the other guards tremendously. But he isn't playing this year and he isn't going pro.

[Joneslab]

UCLA seems to have slipped a notch the last two weeks or so. Not as dominant as they were earlier.

One thing to remember about UCLA is that they got that foreign trip. They had a huge head start on most of the other teams in the country like UK did two years ago. What you would hope about them is that they were playing their best in November/December and at some point they'll plateau.

When you have a point guard like Ball you can make runs at championships in this sport. So they're going to be there in the mix. But three weeks ago they were a machine. I watched them against Cal last week and they weren't quite on that level.

It may be just a mid-season wall.

[Wonderstruck]

We're probably not appreciating this team enough, but the opponents just aren't that fun to watch either, so hard to truly acknowledge what we're seeing.

[Joneslab]

We're probably not appreciating this team enough, but the opponents just aren't that fun to watch either, so hard to truly acknowledge what we're seeing.

This isn't aimed at you personally but rather just a general point, but I'll guarantee people would know what they were seeing if this team were struggling. We'd have all kinds of opinions and takes and analysis.

The most interest this particular board has gotten by far was after the UCLA game and the Louisville game. Then people had a crapload of takes and theories and ideas.

And I understand this. It's always been this way. I just think the message board is a good platform for venting of spleen and not a really good one for congratulatory kinds of posts where we talk about how good the team is. It kind of gets back to this idea that Kentucky should win games like this so it's all expected.

[Wonderstruck]

This isn't aimed at you personally but rather just a general point, but I'll guarantee people would know what they were seeing if this team were struggling. We'd have all kinds of opinions and takes and analysis.

The most interest this particular board has gotten by far was after the UCLA game and the Louisville game. Then people had a crapload of takes and theories and ideas.

And I understand this. It's always been this way. I just think the message board is a good platform for venting of spleen and not a really good one for congratulatory kinds of posts where we talk about how good the team is. It kind of gets back to this idea that Kentucky should win games like this so it's all expected.

It's a microcosm of life, IMO. I'm pretty sure there's a ton of studies out there that talk about how quickly we criticize and how slow we are to praise.

Just an odd example, but how often do we go to the store, get bad service, and write an angry email (heck, I did it the other day)? On the contrary, when do we ever actually ask to see a manager to give credit to an employee who gave great service?