"GAME THREAD." KENTUCKY FAVORED BY 5 VS ALABAMA

[JFCats22]

I'm telling you guys now and I have often spewed things about Cal but those wanting him gone are going to drastically hate what is coming down the pipeline. This era of Kentucky basketball has been fantastic and exciting in and out every year. Sure - I would want more titles. I want kids to stay longer, blah blah blah... I'm telling you. People screaming for Cal's head is going to be regretting that 2 and 3 year after.

People keep saying this but where are all these people saying cal should be fired/leave? I follow UK on message boards, facebook, twitter, etc...and I can point to less than a handful of times I have seen someone actually say Cal should leave.

I don't get where this notion comes from that a bunch of UK fans want Cal gone.

[J.Jennings]

No.

Cal has been very good at Kentucky but much of the criticism has been deserved. The problem is some Kentucky fans can't criticize with any subtlety, so everything has to be terrible and awful and falling apart. And we live in an era where everybody has his eye on the next coach, so at any sign of trouble fans start to wonder if somebody else could do it better. This is happening everywhere and not just at UK.

But going back to Saban, it's much harder to build a sort of dynasty in basketball. Players leave with much more frequency, and the sport is a lot more flukish. Anything can happen in basketball. Football has some surprises but generally the best athletes win. In basketball you're trying to throw a ball into a hoop. Chance and luck plays into the game a lot more.

Coach K is the only coach in the game who can approach Saban, and honestly it sort of looks like K and Saban have some of the same personality quirks.

Cal has some genius--his ability to motivate players, his willingness to try to be on the cutting edge of the game--but he isn't a coach's coach like Saban seems to be. Saban (and Coach K, obviously) also nails the living room stuff Cal does so you've got the best of both worlds: coaching and recruiting. That's how you build a juggernaut.

Dabo Swinney is approaching legendary status as well it seems.

I have been a little hard on Cal at times and for good reason but overall hard to argue the success he has had at Kentucky even though i think we missed one maybe two. What i need to realize is that both Saban or Coach K wins it all every year, so maybe Cal does deserve a little more benefit of the doubt. Each season isn't pretty with roster turnover but most of the time he has us right where we need to be....

[JFCats22]

I have been a little hard on Cal at times and for good reason but overall hard to argue the success he has had at Kentucky even though i think we missed one maybe two. What i need to realize is that both Saban or Coach K wins it all every year, so maybe Cal does deserve a little more benefit of the doubt. Each season isn't pretty with roster turnover but most of the time he has us right where we need to be....

Cal should have had AT LEAST one more title at UK argue 2 or 3 more maybe.

My biggest issue is his (seemingly) inability to adjust his recruiting methods the past few seasons.

Cal has had crazy success at UK - 4 Final Fours, 81% win %, etc... However, at this point I think you can divide the Cal era at UK into two parts - 2014/2015 team and earlier and then post 2014/2015 team.

2009-2015: 4 Final Fours, 83% win, top 5 recruits, program was the face of college basketball
2016-present: 0 Final Fours, 77% win, recruiting misses and struggle (relative to what he was doing), no longer the cool program, etc...

Maybe this year turns it around and he gets back to the Final Four, lands some top tier recruits, etc... but it seems like the program is heading the wrong direction from where it was. Granted, that was nearly an impossible level to sustain but it's pretty drastically going the other way.

[Joneslab]

Cal has had crazy success at UK - 4 Final Fours, 81% win %, etc... However, at this point I think you can divide the Cal era at UK into two parts - 2014/2015 team and earlier and then post 2014/2015 team.

2017 was a good team.

You can really paint Cal's tenure a lot of ways. If you want to be very benefit-of-the-doubty, you can say that Cal's only had the one bad year--a year in which we had a devastating injury. Even last year's team made that little run at the end.

If you want to be pessimistic then you'd discount Noel's injury, you'd chalk the Murray/Ulis team up as a dud, you'd not give credit for the 2017 team, and you would really hammer him for failing to win those titles.

I think if you add it all in together you've got a coach who's probably third all time here behind Rupp and Pitino and who has had a very, very good tenure so far--but not great because of the missed opportunities.

[Joneslab]

I actually think Cal and Bill Self are very similar in terms of what they've done at their respective schools.

I don't care what anyone says, that Big 12 run is crazy impressive.

But then you've got the early-tournament flame-outs and only one title for Self. For Cal you've got the horrid loss to Wisconsin and the UCONN sweep, plus the lack of a Final Four here recently.

Very similar coaches when you're talking legacy.

[J.Jennings]

Cal should have had AT LEAST one more title at UK argue 2 or 3 more maybe.

My biggest issue is his (seemingly) inability to adjust his recruiting methods the past few seasons.

Cal has had crazy success at UK - 4 Final Fours, 81% win %, etc... However, at this point I think you can divide the Cal era at UK into two parts - 2014/2015 team and earlier and then post 2014/2015 team.

2009-2015: 4 Final Fours, 83% win, top 5 recruits, program was the face of college basketball
2016-present: 0 Final Fours, 77% win, recruiting misses and struggle (relative to what he was doing), no longer the cool program, etc...

Maybe this year turns it around and he gets back to the Final Four, lands some top tier recruits, etc... but it seems like the program is heading the wrong direction from where it was. Granted, that was nearly an impossible level to sustain but it's pretty drastically going the other way.

Trust me, i sometimes get highly irritated at Cal with his coaching, his recruiting, his game rotations, his style of play, his smart a double s remarks after the games we lose that basically tells us fans to accept it and not complain. Still with all that being said, i still like Cal but do hope he can start landing those top players again, it goes along way....

[J.Jennings]

Here's what a little crazy about the Cal tenure in some ways for a whole lot of the fans, Cal has changed the UK culture in a way that was different before, now some fans just acccept that we are so so mediocre alot of the times and give Cal a free pass, it's almost as if he has changed the thought process for a lot of the fans now. Well dammit, i am old school and yes i want a Championship each and every year, anything less is unacceptable. Yes i know that is far fetched and crazy but whether it happens or not, you have to have that bull dog alpha mentality, finishing second is still not cool. Cal has been very good at selling fans that sometimes second is cool and that what's most important is that he changes lives and makes 19 year old kids millionaires but me personally, i don't buy into that bs.....

[Joneslab]

When I think of "mediocre" I think of a program like Georgia or somebody like that. Not Kentucky.

Kentucky has some mediocre performances but the program itself under Cal hasn't been close to mediocre. We have to be up there in the top three or four programs in America over this decade span.

Even in the last three or four years we've won conference titles and have won a lot of games. That isn't mediocrity.

The problem is you can't get to the point where you field a team that wins 28 games or so and gets to the Sweet 16 and then that's your plateau for multiple seasons. That's why this year is important; this would be year five without a Final Four. That's a long time--too long when you have one of the game's top-paid coaches.

[J.Jennings]

When I think of "mediocre" I think of a program like Georgia or somebody like that. Not Kentucky.

Kentucky has some mediocre performances but the program itself under Cal hasn't been close to mediocre. We have to be up there in the top three or four programs in America over this decade span.

Even in the last three or four years we've won conference titles and have won a lot of games. That isn't mediocrity.

The problem is you can't get to the point where you field a team that wins 28 games or so and gets to the Sweet 16 and then that's your plateau for multiple seasons. That's why this year is important; this would be year five without a Final Four. That's a long time--too long when you have one of the game's top-paid coaches.

From a business point of view and from the way it see it, at 8 to 9 million a year you damn sure better be playing for a Championship or earning your pay year in and year out, that's a whole lot of money...

Anyways, maybe mediocre isn't the correct word but something has changed, the K State loss last year was actually a bad loss in many ways, opened my eyes.....

[J.Jennings]

Good news is this, bad game at Alabama but that same Kentucky team that whipped up on North Carolina still exist somewhere's, can beat anyone on any given day. This team may not be the team that breaks all the records and runs through every opponent but it's still very dangerous and season is still young....

[Joneslab]

From a business point of view and from the way it see it, at 8 to 9 million a year you damn sure better be playing for a Championship or earning your pay year in and year out, that's a whole lot of money...

Who could Kentucky hire who could accomplish something like this? Bring John Wooden back from the dead maybe?

[Catsrock]

Who could Kentucky hire who could accomplish something like this? Bring John Wooden back from the dead maybe?

Scary thought Will. Reincarnated Wooden at UNC = 10 titles in 12 yrs. Reincarnated Wooden at UK = probation till the end of time.

[CATHYnKY]

Cats favored by 12 tonight. Wouldn’t that be nice

[Joneslab]

Cats favored by 12 tonight. Wouldn’t that be nice

Kentucky needs to win this one by more than 12. Texas A&M isn't very good.

[J.Jennings]

Who could Kentucky hire who could accomplish something like this? Bring John Wooden back from the dead maybe?

I don't think John Wooden was a great coach, he had the best players money could buy back in the day lol lol

To answer your question,who knows, we are stuck with Cal until he retires....