Just Thinking

[DA#23]

As Coach Calipari enters his 11th season, I feel reminded just how quickly time flies. The amount of attention that I pay to the program certainly has changed and the amount of time I spend watching the sport in general has changed as well. I check our site (it is OUR site) and KSR daily, but I must admit that with an odd work schedule I see probably less than 10 games a year. I also have grown annoyed with our roster turnover rates now that transfers have become nearly as common as early draft declarations. 2 years seems to be the maximum a player will stay here, regardless of their growth or lack thereof, and we now have slid into the number 2 spot recruiting wise. 20 years ago a recruiting class with more than 5 players would seem unheard of...now it is a necessity.

I think like our fans Coach Calipari seems to have grown somewhat burnt out. I watched this decent interview from his first year now and found it eye-opening. I hate to be that person, but after viewing this I feel unpleasantly confident that we might not see another FF with Coach Cal. I feel very confident he will not win a second championship here. It's just...not the same anymore and he has lost that energy when he speaks. I don't want him fired or anything crazy like that, but a change in the assistant coaches should be considered seriously.

View it for yourself. I hope I'm completely wrong.

[DA#23]

[DA#23]

[DA#23]

[DA#23]

[justford]

Who would of thought that Memphis would have the number one recruiting class??

[40bill]

It's really not Cals fault....he just rode the wave of college basketball change. Us 'elderly' were kinda lost a while ago. These top kids are amazingly talented, and for the vast majority give it all......but there's just a -meh- feeling that one year is about it....and two years makes some of these guys feel like failures.
Just that wheel rolling.....New fans come up and this is the norm. The rest of us either come on board, sit and stew, find another sport or well shucks spend family time or go fishin'.
It ain't just UK fans......all the big players are going through the same thing.
Just change.
If the NFL went to high school or frosh drafts, football would face the same thing.

[Joneslab]

It's really not Cals fault....he just rode the wave of college basketball change. Us 'elderly' were kinda lost a while ago. These top kids are amazingly talented, and for the vast majority give it all......but there's just a -meh- feeling that one year is about it....and two years makes some of these guys feel like failures.
Just that wheel rolling.....New fans come up and this is the norm. The rest of us either come on board, sit and stew, find another sport or well shucks spend family time or go fishin'.
It ain't just UK fans......all the big players are going through the same thing.
Just change.
If the NFL went to high school or frosh drafts, football would face the same thing.

The thing is, though, when it really works there's not a meh feeling. We won a championship behind those one-year players.

The meh feeling comes in when we stop getting those players. If you're going to run it this way, you really need to be able to (1) recruit the very top echelon, and (2) have some cohesion so that you can have some semblance of upperclassmen. Both (1) and (2) have slipped a bit, and that's when the meh comes in.

But Kentucky had a team that could have easily won a title last year. Same with the Monk/Fox year. So I don't really agree that we won't get to another Final Four. Also, two pretty flawed teams (the Knight team, the Julius Randle team) made a Final Four, with one of those playing for a title. So you really never know how a team is going to click.

But it is definitely true Cal is definitely not building juggernauts like he was pretty much doing in his first four or five years here. That's what we may be done with: his ability to put together teams like the 2012 bunch. Like Matt says, I've thought for the past couple of years that he may not have the fire that he once did.

[Lighthouse]

While I somewhat agree Cal has lost some energy, I believe the change has been in the kids deciding where they go to prepare for the next level. I fully expect Memphis to flame out this year for the same reason Duke did last year. They think they're the best and winning a NC is automatic. Duke didn't with a quality coach, and UM has an unproven coach.

[Blue Heaven]

One and dones or not, it is extremely hard to get to the FF or win a Title. A LOT of luck goes into it. Look at Texas Tech. No way they were more talented than us or dUKe or UNC. It just happened to work out for them. My problem with Cal is that he seems to be loyal to a fault. It costs us games every year.

[Joneslab]

I heard more than a few people during the Anthony Davis year saying we'd never go to the Final Four with the way Cal recruited one-and-dones.

I would never put a "we'll never" into a sentence about college basketball just like I'd never say "we'll always be in the top ten under Cal" or whatever. Sport's way too unpredictable.

One thing that is really hard to envision, though: Cal pulling together a recruiting class where we get the top player at each position, like we were pretty much doing a few years ago. He's not on that level as a recruiter anymore, probably for a lot of reasons. Could be that his fire doesn't burn as bright now, but also I think it has a lot to do with how the college hoops world has flattened out and there are so many more destinations for these one-and-dones to go.

[Lighthouse]

I heard more than a few people during the Anthony Davis year saying we'd never go to the Final Four with the way Cal recruited one-and-dones.

I would never put a "we'll never" into a sentence about college basketball just like I'd never say "we'll always be in the top ten under Cal" or whatever. Sport's way too unpredictable.

One thing that is really hard to envision, though: Cal pulling together a recruiting class where we get the top player at each position, like we were pretty much doing a few years ago. He's not on that level as a recruiter anymore, probably for a lot of reasons. Could be that his fire doesn't burn as bright now, but also I think it has a lot to do with how the college hoops world has flattened out and there are so many more destinations for these one-and-dones to go.

And a lot more money to influence them, which I think Cal wants no part of.

[KCKUKFan]

We were an overtime away from a Final Four a month and a half ago.

There obviously has been a bit of a drop-off since Cal's first five years, but the game and the kids have changed a lot since the early 10s. Cal has adapted pretty well, all things considered, I'd say.

[GOCAT15]

We have had a legit contender almost every year Cal has been here. Anyone that is complaining about the last 10 seasons sure has a short memory. Sure, I wish we could’ve squeaked our another NC or two but we should still feel lucky. The only season that makes my stomach turn in the season that we all can’t forget, I do put that loss to Wiscy on Cal.

[Jload]

If Cal is playing by the rules, and there is no reason to believe otherwise, it’s pretty obvious why he isn’t getting the top guys anymore. One only needs to read the news headlines to see the tip of a very corrupt recruiting iceberg. Lots of cheating payoffs and malfeasance at the highest level where the top recruits are involved. If you aren’t willing to play that game you are gonna lose some players. Do I think Cal has lost some fire, no. Watching him rave like a madman on the sidelines in many games this season he looked pretty engaged to me. His biggest issue IMO is he has created an environment here where kids simply will not stay here more than 2 years , unless the are Kentucky born. That is a problem and I don’t see him winning another title till he solves it