Utah vs Kentucky Game Thread,

[KCKUKFan]

Believe we talk a little too much about "talent" as Kentucky fans.

Bill Walton, for all his bizarre rambling last night, made a great point: Kentucky is talented, but he said he worried about our skill level.

I think a lot of times the edges between talent and skill get blurred. They're different.

Talent is upside. Skill is about the right now.

Talent muddies up the water because it makes people say things like, "They're so talented, I can't believe they're playing like this!"

But I'm more concerned about skill. A guy like Kahlil Whitney, for instance, has an ungodly lack of skill. Even a player like Hagans, who's really talented, lacks in some of the really necessary skill categories.

This is true and its a reason why Ive wondered why a couple of the NBA guys didnt perform that way at Kentucky.

[Dwight Schrute]

In reality, we were outmanned in those late era Tubby games. Just didnt have the horses.

This is still a very talented roster. Theres no reason we shouldnt be able to beat Ohio State from a pure personnel level. Sure, we dont have the talent that Cals better UK teams have had, but the cupboard isnt close to bare, either.

The general malaise might be a fair comparison, but comparing the states of the programs then and now is not, and is the result of being incredibly spoiled.

Weve been an OT and a buzzer beater away from a FF in two of the last four years. The end of Tubbys tenure wasnt nearly as sunny.

Well sure on paper we match up with Ohio State. But it doesn't pass the eye test. There's nothing this team does well.

And I know we've been painfully close twice in the last 4 years, but at no point in either of those two games did it really feel like we were going to win.

We'll see how next year looks - we can talk about being spoiled but Cal gets paid an awful lot to deliver and right now, he's not doing it. I'm not at the 'fire Cal' point but I think he's not getting it done. Maybe this team will pull it together, but it really looks like another Cal team with missing pieces that is gonna have to overachieve to get where we all want it to be.

[KCKUKFan]

We'll see how next year looks - we can talk about being spoiled but Cal gets paid an awful lot to deliver and right now, he's not doing it. I'm not at the 'fire Cal' point but I think he's not getting it done. Maybe this team will pull it together, but it really looks like another Cal team with missing pieces that is gonna have to overachieve to get where we all want it to be.

This is fair.

[Dwight Schrute]

This team is probably no different than Tubby's last two. Maybe a little worse.

The difference is that Tubby had guys like Morakinyo Williams coming in the next year. At least now you can have a little hope that there's some talent coming in down the road.

I'm okay with raw teams if I know that the next year might be different. But the longer you get from a national championship every fan is inevitably going to start wondering if Cal peaked back in 2015.

And then you have this other issue with Cal which is the fact that he's reassembling teams every year. I've always been okay with that because I think I don't mind one-and-dones as much as most Kentucky fans, but major problems start to crop up you start having to piecemeal teams together in the summer.

I started a thread here back around June where I argued that the way Cal is building teams now is ludicrous. I think what we're seeing on the court is a byproduct from the desperate, scattered, haphazard way he had to Frankenstein this roster together.

I mean no disrespect to Nate Sestina, but I genuinely don't feel that he's a player that UK fans ought to be curious about. His injury should have been of no consequence to our team.

[Ratt]

That decision was good for Johnson maybe but therein lies the problem with Kentucky basketball right now.

We need players to start making decisions that are good for Kentucky.

All these teams that win titles have players like that who come back. Kentucky's had a few but they really become important when you aren't getting Anthony Davis types.

So many comments that I agree with... With this one - this will not happen. As we all know, it's the model of college basketball now. It's a culture thing. Kids are not going to stay in college any longer than they have to in hopes of signing that first NBA contract. When the NBA does away with the 1 and done rule - then a lot of these kids are going to jump straight to the NBA and get lost in the G/D/F league and most will probably never make it.

As for Keldon - He would have been a godsend for for this team. He could shoot and drive a little and of course, his terrible defense would have fit right in. They would have done their best to make him a star like their trying to do with Hagans. I said 8 to 10 losses after the first game or two. When Richards is your leading scorer - you should know the team is in trouble. Maxey is a train wreck. I think he takes worse shots than Goodwin did.

[Dwight Schrute]

So many comments that I agree with... With this one - this will not happen. As we all know, it's the model of college basketball now. It's a culture thing. Kids are not going to stay in college any longer than they have to in hopes of signing that first NBA contract. When the NBA does away with the 1 and done rule - then a lot of these kids are going to jump straight to the NBA and get lost in the G/D/F league and most will probably never make it.

As for Keldon - He would have been a godsend for for this team. He could shoot and drive a little and of course, his terrible defense would have fit right in. They would have done their best to make him a star like their trying to do with Hagans. I said 8 to 10 losses after the first game or two. When Richards is your leading scorer - you should know the team is in trouble. Maxey is a train wreck. I think he takes worse shots than Goodwin did.

What's going to happen is that there will be an initial flurry of kids going straight to the NBA, the majority of which as you said will get lost in the Gatorade League and wind up overseas. After a year or three of this, things will go back to the way they were, with a lot of kids (with the likely exception of the extreme talents) realizing they're better off in college and we'll effectively have one and done again.

[Lighthouse]

Do you believe their reasoning for reviewing it?

Yes, that was a reviewable situation. I knew it was the wrong call because the defensive player was not within the arc.

[lilproUK98]

Yes, that was a reviewable situation. I knew it was the wrong call because the defensive player was not within the arc.

But do you believe that they actually had doubt where the defender was? He was clearly not even close to the restricted area, yet they used it as an excuse to review and change the call. Maybe they were so incompetent that they weren't paying attention to where the defender was standing....

[DA#23]

I would love to have Antigua return to our staff.

[Jload]

I would love to see John Robic on staff again, solid fundamentals guy and I think Cal actually listened to him for in game council

[Lighthouse]

But do you believe that they actually had doubt where the defender was? He was clearly not even close to the restricted area, yet they used it as an excuse to review and change the call. Maybe they were so incompetent that they weren't paying attention to where the defender was standing....

Of course there's no way to tell what they were thinking, but the official who made the call was to far from the play and there were players blocking his view. I don't like the monitor at all, but this time they got it right.

[Lighthouse]

I would love to have Antigua return to our staff.

I would too.

[Matt Dillon]

I would love to see John Robic on staff again, solid fundamentals guy and I think Cal actually listened to him for in game council

I thought Robic was still with the program?

[Joneslab]

John Robic is a special assistant. You see him every game sitting right behind Cal. In the Georgia Tech game he almost got T'd up for arguing with the refs.