2021 Transfer Portal Thread

[Dwight Schrute]

Man, John Calipari just savaged Illinois’ coaching staff. Respect.

[George]

Man, John Calipari just savaged Illinois’ coaching staff. Respect.

Yeah, it’s a pretty big move, full stop. Next season is still up in the air because of the PG situation, but if things don’t go horribly and the fanbase is willing and able to see the value in these moves, we should be back in business in ‘22-‘23.

And I’m not throwing in the towel for next season already. But until we have some clarity on the PG spot, there’s no way to be optimistic.

[GOCAT15]

Yeah, it’s a pretty big move, full stop. Next season is still up in the air because of the PG situation, but if things don’t go horribly and the fanbase is willing and able to see the value in these moves, we should be back in business in ‘22-‘23.

And I’m not throwing in the towel for next season already. But until we have some clarity on the PG spot, there’s no way to be optimistic.

If we can just make the tourney, even as an 8 or 9 seed I can be ok with that if we know the future is bright. But I’m not sure the majority of the fanbase feels the same.

[Jload]

The future is not “ bright” right now, how can anybody say it is. The players meet for summer workouts in less than a month and we don’t have a point guard. In point of fact we don’t have but one guard on squad that has started more than 2 college basketball games. Everyone was saying at end of season including Cal that we would clean up in the transfer portal and our roster would be settled by May. Now all I hear is we will just have to wait until mid July or early August to really know who will be here. Of course this conveniently ignores the prime exscuse Cal used to explain last season. He harped all season how Covid had interrupted the critical process he usually went through each summer of bonding and team building with all the new players. Guess that will not happen this summer either so we can acknowledge that 1 he was exaggerating the importance of this process, or 2 we are in deep kimshee. I don’t really understand HOW Cal went from the confident dynamo who came here to the whiny indecisive defensive guy we have now. Maybe somebody on the inside will write a book someday and explain it. It’s pretty obvious given the last season and the offseason however that Cal has lost his mojo ,bigtime.

[DA#23]

It's a sinking ship.

[Joneslab]

The future is not “ bright” right now, how can anybody say it is. The players meet for summer workouts in less than a month and we don’t have a point guard. In point of fact we don’t have but one guard on squad that has started more than 2 college basketball games. Everyone was saying at end of season including Cal that we would clean up in the transfer portal and our roster would be settled by May.

There might be some things settled by the end of May but anybody with half a brain could see that early May couldn’t logically happen. We’re after players in the NBA Draft right now.

There was some kind of statement from Cal that he wanted to get things settled quickly, but I don’t remember him giving a timeline. Not do I remember him saying he would “clean up.”

If you’re pursuing players who are making NBA decisions, how long do you think it’s going to take?

[DA#23]

There might be some things settled by the end of May but anybody with half a brain could see that early May couldn’t logically happen.

Bull hockey.

He made a statement suggesting he would try to hit the transfer market hard as though it would be a shift of target for the program. He suggested it would be in addition to trying to land the best high school players.

Timeline? No.

Suggesting that it would happen and that a shift in program targets could happen, YES.

This currently is a tailspin.

[Joneslab]

He made a statement suggesting he would try to hit the transfer market hard as though it would be a shift of target for the program. He suggested it would be in addition to trying to land the best high school players.

Yes, and? Jload's saying something radically different than this.

Just generally, how in the world is Jload's "clean up by May" thing even going to happen? Explain it to me. I'll sit here and listen intently.

I'm not taking up for Calipari. As I've said, don't care if he leaves tomorrow. But let's go into an explanation, logically, about how what Jload is running out is even remotely possible when you've got players who have their names in the draft.

I get wanting things to be settled but when you've got players who literally cannot commit to college programs it makes it a little hard, don't you think?

[Joneslab]

If we can just make the tourney, even as an 8 or 9 seed I can be ok with that if we know the future is bright. But I’m not sure the majority of the fanbase feels the same.

The problem with this is that we can't know for sure that the season after this next one is going to be great.

If someone had a crystal ball and they said, "Okay, Kentucky will be an 8 seed and be knocked out in the first round next season, but the season after that they'll be in the Final Four," you would obviously take that.

But you can't have that guarantee, so what we might get is an 8 seed this year...and an 8 seed next year...and then all of a sudden we're back into the tail-end of the Tubby Smith years.

I'm always the type of fan that wants to win right now because the future is always this great unknown. I don't care about two years from now, I want to see what Cal and the staff can do with this coming team. Because like you say, I don't think the fanbase is going to be that forgiving of an 8-seed type of year, regardless of what's coming down the pike recruiting-wise.

Calipari is in make or break territory right now IMO.

[Dwight Schrute]

Will, I understand where you're coming from. But Calipari recognizing the problem is the first step and assuming these two new assistant hires come through, it's a good start.

I don't know how next year will play out - if we don't have a point guard my guess is 'not well.' But he's made a good lunge at changes just by virtue of improving the staff.

[Joneslab]

Apparently Matt Jones had some interesting things to say on the radio yesterday about Joel Justus.

He said that Justus was overly optimistic about recruiting to the point where it made it seem like UK was going to get everybody, and thus the local UK media reported on it as if UK was in the lead for all these players. Then we would miss and it would seem like UK lost, when in reality Kentucky wasn't even really that involved. He said it added to this perception that Calipari was losing recruiting battles over and over when that really didn't match what was actually happening in most cases.

I've long felt that Kentucky wasn't really deeply involved in several players that the crazzeds of the world swear UK lost on. You can kind of tell when Kentucky is really in with a guy and when they're just interested. You can also almost always tell when a player has serious interest in UK. There are exceptions to this of course, and Bam Adebayo would be high up on that list as a player who just came out of nowhere. But more often than not you can read between the lines and see that Kentucky isn't really in most of these recruiting wars.

[justford]

Just going from interviews, many of the players stated they were in contact with the head coach of whatever school was recruiting them. Very rarely did they mention Cal as it was usually one of our assistant coaches. If true, does this need to change?

[Joneslab]

Just going from interviews, many of the players stated they were in contact with the head coach of whatever school was recruiting them. Very rarely did they mention Cal as it was usually one of our assistant coaches. If true, does this need to change?

This is actually the case everywhere. The assistant is going to be the contact person throughout most of the recruitment. The head coach is generally the closer.

It does seem like Kentucky hasn't put on those full-court assaults with players like we saw back in the day recently. Of course COVID has severely hindered this, but I do wonder if Cal simply hasn't had the energy he once had. Five or six years ago he was everywhere all the time.

[Dwight Schrute]

Apparently Matt Jones had some interesting things to say on the radio yesterday about Joel Justus.

He said that Justus was overly optimistic about recruiting to the point where it made it seem like UK was going to get everybody, and thus the local UK media reported on it as if UK was in the lead for all these players. Then we would miss and it would seem like UK lost, when in reality Kentucky wasn't even really that involved. He said it added to this perception that Calipari was losing recruiting battles over and over when that really didn't match what was actually happening in most cases.

I've long felt that Kentucky wasn't really deeply involved in several players that the crazzeds of the world swear UK lost on. You can kind of tell when Kentucky is really in with a guy and when they're just interested. You can also almost always tell when a player has serious interest in UK. There are exceptions to this of course, and Bam Adebayo would be high up on that list as a player who just came out of nowhere. But more often than not you can read between the lines and see that Kentucky isn't really in most of these recruiting wars.

Put another way, Justus was telling Cal what he wanted to hear and less of what he needed to hear when it came to recruiting. Matt Jones just told a story of seeing the look on Cal's face when they told him that Zion Williamson was going to Duke. He said Cal prides himself on knowing what was gonna happen with these kids, and he kept getting blindsided and left to scramble.

[GOCAT15]

Put another way, Justus was telling Cal what he wanted to hear and less of what he needed to hear when it came to recruiting. Matt Jones just told a story of seeing the look on Cal's face when they told him that Zion Williamson was going to Duke. He said Cal prides himself on knowing what was gonna happen with these kids, and he kept getting blindsided and left to scramble.

IF this is the case then Cal should've realized it sooner if it's been going on for awhile....