2024 Roster (Enter Antonio Reeves & Tre Mitchell)

[KCKUKFan]

All that sounds about right.

[Joneslab]

Thanks for sharing, lilpro.

Re: chemistry...really this team is the first one Cal's had (throwing out the COVID team that was just a mess all over the place) that's had chemistry issues. I'm sure there's stuff we don't know that's happened (for instance I always thought Cal was pretty miserable in 2009-10) but you couldn't tell it by the teams. That this team was seemingly a mess is a little surprising.

This is one thing I think I am...well I won't call it "optimistic" about. But I don't think we'll see a repeat of that next season. That was sort of a one-off for Cal at UK.

[Spiritof96]

Thanks for sharing, lilpro.

Re: chemistry...really this team is the first one Cal's had (throwing out the COVID team that was just a mess all over the place) that's had chemistry issues. I'm sure there's stuff we don't know that's happened (for instance I always thought Cal was pretty miserable in 2009-10) but you couldn't tell it by the teams. That this team was seemingly a mess is a little surprising.

This is one thing I think I am...well I won't call it "optimistic" about. But I don't think we'll see a repeat of that next season. That was sort of a one-off for Cal at UK.

Why are you throwing out the COVID team? Cal owns that dumpster fire too.

[Joneslab]

Why are you throwing out the COVID team? Cal owns that dumpster fire too.

Well, only because I'm not sure "chemistry" was their main issue. They just sucked.

There may have been chemistry things but they were so bad who could really tell?

With this team you could absolutely tell something was wrong. It was stitched into their identity. What I'm saying is that's rare for Cal's teams...but it might bely something we've discussed a lot on here and that's that Cal is washed up and just mailing it in. When you mail it in I imagine it'd be nigh impossible to snuff out locker room/chemistry crap.

[George]

Well, only because I'm not sure "chemistry" was their main issue. They just sucked.

There may have been chemistry things but they were so bad who could really tell?

With this team you could absolutely tell something was wrong. It was stitched into their identity. What I'm saying is that's rare for Cal's teams...but it might bely something we've discussed a lot on here and that's that Cal is washed up and just mailing it in. When you mail it in I imagine it'd be nigh impossible to snuff out locker room/chemistry crap.

Cam Fletcher had a very public in-game blow up. Terrence Clarke had a smaller blow up in response. The locker room was divided into two factions that each supported a different guy as “leader,” when in reality no leader existed. Clarke then pulled a Wheeler and milked an injury for all it was worth.

Those are just the things we know about. I’m pretty sure chemistry was an issue.

[Joneslab]

Dragon Whitney also quit the team a year after Quade Green did.

So yeah, maybe "chemistry" has been a thing here recently more than I'm giving it credit for.

I still think this team was unusual in that they just seemed way (way) more fractured than any other Cal has had.

[George]

Dragon Whitney also quit the team a year after Quade Green did.

So yeah, maybe "chemistry" has been a thing here recently more than I'm giving it credit for.

I still think this team was unusual in that they just seemed way (way) more fractured than any other Cal has had.

I’ll give Cal a pass on the Quade and Whitney situations. Both, especially the former, paved the way for each team’s success, so really their exits were solutions to possible chemistry issues.

[Joneslab]

I’ll give Cal a pass on the Quade and Whitney situations. Both, especially the former, paved the way for each team’s success, so really their exits were solutions to possible chemistry issues.

Well in the same way that Spirit is talking about above, at the very least we can say Cal is not nearly as discerning as he once was. I think he has fallen into situations through desperation and that's led to some of this locker room weirdness.

When you can pick out the players you want on the recruiting trail then everything (usually) runs seamlessly. When you miss several players and have to patch roster holes, you get into weirdness by having to take guys you weren't recruiting that long, etc. Some of those red flags don't reveal themselves the way they otherwise would.

The downshot is that when players leave it just adds to the revolving door nature of the program. I have always wanted players to stay unless they're just completely nuts because when you look at all these teams who go far in the tournament, they're usually chock full of old guys. There's a great story about the San Diego St. player who's had a great tournament. That guy had one college offer before SDSU and it was from a JUCO program.

We're never going to get it from Cal but we need to return to a situation at Kentucky where players stay, work through problems, grow, and just get better. Gerald Fitch was one of the more damaged people we've had in our program and the difference between that guy as a senior and a freshman was unreal. As we all know that sort of thing is so rare at Kentucky now where everybody is just bailing out all the time.

[Jody Porter]

The Covid year very much favored teams with experience. Kentucky was not a team with experience. I can justify "excusing" Cal for that one just because of the overall weirdness of the whole thing. Remember, it wasn't just Kentucky that had a year like that. Other top young teams also struggled.

Everything else is on Cal, firmly and undisputably. Despite me excusing Cal, I don't like how many excuses people make for Cal. I promise that makes sense in my head.

[Lighthouse]

The slow downslide of our Basketball Program the last few years is all on Cal! It started about six years ago and was so subtle at first I, and most, didn't see it at first. However with the basketball knowledge of the Kentucky fanbase, and especially this site, it has been a steady decline. And Cal is the reason.
What concerns me the most, I know Cal is stubborn but he's not dumb, and he sees and reads what is being said. Yet he does very little to right the ship. And we are already worried about this super class we hope will show up. Is Cal so selfish that he refuses to admit his way doesn't work anymore?

[Joneslab]

The slow downslide of our Basketball Program the last few years is all on Cal! It started about six years ago and was so subtle at first I, and most, didn't see it at first. However with the basketball knowledge of the Kentucky fanbase, and especially this site, it has been a steady decline. And Cal is the reason.
What concerns me the most, I know Cal is stubborn but he's not dumb, and he sees and reads what is being said. Yet he does very little to right the ship. And we are already worried about this super class we hope will show up. Is Cal so selfish that he refuses to admit his way doesn't work anymore?

I think his thing has always been to try and stack talent. He seems to believe everything else will fall into place if he does that.

The talent level did go down the last few years but there have been several times Cal has been spanked by less talented teams. So it absolutely isn't all about talent.

However I think if you got him in a room and pressed him, he'd say that if we get the players in here things will shake out. He began to miss significant recruits and then had to scramble and I think what's happened recently is a byproduct of that.

I do think he put two pretty good teams together recently with the 2022 and 2020 teams. One of those teams failed hard at the end and the other didn't get a tournament.

[justford]

I’ll never be convinced that NIL money is not causing some jealousy among the players.

[Catsrock]

I’ll never be convinced that NIL money is causing some jealousy among the players.

Just clarifying—you think it is NOT causing jealousy and problems?

I think it’s entirely possible that it does. If it worked the way congress may have envisioned—Paul Miller Ford could choose Toppin and pay to put his image on their billboard. No quarrels there. But when it (predictably) became schools and/or boosters just collecting $ from any willing donors and doling it out to players, then if it’s not done relatively equally then jealousy and hard feelings are inevitable. No player wants to admit he/she is less valuable to the team than another. Although in truth they are not all equal.

[Joneslab]

The only thing about the jealousy issue is that Kentucky is just one school. Everybody dealt with NIL.

It isn't lost on me that Miami was involved in one of the weirder offseason NIL things with Isaiah Wong. He and his agent said he was transferring if Miami didn't pay him in the offseason. They did...and they're in the Final Four.

If NIL was an issue then I'm not sure why it was such an issue for Kentucky while other schools went on fine.

[Joneslab]

The only thing about the jealousy issue is that Kentucky is just one school. Everybody dealt with NIL.

It isn't lost on me that Miami was involved in one of the weirder offseason NIL things with Isaiah Wong. He and his agent said he was transferring if Miami didn't pay him in the offseason. They did...and they're in the Final Four.

If NIL was an issue then I'm not sure why it was such an issue for Kentucky while other schools went on fine.

Kyle Tucker just mentioned this on Twitter.

Thing is, none of the Miami stuff doesn't mean that NIL wasn't one of the issues for Kentucky. But if I had to bet I'd say it runs much deeper than NIL and into conflicting personalities and so on.