2024 Roster (Enter Antonio Reeves & Tre Mitchell)

[KentuckyWild2020]

Eh, not really. I do think we have a chance to be pretty good next year. I actually don't think Cal is totally washed; as I've said I think it's much more about the roster. Put a solid roster together and we'll win a lot of games. I still believe that.

Two years ago we had one really bad, historic collapse in the last week/week and a half of the season. Last year was mostly the roster. I'll always believe that. Just not enough good players. That's on Cal...but by the same token I've never been one that believes coaches need to be able to win with anything. That's pipe dream territory.

On paper it looks like we've got a chance to put a vintage Cal roster together and I think that goes a long way. It's not necessarily optimism, more based on what's happened with Cal when you look at his teams across the years.

Agreed, Cal or any coach is going to win with top notch talent. With great players, Cal can do what he really does best, manage the ego's . Stll with NIL and all the other stuff, that is a challenge even for the best of the best.

I think this is why Cal has always stuck to his "Family Code" , it's his way of getting players to buy in, trust , believe in him. Many fans gripe (including myself) about the way he pushes kids on to the next level but he sticks to the script, he doesn't bend from that. If he changes that mentality, it breaks the psychological effect he has built selling the FAMILY CODE to his recruits, this is why he will never get away from that in my opinion.......

Calipari can coach, he just didn't forget how to run or draw up plays. I think his style is more in a way he trust players to do the fundamental stuff on there own, he's just more into the motivating side of coaching, he expects players to already know how to do the little things. Maybe he's right, good basketball players with talent should automatically have that instinct but some players look good on paper have all the skills but are absolutely lost on the court when it comes to instinct and IQ........

[Joneslab]

My three biggest beefs with Cal are:

1. Doesn't handle personnel well. Doesn't seem to grasp how a game is going sometimes and gets carried away in the emotion of it. When a guy should be in, he forgets about him. This happened *a lot* last year, I think because the talent was more evened out than it was the previous season. When you've got a bunch of similar guys the coach has to know how to use certain players in certain spots. Cal was (very) slow on the uptake and I think it probably caused some chemistry issues.

2. The timeout thing late in games. I'd use every one of my timeouts every game.

3. The foundation of the program has been come in, get out, get new players. Well, the players have been harder to come by recently and yet we still have the "get out" thing. He lays down that whole ideology to players when he recruits them, and really at this point he doesn't even have to do that because it's expected. This is one-and-done land Kentucky. So the foundation necessitates getting "the best of the best." If you don't get the best of the best the whole thing topples because you'll very rarely have the experience you need to offset the fact that you've got "normal" freshmen who are going to take a little longer to season. If he recruits John Walls every year it would be different, but he hasn't done that recently.

[justford]

To add to all the comments above, the competition is getting better with the elite players going to several schools instead of a few. NIL pay to play is one reason for this and of course the transfer portal.

[KentuckyWild2020]

My three biggest beefs with Cal are:

1. Doesn't handle personnel well. Doesn't seem to grasp how a game is going sometimes and gets carried away in the emotion of it. When a guy should be in, he forgets about him. This happened *a lot* last year, I think because the talent was more evened out than it was the previous season. When you've got a bunch of similar guys the coach has to know how to use certain players in certain spots. Cal was (very) slow on the uptake and I think it probably caused some chemistry issues.

2. The timeout thing late in games. I'd use every one of my timeouts every game.

3. The foundation of the program has been come in, get out, get new players. Well, the players have been harder to come by recently and yet we still have the "get out" thing. He lays down that whole ideology to players when he recruits them, and really at this point he doesn't even have to do that because it's expected. This is one-and-done land Kentucky. So the foundation necessitates getting "the best of the best." If you don't get the best of the best the whole thing topples because you'll very rarely have the experience you need to offset the fact that you've got "normal" freshmen who are going to take a little longer to season. If he recruits John Walls every year it would be different, but he hasn't done that recently.

With all the top rated talent coming in this year, it will be a true testament of "if his way of doing things" really works, no excuses.

If for some reason this things goes completely South again, i am done with it, time for him to retire and move on....

[Catsrock]

With all the top rated talent coming in this year, it will be a true testament of "if his way of doing things" really works, no excuses.

If for some reason this things goes completely South again, i am done with it, time for him to retire and move on....

I 100% yearn for this coming year to return us to glory. But even if it works out to the tune of banner 9 I’ll still be ready for Cal to ride into the sunset. Because—this incoming class was built around a legacy kid who’s been at the top of his class all through high school. Without him I doubt he adds Bradshaw and maybe not the others either (other than Sheppard). When is that going to happen again? Perhaps when DJ has a 17 year old kid. Seriously I’d expect Cal to be back to assembling so-so classes through the portal in June and July by next summer.

Everyone should yearn once in a while 😁

[Joneslab]

I 100% yearn for this coming year to return us to glory. But even if it works out to the tune of banner 9 I’ll still be ready for Cal to ride into the sunset. Because—this incoming class was built around a legacy kid who’s been at the top of his class all through high school. Without him I doubt he adds Bradshaw and maybe not the others either (other than Sheppard). When is that going to happen again? Perhaps when DJ has a 17 year old kid. Seriously I’d expect Cal to be back to assembling so-so classes through the portal in June and July by next summer.

Everyone should yearn once in a while 😁

Yeah, agree with all this.

I think most Kentucky fans, probably around 85%, are totally ready for a change.

[justford]

If Cal leaves after one more season, it appears the shelves will be pretty bare for the next coach. This is assuming all the freshmen leave.

[justafan]

One of my (many) beefs with Cal is his bullshit. It started as a joke (to the fans) ‘you people are crazy’, which he was serious, btw. His constant BS with the media and the fans. ‘I haven’t spoken to him’ or ‘I haven’t seen him’. W not? Why haven’t you spoken to an assistant who spoke to a trainer, etc?

There was a non-UK podcast someone forwarded to me about a beat writer for Memphis BITD. He went through a long story about Cal talking about his player stat breaking some stat of Bill Waltons. The writer goes on to say he starts investigating for his story and finds out the Memphis player’s stat isn’t what Cal said, and Bill Walton didn’t have the record. The gist of the podcast story, this writer started say: “Calipari just says stuff”.

So true.

”Oscar is a good FT shooter!” Really? Because his stat for the year at that time says otherwise.

I think early in the season a player had done very well the previous game and never saw the floor the next game and Cal comes out with ‘the student section should start chanting his name to remind me’. Really? There’s no better solution, like an assistant coach or someone on the bench that can’t remind you? ðŸ¤¦ðŸ»â€â™‚ï¸ðŸ¤¦ðŸ»â€â™‚ï¸ðŸ¤¦ðŸ»â€â™‚ï¸ ðŸ¤¦ðŸ»â€â™‚️🤦🏻‍♂️🤮🤮🤮🤠¬ðŸ¤¬

[justafan]

If Cal leaves after one more season, it appears the shelves will be pretty bare for the next coach. This is assuming all the freshmen leave.

The Kansas St coach not only beat UK but went to Elite 8 with nothing but portal players. The days of ‘the cupboard is bare’ as an excuse are gone.

[KentuckyWild2020]

The Kansas St coach not only beat UK but went to Elite 8 with nothing but portal players. The days of ‘the cupboard is bare’ as an excuse are gone.

I agree with that. With NIL the portal and recruiting, every coach is back to the drawing board on a year to year. Good coaches get it done, bad coaches don't. The days of hiring a new coach and hoping it comes together in 4 to 5 years is over. Maybe 1 year pass but year two time to crap or get off the pot.....

[Joneslab]

One of my (many) beefs with Cal is his bullshit. It started as a joke (to the fans) ‘you people are crazy’, which he was serious, btw. His constant BS with the media and the fans. ‘I haven’t spoken to him’ or ‘I haven’t seen him’. WTF not? Why haven’t you spoken to an assistant who spoke to a trainer, etc?

There was a non-UK podcast someone forwarded to me about a beat writer for Memphis BITD. He went through a long story about Cal talking about his player stat breaking some stat of Bill Waltons. The writer goes on to say he starts investigating for his story and finds out the Memphis player’s stat isn’t what Cal said, and Bill Walton didn’t have the record. The gist of the podcast story, this writer started say: “Calipari just says stuff”.

Yeah. Cal is definitely a bender of the truth. Very Trumpy tbh.

I'm not going to give Cal any credit for that BUT I will say that I do think Cal is one of these guys who believes that psychology is more important than anything. You can see him sometimes talking down an issue that everybody and his brother knows is an issue but he'll pretend it isn't. I think the reason for that is he's trying not to dwell on it to make it more of a thing.

Sometimes this seems to work, sometimes it doesn't come close. In the last three or four years it's not worked far more than it has.

[justford]

I agree with that. With NIL the portal and recruiting, every coach is back to the drawing board on a year to year. Good coaches get it done, bad coaches don't. The days of hiring a new coach and hoping it comes together in 4 to 5 years is over. Maybe 1 year pass but year two time to crap or get off the pot.....

So there will be a large turnover of head coaches

[KentuckyWild2020]

Anyone catch the Demarcus Cousins video going around speaking about his time at Kentucky?

Cousins says he wanted to come back to Kentucky, said the conversation last about 3 minutes with Cal.

You want to take care of your family you leave, you want to take care of my family you come back!!!!!!!!!

This is how Calipari rolls. I hate all the turnover year to year but that's just how he does it....

[justford]

Anyone catch the Demarcus Cousins video going around speaking about his time at Kentucky?

Cousins says he wanted to come back to Kentucky, said the conversation last about 3 minutes with Cal.

You want to take care of your family you leave, you want to take care of my family you come back!!!!!!!!!

This is how Calipari rolls. I hate all the turnover year to year but that's just how he does it....

He also said his time at UK was the most fun he ever had playing basketball.

[justafan]

Cal also said no coach should stick around UK for more than 10 years……