2024 Roster (Enter Antonio Reeves & Tre Mitchell)

[KentuckyWild2020]

Damion Collins to LSU?? Anyone heard this?

There must be some wild stuff being talked about behind closed doors amongst players in regards to Calipari. I don't think he gets the respect he used to get from players and seems like in some ways he's been exploited behind closed doors.

[George]

Yeah, Collins just wanted to be closer to home.

Nothing to see here.

[Joneslab]

Yeah, Collins just wanted to be closer to home.

Nothing to see here.

In fairness the distance from Baton Rouge to where he grew up isn't that much.

It's hard to believe anything you hear about "why" players bailed out on Kentucky at this point, though. If it stays like this and we lose veritably the whole team then you have to come to the obvious conclusion that none of them want to play for Calipari.

[KentuckyWild2020]

Yeah, Collins just wanted to be closer to home.

Nothing to see here.

What part of Texas he from? lol lol lol

Lance not good enough to play at Kentucky but CHAMPION Villanova will gladly have him. Collins not good enough for Kentucky but LSU will gladly have him. Wiltjer, Lee, Matthews, list goes on and on. I think it's pretty clear and plain to see that if you are not a guaranteed top NBA talent, you are wasting time at Kentucky, you are not going to get developed and utilized. Many of the players Cal has taken credit for ushering to the NBA would have been drafted to the NBA anyways, could have played juco or DII ball and still been drafted..

Which bring me to this. If you look back the past 5 years in wins for major D1 basketball, Kentucky is like 30 in wins. Saw a stat on that last week, last 5 years we are basically a so so nobody school. We may have in our heads as Kentucky fans we reign supreme the best of the best but on the big scale, we are a so so nobody at this point, we not even on anyone's radar. Cal's relationship with the Wagner's saved him this year and Wagner's off court relationship with the others coming aboard probably helped seal the deal on those we have coming in. Not so sure Cal Lil Wayne Jay Z Drake or whoever is helping push recruits to Kentucky these days.

[George]

In fairness the distance from Baton Rouge to where he grew up isn't that much.

It's hard to believe anything you hear about "why" players bailed out on Kentucky at this point, though. If it stays like this and we lose veritably the whole team then you have to come to the obvious conclusion that none of them want to play for Calipari.

I guess.

Think I’d have still gone back to Texas if my home were in Texas.

Then again, can’t blame him for not wanting to return to Texas.

[KentuckyWild2020]

In fairness the distance from Baton Rouge to where he grew up isn't that much.

It's hard to believe anything you hear about "why" players bailed out on Kentucky at this point, though. If it stays like this and we lose veritably the whole team then you have to come to the obvious conclusion that none of them want to play for Calipari.

I think they get lured dreaming of the NBA because so many have been drafted from UK under Calipari but once they get there, you quickly realize if you are not a guaranteed 1st round pick you getting buried on the bench and recruited over year in and year out. Cal talks loyalty and family posting photos all the time but how loyal is he if you aren't the star talent?

[Spiritof96]

We are essentially Indiana. Two more seasons like the last one and we will cement our spot as a once-great-now-irrelevant-program.

[KentuckyWild2020]

We are essentially Indiana. Two more seasons like the last one and we will cement our spot as a once-great-now-irrelevant-program.

Exactly, nobody even cares it's Kentucky anymore teams will still show and play the best game of the year just to continue to stomp on Kentucky..

[Joneslab]

The problem right now isn't really worrying about a season like the last one, it's having a season where the wheels fall off.

You can't have seven players, five of them freshmen, and compete. Impossible. The team as it stands now would lose 15+ games. They'd lose several just based on simple attrition.

When that happens you have to worry about more than just being Indiana mediocre. Our problems would be way bigger than that.

[George]

We are essentially Indiana. Two more seasons like the last one and we will cement our spot as a once-great-now-irrelevant-program.

I wouldn’t go that far. We were able to climb out of the late Tubby and BCG eras, so I see no reason why we can’t recover from this, too.

[KentuckyWild2020]

Probably why i will always put RICK number one as the best Kentucky coach in my era is simply even before he started landing big time recruits, you always felt like you could compete and beat anyone on any given night regardless if the cards where stacked against you, at least you had hope. In this era, if you don't have 10 top 20 players in the nation based on 5 star ratings, NO HOPE WHATSOEVER!

[KentuckyWild2020]

The problem right now isn't really worrying about a season like the last one, it's having a season where the wheels fall off.

You can't have seven players, five of them freshmen, and compete. Impossible. The team as it stands now would lose 15+ games. They'd lose several just based on simple attrition.

When that happens you have to worry about more than just being Indiana mediocre. Our problems would be way bigger than that.

I worry if i am going to tune out turn it off all together, i give it to Christmas...

[Spiritof96]

I wouldn’t go that far. We were able to climb out of the late Tubby and BCG eras, so I see no reason why we can’t recover from this, too.

I didn't mean to say we couldn't recover. I think IU could. But we are closer to their status than many of our fans believe.

[Spiritof96]

The problem right now isn't really worrying about a season like the last one, it's having a season where the wheels fall off.

You can't have seven players, five of them freshmen, and compete. Impossible. The team as it stands now would lose 15+ games. They'd lose several just based on simple attrition.

When that happens you have to worry about more than just being Indiana mediocre. Our problems would be way bigger than that.

Remember how fun it was to wonder if UL was going to win a game last year?

[Joneslab]

Probably why i will always put RICK number one as the best Kentucky coach in my era is simply even before he started landing big time recruits, you always felt like you could compete and beat anyone on any given night regardless if the cards where stacked against you, at least you had hope. In this era, if you don't have 10 top 20 players in the nation based on 5 star ratings, NO HOPE WHATSOEVER!

You can win titles without 5-stars but you have to have guys playing like 5-stars to win titles. Google tells me UCONN's Adama Sonogo was the number 83 player in his senior class, but this past year he played like a phenom for most of the year. You've got to have those kinds of guys in there to contend.

The problem at Kentucky has been that we haven't had much of that recently. The year we did, with Oscar being a historically good player, we stumbled badly at the end. But with Cal's best teams he's had 5-stars...and he's had those 5-stars play like it.

On Pitino's best teams he had guys playing like NBA players. That '96 team was loaded with players who were among the best players in college at their position. The difference then (obviously) was that he kept them in school and grew them to where they were better than their high school reputations for the most part. And of course that team had Ron Mercer who was the number two player in America coming out of high school.