Biggest duds KY starting 5

[Joneslab]

Watching Michigan drag Kentucky Mashburn/Pitino was very clear, need top tier talent to succeed.

What? We lost by 3 in overtime. And that in a game we would've won had Dale Brown not gone under the scorer's table.

Let's define what we mean by "drag" here.

[DA#23]

As good as Pitino was early on, even with Mashburn, we didn't really start rolling until A. Walker and Mercer came along.

Watching Michigan drag Kentucky Mashburn/Pitino was very clear, need top tier talent to succeed.

1. We were rolling in 1993.

2. The Michigan game went to OT, they didn’t drag us.

[SportsFan]

The irony of that, of course, is that when Tubby was recruiting guys who stayed around three or four years, we were begging for five star McDonald's All-Americans.

There needs to be a nice mix. All one and done 5 stars isn't the answer and Tubby's approach of having all 4 year players isn't the answer. Just like the old saying about "Indian Chiefs and Indians"...you can't have all of one and none of the other. There needs to be a good mixture.

[Joneslab]

I mentioned in an earlier post that that both Cal and Pitino predated the modern day scouting services and recruited "back in the day" without all of the scouting services and Internet rankings. I also said that Cal actually did a better job of recruiting at UMASS and Memphis when he wasn't relying on the scouting services and Internet rankings. Those vehicles really didn't do him any favors.... because all they did was make him lazy and more reliant on the information they provided rather than him using his own eyeballs and brain to make decisions on players.

Well I think it's probably the case that Cal could sit there in a gym, pick out the four or five elite players, and those players would pretty much be the same guys the services would pick as the cream of the crop. Because they would have the attributes you look at in AAU ball as separating them from the rest of the field.

There are all kinds of other players though who the services don't pay as much attention to, and the great irony in the portal era is that those guys as they get older, develop, and just become different players are going to drive the bus on most championship teams in this coming era.

[DA#23]

There needs to be a nice mix. All one and done 5 stars isn't the answer and Tubby's approach of having all 4 year players isn't the answer. Just like the old saying about "Indian Chiefs and Indians"...you can't have all of one and none of the other. There needs to be a good mixture.

Can’t have the mix when your program bleeds players as much as we did later on, when a player staying more than two years becomes labeled as having something wrong with them.

That was the downfall as much as anything. We couldn’t replace the defections quickly enough, and that scenario makes it to where you have to have OAD level freshmen available in a given class AND you can’t miss on anybody or else you’re in trouble.

[EKYCat]

Didn't roll until 'Toine and Mercer?

1991 - 22-6 but ineligible
1992 - 29-7 Elite 8 loss to Duke
1993 - 30-4 and a Final Four
1994 - 27-7

That's 108-24. Winning percentage of .818. If you throw the first season in there it's still a .7625 winning percentage.

UK rolled the entire time Pitino was the coach. And because they were winning they were able to get guys like Walker and Mercer.

[KCKUKFan]

Alex Legion.
You youngsters… look him up.

Even better: look up his mom. That lady was insane.

And I think Billy Clyde was banging his girlfriend, too.

[EKYCat]

Even better: look up his mom. That lady was insane.

And I think Billy Clyde was banging his girlfriend, too.

Who was the PG under BCG that was hurt all the time? BCG ran him into the ground. I can't think of that guy's name!

Edit: I found him. Jasper.

[DA#23]

Who was the PG under BCG that was hurt all the time? BCG ran him into the ground. I can't think of that guy's name!

Edit: I found him. Jasper.

Derrick Jasper

[KCKUKFan]

Who was the PG under BCG that was hurt all the time? BCG ran him into the ground. I can't think of that guy's name!

Edit: I found him. Jasper.

Derrick Jasper was a good player. His first team should have been good:

Patterson
Meeks
Jasper
Crawford
Bradley

[KYNomad]

Something that was very important to me about the Cal years that got briefly glossed over in this thread was the fact that his players by and large stayed out of trouble. With that many kids coming through, with so much turnover, in the arena of athletics which is prone to problem children, he still managed to mostly always bring in stand-up and well spoken kids. I know there was occasional bickering and bad attitudes, but there was nearly zero high profile scandal or criminal behavior among his alumni.

[KCKUKFan]

Something that was very important to me about the Cal years that got briefly glossed over in this thread was the fact that his players by and large stayed out of trouble. With that many kids coming through, with so much turnover, in the arena of athletics which is prone to problem children, he still managed to mostly always bring in stand-up and well spoken kids. I know there was occasional bickering and bad attitudes, but there was nearly zero high profile scandal or criminal behavior among his alumni.

Yep. I mentioned that briefly earlier in the thread.

Considering how many guys we had come in and out of the program, it's really surprising that we had almost no bad apples. And no real incidents, give or take a Real T. Jones running away from an accident.

Cal should be commended for recruiting good kids. And that is also proof that he didn't just throw darts at recruiting lists.

[KentuckyWild2020]

What? We lost by 3 in overtime. And that in a game we would've won had Dale Brown not gone under the scorer's table.

Let's define what we mean by "drag" here.

In all fairness, it was all day party and i was lit light a Christmas tree during the game, ended up get into a fight with a buddy from Detroit. Still, I never felt like that game was ours to win.



I should have clarified my previous statement in regards to the talent. We had some talent ( Mashburn obviously) but I still felt like we really could not get over the hump until RICK finally landed a legit big man, A. Walker.

[KentuckyWild2020]

1. We were rolling in 1993.

2. The Michigan game went to OT, they didn’t drag us.

True, still never felt we was going to win that game.

Again, I had been drinking all day. I can still remember walking away from that game thinking "only if we had a legit big man".

[KCKUKFan]

In all fairness, it was all day party and i was lit light a Christmas tree during the game, ended up get into a fight with a buddy from Detroit. Still, I never felt like that game was ours to win.



I should have clarified my previous statement in regards to the talent. We had some talent ( Mashburn obviously) but I still felt like we really could not get over the hump until RICK finally landed a legit big man, A. Walker.

We played in the greatest tourney game in history in the elite eight in 1992 and went to the final four in in 1993, where we lost to one of the most talented teams in college basketball history (up to that point).

What, in your estimation, is getting over the hump?

And since when was Antoine Walker a "big man"? At Kentucky he was a silky smooth, lithe forward.