Is it time to panic yet?

[J.Jennings]

OK, I haven't lived in Kentucky for 25 years. So I don't the high school basketball players well at all anymore. If UK offered and signed the top five senior players this year would UK make the NCAA's next season? NIT? Maybe a .500 team or worse. My guess would be door number three. Willis and Hawkins sort of prove that there are not many high level D-1 players in Kentucky and haven't been for about 20 years. My guess is that if UK only went after local yocals like someone in this thread is strongly suggesting then the baskteball program would bottom out in a years time.

Nobody's suggesting recruit and play all Kentucky kids. You have to some game changers as I pointed out but at the same time, there are kids that actually come out Kentucky that can play. Remember Hickey from LSU?? Remember Lofton from Tennessee??

What's the worst thing that can happen, Cal misses out on a few and Hawkins and Willis have to play some this year?? If this ends up being the case, should we just forfeit the season because a Kentucky kid or two may actually have to contribute? Do we start jumping off the Sherman Minton bridge now or later????

Do you think that with the condition of Louisville basketball and Ricks inability to bring in recruits that he wouldn't jump at the chance to have both Hawkins and Willis on his team this upcoming season? I just talked to a guy yesterday out of Ft. Lauderdale and he showed me highlights of the white kid Rick is bringing in to Louisville next year. Actually knows the kid really well and they are excited about the fact the Rick will help him develop his body and work on his defensive skills.

Lee and Hawkins may not be all americans but they have two years of college experience practicing against pro players everyday in practice. Like the old days, you came to school and sit for 2 years, then you contributed your last two. That's Willis and Hawkins moving forward.......................

[DA#23]

I am actually the guy that tried to play the percentages at the bar and out of attractive women, I chose the one in between because I thought it was the sure shot. What I didn't know is that by the end of the night the perfect 15 walked up to me out of the blue and told me I chose the wrong one. TShe then went on to say let's end this, set me up with 5 shots, took a selfie of me and her, then was gone with the wind and out the door.. ####truestory lol lol lol lol

What in the world? LAWD

[DA#23]

OK, I haven't lived in Kentucky for 25 years. So I don't the high school basketball players well at all anymore. If UK offered and signed the top five senior players this year would UK make the NCAA's next season? NIT? Maybe a .500 team or worse. My guess would be door number three. Willis and Hawkins sort of prove that there are not many high level D-1 players in Kentucky and haven't been for about 20 years. My guess is that if UK only went after local yocals like someone in this thread is strongly suggesting then the baskteball program would bottom out in a years time.

You can easily answer that hypothetically by asking yourself if Morehead has ever done that...and what their result was. Or Murray. Or Pikeville College.

[J.Jennings]

Players like Fitch,Hayes,Daniels, and Cliff Hawkins, there not good enough to play at Kentucky now a days!!! If Tubby could have consistently landed to top 5 player to go along with players like that, he may have extended his time at Kentucky, who knows??

[Joneslab]

I just don't understand why it matters where the players are from.

I just want them to be talented. We could have a guy from Chicago, New York City, Atlanta, a Frenchman, and a Haitian in the starting five this year.

Who cares as long as they win? If Kentucky were churning out high school talent then that would be awesome, but unfortunately they're not. It doesn't give me any more "UK pride" when a player is from Mount Washington than it does if he's from Chicago. They're all wearing the same jersey. It turned out that James Young knew as much UK history as a lot of guys who are from Kentucky. Just because they grow up in the state is meaningless.

They need to be able to play the game, and we basically need more guys who can play on our roster. That has nothing to do with Hawkins and Willis. We need more.

[DA#23]

Players like Fitch,Hayes,Daniels, and Cliff Hawkins, there not good enough to play at Kentucky now a days!!! If Tubby could have consistently landed to top 5 player to go along with players like that, he may have extended his time at Kentucky, who knows??

And we'd still have a coach who thought that 13 scholarships means you have enough room for 3 7-foot projects on the roster at the same time, which is simply a different take on your desire to pay homage to a yesteryear that existed very rarely...if at all.

Just for you (there is a part 1, but this part picks up right where we be):

[GOCAT15]

We're long passed the days of having homegrown rosters on elite college programs. It just can't happen, each state is lucky to have a couple top tier recruits in their state, and it's just as rare that they stay close to home. One of the top kids in both the 2016 and 2017 class are from St. Louis, and Columbia MO, Jayson Tatum and Michael Porter jr. The chance of either of them going to SLU or Mizzou is slim, and how can you blame them when you have schools like UK, KU, UNC, and Duke recruiting you. Now when you have a kid like Ingram who has grown up in Carolina, it's a lot more understanding that he would want to go to a school close to home.

[DA#23]

I just don't understand why it matters where the players are from.

For some people it's simply a matter of wanting something different, and before Cal those same people whined about losing the Brandan Wright's AND the Deon Thompson's to the same team, being stuck with the KENTUCKY BOY Jared Carter.

[TrueblueCATfan]

Nope..none here.....Cal knows what he is doing

[J.Jennings]

This isn't about having a team full of Kentucky kids, this is about the constant no faith or confidence in D. Hawkins or D. Willis as contributors to our basketball team. Point is, both these guys are not trash players by any means at all and they would actually play and play a lot anywhere else in America. So what if we miss out on a few, at least we have two guys with experience that happened to be from the state of Kentucky that can actually play the game. It's not like we are asking Dakota Euton's of the world to come to Kentucky and become a star. Both Willis and Hawkins can play and have actually played pretty well when given the opportunity.

If your going to freak out, freak out because we have a incoming undersized Skal playing interior and Marcus Lee weighing a buck o 5 in the paint next season. We need more bigs because guard and small forward wise, I do not think we are as bad as some may think.................


So keep freaking out and go jump off a bridge for all I care but I am comfortable with Willis and Hawkins getting plenty of PT next season......

I either going to eat crow next season or you will in regards to these two,,,,,,period!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[J.Jennings]

What in the world? LAWD

True story,, lady from Ontario lol lol lol,,,, I wasted my time with the chics from Cali and the one from Jersey lol lol lol lol lol lol

[Joneslab]

Not sure how anybody could know one way or the other about Willis. He's never played consistent minutes. Might be good, might not.

Hawkins has shown some things but you don't want to go into a season hoping a guy like that is going to be able to play 20+ minutes a game.

Would much rather Brown/Diallo/Murray come on to give us more of a margin for error.

Then you put all those guys together in practice and see if Hawkins or Willis can win playing time.

[J.Jennings]

Regarding McDonald's All-Americans: I think Cal is doing it the same way Coach K is and Self is and Roy Williams usually is. He's trying to stack as much talent as he possibly can.

Not that complex of a thing. Duke just won a title and everybody they played was a McDonald's All-American. It really isn't rocket science. You get those players and you give yourself a much better chance of winning basketball games.

What's crazy in regards to Duke is that the white kid that sat on the bench all them years came in and actually changed the game, who saw that coming???? I though Willis was ready this year to contribute but once he realized his playing time was little to none, you could see his confidence level absolutely drop. When he did get in a game, he took the "I don't care approach" and tried to shoot and show the world he could score which totally took him out of his rhythm from back in the summer. We all know Hawkins can play D as evident his freshman year and I actually thought he improved his offense quietly this year.

Put it to you this way, I would rather have these two on the team that not have them on the team. Like the CIA, these two are assets...

[Joneslab]

What's crazy in regards to Duke is that the white kid that sat on the bench all them years came in and actually changed the game, who saw that coming???

Grayson Allen was a McDonald's All-American.

And I would rather have Hawkins and Willis on the team as well, but I don't want those guys to be what we have to rely on because there are so many unknowns about them. There are unknowns about freshmen as well, but when you bring in these top five players they more often than not work out.

[J.Jennings]

Grayson Allen was a McDonald's All-American.

And I would rather have Hawkins and Willis on the team as well, but I don't want those guys to be what we have to rely on because there are so many unknowns about them. There are unknowns about freshmen as well, but when you bring in these top five players they more often than not work out.

I didn't realize Grayson was a all American but at the same time, I didn't see him having a performance the way he did on the big scene.

Put it to you this way, Hawkins and Willis may not be stars but I don't think they are going to hurt us either. We need bigs more than anything.............