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Topic: Cal critical of himself after 1-6 start
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catmandoo
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Member # 1284
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posted 12-27-2020 07:25 PM
Calipari questioned his decision to schedule such a difficult start for a young and inexperienced team after an abbreviated preseason.
"We need more time for all the team-building stuff that we do here all the time," Calipari said. "We team-build in the summer. We team-build in the fall. We're making up time. Not where we need to be, but making up time.
"You gotta play games you can win to build confidence. ... This was the stupidest schedule I've ever put together. I'd like to smack myself in the mouth."
Link
-------------------- http://www.ukfightsong.com/
Posts: 186359 | From: st. augustine florida 32092 | Registered: Mar 2001
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rlt4uk
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Member # 3194
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posted 12-27-2020 11:58 PM
No one on this website may agree with me, and I don't care if you do,but coach Cal needs to go. He's not a good bench coach, he normally gets out coached every game. I'm tired of the one and done. I want players like Macy, shepherd, Mashburn, and Bowie. Players people will be talking about 30 years from now, who developed a relationship with the BBN.
-------------------- Bleeding Blue in south Alabama. Kentucky born, Kentucky bred,I'll be kentucky until i'm dead!
Posts: 9802 | From: enterprise, al 36330 | Registered: Sep 2010
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PaulCat
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Member # 513
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posted 12-28-2020 07:35 AM
And when you hear Cal say things like he wants to put the game in the players hands, let them make decisions and run the team - what the hell is his job??? He needs to coach the team and tell them what to do and what plays to run. If you leave it on the players then what the hell is he needed for? He needs to coach the damn team! And the last game with Boston getting the last shot tells me he might not know what he's doing. Earn that $8million/year!!!
Posts: 10348 | From: Erlanger, Ky. USA | Registered: Mar 2000
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m hamilton
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Member # 127
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posted 12-28-2020 08:42 AM
I'm not a Cal apologist, because I disagree with this being that tough of a schedule. Are the teams we are facing more experienced than us? Certainly. You're going to have that when you don't put a single player on the floor who has ever played for the name on the front of the jersey before. By the same token, I just look at this season as a hiccup!
This hasn't been a typical year for sports of any kind. Our football team didn't play a single nonconference game this year. THe NBA finished their '19-'20 season in October is already started up again. Cal hasn't had the opportunity to have hands on with his players this year as in the past. Are we playing as a team? NO Will he turn this team around by the end of the season? Probably Will it be too late to qualify for the NCAA tourney, Possibly.
The next question I have to ask, Give me 3 names of coaches you want to replace him THAT WILL TAKE THE JOB? I realize we all have names of people we'd LOVE TO SEE take the job, but just because we want them doesn't mean they want us! Is he making too much money? Absolutely. I believe all members of sports with the exception of maybe the sports writers, are making entirely too much money!
Back to the schedule. Right now we'd probably be ranked at the bottom of the ACC conference since we've played more ACC games than any other team in the conf. 4 of our losses have come to ACC teams. 1 Loss comes to the top ranked Big 12 team in the conference! We're taking our lumps, but we will survive!
-------------------- The potus is planning 1st major tax hike since '93 in next economic package! I still can't believe some people believed that LIAR!!!
Your whole life is determined(by) 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you handle it!!!
Posts: 123993 | From: vevay, IN USA | Registered: Sep 1999
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PaulCat
Player
Member # 513
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posted 12-28-2020 09:30 AM
MH, at some point in time Cal will be replaced. It may be ten years from now when he retires on his own or it may be next year if Mitch decides to go in another direction. Either way, he will be replaced and we will have a new coach some day. I don't think it matters who we would want to replace him. I'm sure there are many coaches who would jump for the opportunity to coach here.
Posts: 10348 | From: Erlanger, Ky. USA | Registered: Mar 2000
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Bama Cat
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Member # 153
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posted 12-28-2020 10:25 AM
I agree that there would be a lot of coaches want to come to UK. You can recruit better than you could at any other school, unless your name starts with a K. I probably won't be around to see it happen. By golly we have lost to 4 straight ACC schools. I forgot we subbed UNC for UCLA. Nothing like making your schedule a little heavier. We are going to have to just admit it, the law of averages finally caught up with Cal. These top recruits just don't have a lot of team ball in their system yet. Not so sure they can get there this year. If they don't, we'll see what they are made of when this year ends and they realize they can go to any school next year or take whatever chance they have in going to the draft.
Posts: 14180 | From: berea, ky, usa | Registered: Sep 1999
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m hamilton
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Member # 127
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posted 12-28-2020 05:47 PM
I guess what I'm getting at is we as a fan base at UK always think that people like Billy Donovan, Brad Stevens, Mark Few will just drop the job that they have to come coach at a program the likes of KY.
All three of those coaches I just mentioned have less pressure on them where they are right now than the head coach at the University of KY! We may not necessarily get a top named coach to replace Calipari if we run him out of town on a rail! I agree that the odds have finally caught up with him!
-------------------- The potus is planning 1st major tax hike since '93 in next economic package! I still can't believe some people believed that LIAR!!!
Your whole life is determined(by) 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you handle it!!!
Posts: 123993 | From: vevay, IN USA | Registered: Sep 1999
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Bama Cat
Player
Member # 153
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posted 12-28-2020 06:50 PM
I agree there would be more pressure at UK than at the schools the coaches you mentioned currently coach. But the poblicity and prestige is also much higher at UK. Cal was getting a lot of notice at Memphis but the prestige was not the same there. If you can see what I'm trying to say. It just depends on whether the coach wants to be caught up in all that or not. Billy Donovan has already been thru almost as much when he won 2 titles back to back at UF. Would he have the desire to step into that again even though he worked here before as an assistant???
Posts: 14180 | From: berea, ky, usa | Registered: Sep 1999
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Tiptree
Administrator
Member # 844
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posted 12-28-2020 06:59 PM
I agree with MH. This year is completely different than any other year. This team has had no chance to play easy teams to get some feedback and improve. No chance to bond. These things take time, especially when EVERYBODY is new to the system, and most are new to the college game.
We will get better, but our schedule is about a month off. And I am not ready to get rid of Cal, although I would love to see him change a little of his methods. He really does develop players, and he does coach from the bench. He does make adjustments. I am not sure what you need to see to change your mind, rlt4uk. He draws up plays in timeouts, he talks to the players on the bench, he changes up his defenses.
I guess we are all frustrated by the offense this year, but Cal always said that offense comes last in his development method. We have seen this every year. By March, we will have a lot more efficient, and varied, offense than we do now. He focuses first on defense, which is something I cannot disagree with. And it shows. Our defense has improved every game.
Now, having said all of that, I agree that I would MUCH prefer to see good players stick around and develop into great players. I would much prefer to routinely start more seniors than freshmen. I would love to be able to talk to my children about players that we watched for 3-4 years. But Cal is what Cal is; he has adapted his methods to the NBA's rules. If he didn't recruit the one-and-done players, other programs would. And we would then be complaining about our recruiting (like we did every year under Tubby).
So, we pick our poison. Cal is a great coach. Please don't run him off.
-------------------- Tiptree
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 13628 | From: Terre Haute, IN | Registered: Sep 2000
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ukman
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Member # 3032
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posted 12-28-2020 08:21 PM
Cal is a great recruiter, and developer of NBA talent; but he is not a great game coach. Never has been and I don't think he ever will be. His offense is outdated, and he just relies simply on his guy being able to beat the defender one on one. His main play is to yell at guys to drive it to the basket. In the last game he took Jackson out when he got his 3rd foul on a charge. You could see Jackson say "You told me to drive." And Cal said "I said drive to the middle." We see the same offense every year, and to be completely honest, we won our single championship in 2012 inspite of the coaching. There were several games that year where Cals coaching kept teams close when it should have been a blowout. I said this in another post, but Duke, UNC, Villanova, and UConn all have 2 championships in the time Cal has been at UK. If he was a better game coach, we have at least 2, maybe 3. I don't know if we can get someone to do it better, but I sure wish Cal would adjust his recruiting and focus more on building a team rather than finding NBA athletes, and I wish he would look at changing his offense some and look at mixing defenses to help the team play to their best. Right now I don't know if we ever really see a UK TEAM play to their full capability as a TEAM. We see some great individual performances, and sometime duos. And for the record, I have said these same things before even when we have been winning. This season is just so disappointing because they do not play good basketball at all. And for a #1 recruiting class they should be playing better than they have. Yeah, I would expect losses with such a young team, but I sure expected better play and fight from these recruits, and from our coaching staff.
Posts: 5441 | From: georgia | Registered: Jan 2009
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Tiptree
Administrator
Member # 844
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posted 12-29-2020 12:14 AM
I see it differently; you are entitled to your opinion.
For example, I think the 2012 championship team played team ball as good as any other UK team. Ditto for the 38-1 team, which might have been even better playing as a unit. They played great half-court offense, with the Harrison twins and Townes anchoring a solid, solid cast. That didn't happen "in spite of Cal". That happened because of Cal.
In fact, when the players listen to his teaching, we always have a very top-10 efficient team on both offense and defense, and a great rebounding team. Our biggest shortcoming has been shooting over the years, but when you have a Davis, or a Boogie, or a KAT in the paint, you can overcome that.
That is why I had some higher hopes for this team. I thought Sarr would be the kind of big man that we could run our offense through. But, it is clear (to me, anyway) that Cal knows how to build an offense that goes through the post, but it isn't clear that Sarr will rise to the challenge. If he doesn't, then Cal will 'tweak' his offense to something different. He has done that many years.
I am less concerned with skill development or offensive schemes as I am the mindset of our players. I think they are really feeling the pressure, and they may just buckle. If they can keep their heads straight, we will see a good, if not great, UK team in March. Or they might just never learn how to win under the microscope. Time will tell. [ 12-29-2020, 12:17 AM: Message edited by: Tiptree ]
-------------------- Tiptree
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 13628 | From: Terre Haute, IN | Registered: Sep 2000
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PaulCat
Player
Member # 513
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posted 12-29-2020 08:15 AM
quote: Originally posted by Tiptree: I agree with MH. This year is completely different than any other year. This team has had no chance to play easy teams to get some feedback and improve. No chance to bond. These things take time, especially when EVERYBODY is new to the system, and most are new to the college game.
And the six teams that beat us didn't have that problem because they don't have a new starting lineup every year and they have players who can shoot.
I'm just saying that I'm sick of Cal's formula. I'm tired of "one-and-done". It didn't just happen this season, but my enthusiasm in UK basketball is nowhere near what it used to be before Cal arrived. I used to bite my nails off every game, even against cupcakes. Now I watch the games and could really care less.
Posts: 10348 | From: Erlanger, Ky. USA | Registered: Mar 2000
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Bama Cat
Player
Member # 153
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posted 12-29-2020 10:16 AM
I'm in the same boat. I don't even scream and yell at the TV. I sit back and relax knowing that there is a 50-50 chance we're going to lose every game, and we're close to that now. Every year we start out with a team with some good shooters ( or scorers) coming in but magically we still keep coming up with teams that are not as good of shooters as was forecast. Cal for some reason decided to go after Herro who we knew was going to be a shooter. He has lost out on some other white guys who could shoot. Is it their defense that has caused him to stop recruiting them? There's a couple good white guys out there this year that are having good years but we stopped recruiting them. Cal has a mind set that he envisions for his players and I don't think it will change. [ 12-29-2020, 10:18 AM: Message edited by: Bama Cat ]
Posts: 14180 | From: berea, ky, usa | Registered: Sep 1999
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ALA_KAT2
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Member # 1559
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posted 12-30-2020 06:56 PM
UKMAN, I agree with you and others who are tired of sub-par in-game coaching and strategy. Cal’s only offense seems to be to drive it one on one. That worked with Derrick Rose and John Wall and other superior talents. But when we don’t have the mega-talented point guard we struggle, because there’s nothing else to all back on. Cal needs to allow someone to help with the offense, but Kenny Payne has left. I’m also tired of the culture that Calipari has created here where if you don’t go to the NBA after your first year, you’re considered second rate. Calipari plays his chosen 1NDones every year so they can get drafted. I’d rather a new coach recruit good players with the expectation that they’ll be here a couple or 3 or 4 years AND COACH TO WIN FOR UK NOT FOR THE NBA. I’m 72 years old, so like many of you, I’ve seen many, many UK games and many, many great players. None of these kids lately make my top 50 list. I lose interest in them after they leave UK, especially if they only use us as a leap to the NBA before they even turn 22 years old. I’m sick of watching raw, green freshmen try to lead us to wins. I want to see a UK team with some mature veteran talent. I don’t think that will ever happen with Calipari here.
-------------------- Adair CHS 1966/USAF/WKU/AT&T
GO BIG BLUE!
Posts: 4046 | From: Louisville, KY | Registered: Dec 2001
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