Rupp Rafters

#54
#54
TartanTurff said:
If the Kentucky athletic director wants to assemble a very young NBA G league team year in and year out, they've got the right guy in place, as he will assemble some of the highest rated high school talent each year, but he is bringing those guys to Lexington purely for exposure and training to get to the NBA draft and to other basketball environments. Most are gone after a year, some are there for two years, but the talent hoarding that Kentucky was noted for prior to NIL has been somewhat muted now that other collectives are in place in the South and talent has other choices to consider. The connection between the team and the campus and to a certain extent the fan base, is tenuous at best.

Long gone are the days when Kentucky assembled cohesive, talented basketball teams, grew them for 3 sometimes 4 seasons, usually equipped with 3 or 4 sharpshooters from the Blue Grass state and ordinarily the number 1 or number 2 players from the state of Tennessee, occassionally a player from Louisville, all of which laid the foundations for most of the SEC titles and record success that the Cats garnered prior to Cal.

In my opinion, Cal isn't much of an in game coach, but he is an accomplished ring master of a basketball circus of talented players, whether or not they can all perform their acts in the center ring when the bright lights are on seems to be a roll of the dice each season, much like Penny at Memphis, Jimbo at A & M, he's somebody else's business problem now, we can watch from the sideline and hopefully not make those kinds of mistakes at Tennessee.
Click to expand...

Great post. The thing about Calipari is that aside from his abysmal in-game coaching and puzzling rotations, he is uniquely built to handle the pressure cooker that the Kentucky job entails. He's an amazing recruiter because of his record of producing solid pro players, a great promoter (although boosters must be turning against him at this point), and has the thick skin to handle that insanely rabid fan base. The list can't be especially long of coaches with the ability to deal with all this - being a great X's and O's guy is one small part of the equation.

I have trouble imagining loose cannons like Pearl or Oats in Lexington. I think they would be eaten alive dealing with the unrealistic expectations and 24-7-365 deal of being the KY coach. I could see a guy like Scott Drew doing very well there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: VAVol85
#56
#56
sami said:
Great post. The thing about Calipari is that aside from his abysmal in-game coaching and puzzling rotations, he is uniquely built to handle the pressure cooker that the Kentucky job entails. He's an amazing recruiter because of his record of producing solid pro players, a great promoter (although boosters must be turning against him at this point), and has the thick skin to handle that insanely rabid fan base. The list can't be especially long of coaches with the ability to deal with all this - being a great X's and O's guy is one small part of the equation.

I have trouble imagining loose cannons like Pearl or Oats in Lexington. I think they would be eaten alive dealing with the unrealistic expectations and 24-7-365 deal of being the KY coach. I could see a guy like Scott Drew doing very well there
Click to expand...
The way Pearl rants and raves on court during the entire game, he's probably the only guy who can't qualify for a Colonial Penn $9.95 plan. He's non-stop yelling at somebody.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LadyVolette, crazyguy, nalliszing and 2 others
#63
#63
Hated for KY to lose. Bad look for conference to open 1-3. That said, I would not be a true Vol fan if I did not enjoy seeing the misery and angst of BBN.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chuckiepoo
#68
#68
sami said:
Great post. The thing about Calipari is that aside from his abysmal in-game coaching and puzzling rotations, he is uniquely built to handle the pressure cooker that the Kentucky job entails. He's an amazing recruiter because of his record of producing solid pro players, a great promoter (although boosters must be turning against him at this point), and has the thick skin to handle that insanely rabid fan base. The list can't be especially long of coaches with the ability to deal with all this - being a great X's and O's guy is one small part of the equation.

I have trouble imagining loose cannons like Pearl or Oats in Lexington. I think they would be eaten alive dealing with the unrealistic expectations and 24-7-365 deal of being the KY coach. I could see a guy like Scott Drew doing very well there.
Click to expand...
I’m going to highly disagree with you. He doesn’t produce anything. He rents the best talent in basketball. He isn’t a developer of talent at all. Never has been.
 
#70
#70
Franklin_Vol09 said:
I’m going to highly disagree with you. He doesn’t produce anything. He rents the best talent in basketball. He isn’t a developer of talent at all. Never has been.
Click to expand...

He develops talent well enough that they are lottery picks and many have very successful pro careers. Whether or not it's his work is open to debate, but those results have a lot to do with 5-star kids wanting to play for him.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LibertyVol and chuckiepoo
#71
#71
Franklin_Vol09 said:
I’m going to highly disagree with you. He doesn’t produce anything. He rents the best talent in basketball. He isn’t a developer of talent at all. Never has been.
Click to expand...
And the worst part for UK fans is that he’s unapologetic about that. Even last night he mentioned how they’ve helped a lot of freshman and their families (getting them to the NBA and rich after a year) even though they haven’t achieved much in years. So even though he recognizes that they choke when it counts, he always goes back to how they’ve gotten kids drafted in the first round, like that’s the goal for a college team.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LadyVolette
#72
#72
I hope they finally ran out of excuses. When they were out of the running for the regular season title early they said "this team is built for March". After the quick exit in the March SEC tourney they said, "this team is built for an NCAA run". I guess by "run" they meant the bus ride back to Lexington?
 
  • Like
Reactions: the_great_pumpkin, volfan__18, volfeeva and 4 others
#73
#73
sami said:
He develops talent well enough that they are lottery picks and many have very successful pro careers. Whether or not it's his work is open to debate, but those results have a lot to do with 5-star kids wanting to play for him.
Click to expand...
I would lean towards him showcasing their talent rather than developing it, but I certainly don’t have any inside info on their program and what he does with those guys. Maybe he does develop them, but I’m skeptical.
 
  • Like
Reactions: VolsAgainstTheWorld15 and Delmar
#74
#74
sami said:
He develops talent well enough that they are lottery picks and many have very successful pro careers. Whether or not it's his work is open to debate, but those results have a lot to do with 5-star kids wanting to play for him.
Click to expand...
No debate for me. Most of those kids would be lottery picks if they played at Slippery Rock. The NBA already knows plenty about them before they ever get to KY. If he “developed” talent better, he’d have more than one NCAA title.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sivad, Chad Powers, pattiycake and 6 others
#75
#75
sami said:
He develops talent well enough that they are lottery picks and many have very successful pro careers. Whether or not it's his work is open to debate, but those results have a lot to do with 5-star kids wanting to play for him.
Click to expand...
They would be lottery picks without Cal. If he had the ability to develop a player, his lottery pick talent would produce when called upon. He is an “average at best” X and O coach and his game planning is even worse. Tubby Smith has a better record in the NCAA tournament than Cal, during his time at Kentucky.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Delmar and chuckiepoo
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top