#22

[quote name='steggyD' date='09 December 2009 - 02:18 PM' timestamp='1260382701' post='839313'] Headed to the City to watch tonight's game! Go Wildcats!!! [/quote] So you saw the Great Wall in person, huh? What was it like? Were you blinded and knocked off of your mule on the way to NYC?

The only time UK didn't seem to be in complete control of that game (besides the first 3 or 4 minutes) was when Wall was out. If he doesn't get hurt, the 'cats probably win by 15.

Alright sports fans, tomorrow we find out if this team is for real or not. I think that UK will have a hard time winning, but if we can win this game and then UCONN in NYC, the team could very well go undefeated this year. also, King James will be in attendance.

[img]http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/e/e9/Riveting_tale_chap.jpg[/img] Seriously though, I kind of like this in the same way that I like Cal calling Bruce Pearl a "jagoff" in his presser the other day. It seems like college basketball gives us certainties that other sports will not. Sure, you can call Bill Belichick a cold asshole, but what about when he congratulates the other coach in his post game interview? What about that time that Brian Sabean actually made a [i]good[/i] move and drafted Twink Lincecum? But in NCAAB, we are given the certainty that Huggins will be a dick until his dying day, that Bobby Knight is a mean and miserable man 24/7, Roy Williams could live in Mayberry, Bruce Pearl is like a hairy Jewish Lou Ferrigno, and that Cal is slick as shit (which is the case for most Italian coaches, I've come to notice).

The other difference, of course, is that Mick Cronin won't be dead because of a massive heart attack within 5 years. Also, Mick isn't an asshole.

Any UNC fans on here want to engage in a sig bet?

...though surely you've followed enough NCAA ball by this point to know that rankings before conference play are meaningless and will only make you feel worse when some unranked team comes in and knocks your team off. I mean, the fact that a team that went to the NIT last year was ranked in the top 5 before they even played someone this year is ridiculos.

That game should never have gone to overtime. Yancy was [i]clearly[/i] fouled.

I know that Kansas, UK, Maryland, and UNC all looked at the kid, but withdrew interest after he took unofficial visits. Anyway, I [i]do[/i] think that UC is one of the more underrated teams in the country, that Yancy Gates will be 1st team All-Big East and potentially 2nd team All-American. The will definately get a tournament berth, and finish 5th in the Big East behind Villanova, West Virginia, Louisville, and Georgetown.

Why did all of the great college basketball teams pass on the kid? Why were his only offers from FIU, UC, and a rebuilding Memphis team?

We can agree to disagree regarding UK, but you really think that UT is better than UNC, Texas, and Kansas? Sure, they return all 5 starters, but they were only 21-12 last year, missing the NCAA tournament and getting destroyed by Jodie Meeks at home. Coach Pearl doesn't put together great defensive teams, either.

[quote name='ThurmanMunster' date='17 November 2009 - 10:20 PM' timestamp='1258510806' post='829687'] UK has no chance of winning the NC. Calipari doesnt coach defense. Miami hit 15 threes because UK left them WIDE open the ENTIRE game. Miami would drive and kick to the corner for a wide open three at will. Calipari always recruits all this great talent and then doesnt coach it up and doesnt teach defense or how to play as a team. They will spend the year playing inconsistently because they will be a bunch of individuals out there playing. They will beat a lot of teams just because of pure talent but they will lose to someone in the tourney that has good talent and the concept of defense and playing as a team. [/quote] How do you explain Cal taking Memphis to the Final game in the 2008 NCAA tourney while never giving up more than 75 points in that Tourney? Miami used a lineup where 4 out of 5 players could hit the three, and they had a [i]great[/i] night. Hitting 54% of your threes doesn't happen all of the time. Besides, dude, it is a little early in the season to say that UK has no chance. Why do you think that the first few games of the season are against mediocre teams? I would rather Kentucky have a great final 10 games than a great first 10 games, and I think that's exactly what they will do. Enjoy another Sweet Sixteen season, Dukie.

If the "Cardiac Cats" have taught me anything about sports this year, it's that I guess I can't complain about a win. Yeah, Miami looked very good and Charlies Coles is an excellent coach (more on that in a little while), but UK's Offense has been sloppy up to this point. I know that a lot of these problems come from learning the DDMO, and I wonder if Calipari starts implementing more post up plays in the game to take advantage of Patterson's and Cousin's talents. I think Bledsoe just had an off night last night, and I'm not reading too much into how the Wall/Bledsoe dynamic is going to work out. Now the good: I'm also a little pissed off at John Wall showboating like an asshole when the team is down by 18 to a team like Miami. Who can be mad at this, though? [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MqmMxvQrxM[/media] Even if Wall clangs that last shot, I honestly think that Cousins would have been there for the putback jam. Cal's offense puts [i]a lot[/i] of pressure on the defense, and I think that it is going to take either a very hot team (like last night's Redhawks) or a very deep team to beat us. Even when UK was down by 18, I was pretty sure that UK had the game, based on the high #s of Fouls that Miami was racking up, and I think UK is going to do that all year long. It remains to be seen how the Freshman make free throws, but the upperclassmen (especially Patterson) are very good from the charity stripe, a weakness of past Calipari teams. Finally, Charlie Coles is awesome: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnilJdwyPRs[/media] kind of a "UK are who we thought they were, and it's not my fault we let them off the hook."

or a complete bust who winds up in the back of several Clifton police cruisers. I'd say it's 50-50 at this point.

I know that I shouldn't come onto other fan's boards and start trouble, but I am really looking forward to seeing how Lance turns out.

Kyrie Irving is oging to announce his commitment tomorrow on ESPNU. Obviously, the smart money is on Duke.

doesn't really belong here, but I just wanted to point out how awesome Duke's Midnight Madness was: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDOiepXscaw[/media]

Answer me these questions three: If Irving was such a strong Duke lean, why didn't he commit on his visit? Wasn't Bledsoe a guaranteed thing, too? When Irving (or some other player in the future) decides to go to UK over Duke, won't it be because he was too dumb to go to Duke? Isn't that how it always is with you guys? I'm not really sure why Irving was invited anyway. We can basically choose between Selby and Knight at this point, and Gilchrist is ours next year, anyway.

Big Blue Madness starts in a week and a half. How long into the season is it until Kentucky is ranked as #1?

Thug or not, that is a pretty sick lineup. That team won't win the Big East, but they will come closer than anybody thinks. I with the ADs would man up and give us the UC/UK games that we all want, though..

Your argument that talent does not always guarantee a good record is a good one, but then you seem to go on in your next paragraph to say that UC's talent will make them a good team. I shouldn't have to point out how inconsistant this is. Also, John Calhoun and the other good example you could use from last year, John Thompson III, are both much better coaches than Mick Cronin (this is basically inarguable, isn't it?). Cronin's only success as a head coach was at a small school where he had a reputation of taking talented players who wouldn't qualify or had previous trouble and were therefore forced to placed in the OVC. The program is turning around, and has had a spate of bad luck, but Cronin hasn't distinguished himself as one of the great coaches in the Big East, and his time to do this is running out. Finally, every NCAA program (except the high and mighty Duke Blue Devils) will take kids know and then who are turds, but that's what makes Lance Stephenson's story so interesting. You have the #10 player in the country, and the second best SG, and all of the teams that would traditionally be pursuing have backed off at various points because this kid is trouble. Every coach that has met with the kid has stopped recruiting him very soon afterwards. The argument that Lance has had success in high school and clearly can't be a cancer for his NCAA team sure didn't work out of OJ Mayo and the Trojans, did it? I don't seem to remember Tim Floyd, Lil Romeo, and the crew cutting down too many nets. Hopefully Mick will wise up, because no good can come from having two ballhog (and Vaughn is, btw. All of the good ones are) SGs both playing to improve their draft stock and fighting for playing time on the same team at the same time. Mick could be under enough pressure to sign Stephenson, but it will do more than anything to end his College Hoops career at UC.

[url="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/jun/28/prep-standout-stephenson-visits-cincinnati/?sports"]http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/jun/28/p...cinnati/?sports[/url] don't look know, but UC is about to sign one of the biggest peices of shit in the country. My favorite Lance Stephenson moment: When asked about his young child and ex-girlfriend, he said that he is no longer paying attention to "off the court distractions." I thought Huggins was gone?

People on the internet (especially Chris Douglas-Roberts) are very stupid: [url="http://deadspin.com/5301702/fake-john-calipari-is-terrorizing-facebookand-other-things-of-note"]http://deadspin.com/5301702/fake-john-cali...-things-of-note[/url] lol @ "PIITB" "Yes Sir"

[quote name='Go Tory Go!' post='779241' date='May 28 2009, 04:57 PM']From the Yahoo sports homepage: [url="http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=dw-kentucky052809&prov=yhoo&type=lgns"]http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/ne...o&type=lgns[/url][/quote] Right, but Calipari knew about the allegations in late January and fully disclosed the facts to UK before he was hired. From the same article: "UK president Lee T. Todd Jr. told the Lexington Herald-Leader on Thursday that Calipari was up-front about the Memphis investigation during the interview process, and that he fully supports the hire." Corey Maggette admitted to taking thousands of dollars from some crack dealer named Myron Piggie while he was playing at Duke. Since he was getting paid while he was playing (like Marcus Camby), Duke should have had to forfeit every game he played in '99. Izzo, as far as I know, is clean. Everything I'm reading leads me to think that this isn't a big deal at all. Especially this one: [url="http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/05/hood-talked-to-uk-staff.html"]http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demli...o-uk-staff.html[/url]