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OFFICIAL UK BASKETBALL THREAD!!!!!!!


Bunghole

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[quote name='JC' post='760148' date='Mar 31 2009, 08:58 PM']Please tell me you don't have a credible source for that..[/quote]

i was told he was going to baylor.

[quote name='scharm' post='760005' date='Mar 31 2009, 10:20 AM']Idiots with 7 national championships and the most wins in college basketball history.

I don't know why the Kentucky job is so popular, I think it's just good. No reason to question it.

I have to say, I don't spend a whole lot of time wondering why Greaters Ice is so popluar either. It's just good.[/quote]


what have you done for me lately. i dont care about all those stats racked up when rupp cheated like a mother fucker. they dont even have the most tournament game wins that record is dukes :)

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It's official. Straight from the cow's mouth:




[quote]they dont even have the most tournament game wins that record is dukes[/quote]
Coach K has more Tourney wins than any other coach, but I'm pretty sure that UNC and UK are in a dead heat for most Tourney wins all-time. Of course, since it doesn't support some misguided notion that Duke is on the level of UCLA, IU, UNC, or UK, I'm sure this stat is no longer relevant, either. Either way, I'd rather have a team that wins most of the time that it gets to the Final Four (7 of 13) than a team that gets there more and can't win (3 of 14).
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[quote name='ThurmanMunster' post='760155' date='Mar 31 2009, 10:11 PM']i was told he was going to baylor.[/quote]
That was the word for awhile. But he seemed to fizzle out on that, at least that was the word. He just met with Coach K and apparently his mom wants to go to Duke. She is having health problems and that is one of the factors going into his decision. His "handler(s)" don't like Duke, or K so thats why they never really got together and met face to face. Well he, Ryan Kelly, Mason Plumlee, Seth Curry, Wojo, and Nate James toured the campus and everything on Saturday and it went really well.

But his AAU coach is now going to be on Staff at Baylor, so we should see. He played AAU ball with Ryan Kelly, so i would like to think we have a decent shot.

He is cutting his list at the Jordan all star game. My guess is Duke Baylor UK. But i have no clue who he will choose. Hopefully he goes with what Mom wants and we will be a NC contender.

Xavier Henry supposedly is opening up his recruitment and may head to Kansas..
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[quote name='Bunghole' post='760181' date='Apr 1 2009, 11:06 AM']The "Caliparication" vid was kinda cool, but PLEASE with the Kige Ramsey videos!

That guy is the epitome of why people NOT from Kentucky make fun of people FROM Kentucky!

:lol:[/quote]
Kige Ramsey is still horrrrrible. Unreal. :D

The only think actually cool about UK basketball is Ashley Judd. And she's pretty damn cool.
(yup, just watched the caliparication vid ^_^ )

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[quote]Will the joke end up being on Barnhart?
By Pat Forde
ESPN.com

And on April Fool's Day, Mitch Barnhart will introduce John Calipari as the basketball coach at Kentucky.

This is the show-stopping conclusion to a two-year running prank Barnhart has been playing on the populace, showing what a wacky jokester the publicly bland athletic director really is.

Seriously, see if this isn't short-sheet-the-bed hilarious: In two years, Kentucky has gone from paying national championship-winning coach Tubby Smith $2.1 million a year to reportedly forking over $31.65 million plus incentives over eight years for a coach with less bling on his finger and more bones in his closet.

With a Billy Gillispie train wreck in between.

Mitch, you're killing us! Enough with the tomfoolery!

But seriously, Mitch, given the embarrassing failure of the Gillispie era, let's hope this one goes better. At least you got what you most needed: a big name who actually said yes, and quickly.

Of course, the quick part didn't really play to your favor last time, did it? Hopefully, the exhaustive "fit" check on Calipari in the vast expanse of time between Friday afternoon (when Gillispie was fired) and Sunday morning (when word first got out of your impending meeting with Calipari) came back to your liking.

I know in your research you came across many people who love Cal -- they love the success, the coaching acumen, the energy, the charisma, the community generosity, the battler's spirit, the dreamer's ambition. I've heard those things myself from many people I respect in college basketball.

But I've heard a lot of other things, too. So before you two ride off to restore the glory of Big Blue Nation, a few questions for the AD:

Why didn't you hire Calipari two years ago, or even entertain him as a serious candidate? Surely it wasn't because Gillispie had a better coaching record -- he didn't. Surely it wasn't because Gillispie is a better people person -- few can match Calipari's outgoing personality and zeal to sell his program on every platform.

So if Calipari was interested -- and plenty of basketball insiders said he was at the time -- what was the problem? Was there something else that made you leery?

Would the apparent change in your perception of Calipari as a UK coaching candidate have anything to do with the fact that your own six-figure job is very much on the line after the Gillispie fiasco? And maybe now it's time to play ball with the boosters who see Cal's excellent record in Memphis and want to win big again? No matter what baggage he brings to Lexington?

Look, we all know Calipari brings plenty of wins with him. Over the past four seasons, he racked up 136 of them --- the most wins of any four-year stretch in college basketball history. That included four Sweet 16s, three Elite Eights and a national title game appearance. Compare that to Kentucky, which in the same four-year span won only 84 games, didn't win an SEC title, didn't make a Sweet 16 appearance and failed to make the NCAA tournament this season for the first time in 18 years.

But let's also examine some of the carry-on luggage Cal brought with him on that private plane to the Bluegrass State on Tuesday night.

When you introduce Calipari on Wednesday in Lexington, will you make mention of his taking two teams to Final Fours? Or just one? Because the first one, with Massachusetts in 1996, was officially vacated from the NCAA record books after an agent hooked up star center Marcus Camby with cash and prostitutes. Calipari said he knew nothing about it and the NCAA did not charge the school with major infractions, but it happened on his watch.

That puts him in select company: one of two active coaches with vacated Final Fours on their résumés. (The other is Steve Fisher.) Will that be noted in the bio?

That leads me to another historical footnote: You're aware that Kentucky has gone through the NCAA judicial system six times for major infractions cases, right, Mitch? The NCAA set up shop in the 1950s, and UK has had a major infractions case in every decade but the '90s -- with two in the '80s for good measure.

Calipari has no major NCAA violations on his record -- not at Memphis, not at UMass. So I'm not suggesting he's going to come to Lexington and land the Wildcats on probation, Mitch. But I am saying that you, as the custodian of a historically checkered athletic program, have hired a guy who lives in the gray area, works every angle, pushes every corner of the envelope.

That's all fine, as long as the envelope never busts the way that Emery Air Freight one did, spilling $1,000 from the Kentucky basketball office to recruit Chris Mills and sparking a scandal that leveled the program 20 years ago.

But why linger in the past, Mitch? Let's talk about the future.

How do you feel about sharing office space? Because you might walk in one day and find Worldwide Wes sitting in your chair with his feet on your desk.

You know about Wes, right? Of course you do. Everyone in basketball knows William Wesley, aka Wes, even if nobody knows exactly what the loosely defined but tightly connected power broker does. But the important thing isn't his job description -- it's his results. Wes helped hook up Memphis with some of its best players under Calipari: Dajuan Wagner, Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Tyreke Evans.

With those guys under his wing, Wes went wherever Wes pleased in Memphis -- locker room, practice facility, good seats at the FedEx Forum, too. Heck, I even ate with him once at the Tigers' training table. He's a charming guy, has a lot of charisma -- just don't ask him too much about his business.

With Wes, your job is to accommodate. Not interrogate.

What's your outlook on package deals, Mitch? You cool with them? If not, I suggest a change of attitude. When Calipari goes after big fish, the net tends to bring in some sucker fish, too.

When he signed Juanny Wagner, he also got his dad as a staff member (Milt Wagner, even without a college degree) and his best friend (Arthur Barclay, despite limited ability). A positive side effect: Milt stayed several years after Juanny left and got his degree.

When he signed Evans, he got his personal strength coach, Lamont Peterson, too. But really, what high school kid doesn't come with his own strength coach these days?

And there even have been some prepackaging efforts. C.J. Henry, who hadn't played basketball in years after trying his hand at professional baseball, enrolled at Memphis this past August to play hoops. Surprisingly enough, his brother, Xavier -- considered by many the No. 1 high-school senior in America -- signed with the Tigers in November.

What about an occasional scrape with the law, Mitch? Guys such as Sean Banks, Jeremy Hunt, Andre Allen and Kareem Cooper got multiple chances to stay on the Memphis team and still couldn't do it.

Any opinion on prep schools, Mitch? Some of them have gotten a lot of negative publicity as academically sketchy diploma mills in recent years from the likes of The New York Times and Washington Post, but be prepared to deal with them. Calipari has relocated many an academic reclamation project to prep school. Among them: Joey Dorsey, Shawne Williams, Antonio Anderson, Robert Dozier and the aforementioned Cooper.

Hey, you and I both know Memphis is hardly the only place that works package deals. Or has players who get into trouble. Or goes the prep school route. These days, that's accepted as the price of doing business in the big leagues, isn't it?

Well, Calipari manages to stuff that stat sheet on all those fronts.

But with him, you also get 30-plus victories a season for the past four seasons. You get the big-time recruits your new head coach will inevitably bring in. You get renewed dreams of winning an eighth national championship.

That's why you're hiring John Calipari, Mitch. We all get it.

Happy April Fool's Day.

Hopefully, the joke won't end up on you.[/quote]
[url="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=4032093&sportCat=ncb"]http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/sto...mp;sportCat=ncb[/url]
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[quote name='JC' post='760148' date='Mar 31 2009, 09:58 PM']Please tell me you don't have a credible source for that..[/quote]

I shouldn't have used the word "will," "could" would have been a better choice.

[url="http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/11573812"]http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/11573812[/url]

[quote]Calipari will replace Billy Gillispie, who was fired last Friday. It's possible Calipari will take Memphis recruits DeMarcus Cousins and Xavier Henry -- as well as the nation's top unsigned player, John Wall -- with him to Lexington, which could have Kentucky competing for a national title if Jodie Meeks and/or Patrick Patterson return.[/quote]
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I think it's safe to say if you don't like Kentucky Basketball you'll find something wrong with this hire. Oh well.


Did people actually think, Kentucky would just sit down and shrug their shoulders at being a bubble team/NIT team year after year?

Sit there and watch other top programs load up on talent and be accepting of the bullshit reasoning that the college basketball landscape has changed?

It doesn't matter who the coach is, that individual must get them on the path to No. 8 or move on with their coaching career somewhere else. Cal will be no different if he doesn't get results, he'll be a hero if he does.
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[quote name='scharm' post='760233' date='Apr 1 2009, 07:24 AM']I think it's safe to say if you don't like Kentucky Basketball you'll find something wrong with this hire. Oh well.


Did people actually think, Kentucky would just sit down and shrug their shoulders at being a bubble team/NIT team year after year?

Sit there and watch other top programs load up on talent and be accepting of the bullshit reasoning that the college basketball landscape has changed?

It doesn't matter who the coach is, that individual must get them on the path to No. 8 or move on with their coaching career somewhere else. Cal will be no different if he doesn't get results, [b]he'll be a hero if he does[/b].[/quote]
I think he will. We may end up being a loaded squad next season. And if the SEC imitates CUSA's level of suckitude again next season, UK could easily end up with 30 wins. How cool would that be, Calipari extending his 30 plus win seasons streak across conferences/teams?
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[quote name='Bengal Migration' post='760218' date='Apr 1 2009, 03:34 AM'][url="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=4032093&sportCat=ncb"]http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/sto...mp;sportCat=ncb[/url][/quote]

DAYUM...

I knew Calipari was shady, but DAYUM. Forde put the wood to em!

No doubt Cal will make Kentucky a winner again - just hope Kentucky doesn't pay too big a price for it.

Almost $4.4 million / year to a head coach that has never won a Nat'l Championship... almost a million more than a coach that has won 2... makes perfect sense.
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[quote name='Vol_Bengal' post='760261' date='Apr 1 2009, 11:02 AM']DAYUM...

I knew Calipari was shady, but DAYUM. Forde put the wood to em!

No doubt Cal will make Kentucky a winner again - just hope Kentucky doesn't pay too big a price for it.

Almost $4.4 million / year to a head coach that has never won a Nat'l Championship... almost a million more than a coach that has won 2... makes perfect sense.[/quote]


About as much sense paying the loser Oakland Raider coach 2+ million to lead your football program?
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[quote name='scharm' post='760268' date='Apr 1 2009, 12:23 PM']About as much sense paying the loser Oakland Raider coach 2+ million to lead your football program?[/quote]

That's pretty rich...

You're honestly going to consider any coach's tenure in Oakland??? Give me a break. The only thing I fault him for is accepting the Oakland job to begin with. Coaching for THE most senile and worst owner in professional sports...

give it another go! I'm sure you can find something...
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[quote name='Bunghole' post='760181' date='Mar 31 2009, 11:06 PM']The "Caliparication" vid was kinda cool, but PLEASE with the Kige Ramsey videos!

That guy is the epitome of why people NOT from Kentucky make fun of people FROM Kentucky!

:lol:[/quote]


[quote name='Bengal Migration' post='760203' date='Apr 1 2009, 01:14 AM']Kige Ramsey is still horrrrrible. Unreal. :D

The only think actually cool about UK basketball is Ashley Judd. And she's pretty damn cool.
(yup, just watched the caliparication vid ^_^ )[/quote]

Woah. You liked the Ryan Parker video, but didn't like the Kige Ramsey Show clip? That's f'ed up.

And seriously - Judd is [i]at best[/i] (and I'm being very generous here) a has-been, and would probably best be described as a never-was. Ramsey will be unstoppable once he takes his degree, and I'll take a will-be over a has-been any day.

Also, he may or may not be joining us to play baseball this Saturday.

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[quote name='Go Tory Go!' post='760318' date='Apr 1 2009, 03:45 PM']And seriously - Judd is [i]at best[/i] (and I'm being very generous here) a has-been, and would probably best be described as a never-was. Ramsey will be unstoppable once he takes his degree, and I'll take a will-be over a has-been any day.[/quote]

I agree with this whole sentiment.
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[quote name='Vol_Bengal' post='760293' date='Apr 1 2009, 02:25 PM']That's pretty rich...

You're honestly going to consider any coach's tenure in Oakland??? Give me a break. The only thing I fault him for is accepting the Oakland job to begin with. Coaching for THE most senile and worst owner in professional sports...

give it another go! I'm sure you can find something...[/quote]
Well that seemed appropriate to attack, because that's been his only head coaching job.

The Lane Kiffin thing has some interesting simularities to the BCG thing:
-He has only signed a "Memorandum of Understanding"
-He really doesn't understand the public nature of the job/is a real fuck-up in interviews
-He's brought in some great recruits off the bat.


The [b]only[/b] thing that could possible prevent Lane from being an laughably bad hire are Ed Orgeron and Montie Kiffin. We'll see just how well they do. You're going to see a football team famous for its Offense become a top 5 defensive unit (at best), but I wouldn't expect too much more than that. He'll do better than Gene Chizik, but I wouldn't expect UT to finish higher than 4th in the SEC East while Lane is their HC. I KNOW that Urban Meyer, Mark Richt, and Steve Spurrier will build and coach better than Lane, and I'm pretty sure that Rich Brooks and Bobby Johnson can as well.
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[quote name='Vol_Bengal' post='760293' date='Apr 1 2009, 02:25 PM']That's pretty rich...

You're honestly going to consider any coach's tenure in Oakland??? Give me a break. The only thing I fault him for is accepting the Oakland job to begin with. Coaching for THE most senile and worst owner in professional sports...

give it another go! I'm sure you can find something...[/quote]

What else is there? Has he been a HC anywhere else? Coordinator at USC is all I got. What else is there?

He is getting 2+ mil to lead the Vols. Yet Kentucky is paying too much for a coach that's gotten teams to 2 final fours, has had NBA teams come after him, and has proven he can get top players. Please.

Kiffin maybe a great coach, I don't know. But, Cal has proven a level of success as a College Head Coach.

How many national titles did Roy Williams have prior to getting a boat load of money to go to UNC or did he coach for free until he won one?
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#22, Scharm...

I give you credit - you guys defend your Big Blue to a hilt. I don't want this to be a UT vs. Kentucky thing because I never intended it that way initially.

For the record, I didn't like the Kiffin hire when it was announced. I don't particularly like it now. The only thing that gives it some window dressing is he has built one hell of a recruiting class and has done it in about 2 months... and he has his dad as DC.

I didn't have an issue with Alabama paying Saban all that money because he'd been successful in the SEC and had won a NC within the last 4 years, at that time.


One other thing, if Kiffin continues bringing in the level of player he did with this first class, especially these last two guys I don't care how shitty a head coach he is, UT will definitely finish better than Vandy, UK, SC, and then will battle Georgia and Florida for the East year in, year out.

But, again, to each his own.
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[quote name='Go Tory Go!' post='760318' date='Apr 2 2009, 03:45 AM']Woah. You liked the Ryan Parker video, but didn't like the Kige Ramsey Show clip? That's f'ed up.

And seriously - Judd is [i]at best[/i] (and I'm being very generous here) a has-been, and would probably best be described as a never-was. Ramsey will be unstoppable once he takes his degree, and I'll take a will-be over a has-been any day.

Also, he may or may not be joining us to play baseball this Saturday.[/quote]
Call Ashley what you wanna. She's smokin from where I'm sitting.

If you play ball with Kige, be sure to post some pics :)

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[quote name='scharm' post='760361' date='Apr 1 2009, 05:15 PM']He is getting 2+ mil to lead the Vols. Yet Kentucky is paying too much for a coach that's gotten teams to [size=5][s]2[/s] 1 final four[/size], has had NBA teams come after him, and has proven he can get top players. Please.[/quote]

A correction, for accuracy's sake.

[quote name='Bengal Migration' post='760514' date='Apr 2 2009, 12:24 AM']If you play ball with Kige, be sure to post some pics :)[/quote]

Ramsey is, at best, doubtful. All he offers to our repeated invitations is a cryptic "we'll see." Not surprising, since he's a busy man - running the YouTube Sports Studio ain't exactly child's play.

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[quote name='Bengal Migration' post='760514' date='Apr 2 2009, 12:24 AM']Call Ashley what you wanna. [b]She's smokin from where I'm sitting.
[/b]
If you play ball with Kige, be sure to post some pics :)[/quote]

Damn skippy...

Two things... she can park her boots next to my bed any time she'd like.

and,

I wouldn't kick her out of the bed for leaving cracker crumbs...


Assuming of course the wife wouldn't have a problem with it... :P

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[quote name='ThurmanMunster' post='760483' date='Apr 1 2009, 10:53 PM']lane kiffin was a GREAT hire.[/quote]

We'll see. I hope so, but that remains to be seen. I hope I stand corrected because I wasn't won over initially and I'm lukewarm now. And, when he looks like a fucking idiot when he opens his mouth regarding recruiting shit and such it makes it even worse. He gets results recruiting though, I'll give him that.


Paint me skeptic and I'll gladly admit if I'm wrong. Gladly.
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[quote name='ThurmanMunster' post='760483' date='Apr 1 2009, 10:53 PM']lane kiffin was a GREAT hire.[/quote]

As is Calipari. Thus my point. If a Vol fan wants to split hairs and compare resume and pay rate maybe they should look at what Calipari is in College Basketball vs Kiffin in college football today.

Often times you don't pay exactly based on what they've done but what you hope they do.
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It's starting to sound a lot like Wall is gonna go to UK for Cal.

And that will instantly make you guys a NC favorite if you get all those guys. But the year after could be really, really rough after they bolt for the NBA.
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