Kentucky without Noel

[GatorPlanet]

Whenever Noel took a seat, and later got hurt, you could see an immediate and PROFOUND difference in the Wildcats when they played this week against the Gators. The dropoff was huge. Suddenly the paint was wide open for anyone who wanted it.

I can't see UK making the NCAAT at this point, unless at least two of their guys step up in a huge way.

[REM08]

Originally Posted by InstiGATOR1

As we have gone through the Calipari era at UK, I have tried to tell people it is different every year. Some years, a team of the best recruits can compete for the title. Other years, such a team will struggle.

It will be interesting to see who goes NBA, stays or even transfers from UK after this season. It can not be much fun for the players, coaches or fans.

Years like this aren't. But I think they were for most fans the last few years. Unless you're just a fairweather fan, you take the bad with the good. No team is immune to this. I agree with your post though.

Also I just heard why UK's assistant coach was thrown out by Doug Shows. UT won the tip at the begining of the game, and then the first jump ball (decided by the arrow) went to them also. Robic argued and got tossed. Shows is the worst. Obviously didn't decide the game or anything though.

[REM08]

Originally Posted by GatorPlanet

Whenever Noel took a seat, and later got hurt, you could see an immediate and PROFOUND difference in the Wildcats when they played this week against the Gators. The dropoff was huge. Suddenly the paint was wide open for anyone who wanted it.

I can't see UK making the NCAAT at this point, unless at least two of their guys step up in a huge way.

There's no chance of the tourney IMO.

This team suffered two effects from losing Noel. 1 - They actually lost Noel and everything that came with him. 2 - The rest of the players (Mays and Polson aside) are so incredibly mentally soft. Not a single alpha male outside of Noel. The team folded psychologically after losing Noel.

[Singaporegator]

Originally Posted by REM08

This sounds like a sarcastic statement, or one thats only true because of a technicality. Its the truth though.

I think it is ironically sad rather than sarcastic. There are still a couple of things we all envy KY for. Most especially their fan base. Then there is Ashley Judd. Seriously, if we had a movie (or media?) star graduate who came to every game she could at the dome you don't think that would energize the fan base.?

[HALLGATOR]

A couple of things I see from this:

The first one is I am wondering if Tenn is starting to hit a stride or if the Cats were really that bad today. Maybe a combination of the two. This could mean a tougher game for the Gators when we travel to play them.

The second one is I made the statement the other day that when Noel went to the locker room he carried 75% of Kentucky's game with him. I think the game today showed that to be the case. If they don't find something in a hurry they may lose another four SEC games. I can see them losing to Missouri, Arkansas, Georgia and Florida.

[tommyuf21]

Thanks to living in Big Ten world, I didn't get to have this game on in the background. Sure looked ugly though from the boxscore. UT is an offensively challenged team and for them score 80 against UK, well that's scary. It appears that noone besides Noel played defense for the Cats. Calipari has his work cut out for him to get his guys to play to their talent level.

[GatorPlanet]

Apparently in the postgame interview, Calipari said that several of his players are "uncoachable."

Ouch. Things may get much worse for them if that's the case.

[HALLGATOR]

Originally Posted by GatorPlanet

Apparently in the postgame interview, Calipari said that several of his players are "uncoachable."

Ouch. Things may get much worse for them if that's the case.

Possible ego problems?

[G8rNkoko]

Them's some rather harsh words from Calipari.

[LoyalGatorFan]

I don't know if I'm just ignorant or naive but weren't all of these freshmen 5 stars in high school? Did recruiting gurus really miss out on their projections on each one of them? Or are they just not buying into the team concept?

[jagervol01]

Originally Posted by GatorPlanet

Apparently in the postgame interview, Calipari said that several of his players are "uncoachable."

Ouch. Things may get much worse for them if that's the case.

I would assume that Goodwin is one of the players he had in mind with that comment.

[tommyuf21]

Originally Posted by LoyalGatorFan

I don't know if I'm just ignorant or naive but weren't all of these freshmen 5 stars in high school? Did recruiting gurus really miss out on their projections on each one of them? Or are they just not buying into the team concept?

It's the latter.

[dailydoublecat]

Originally Posted by G8rNkoko

Them's some rather harsh words from Calipari.

He basically said either they listen or they leave!! Good

[REM08]

Originally Posted by jagervol01

I would assume that Goodwin is one of the players he had in mind with that comment.

Cal actually yelled at Goodwin during the game after Goodwin did his own thing "I can't coach you!"

I think there's no question these guys aren't "buying in," but I also think you guys are thinking they're better (at this point in time) than they actually are.

Lottery picks and "5 star" players do not fully describe a player. Anthony Davis and John Wall were 5 star players. So was Daniel Orton and Harrow/Goodwin.

Cal always says "kentucky isn't for everyone." It looks like he got a few guys this year who either weren't ready for the lights (harrow) or just aren't ready yet but are depended on way too much (Goodwin/Poythress/WCS).

For the first year since Cal got here, he landed freshmen that are playing like Freshmen. Other than Noel of course.

[GatorLurker]

I got to see a bit of the game and it looked to me like UK had quit as a team, at least for this game. Either this happens after a devastating loss or there is an epic regroup and they play out of their minds for a game or two. I see which way it broke here.

Coach Cal has his work cut out for the rest of the year. I think that he might suffer for a bit, but he finds a way to get better performances fairly soon. He does have some First Round NBA talent on the team even if they are raw and none is in the backcourt.

No matter what a bunch of you guys on NBN think he actually is a good coach and teacher of the game. But did he run into a rough patch this year.

[tommyuf21]

We had a problem like this the year after the last championship, although it manifested itself a little later in the season.

I remember Billy locking them out of the practice complex.

I don't think that team had nearly as much hype, but it had its share of highly regarded recruits and underachieved.

[InstiGATOR1]

Originally Posted by REM08

Lottery picks and "5 star" players do not fully describe a player. Anthony Davis and John Wall were 5 star players. So was Daniel Orton and Harrow/Goodwin.

Cal always says "kentucky isn't for everyone." It looks like he got a few guys this year who either weren't ready for the lights (harrow) or just aren't ready yet but are depended on way too much (Goodwin/Poythress/WCS).

For the first year since Cal got here, he landed freshmen that are playing like Freshmen. Other than Noel of course.

Not only are players different but recruiting classes are different. Let's say UK had signed exactly how they want last year. I think the class would have included Shabazz Muhammad and Anthony Bennett and maybe not Cauley.

I guess you would have had a better mix of one inside scorer in Bennett and one inside defender in Noel. Poythress might then have been better on the perimeter and Muhammad would stretch the D better and maybe you could have cobbled together PG play from Harrow, Goodwin etc.

The counter argument is that Bennett's team is worse this year and Muhammad appears to be a me first type who pounts about a game winning shot because he did not get to take it. Adding a couple of more me first players to UK's mix this year might not have made anything better.

I do think UK fan are way too hard on these kids. They are Frosh. How can you be mad at them for playing like Frosh. They dominated in high school on athleticism. So of course they struggle some when they face adversity for the first time in their careers. From my point of view UK fans should be elated when as in some recent seasons their Frosh have played better than Frosh, but not call a bunch of Frosh heartless or quitters for playing like Frosh.

[DoctorGator]

Originally Posted by dailydoublecat

I'm not concerned in the least about the APR.
Jeff

Thought I read somewhere that you are a teacher? Maybe I'm mistaken.

Ask UConn what its like to not be concerned at all about the academic side of the house.

[gator34654]

Let's say that only Noel leaves for the pros and the rest stay. How many spots will uk have for the recruits they've signed?

[HALLGATOR]

Heck he called Jones a selfish mf-er in the middle of a game from what I remember.