Ik this is gonna bring the usual he’s gone good riddance crowd which I agree with but I can’t help think about the last team Cal was assembling here. It’s really bothered me as far as sports goes…
The reason being is imo he had everything lined up. Two of everything. Two solid of everything. Mostly what I was excited about was the bigs.
Yes I’m glad Cal is gone and it does no good to speak on what ifs but I was so ready to see freshman JQ and Somto down low. Cals best teams always had a shot blocking big man and we had two extremely good ones on the way.
We had two solid point guards. Several solid wings which we hadn’t had in awhile. Solid bigs. It was a picture perfect Cal team. Would we have had trouble shooting? Maybe.
Like I said Ik he’s gone and I’m glad but the thought of somto and JQ on that team I looked forward to all summer then he left for Arkansas. While I’m glad he’s gone.. I wish he would have left on like a wheeler year lol.. I’m sorry for the cal post because it’s not really about Cal but more less the thought of what that team had on it. All this was on the way. This was what we had coming before we even hit the transfer portal.
Oh well it had to be done but dang I sure would have liked to see two dominant big men play for Cal one last time. Somto absolutely bullied us last year. I told my dad about him all summer. Said his nickname was baby shack.
maybe I’m the only one but I feel like that roster we had coming was one of his best ever.
Didn’t read through the thread so maybe it’s been touched on. The worry I had when Calipari left was
A. Once again, UK just lost another modern goat legacy play. Nobody will forget how dominant that era was but not only is he not our modern goat, but if he wins at Arkansas it ruins him being associated here as a “UK guy” and he might not fully embrace UK as his legacy program. He’ll probably consider every stop as part of it and not one university. I’ve been waiting on UK to complete their place in history with a founder and modern goat. We don’t have that yet. It’s one of our black marks to me. For now the closest is Pitino, but he screwed up there too.
B: The NIL had just hit, and I’m sure what Calipari was saying when he tried one last push to stay at UK was about that. Now, players we lost to the second round get paid to come back. That’s why Arkansas has all of those returners. That would have happened here too. Barnhart made the call it’s on him if it goes south.
As far as this years team, real simple. Watch Arkansas and you essentially have what we would have minus a player or two he can’t pull there that he could get here. Last years team I just don’t think would have made any bigger of an impact than it did there.
