Cupcake games are boring.
Cupcake City
- Thread starter I’m The Village Idiot
- Start date
It can work both ways, but it all ultimately comes down to, roster construction, developing team chemistry, playing the best lineups together, pre-game preparation and focus, in game coaching and adjustments, and a pinch of luck.
So, I say keep the schedule strong, and prepare for it by addressing the points I listed above
So, I say keep the schedule strong, and prepare for it by addressing the points I listed above
I think Pope will make changes to the strength and conditioning too if he sees an issue in this area. I'm not sure if there's anything that could be done to prevent the types of injuries they've had though.
I think his recruiters are high level (believe Hart and Brooks have landed high level talent in the past). I think issues stem more from recruits not wanting to play limited minutes, so Pope will have to tweak his approach and message if he wants to land the top talent.
He has shown a lot of loyalty to guys like Garrison, but starting Moreno in his place was at least a step in the right direction. I agree certain players should have minutes cut while Moreno, Williams, Jelavic get more minutes.
Honestly, I like but don’t love Sean Miller. I’m definitely not saying he’s a bad coach, but he’s not who I’d be looking for personally. He’s another coach that will go get you top tier talent and he has some Xs and Os chops but I don’t think he builds rosters that win championships. With Miller you get a Calipari type that’s a worse recruiter but better Xs and Os coach. I don’t think Miller is better than late stage Cal.
Yes, which is a tiny amount of time compared to most teams. Especially when you consider guys have been in and out of the lineup.
If we are discussing NBA potential the only 2 I see are Moreno and Chandler (if Chandler can improve his defense and ball handling).
Championship teams usually only require one. And even a late first is more than fine, history shows it. If we get this same crop of guys back and at least one player takes a major step, you have something.
I hope Moreno,JJ,CC and Kam return. Bring in a stud point guard.
If we at least go to a Sweet 16 with this crop and you return Chandler, Moreno, Jasper, Jelavic, and Lowe, I’d assume you’re very close to preseason #1, particularly if you pair that with Christian Collins.
Agree, especially with Hawthorne as a potential solid rotational piece
The short of it is I will debate anyone but not arguing with no point. If you ever wanted to debate the premise:
“Recruiting classes have little to no bearing on winning national championships in the current college basketball landscapes” I’d eagerly debate, but if you started with insulting me with no substance, what’s the point in debating? It’s just mud slinging at that point.
In my mind, that’s a pretty fair approach.
You did debate me. You lost. You refuse to engage further because you can't defend your argument. Not because I held up a mirror to you.
Damn glad UK doesn't play WKU. that would be a tough out....and Vandy
I genuinely have no idea what you mean but I’ll say this. If you want to debate, I’m open to it. Just make sure what you’re debating is the premise/argument and not me. I don’t remember anyone providing anything I thought was a convincing argument that shows high school recruiting classes are heavily related to national titles. If you did provide something that shows that relationship, forgive me for forgetting. You’re welcome to share what point that was. I also apologize for coming down harshly, it does seem you’re trying to debate in good faith and I may have misunderstood. Do you mind clarifying what you’re referring to though?
Bro, I just double checked the 10 year analysis thread where I was debating this topic and I didn’t see a single thing you posted. If you want to quote what you said before or something I’d love to review it with you @Forkman
No I was clearly answering your question. Why ask if you didn’t want an answer?
I was talking about post 137. You quoted yourself and responded to….yourself
To the contrary, lots of folks pointed out the lack of a star (Oweh is mid), the lack of shooters, and JQ being the only NBA talent. And now once you do get JQ you gotta figure out how to still get minutes to Moreno, who has been one of our best players.
This team is cooked because Oweh is hot garbage and Lowe’s return won’t be that impactful. He was the top player on a lousy team.
Again the majority of the college basketball world thought this roster would be not only good but very good or else we wouldn't have received the lofty ranking.
Is it possible everyone was wrong? Yeah sure it happens from time to time but it's not likely.
More likely is that people are jumping to conclusions over a small sample of games that we played all without a compelte roster.
Maybe or maybe not. Preseason ratings can't always tell how certain pieces meld or team chemistry.
I just don't think we are at a time in the season where we can really say oh Pope and the staff has failed to bring in a talented enough roster. At some point (it looks like in the near future) JQ will be on the court. Lowe will be back. Let's see how this team operates then.
I was curious about this and so I looked back at the last 5 years (Excluded the Covid year since no tournament). I looked at pre season rankings on Kenpom since that's the easiest way to find this data IMO.
So 50 teams. How did those teams look by the end of the year? I'm going to use seeding as a barometer on how the season has gone because if you are grabbing 1s and 2s you had a great year and beat some very good teams along the way.
1 seed = 14
2 seed = 8
3 seed = 7
4 seed = 9
5 seed = 1
6 seed = 1
7 seed = 3
8 seed = 2
9 seed = 1
11 seed = 1
No Tournament = 3
So of the 50 teams, 38 if them received a top 4 seed. 76% of the teams in the Top 10 preseason, finished in the top 16 at the end of the season. I don't know about anybody else here but I feel that number is straggeringly high. And honestly some of those teams that missed were teams that probably should have been seeded higher but they just lacked the resume building wins to warrant a high seed by the committee.
Only three did not make the tourament. So this talk about UK not making the tournament, again very unlikely.
Pre season rankings MATTER. There's a lot of BS that gets peddled on messages boards that this stuff doesn't matter but teams typically do finish where people think they will finish. Now of course your going to have your outliers. But this is the reason the pre season rankings in the human polls are actually a GREATER PREDICTOR of tournament success then the ending rankings. The ending rankings with the humans suffer from recency bias. You see it all the time, win a game move up, lose a game move down. It actually makes the overall rankings WORSE then if they were to do nothing at all.
So 50 teams. How did those teams look by the end of the year? I'm going to use seeding as a barometer on how the season has gone because if you are grabbing 1s and 2s you had a great year and beat some very good teams along the way.
1 seed = 14
2 seed = 8
3 seed = 7
4 seed = 9
5 seed = 1
6 seed = 1
7 seed = 3
8 seed = 2
9 seed = 1
11 seed = 1
No Tournament = 3
So of the 50 teams, 38 if them received a top 4 seed. 76% of the teams in the Top 10 preseason, finished in the top 16 at the end of the season. I don't know about anybody else here but I feel that number is straggeringly high. And honestly some of those teams that missed were teams that probably should have been seeded higher but they just lacked the resume building wins to warrant a high seed by the committee.
Only three did not make the tourament. So this talk about UK not making the tournament, again very unlikely.
Pre season rankings MATTER. There's a lot of BS that gets peddled on messages boards that this stuff doesn't matter but teams typically do finish where people think they will finish. Now of course your going to have your outliers. But this is the reason the pre season rankings in the human polls are actually a GREATER PREDICTOR of tournament success then the ending rankings. The ending rankings with the humans suffer from recency bias. You see it all the time, win a game move up, lose a game move down. It actually makes the overall rankings WORSE then if they were to do nothing at all.