As someone said maybe 1995 and I’d add 2011. Some painful misses in your group. 1984, 1993, 1997, 2010, 2015 I will not ever get over.
Should John Wall's jersey hang in Rupp Arena Rafters
- Thread starter Simple Man
- Start date
Yes to Wall but I'd put Mercer, Prince, and Bogans up there first. Wall was consensus 1st team all american and was absolutely huge for our program. Davis obviously goes up, and we're going by consensus 1st team AA, you have to also consider Ulis, then Tshiebwe was NPOY.
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Jerry, I always have respected your views. Probably, because they’re almost always like mine.
All of the missed opportunities are painful. I was at the 1997, 2010, and 2015 losses. I’m not sure which was most painful. ’93 was also extremely hard to swallow. Some atrocious calls against us. I’ll go to my grave believing Kentucky was the better team.
Just too many disappointments. Hard to rank them. However, I’ll say this, the 2015 team was the most talented team in the history of the sport. That being said, I still had a bad feeling Calipari would choke it away, and he did.
I was also at the UK/UNC game in 2017 in Memphis. Yeah, the first half we got absolutely hosed by the Refs. Not just Higgins. Higgins actually was criminal in the first half. He was actually favorable to us in the second half, but, the other two refs weren’t.
We were also in Cleveland for the Regionals in 2015. UK destroyed WVU in the 3rd round game.
However, in the Regional Finals, Notre Dame outplayed us, and out coached us almost the entire game. Towns saved us. He made almost everything, and we caught a couple of huge breaks late.
in fact, my wife and I had seats right behind the ND bench, and when WCS chased the Irish player the entire length of the floor, and he put up the shot over Willie, we had a perfect view.
It was dead at the basket, but thankfully, way too long.
i dropped to my knees when it didn’t go in, and had to catch my breath. I’ll never forget it.
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Mercer yes. No to Prince and Bogans.
Mercer won a National Championship, and played on a National Championship runner up team.
What did Prince and Bogans win? They were really good players, but, come on, you have to at least get to a Final Four.
Overview
John Wall was named the Adolph Rupp Trophy winner in 2010, which is awarded to the nation's top college basketball player, making him the National Player of the Year for that season. He also received other national honors during his freshman year at the University of Kentucky, including being a consensus first-team All-American and the USBWA National Freshman of the Year.
All those reasons are valid for jersey retirement especially for a freshman.
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It's about titles and final fours here.
I'd say AD from that era.
Wall us amazing but idk about n the banners.
I'd say AD from that era.
Wall us amazing but idk about n the banners.
The 4th leading scorer in the schools history doesnt deserve to get his jersey in the rafters?
Color me confused by this.
It is not a John Wall / AD debate. it is whether or not Wall should be in. Having said that, BOTH should be.
All right, all right. Put them in. Not a bigger Bogans fan than me. I think he’s the most under appreciated player in my lifetime. I’m not going to protest downtown, setting fires and looting stores, if his jersey goes in the rafters.
I’m more of what their teams accomplished guy. Not individual stats.
I’m just trying to spark some life in this message board by giving some opinions.
Pretty boring right now.
Yuck. I really detest the “I like you, poster, so I’m going to leverage the fact that you’re a good poster to make you feel bad about having an opinion I disagree with” spiel. Whether you’re someone who thinks Wall should be in or out is entirely valid either way. To me, Wall deserves to be up there in the same way that a Deron Feldhaus deserves to be there —- neither player would be up there due to accolades alone but rather program impact. Vek96, I really like your posts so do better. I’m judging you for having a different opinion. Conform to my opinion or be shamed (sarcasm).
You’re a good poster.
You make some good points. I’m just giving my opinions. Doesn’t mean I’m right. Personally, I was a huge Bogans, Prince, and Wall fan.
Cultural impact? Do you mean the dance? Yeah, that’s good enough.
Making UK relevant again, other top recruits wanting to play here. He was HUGE in putting UK back in the spotlight. Elite recruits after John Wall played here all wanted to come to UK. He was a big reason. If anyone denies that, they are just blind to the fact.
We’ve won 1 championship since he attended UK - for 1 YEAR - 15 years ago. We won 7 before him. I guess maybe we had some elite recruits before him, huh? And that team had Cousins, Bledsoe, Patrick Patterson, among others so the cupboard wasn’t bare.
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Surely you are not that dense. So how was we the years of BCG before Wall signed ? Who was we signing then ????? So by your standards, only the first few stud players should be honored ? I mean everyone else, UK was good before them,, right ? Not to mention players can only be judged by THEIR time here, not before or after. John Wall made a HUGE impact at UK.
You know that episode of the Simpsons where Homer spikes the punch to liven up the party and make things more enjoyable and then a nerd takes a drink and cancels the party and calls everyone's parents? That's you.
Also, do you have a degree enough to rag on Wall or do they not give out associate's in buzzkilling anymore?
The one n done era is essentially over as we are now in the NIL era.
Wall for what he contributed to Kentucky in that point of time set Kentucky up stud recruits for years on years.
When you bring in the context and not just the amazing basketball to me it's a no brainer he should be the rafters along AD.
Now does he need to go in ASAP? No there are much more deserving Kentucky players that for reasons that aren't clear to me the University has not been very generous on the recognition.
Wall for what he contributed to Kentucky in that point of time set Kentucky up stud recruits for years on years.
When you bring in the context and not just the amazing basketball to me it's a no brainer he should be the rafters along AD.
Now does he need to go in ASAP? No there are much more deserving Kentucky players that for reasons that aren't clear to me the University has not been very generous on the recognition.
We had won 3 the last 50 years pre that wall season.
At some point we have to acknowledge our golden era was during the Truman and Eisenhower administration's.
This is a hard no for me, unless they win the National Title AND were POY. So I would say yes for AD.
I see a lot of posts saying Walls coming here made us relevant again, but Wall didn't come to UK for that reason; he followed Cal here. He was gonna play for friggin Memphis. Clearly, the school wasn't what motivated him; the coach was.
I see a lot of posts saying Walls coming here made us relevant again, but Wall didn't come to UK for that reason; he followed Cal here. He was gonna play for friggin Memphis. Clearly, the school wasn't what motivated him; the coach was.
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“John Wall's recruiting story centers on the controversy of his decision to pick Kentucky over North Carolina, his dream school, due to an alleged negative interaction with UNC legend Tyler Hansbrough during a visit. While Wall claims Hansbrough dismissed him, and UNC later backed out of recruiting him, Hansbrough has denied the encounter and suggested Wall's choice was due to the money offered by Kentucky.”
No.
Why would we? Because he was "cool". Seriously! Because he is supportive of Pope, and still associates w/ UK? Because he was the first big addition of the Calipari era? Why not Cousins too then? Because he was a top draft pick? That sounds like something UNCheat would do.
I saw above someone comparing him to Mashburn. That is ridiculous. That team the year before Mash joined couldn't have beaten BCG's teams. And probation was like fielding a team with handcuffs around our wrists. There is no comparison that team was down a much deeper hole than the one Wall joined. Oh, and he was a huge part (easily best player) on a historically memorable team that played in a historically memorable E8 game; AND he then took the next team to the Final 4. Oh yeah, he also is I believe our 3rd all-time leading scorer.
Honestly Davis is probably the only one of Cal's players that should be (NPOY, F4 MVP, Championship). I say that even though Ulis is in my top 3-4 all-time favorite Wildcats (40+ years).
Why would we? Because he was "cool". Seriously! Because he is supportive of Pope, and still associates w/ UK? Because he was the first big addition of the Calipari era? Why not Cousins too then? Because he was a top draft pick? That sounds like something UNCheat would do.
I saw above someone comparing him to Mashburn. That is ridiculous. That team the year before Mash joined couldn't have beaten BCG's teams. And probation was like fielding a team with handcuffs around our wrists. There is no comparison that team was down a much deeper hole than the one Wall joined. Oh, and he was a huge part (easily best player) on a historically memorable team that played in a historically memorable E8 game; AND he then took the next team to the Final 4. Oh yeah, he also is I believe our 3rd all-time leading scorer.
Honestly Davis is probably the only one of Cal's players that should be (NPOY, F4 MVP, Championship). I say that even though Ulis is in my top 3-4 all-time favorite Wildcats (40+ years).
I would be fine either way on this one, but there are several that are far more deserving than Wall and should have been retired ages ago. I find it absolutely absurd that we haven't retired a player's jersey after Delk, who finished playing nearly 30 years ago. Three decades, two national championships, and not a single deserving player? It's ridiculous. If the award isn't going to be given then it serves no purpose.
Keith Bogans should be there, and regardless of the debate I saw so should Tayshaun Prince. They are the ONLY two players in the top 10 of the all-time scoring list that haven't received that honor. Bogans and Prince are also #2 and #3 on the all-time made 3s list at Kentucky. The only player ahead them is in the rafters. Prince has been among the top 10 scorers in UK's history for more than 20 years. He scored more points at Kentucky than Cotton Nash. He deserves it.
The only one-and-done player who definitely deserves the honor is Anthony Davis. If you are the MVP of a national championship team you earned it.
As for John Wall, I don't think he deserves it strictly from a numbers perspective, but he absolutely played the largest role in making Kentucky "cool" again. After the end of Tubby's time and then Billy Clyde, Kentucky was a lame duck. John Wall was the face of Kentucky basketball for a while and will forever be associated with Kentucky, probably even more so than as an NBA player.
Keith Bogans should be there, and regardless of the debate I saw so should Tayshaun Prince. They are the ONLY two players in the top 10 of the all-time scoring list that haven't received that honor. Bogans and Prince are also #2 and #3 on the all-time made 3s list at Kentucky. The only player ahead them is in the rafters. Prince has been among the top 10 scorers in UK's history for more than 20 years. He scored more points at Kentucky than Cotton Nash. He deserves it.
The only one-and-done player who definitely deserves the honor is Anthony Davis. If you are the MVP of a national championship team you earned it.
As for John Wall, I don't think he deserves it strictly from a numbers perspective, but he absolutely played the largest role in making Kentucky "cool" again. After the end of Tubby's time and then Billy Clyde, Kentucky was a lame duck. John Wall was the face of Kentucky basketball for a while and will forever be associated with Kentucky, probably even more so than as an NBA player.
I am surprised Prince isn't up there. He definitely should be. Bogans had one "blah" season, but a good case could be made for him too. Maybe Hayes. Maybe Patterson. I'd put Wall in the group with Bogans, Hayes, Patterson, Oscar, Delk, Mercer, DA, maybe Terrance Jones, maybe Ulis & WCS.
I'd say Prince and Davis should be "definitely in" guys.
I think only banners should hang at Rupp. Selecting certian players to permanently recognize by hanging a banner just puts the school and athletic dept in difficult positions that are hard to define, defend and explain. I suspect this is why there has been little movement on this for some time now.
It’s time to honor a lot of former players. Wall is in that batch of player deserving recognition because he and boogie made us instant winners.
Yeah , a player that sweeps the POY awards and leads us to a national championship needs to be in the rafters.
He didn't sweep the awards. Thomas Robinson won the NABC POY and he was also the only unanimous All-American that year. Oscar is our only player that swept the POY awards.
How someone watched the 2012 season and didn't vote AD the POY I have no idea, but the fact some didn't vote him as an All-American is mind boggling and their voting rights need taken.
Maybe time to consider another option. We have players that made amazing contributions to the team over some years. We have players that had incredible individual achievements but did not invest the time.
Maybe its time to consider more than one type of banner.
Maybe its time to consider more than one type of banner.
And Jamal mashburn only came here because of Rick.
But, yes, he was here 3 years