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John Calipari to Arkansas?

naija

By naija
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HookEm

HookEm 2463

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18 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

This is the most enjoyable thing about the portal. The portal levels out the talent and exposes the coaches that were winning simply because they were buying recruits. Coach Cal is one of those IMO. 

The last three years have been hugely influenced by the extra Covid year.  It was literally the worst time in college basketball history to try to win with elite high school one and done type players (which is Calipari's bread and butter).  People want to blame his failings on NIL and the portal, and that is accurate to a degree. But it is mainly an issue because he didn't fill his roster up with 4th and 5th year players. 

Kentucky "experience" ranks (per KenPom)

  • 2024 - 196
  • 2023 - 118
  • 2022 - 187
  • 2020 - 264
  • 2019 - 284

2024 Elite 8 teams - Experience Ranking (median = 44)

  • UCONN - 68
  • Purdue - 67
  • NC State - 14
  • Alabama - 60
  • ------------
  • Illinois - 11
  • Clemson - 25
  • Tennessee - 29
  • Duke - 197

1999 Elite 8 teams - Experience Ranking (median = 147)

  • Virginia - 107
  • Texas Tech - 90
  • Michigan St - 119
  • Auburn - 65
  • ------------
  • Gonzaga - 20
  • Purdue - 176
  • Kentucky - 284
  • Duke - 351

This year, every team to make the Elite 8 was in the top-70 in terms of experience except Duke.  If you go back to 2019, before the extra pandemic year, the teams making the Final Four were much less experienced. Note that this is in terms of ranking, not absolute experience level.  

This tourney, UK lost by 4 to Oakland, who started two 5th year seniors and a 6th year senior. Last year, they lost by 6 to K-State, who also started three 5th year seniors.  Those type of guys are all gone next year and the younger, more talented players will play a much bigger role.  Cal has done better than anyone in securing those young talented players and has not lost his fastball at all in this regard.

Kentucky recruiting ranks:

  • 2023 - 1
  • 2022 - 9
  • 2021 - 5
  • 2020 - 1
  • 2019 - 2

I'm not going to be surprised one bit when Arkansas starts reeling in top-5 class after top-5 class, and becomes a major pain in the ass.

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Rickylovesweed

Rickylovesweed 14262

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1 hour ago, HookEm said:

 

I'm not going to be surprised one bit when Arkansas starts reeling in top-5 class after top-5 class, and becomes a major pain in the ass.

Cal isn't going to be a pain in the ass for anybody if his model is reliant on 3 to 5 FR every year. That model simply doesn't work now outside of very rare examples where blue-bloods stack insane talent. Everyone mocked Cal for this very approach last offseason and then once again he was bounced in the first round. 

Also, Cal will almost certainly recruit at a level below Kentucky. He isn't going to be landing the #1 class like he was consistently at Kentucky. That makes it even more difficult to win with HS talent because there is less talent. 

If Cal's formula is "win with top-5 classes" I say it's a high probability he's a failure at Kentucky because 1) That's an antiquated model to begin with. 2) He's going to be landing less HS talent compared to Kentucky which makes it even more difficult to win with that model. 

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lateshow

lateshow 1304

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3 hours ago, Js1 said:

Yep, Tramon Mark and Devo Davis went into the portal and Trevon Brazile went pro 

Wait, was that real? I never heard much about it and that it was just message board bullshit. 

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HookEm

HookEm 2463

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Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I may be wrong. But I think people fail to appreciate that the environment is about to change again. 5th year Covid players greatly inflated the talent level in the portal.
You are still going to have a ton of players in the portal, but they won’t be nearly as impactful. And a lot of them will be one year rentals instead of 2-3 so there will be less continuity. Imagine if we only got one year of Carr, Allen and Bishop.

Take out all the 5th year players this year and we have a completely different tournament. I doubt UConn wins without Newton and Spencer.

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'stache

'stache 21792

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36 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

That's some high-level aggy negotiating skills!

Lol, for real. "Hey I'll offer you $XXX, but if you want more, I'm happy to pay more."

In what fucking world does someone accept the offer? If course they'll ask for the higher price.

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SL Xpress

SL Xpress 7513

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When Andy Enfield took the SMU job, I told all of you the only way this can go is that Scott Drew is going to end up at Kentucky. You laughed at me then, but who's laughing now?

BTW, I'm rooting for Jerome Tang to take the Baylor job. Maybe Beard takes the KState job and then Ole Miss hires Gillespie. Why not?

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Underdog

Underdog 28544

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4 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

When Andy Enfield took the SMU job, I told all of you the only way this can go is that Scott Drew is going to end up at Kentucky. You laughed at me then, but who's laughing now?

BTW, I'm rooting for Jerome Tang to take the Baylor job. Maybe Beard takes the KState job and then Ole Miss hires Gillespie. Why not?

image.jpeg.b2dcf9c8a9e78705b45abb100f01f8b6.jpeg
 

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closetohumping

closetohumping 17433

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8 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

When Andy Enfield took the SMU job, I told all of you the only way this can go is that Scott Drew is going to end up at Kentucky. You laughed at me then, but who's laughing now?

BTW, I'm rooting for Jerome Tang to take the Baylor job. Maybe Beard takes the KState job and then Ole Miss hires Gillespie. Why not?

Why would

Beard go to ksu?

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markstanco

markstanco 12570

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15 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

When Andy Enfield took the SMU job, I told all of you the only way this can go is that Scott Drew is going to end up at Kentucky. You laughed at me then, but who's laughing now?

BTW, I'm rooting for Jerome Tang to take the Baylor job. Maybe Beard takes the KState job and then Ole Miss hires Gillespie. Why not?

Did he accept the job?  From what I see is he turned it down. 

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SL Xpress

SL Xpress 7513

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6 minutes ago, markstanco said:

Did he accept the job?  From what I see is he turned it down. 

Looks that way. It's hilarious either way. I would have enjoyed rooting against Scott Drew at Kentucky, but I'll enjoy rooting against him at Baylor all the same. 

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SL Xpress

SL Xpress 7513

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6 hours ago, closetohumping said:

Why would

Beard go to ksu?

I don't think he would. But I didn't think any of this would unfold. I'm just trying to play out the chaos in a way that most involves my various fan agendas. 

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45880

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John Calipari has 33 conference championships?  In what world?  I count 18.  

Cal is also 14 years older than Pope, who happened to play on UK's 1996 national championship team.  He's been a head coach for 8 years.  That's a really lame comparison.

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Don Johnson

Don Johnson 4752

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5 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

John Calipari has 33 conference championships?  In what world?  I count 18.  

Cal is also 14 years older than Pope, who happened to play on UK's 1996 national championship team.  He's been a head coach for 8 years.  That's a really lame comparison.

When Cal had been a coach for 8 years, he'd been to a Sweet 16, an Elite 8 and a Final 4 and had 5 conference titles.  By the time he was 51, he'd won 28 tournament games, 2 S16, 3 Elite 8, 1 FF, 1 Runner up and had 11 conference titles.  Only counting regular season.

In 9 years, at age 51, Pope has 0 tournament wins.  He's been twice and both times got upset in the first round by an 11 seed.

Clearly Cal is 65 now, and who knows what he has in the tank.  But UK fans woke up yesterday thinking they'd landed Scott Drew.  Then thinking they'd money whip Danny Hurley.  Then figured they'd just have to settle for Billy Donovan.

Instead they got a guy who isn't really that young and has never won anything.

But UK fans are thrilled Cal is gone.  Definitely better off this week than they were last week.

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John80

John80 157

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The one drawback to letting Cal go was UK's awful athletics director would make the hire and he has done worse then I could have imagined by hiring someone who has never won a tourney game. Top ten salary too of course for someone that hasn't won anything. The football program has been going down and now the basketball program will really start heading down.

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45880

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27 minutes ago, Don Johnson said:

In 9 years, at age 51, Pope has 0 tournament wins. 

He also spent 9 years in the NBA and other pro leagues and then attended med school for 3 years.  He doesn't have much coaching wear on the tires. 

Was he UK's first choice?  Of course not.  Will he succeed?  I don't know.  I bet he veers hard from Cal's failed "one and done" model, though.

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Underdog

Underdog 28544

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Donovan has always been my choice since Tubby left, have to wonder if BD quietly told UK no to save them embarrassment of being turned down again. 
 

IMO, Hurley only leaves UConn for an NBA job if he so wishes. I had never been a Cal fan and he was the right hire at the time but he’s more than worn out his welcome at UK for me. I won’t hate on the Pope hire completely but it intrigues me more than Drew, Beard or even Oats.  With the Cal departure, UK could be starting the decline into IU BB & Corn FB irrelevancy. 

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45880

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47 minutes ago, Underdog said:

Donovan has always been my choice since Tubby left, have to wonder if BD quietly told UK no to save them embarrassment of being turned down again. 
 

IMO, Hurley only leaves UConn for an NBA job if he so wishes. I had never been a Cal fan and he was the right hire at the time but he’s more than worn out his welcome at UK for me. I won’t hate on the Pope hire completely but it intrigues me more than Drew, Beard or even Oats.  With the Cal departure, UK could be starting the decline into IU BB & Corn FB irrelevancy. 

Today I learned you're a UK fan.

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Js1

Js1 85269

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50 minutes ago, Underdog said:

Donovan has always been my choice since Tubby left, have to wonder if BD quietly told UK no to save them embarrassment of being turned down again. 
 

IMO, Hurley only leaves UConn for an NBA job if he so wishes. I had never been a Cal fan and he was the right hire at the time but he’s more than worn out his welcome at UK for me. I won’t hate on the Pope hire completely but it intrigues me more than Drew, Beard or even Oats.  With the Cal departure, UK could be starting the decline into IU BB & Corn FB irrelevancy. 

Don’t worry. Texas survived purgatory for almost a decade in football. You will survive and come out of it much stronger. You learn to live with and laugh at the failure

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Brian Fantana

Brian Fantana 6678

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55 minutes ago, Underdog said:

Donovan has always been my choice since Tubby left, have to wonder if BD quietly told UK no to save them embarrassment of being turned down again. 

Has always felt like he just doesn't want to coach college basketball anymore. For a long time. I'm sure plenty of major programs have come calling over the years and he's turned down many offers. There's no guarantee he would even be effective in today's college basketball anyway.

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naija

naija 2854

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I don't think people are paying attention if you still think a college job is as attractive as a pro job, even the top college jobs, across multiple sports. There will be the outlier here and there who truly just loves college and all of that, but for many coaches, the last couple of years has tilted the meter firmly in the professional camp.

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Pancho

Pancho 44691

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Donovan was never coming back to college. Neither is Stevens. 

It's amazing what college fans think of their programs, that they will be able to attract a professional coach or front office guy to come coach at their college/university just because of who they are and how much money they can offer. It's not always about the money.

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closetohumping

closetohumping 17433

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3 hours ago, naija said:

I don't think people are paying attention if you still think a college job is as attractive as a pro job, even the top college jobs, across multiple sports. There will be the outlier here and there who truly just loves college and all of that, but for many coaches, the last couple of years has tilted the meter firmly in the professional camp.

The thought of dealing with nil and portal, boosters, recruiting etc sounds awful. I think it was a factor for urban passing on us

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54205

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17 hours ago, closetohumping said:

The thought of dealing with nil and portal, boosters, recruiting etc sounds awful. I think it was a factor for urban passing on us

Given the absurd bloat in athletic administration at most major schools, I'm kinda shocked that no one (especially SEC) employs what amounts to an NFL GM.

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naija

naija 2854

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10 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Given the absurd bloat in athletic administration at most major schools, I'm kinda shocked that no one (especially SEC) employs what amounts to an NFL GM.

Alabama has a "General Manager," though I don't think the role mirrors what an NFL GM would do....

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