59 minutes ago, 4 Quarters said:

By UK standards of the Cal era, this was was just a average UK team.  That's pretty much the way they performed all season.

I'm not sure you can say they looked average all season. There was a stretch where they looked like one of the top 3 teams in the country, whooping up on two Elite 8 teams (Kansas and UNC) and when they pounded Tennessee. They had a few weeks there where they looked amazing and the injuries happened and they never got back to that level again.

1 hour ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

I'm not sure you can say they looked average all season. There was a stretch where they looked like one of the top 3 teams in the country, whooping up on two Elite 8 teams (Kansas and UNC) and when they pounded Tennessee. They had a few weeks there where they looked amazing and the injuries happened and they never got back to that level again.

Well. I have to wonder why their season ended so early.

17 hours ago, 4 Quarters said:

Well. I have to wonder why their season ended so early.

Wonder away but there season ending early doesn't mean they were average all season.

19 hours ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

I'm not sure you can say they looked average all season. There was a stretch where they looked like one of the top 3 teams in the country, whooping up on two Elite 8 teams (Kansas and UNC) and when they pounded Tennessee. They had a few weeks there where they looked amazing and the injuries happened and they never got back to that level again.

If thing go as expected,  UK will have 2 wins by 15 plus over Final Four teams. Yup  definitely frustrating. 

2 hours ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

Wonder away but there season ending early doesn't mean they were average all season.

Who had the best team in December of 2008?  I don't know and it doesn't matter, it's always about who is the best at the end.

2 minutes ago, 4 Quarters said:

Who had the best team in December of 2008?  I don't know and it doesn't matter, it's always about who is the best at the end.

I completely agree with you on that.

However, when I originally quoted you, your statement wasn't about just the end of the year.  You said they were pretty much just average all season, and that's just blatantly not true.

6 minutes ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

I completely agree with you on that.

However, when I originally quoted you, your statement wasn't about just the end of the year.  You said they were pretty much just average all season, and that's just blatantly not true.

Who's to say if it's true or not.  We all have different opinions and that's the way I see it.

4 minutes ago, 4 Quarters said:

Who's to say if it's true or not.  We all have different opinions and that's the way I see it.

I would think that most reasonable people could easily say that its not true.  If any UK fan thinks below looks pretty average then I don't know how that UK fan will ever be happy again.

From December 18th - February 12th, Kentucky went 14-2. The only two losses were to LSU & Auburn (both tournament teams) and Kentucky sustained injuries to starting players early in the games and still had a chance to win both, especially LSU.  Injuries aren't excuses for losses, but part of the narrative.  During that stretch, they had the following marquee wins:

Beat North Carolina (probably a Final Four team) by 29 on December 19th on a neutral floor.

Beat Tennessee (SEC Champs) by 28 points on January 15th at home.

Beat Kansas (probably a Final Four team) by 18 on January 29th at their place.

I have no idea how a rational person can look at that nearly two month stretch and still say Kentucky was pretty much just average all season.  They were pretty average the last few weeks of the season and heading into the tournament, no argument there.  But to say they were pretty average all year is just very disingenuous.

57 minutes ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

I would think that most reasonable people could easily say that its not true.  If any UK fan thinks below looks pretty average then I don't know how that UK fan will ever be happy again.

From December 18th - February 12th, Kentucky went 14-2. The only two losses were to LSU & Auburn (both tournament teams) and Kentucky sustained injuries to starting players early in the games and still had a chance to win both, especially LSU.  Injuries aren't excuses for losses, but part of the narrative.  During that stretch, they had the following marquee wins:

Beat North Carolina (probably a Final Four team) by 29 on December 19th on a neutral floor.

Beat Tennessee (SEC Champs) by 28 points on January 15th at home.

Beat Kansas (probably a Final Four team) by 18 on January 29th at their place.

I have no idea how a rational person can look at that nearly two month stretch and still say Kentucky was pretty much just average all season.  They were pretty average the last few weeks of the season and heading into the tournament, no argument there.  But to say they were pretty average all year is just very disingenuous.

Don't forget Tennessee beat them two out of three games, and I'm sure they would not beat Kansas and Carolina by those margins again.  Throw in some games they struggled against some teams they should have put away early and some games they lost that maybe they should have won and you have and average season.  Also don't forget a first round exit to a 15 seed.

18 minutes ago, 4 Quarters said:

Don't forget Tennessee beat them two out of three games, and I'm sure they would not beat Kansas and Carolina by those margins again.  Throw in some games they struggled against some teams they should have put away early and some games they lost that maybe they should have won and you have and average season.  Also don't forget a first round exit to a 15 seed.

I'm not forgetting anything.  Losing to Tennessee two times and losing to the 15 seed wasn't between 12/18/21 - 2/12/22, thus has nothing to do with the stretch I describe when they were must better than average.  Average teams don't go 14-2 over almost two months and have the huge wins that they had.

The statement, "they were pretty average all season" is just blatantly inaccurate and I feel bad for any Kentucky fan that thinks otherwise because you'll probably rarely ever find happiness cheering for the Wildcats if you thought this team was just average throughout the two month stretch I described above.

If you want to be unhappy about the final few weeks of the season and the tournament, you'll get no argument from me but saying they were pretty much average all year is just foolish.

My thought is three things happened to UK. 

One, as the season went on it became more clear how to defend UK. Grady in particular became less effective as the season went on. He wasn't able to be effective taking the ball to the basket and teams took away the three. Wheeler couldn't shoot and teams would back off and let him shoot. TyTy was hurt. It got easier to defend UK at the end of the season.

Two, the TyTy injury was a disaster for UK. He needed to be the team leader. He lost time to injury and then the team lost rhythm with him. TyTy can play both ends of the floor. He needed his hands on the ball more. I know he had a bad game against St. Peters but I attribute some of that to the injury and being out of sync with the offense, and some of that to point 3.

Three, Coach Cal didn't adjust and didn't play the right players. I said before the tournament started that UK's post season results depended more than ever on Coach Cal playing the right players and adjusting to matchups. This team was below average in talent compared to other UK teams. Cal needed to coach and adjust. But Cal plays a certain way come heck or high water. The players that were most able to be effective with Cal's style IMO were TyTy, Mintz and Toppin. Cal didn't give Mintz and Toppin enough minutes. Cal gets to the off season with his rotation set. He will stick with his rotation far too often, especially in big games, over adjusting to what is happening with matchups. 

UK was a borderline top ten team for me and they were susceptible to losing to a lot of teams on any night because of all of the above. They weren't average, but they were not highly talented and able to win on a night that they weren't on top of their game.

Have I missed something outside of “what happened to Kentucky and What is next for Kentucky”?  
 

It’s been really hard recently watching Kansas pass UK’s all-time winning record for college basketball and regardless of analyzing what has happened or what could happen, I hope and pray the powers to be within the inner-circle of UK put a plan in action to get the program back on track.  My entire life it’s been about Kentucky’s rich basketball tradition and Big Blue Nation, but over last decade plus it’s been about how much Cal can make and how many players can he get to NBA.  Hard to swallow, but have to respect how Kansas and Villanova have done it right over the last 10 to 20 years.

12 minutes ago, The_Bull44 said:

Have I missed something outside of “what happened to Kentucky and What is next for Kentucky”?  
 

It’s been really hard recently watching Kansas pass UK’s all-time winning record for college basketball and regardless of analyzing what has happened or what could happen, I hope and pray the powers to be within the inner-circle of UK put a plan in action to get the program back on track.  My entire life it’s been about Kentucky’s rich basketball tradition and Big Blue Nation, but over last decade plus it’s been about how much Cal can make and how many players can he get to NBA.  Hard to swallow, but have to respect how Kansas and Villanova have done it right over the last 10 to 20 years.

OK now, I have to comment here. First, UK has been to more Final Fours in the past 20 years and recruits the same players as Kansas. Second, Bill Self should be dealing with the same consequences as Pitino and Sean Miller. 

Doing it right, if we are looking past the five Level 1 violations that Kansas/Self are still under investigation for, right?

Elite Eight, Final Four, National Championships still doesn’t replace that UK was up close to50 games ahead of an program in early 2000’s and now UK has been passed by.