Final a gritty hard fought win for Duke. It played big and a tough loss for the Cougars with Shead going out with 7 minutes left in the first half. An all-ACC elite 8 on Sunday with NC State.

It's a shame to see an injury happen at this point. A whole season down the drain because of bad luck.

Just now, Voice of Reason said:

It's a shame to see an injury happen at this point. A whole season down the drain because of bad luck.

Yep.  Feel for that young man. 

13, 12, 1 (a shaky 1 without its best player), and 11. Duke’s path to the Final Four. Of course we will now say Scheyer is a genius. The NCAA tournament is so dumb.

Duke’s big guy Filipowski is allowed too much liberty with his game inside the paint. He made a basket last night by literally lowering his shoulder and pushing the defender backwards. The tv guys said, “Great move. He cleared a space for himself and scored. He’s putting the team on his shoulders.”

No, he’s putting his “shoulders” into the defender to clear that space. That is an offensive foul every time. Or it is unless you have DUKE written on the front of your jersey. He does it all the time and gets by with it. The defensive player is put at a disadvantage. 

I have been seeing that bull your way to the basket move the whole tournament. Refs are not calling it. I don't know why more players aren't doing it. I am glad you brought this up. I was watching last night and thought how do you stop that? Flop and try to draw an offensive foul? If the defender use their body to push back, they will call a foul. I don't know what a defender can do.

Next game will be interesting. NC State beat Duke in the ACC tournament. Filipowski versus Big Burns. Let's see how the refs handle that shoving match.

2 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

I have been seeing that bull your way to the basket move the whole tournament. Refs are not calling it. I don't know why more players aren't doing it. I am glad you brought this up. I was watching last night and thought how do you stop that? Flop and try to draw an offensive foul? If the defender use their body to push back, they will call a foul. I don't know what a defender can do.

Next game will be interesting. NC State beat Duke in the ACC tournament. Filipowski versus Big Burns. Let's see how the refs handle that shoving match.

I was gonna say that Burns does his share of bulling his way to the basket as well.  And it’s not just those guys.  The entire game has gotten way more physical since my days with Dr. Naismith.  
 

Which is why you see so many teams loaded with upperclassmen having tournament success.  Men vs boys. 

6 hours ago, bugatti said:

13, 12, 1 (a shaky 1 without its best player), and 11. Duke’s path to the Final Four. Of course we will now say Scheyer is a genius. The NCAA tournament is so dumb.

UK fans don't want to hear this, but if they want to have hope for UK next year, they need to hope Duke goes far. Duke is the only team left that is playing any freshmen. We know Cal's model is to play freshmen even though it hasn't worked the last 5 years. If a UK fan wants to have hope for a deep tourney run next year, it would be helpful to see the one team left that plays freshmen go deep.

Is it just me, or does Roach always save his best for the dance?

7 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

UK fans don't want to hear this, but if they want to have hope for UK next year, they need to hope Duke goes far. Duke is the only team left that is playing any freshmen. We know Cal's model is to play freshmen even though it hasn't worked the last 5 years. If a UK fan wants to have hope for a deep tourney run next year, it would be helpful to see the one team left that plays freshmen go deep.

Sorry, I can’t ever hope that Duke goes far in men’s basketball. ? 
I’ll just take a chance on it not affecting Kentucky in any way.

On 3/30/2024 at 1:31 PM, Voice of Reason said:

UK fans don't want to hear this, but if they want to have hope for UK next year, they need to hope Duke goes far. Duke is the only team left that is playing any freshmen. We know Cal's model is to play freshmen even though it hasn't worked the last 5 years. If a UK fan wants to have hope for a deep tourney run next year, it would be helpful to see the one team left that plays freshmen go deep.

It definitely will be interesting with Cal and what he should do. Before this season, UK actually had much older teams the two previous seasons. Yet they fell to St. Peter’s as a two seed, and then lost to Kansas State as a 6 seed. So Cal went back this year to what previously worked and that was trying to load up with talented freshman. Yet once again didn’t work out in the tournament. So we have failed these last 4 years doing it both ways, going older and going with freshman. So ideally would be nice to be able to get older with talented players while keeping most of the same players that already have a year in the system. 

1 hour ago, futurecoach said:

It definitely will be interesting with Cal and what he should do. Before this season, UK actually had much older teams the two previous seasons. Yet they fell to St. Peter’s as a two seed, and then lost to Kansas State as a 6 seed. So Cal went back this year to what previously worked and that was trying to load up with talented freshman. Yet once again didn’t work out in the tournament. So we have failed these last 4 years doing it both ways, going older and going with freshman. So ideally would be nice to be able to get older with talented players while keeping most of the same players that already have a year in the system. 

You are missing my point. I am not saying getting older and having more experience means you win. It gives you a better chance to win but it doesn't mean you win when everyone else is also more experienced. 

The main point is this. If you rely on freshmen, no matter how talented they are, you will not win a title. Cal going back to one and done has set himself up for failure. And he is headed down that path again next year.

6 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

You are missing my point. I am not saying getting older and having more experience means you win. It gives you a better chance to win but it doesn't mean you win when everyone else is also more experienced. 

The main point is this. If you rely on freshmen, no matter how talented they are, you will not win a title. Cal going back to one and done has set himself up for failure. And he is headed down that path again next year.

I’m not missing the point at all. I was just pointing out that before this season, he actually had went much older for the previous two seasons. People have acted like he had been failing with young teams and been doing the one and done the last few years and that wasn’t really true for the previous two years. He had a lot of older players the two seasons before this year. Yet failed that way. So he went back to the way he was successful at before which was using mostly freshman, and failed again. So he has literally gone both ways with it in recent years and failed both ways. His best bet is finding a happy medium between the two. 
 

That’s why I am basically agreeing with you, and saying his best bet would be getting older by hopefully keeping a lot of the players he has this year. Now if most of the players from this year leaves, and he relies mainly on the 6 freshman coming in. Then I completely agree he is setting himself up for failure. Getting a lot of the current players back, and even adding a transfer or two would be best bet. 

2 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

I’m not missing the point at all. I was just pointing out that before this season, he actually had went much older for the previous two seasons. People have acted like he had been failing with young teams and been doing the one and done the last few years and that wasn’t really true for the previous two years. He had a lot of older players the two seasons before this year. Yet failed that way. So he went back to the way he was successful at before which was using mostly freshman, and failed again. So he has literally gone both ways with it in recent years and failed both ways. His best bet is finding a happy medium between the two. 
 

That’s why I am basically agreeing with you, and saying his best bet would be getting older by hopefully keeping a lot of the players he has this year. Now if most of the players from this year leaves, and he relies mainly on the 6 freshman coming in. Then I completely agree he is setting himself up for failure. Getting a lot of the current players back, and even adding a transfer or two would be best bet. 

Can Cal tell the 6 recruits to sit here, be happy with your 0-10 minutes a game; and work on learning here on the bench in games, and in practice?

2 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

Can Cal tell the 6 recruits to sit here, be happy with your 0-10 minutes a game; and work on learning here on the bench in games, and in practice?

Usually I would say probably not. However, I think if Cal can get most players to return this year. That we may see him take a different approach with it. If most of the players return, the only 3 of the 6 freshman that I think would need to play some off the bench is the two big guys, and the high ranked guard. 
 

In a perfect world these are the 6 I would try my best to get back. Sheppard, Wagner, Edwards, Thiero, Big Z and Bradshaw. Those 6 return, the 6 incoming freshman, and then try to a good tough transfer guard that is either a junior or a senior. Then if any of the 6 I mentioned don’t return, then you hit the transfer portal for each one that doesn’t come back. In a perfect world you get those 6 back though.