Didn't watch, but what I've heard about the game Boogie Fland and DJ were a problem for Kansas combining for 46 points and Big Z adding 18.

Kansas was short 2 or 3 key players and Arkansas is battling several injuries as well...so who knows what all of this means?

21 hours ago, Jumper_Dad said:

Didn't watch, but what I've heard about the game Boogie Fland and DJ were a problem for Kansas combining for 46 points and Big Z adding 18.

Kansas was short 2 or 3 key players and Arkansas is battling several injuries as well...so who knows what all of this means?

A sophomore Wagner is going to be tough. Boogie Fland looks like some of the old top guards Cal use to get. Big Z has all the potential in the world, same with Theiro. Throw in a few transfers they got and a fresh motivated Calipari. Arkansas should be a really good team this year. 

19 hours ago, futurecoach said:

A sophomore Wagner is going to be tough. Boogie Fland looks like some of the old top guards Cal use to get. Big Z has all the potential in the world, same with Theiro. Throw in a few transfers they got and a fresh motivated Calipari. Arkansas should be a really good team this year. 

Arkansas will be good, will probably win a lot of blowouts but Cal will still be coaching in tight games.

1 hour ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

Arkansas will be good, will probably win a lot of blowouts but Cal will still be coaching in tight games

Besides these last 5 years he has a pretty good track record of being very successful anywhere he coaches in college basketball. He is still one of only two coaches to take three different schools to final fours the other being Pitino. So he must be doing something when he goes to new schools. IMO both he and Pitino both will end up taking a 4th school to a final four. The only question is who will do it first. 

1 hour ago, futurecoach said:

Besides these last 5 years he has a pretty good track record of being very successful anywhere he coaches in college basketball. He is still one of only two coaches to take three different schools to final fours the other being Pitino. So he must be doing something when he goes to new schools. IMO both he and Pitino both will end up taking a 4th school to a final four. The only question is who will do it first. 

But why has he had a lot of success??  Because he was the best recruiter in the nation by far!!!  He’s NEVER been a very good in game coach if you really go back and look at the games.

You said until the last 5 years he’s had a lot of success, ok, 5 straight years of awful and kept getting worse, did he drop off as a coach for 5 straight seasons or was he not getting the “best of the best” to quote Cal, I think the answer to that question is pretty obvious.

7 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

But why has he had a lot of success??  Because he was the best recruiter in the nation by far!!!  He’s NEVER been a very good in game coach if you really go back and look at the games.

You said until the last 5 years he’s had a lot of success, ok, 5 straight years of awful and kept getting worse, did he drop off as a coach for 5 straight seasons or was he not getting the “best of the best” to quote Cal, I think the answer to that question is pretty obvious.

I hear you, but for me, it has always been hard to separate the two (in-game coaching vs recruiter) because the two work hand-in-hand. And many people dismiss the recruiting part, but, half of college basketball is getting the kids into the program. The recruiting did drop to a degree, you can't deny that. But I believe a larger problem was the Cal shtick running its course. Makes sense after 10+ years of it.

9 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

But why has he had a lot of success??  Because he was the best recruiter in the nation by far!!!  He’s NEVER been a very good in game coach if you really go back and look at the games.

You said until the last 5 years he’s had a lot of success, ok, 5 straight years of awful and kept getting worse, did he drop off as a coach for 5 straight seasons or was he not getting the “best of the best” to quote Cal, I think the answer to that question is pretty obvious.

You all act like his whole coaching career he has had nothing but rosters full of NBA players. That was not the case before he came to UK. Did he have a star or two every now and then at other places yes, but not like he did when he was at UK. So he was winning at a great rate long before he got to UK and had rosters full of one and dones. I mean his success at the other schools is how he got the UK job in the first place. He took over Umass and did great, even before getting Camby.  Took over Memphis and made them a top program again. While he had a Wagner, and a Rose it’s not like those Memphis teams were loaded like the UK teams. 
 

Is he a great recruiter? Yes. Is he a much better coach than some of you want to give him credit for? Yes. 
 

Here are some pics of his overall career accomplishments. Also his records before he came to UK and had loaded teams. He simply has won at a high rate no matter where he has been. 
 

 

Cal is a D+ , C- in game coach at best.

1 hour ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

Cal is a D+ , C- in game coach at best.

I have said many times and will repeat again. Calipari and Huggins are very similar in their coaching. They have a style they want their teams to play and coach to that style. Very little adjusting. Coaching hard in practice and take that style to the game.

5 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

Cal is a D+ , C- in game coach at best.

Then he must be an A+ coach in every other area of coaching then for him to have had the success he has had in his college coaching career 

12 hours ago, futurecoach said:

Then he must be an A+ coach in every other area of coaching then for him to have had the success he has had in his college coaching career 

He WAS an A+ recruiter, that obviously has fallen off in the last 5-6 years

For as much success as he’s had, if he was a better in game coach he would’ve had A WHOLE LOT MORE, A WHOLE LOT!!

3 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

He WAS an A+ recruiter, that obviously has fallen off in the last 5-6 years

For as much success as he’s had, if he was a better in game coach he would’ve had A WHOLE LOT MORE, A WHOLE LOT!!

As I said if he is a D coach in terms of in game coaching like you say. Then he must be an A+ coach in every other area to be as successful as he is. Recruiting and in game coaching are not the only two aspects. He must be an A+ coach in regards to building a culture, an A+ coach in regards to practice, must be a A+ coach overall in regards to teaching a bunch of young freshman to learn how to play defense after never being forced to play it much in high school. 
 

So for him to be as successful as he has been everywhere he has coached in college. He must be an A+ coach then in every other area of coaching to be successful as he has been. As mentioned it’s not like he always had rosters full of NBA players before coming to UK. Yet he was still successful at those places too. 

5 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

As I said if he is a D coach in terms of in game coaching like you say. Then he must be an A+ coach in every other area to be as successful as he is. Recruiting and in game coaching are not the only two aspects. He must be an A+ coach in regards to building a culture, an A+ coach in regards to practice, must be a A+ coach overall in regards to teaching a bunch of young freshman to learn how to play defense after never being forced to play it much in high school. 
 

So for him to be as successful as he has been everywhere he has coached in college. He must be an A+ coach then in every other area of coaching to be successful as he has been. As mentioned it’s not like he always had rosters full of NBA players before coming to UK. Yet he was still successful at those places too. 

Nowhere near an A+ coach in ANY of those, used to be in recruiting but dropped off on that, don’t see how anyone could look at the last 4-5 years and say that, highest grade in any of those the last 4-5 years would be MAYBE a B-

I'm cool applying the highest of standards to Calipari as long as we do it for every coach. By this litmus test, the number of great coaches in the history of college basketball can't be any more than 7-8.

4 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

Nowhere near an A+ coach in ANY of those, used to be in recruiting but dropped off on that, don’t see how anyone could look at the last 4-5 years and say that, highest grade in any of those the last 4-5 years would be MAYBE a B-

So once again it is not possible for him to be as bad as all these areas as you seem to suggest and still be as successful as he has been in his career at all places he has coached. Let’s stop acting like he had rosters full of NBA talent everywhere he went. That was not the case at Umass or Memphis and he still won at a great clip. He has to be better at coaching at many more areas than you would like to give credit for. If he was only really good at recruiting alone, he wouldn’t have had the success he has had at all places.