DragonFire

2 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

Now that the list is posted maybe somebody in the know might answer if Trent Noah or Christian Doerr not tryout. I don't see how Noah for sure is not on this team unless he did not try out. I mean the guy was the 3rd leading scorer in the state at 29.9 a game.

Jason Frakes said he declined an invitation. 

On 4/2/2024 at 6:56 AM, TheBarber said:

Who does WC have coming back? 

Central won't return anyone that was starting by the end of the year. Top five scorers are all gone.  Leading returning scorer is going to be Jarek Kirk (4.6 PPG).  Sophomore Armani Byrd (2.9 PPG) will be counted on to take the next step.  Dominique Anthony (2.0 PPG) saw an uptick in minutes at the end of the year.  They'll also gain Kash Carter, another sophomore, at some point.  I forget when he played last for East, but it'll be a calendar year past that point.  Central has a lot of talent in the younger classes, but at moment, next year would be expected to be a gap year, in much the same way that 2021 was.  The elephant in the room on that one is that who they have today may not be who they have to start the school year or by the time the season starts.  This time last year, neither Drevin Bratton or Elijah Howard were at Central yet.  So we'll see if anyone shows up.  We've seen players gravitate to the region champs before.

Saw another ranking, this from the Sporting Times:

https://x.com/sportingtimes/status/1781325825960272202

I'm slightly more inclined to agree with that one.

1 hour ago, tcjkbt said:

I think Cal lost some of his drive the last few seasons and did not seem to have as much energy and will to win as earlier in his career at UK.   Having said that, I look for him to be rejuvenated for his first few seaons at Arkansas and do quite well.   After that, who knows?

Familiarity breeds complacency. 

Well it would have been a bad sign for him to not "win" the press conference - but that was an awesome press conference.

1 hour ago, Oldercoach said:

Absolutely love his game and love my Cats; but if he is lottery pick, he’s got to go.  Or, is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 100% correct.

I 100% cannot see what Sheppard can do to improve his draft stock more than it is right now.  I don't think I've seen him projected below 7th in any mock, and currently as high as 3rd.  This is a very weak class - he could have a great year next year at Kentucky and slide backward.

By far one of the things I respected most about Cal is that he put the player's future above everything else.  Yes, it was frustrating at times.  But he knew that most likely they'd harm themselves to pass on the opportunity, and he forced them to make the right choice.  Sheppard needs to go (even though frankly, he isn't NBA ready).

7 minutes ago, mcpapa said:

Does anyone else think that Pope might be a placeholder to get Reed to stay?  Because he and Reed’s daddy were roomies?    That’s one conspiracy theory I’ve heard. 

I sure hope they didn’t do it because of that - because he’s not staying. 

Just now, All State Baseball said:

 

Was he excited about Billy G as well? Because here today, feels awfully familiar to that one. And when that went up in flames, he begrudgingly went to the guy a lot wanted two years prior. 

2 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

 

Well at least there is that. I’m sure they leaked that now because of what they’re seeing in reactions to this monstrosity of a (potential) hire. 

2 minutes ago, All State Baseball said:

 

No one is happy about this….

When everyone is surprised…. not a good sign. 

Just now, Randy Parker said:

In defense of Mitch, he went hard after two legitimate candidates.  One is the best in the nation.  Offered him more than anyone has ever been paid to coach in college basketball.  Both turned us down.

I don't know if he reached out to any others, but he swung for the fences.  Two high-profile rejections and I don't think Mitch can be blamed for those.  I really think those are on a large group of fans who are incredibly fickle and difficult to please.

Still, there most certainly had to be a better candidate than Pope.

I don’t blame Mitch for the rejections, and in fact laud him for those pursuits. 
 

But to use the analogy, he swung for the fences for his first two strikes and then laid down a bunt just to get contact. He better hope it doesn’t roll foul and he manages to get on base. Maybe gets a steal and a couple of passed balls to round the bases. 

Just now, futurecoach said:

It seems like since Mitch couldn’t get Dan Hurley, he is hoping to find his own Dan Hurley with this hire. Hurley had never accomplished much either when he was hired as UConn. Hopefully this works out. 

It’s A way to go, but it’s risky. If this goes poorly, Barnhart is most assuredly out. 
 

Also RE: Hurley, he wasn’t an alum at UConn, so clearly something else got him the job. Does anyone believe Pope sniffs this job if he’s not a UK alum? I mean ANYONE?

1 minute ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

If this is true hiring him is not going to do anything to help that or improve anything in my opinion. 

He’s a body who can go ahead and start working as compared to the worry of waiting on someone like Donovan. Best I got. 

1 minute ago, bugatti said:

All about the hire before the hire… that’s what I keep telling myself at least.

There’s a lot of Billy G in this hire so yeah, maybe that’s true. 
 

Unfortunately, that may be too kind given that Billy had actually won some NCAA tournament games before coming.

Reeks of panic. Not to mention, this is a guy you can get in a week, two weeks, month from now. I get you’re worried about players and the portal but holy cow. 
 

I’m sticking with the belief that the change was needed but man…. this is a potential faceplant. I immediately thought of Doherty at North Carolina. That’s not a good thing. 

We went through all this "offered" crap with Alabama.  Alabama claimed that the only guy offered was the one who accepted the job.  I'd say that's because no one is offering the job unless they're certain it's a yes, so that they can say exactly this.  Drew probably wasn't offered (wink), but he was offered.

25 minutes ago, theguru said:

If OJ is in heaven we still need to find the perpetrator(s) for two homicides. 

He never did track down those real killers.  He must never have looked in the mirror.

8 minutes ago, All State Baseball said:

Nate Oats has just took himself out per Matt Jones. 

Of the more realistic names, he was top of my list. Of course, supposedly he was never even in the running per the "sources", but I still hoped.

4 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

I hate to see it. I'm not excusing anything but I guess I look at things differently and Cal has been a huge Net Gain for the program over his time here.

He definitely was. And if I had to do it over again, I would wish he rode off into the NBA or something after 2020, and there’s really be no downside to his legacy. The last four years just weren’t great, and made clear that things had grown stale. Cal didn’t seem willing to change either - him maintaining the same staff was a real red flag. 

2 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

Define insanity.

I mean, I’m joking around, but seriously, I’d take another Billy G if it meant that five years from now UK had a title. Why wouldn’t someone! But I do expect Kentucky will be in for rough waters next year. Still, as I’ve said repeatedly, it really was just time for a change for both sides. Things run their course - Cal and Kentucky ran their course. 

8 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

Well they ran off Tubby and now Cal, so I guess queue the next Billy Gillespie.   Y'all asked for it.

If you’re telling me that they could have two bad years and then queue up the next national title winning coach at Kentucky, I think I’d take that deal. Because that’s what happened with Billy G. 

Just now, TheDeuce said:

I don’t believe they’ll be hiring the Trojan horse they sent west….

The cold reality of next year will be tough though.  Because unless the new coach manages to bring a lot with him, Kentucky may have some real struggles. There’s no way they’re holding this class. 

It will be a bittersweet ending if he goes, but eventually, this will be right move for both parties. Kentucky will not be in good shape next year as a result, but that is likely the case whenever Cal goes, by the very nature of how he constructs his teams. 

1997 Kentucky is only defending champ to make it back and lose the final since 1963 (when Cincy lost in their attempt to three peat). History and current play are definitely on UConn’s side.