futurecoach

9 hours ago, GoBucks97 said:

The Ludlow boys program is actually down if you asked me, scheduling has dropped off a ton and aren't really competing in district anymore. But you can probably say that for all the smaller schools. I think Aaron is a great coach and guy, does many of the right things you want a coach to do but like someone mentioned earlier has definitely benefitted from schedules throughout his career. 

Down compared to what? If you think the boys program is down now and not competing anymore in district. Then when would you say it was higher and they were competing in district to make it down now? Keep in mind he has only been the boys coach at Ludlow for two years. The schedule before him wasn’t really much better, and they weren’t really even close in district games before him when you look at scores. Which the district is harder now than it was before him, because of Lloyd now being a top 5 team the last two years. So I’m confused on when you think it was up recently, to make you say it’s been down under him? 
 

As for scheduling, I do think Ludlow would benefit from doing what Beechwood did 10 or 15 years ago? Which is leaving the d3 small school conference they play in. This way they don’t have to play all those conference games with Heritage, Calvary, Villa, etc, and could add some more tougher competition. 
 

However, anymore of this discussion should be in the Ludlow thread. As far as this thread, I do think Stamm would be a good hire if he was interested. Which as I said I have no idea if he would be, because I’m sure he is happy being back at his Alma mater. 

34 minutes ago, Bluegrasscard said:

I just watched Cowherd segment.  What I take away after watching it is that under-achieving is survivable.  However, becoming an object of ridicule at the national level likely is not.   At least not survivable in the longer term.  The used-car and snake-oil salesman label is now at a national level.  And its not just Cowherd.  Other media or talking heads have shown they are now openly critical. 

Barnhart not taking any questions is a data point that likely indicates he knows he has to look at all options.  Did he have a plan for this scenario?  Does he trying to make a quick move to maybe steal a potential candidate from Louisville?  Can that move happen that quick? 

It is hard see a knee-jerk firing with out a back-fill identified and named.  Being in the same situation as your in-state rival at this point is not a good path.  So it is more likely that Calipari stays head coach one more year. 

 

 

 

 

Honestly unless UK knows they can get one of the top guys mentioned, that many think they can’t get. Then I do agree that Cal probably will be back. It is hard to move on, unless you know for sure you can get a guy better than him, but also a guy that can handle all the other things that come with this job. 
 

I don’t think they probably have had this talk before. I do think you talk to Cal and be straight forward and say you literally must get this back on track next year and make a run, or else we are moving on. Cal at that point may decide to just leave, or maybe that lights a fire under him and does get him to turn things around. 

2 hours ago, gbballfan21 said:

No thank you on Stamm. We have been to that movie and have seen the show. I know he is your buddy ... and he has done solid work at Ludlow and without digging deep ...a good job at Conner. Whether you agree or disagree ...I have a few reasons:

*The complete lack of discipline was never remotely dealt with ... matter of fact "inmates running the asylum" still pops into my head. It cost them every year.

*Underachievement every year. 3 Losses to Holmes in the regional (yes I know Holmes had good teams). Then you go 32-2 ...and get beat by a 22-11 Dixie team that you beat easily earlier in the season?

*Either a complete lack of making in-game and halftime adjustments or being behind a step or two always. (Still baffled by the Holmes game in 2018 ....not prepared ... zero adjustments)

*Scheduling (which may have not been him) ... but good grief .... playing great teams and losing to great teams would have done all of his teams a major service. All the tough games on his schedules were teams he had to play in the district. 

Some of the stuff you probably know more than I about. However to comment on a few things. Two of the years he was at Conner, the 9th region produced a state champ. Then the losses you mentioned to Holmes. If I remember correctly no team in the 9th was really beating Holmes those years. Even though I do agree they had a team capable of beating them in 2018.  
 

What I do know is like or not Stamm has produced results wherever he has been. Was taking little old Ludlow to the region in girls basketball before he went to Conner. Then it took a couple of years at Conner to break through that tough loaded district and get to the region when Boone was still good. However, during his time Conner seemed to have more success than they seemed to have since he left. Then went back to Ludlow and took Ludlow girls back to the region a couple of times and almost won the district for the first time in Ludlow girls basketball history. Then the last years he has got the Ludlow boys team playing really well. 
 

I really have no idea if he would even want to go back to Conner, as he is coaching boys at his alma mater. I’m just saying I do think he would be a good hire if he was interested. Which I know you disagree and gave your reasons why, and that’s perfectly fine. I was just throwing out his name and Nathan Browning as two guys that in my opinion would be good hires for the job. 

10 hours ago, 9068 said:

I can think of about 33.7 million reasons that it's John Calipari. Guys like Donovan, Wright, and Stevens don't want to deal with NIL and the Portal.

The NIL and the portal is not much different than what the NBA is in regards to free agency and contracts. Plus college is a lot shorter of a season, and don’t even have to travel as much for recruiting since can hit the transfer portal. 

1 hour ago, TribeTime said:

Pearl would crawl to Lexington for the job. I’ll throw another one out there, Shaka Smart. 

No on Smart. He been at a big program and failed. Some coaches just fit better at good college programs but not the big time ones. 

2 hours ago, Breds82 said:

Cal will be the coach next year. His ego is to big and it’s obvious he so insecure he’s using a bullying tactic to the fans and the media, thus he’ll come back just to be make us mad. I don’t know why UK fans continue go to Nashville all week just “hoping” UK will make it to Sunday because they know their coach doesn’t even care about the first game. I’ve been over Cal for a long time and it’s how talks about us fans first then his terrible in game coaching (or lack there of) second. 
 

Donovan is not coming to UK I don’t know why you all keep dropping that name. He’s getting paid a lot of money to do less work with less headaches.

Here is the thing about the college game. With NIL and the transfer portal, the days of college coaches having to travel all the time to recruit high school players is not as big of a thing. Coaches now don’t have to travel as much, because they can hit the portal. Plus the college season is a lot shorter than the long grind of a much to long NBA season. Plus college basketball is like the NBA in a way with money and roster changes. If the money is right, I don’t think it would be much more headache except for dealing with our crazy UK fanbase lol. 

I have no idea if either of these guys would leave their current teams. However, two guys that make sense to me that could be possibly good fits is Nathan Browning who is currently at Boone, but teachers at Conner Middle. Or Aaron Stamm who currently is the boys basketball coach at Ludlow, but coached the Conner girls team for many years before. I don’t know if either would be interested, but both would be good hires and have some ties to Conner. 

3 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

Literally none of those guys are coming to Kentucky. 

I tend to agree. You have to at least reach out to those guys though.  However, As I said with Louisville Billy Donovan is still one that I think will end up back in college one day for the right job. So out of the guys I mentioned, I do think he may be a possibility. With that said, if you can’t get any of those guys. Then I’m not sure it would be smart to move on from Cal. You better have someone good that you know would come here and can handle the pressure here, before you move on. 

It will probably be Cal. However, if it’s not him. These are guys I would try to get. 
 

Billy Donovan

Jay Wright 

Brad Stevens

Bruce Pearl

Rick Pitino (if they want a guy for 2 to 3 years before having to look again)

With that said I’m not sure how realistic those choices would be. Also Dan Hurley and Mark Few wouldn’t leave their schools. So if I had to guess the next coach at UK if they move on from Cal will be Tom Izzo. I see them playing it sort of safe with the next hire after missing out on the guys above, and then Izzo will fit right in with the normal coaching cycle for UK in its history. Unless we want to count these last 8 years for Cal count as theTubby/Hall years. Then the next coach in the UK cycle will be an alcoholic like Sutton/Billy G. So need to figure out which coaches like to drink, and we then will know who our guy would be. 

Ugh what sucks the most is this was such a fun time to watch this year. Then to see it just end so quickly, just sucks. 

4 minutes ago, bugatti said:

Tried telling y’all.

- Zero evidence any type of defensive stop could be made when it counted most down the stretch. Teams like that don’t win in big moments which is why UK going down isn’t a total shock.

- I nearly puked when I saw Mitchell was starting. Yeah, I know his numbers looked good in the end and he tried, but I just haven’t been a fan of the chemistry with him on the court. Maybe had Thiero started alongside of him I’d been more pleased. The 7 footers did not belong in this game.

- Not a good night for the Sheppardites.

- Ironically, I thought UK defended ok in the first half. You’re being dishonest with yourself if you simply can’t give it up for Goehlke going next level nuclear. More than half of his makes were highly contested. All you can do is shake his hand and play on.

- UK had a good thing going on offense, but the lack of interior skill didn’t allow a high enough conversion rate.

- Did Theiro kick Calipari’s dog or something? Almost like he was dog housed for this game. 

- Cal can go on into his emeritus role.

The announcers never acknowledged it, but I’m pretty sure in the first half Theiro hurt his shoulder. Going into a tv timeout he was in the background walking with his shoulder dangling down while he was holding it and looking in pain. Which he then never returned in the first half, and took awhile in the second half. Maybe it was nothing and Cal for some reason chose not to play him, but to make it look like he got hurt in the first half. 

5 minutes ago, FSfan said:

Goehlke will shoot 2-20 in the next game probably. 

Sadly you probably are right. Some of the shots he made tonight were insane, so no way they shoot as well next game. Which if they don’t shoot well, they probably will lose by double digits. 

Well said it all year. This team was a team that very easily could make a run, but also very easily could lose first game. Which unfortunately that is what happened. Our freshman played like freshman, while Oakland had a guy that shot unbelievable early. Then the rest of the team got confidence and started making shots at the end when it mattered too. 
 

Now I know our usuals will blame Cal for this. However, no coaching could have helped this team miss the easy around the rim shots they missed today, and our two probably top 10 lottery picks playing horrible games. With that said though, sometimes it is just time for a change. Probably be a good thing for both UK and for Cal to go in different directions. Right now I think the program and Cal need a jump start and doesn’t look like it will happen together. 
 

21 hours ago, DanvilleFan said:

Tony Bennett's team hasn't won a tournament game since that miracle run of finishes got them a title in 2019.

Just a few years ago Tony Bennett was another name some UK fans on here had mentioned they would want if Cal had left. Him and Kenny Payne were two of the big names people had high on their list to replace Cal a few year ago. Funny how quickly things change lol. 

4 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

Everyone that wants to, go ahead and joke about Shep, but him not starting on this basketball team will be the biggest joke in UK basketball history!! Bringing him off the bench 2-3 minutes into the games this season is absolutely stubborn, stupid and ridiculous and most people that know anything at all about basketball realize this especially with Wagner and Edward’s doing absolutely nothing for the better part of this entire season, so go ahead and have a great time with it.

Your argument would at least have more merit if UK actually looked better in the games Sheppard started. However, even when Sheppard started a few games this year, they still started slow in those games. Then just usually as a team looked out of sync and lost a couple of the games he started. So him starting didn’t really produce the results you wanted. 
 

Quite honestly I think you are focused on the wrong guy starting if you want quicker starts. The guy that probably should start to help prevent the slow starts is Dillingham. Have Dillingham start instead of Edwards, and then you have a do it all guy in your 6th man in Sheppard. 

On 3/17/2024 at 10:25 AM, MaddenCurse44 said:

Got Fields for hardly nothing time to develop him great move! 

I don’t agree with you on much, but I do agree this was a great move. I do think Fields could still possibly develop into a franchise QB. So if he does, they just got a franchise QB for a 4th round pick only. If he doesn’t pan out, all they gave up was a 6th round pick. Great move by the Steelers. As a Bengals fan I hate that the Steelers got him, I don’t want them to have a chance at even possibly finding a franchise QB. 

Very happy with the bracket for UK. I know I mentioned in the thread after the loss to A&M that they would probably be a 4 seed, with an outside chance to be a 3 seed still since everyone else was also losing. So I feel like UK is right where they should be, now it is about going out there and taking care of business. 

What a great three year run by the Jags. Just unfortunately Sacred Heart is just on another level than every other girls team in the state these last few years. 

1 minute ago, Jack of all Trades said:

You let an inferior team believe and get off to a good start because of the 5 you start the game with.  Yes it snowballed.

1 minute ago, Jack of all Trades said:

You let an inferior team believe and get off to a good start because of the 5 you start the game with.  Yes it snowballed.

To be fair I think Texas A&M believed before the game even started. It’s hard not to believe, considering they had already beat UK earlier this year. 

18 hours ago, All State Baseball said:

I know because Barnhardt is too inlove with Cal to get rid of him. I'm just as tired of the same ole blah blah blah that comes out of Cal's mouth and every year we're always sent home early, as the next person. We haven't won an SEC Championship in 6 years.

It’s been pretty well reported that Cal and Barnhardt don’t really get along, and have barely talked over the last couple of years. So I don’t think he is keeping him because he loves him. 

A little late to the party. That game sucked. Bad defense, and what hurt even worse was this team turning the ball over. The Cats have been very good all year not turning it over, but yesterday to many guys were trying to make plays on their own and end up turning it over. Which led to points for Texas A&M. The defense already isn’t good, but you can’t add to it by also having a lot of turnovers that lead to points too. 
 

The really sad part is they probably at worst would have locked up a 3 seed with a win yesterday, and would have had an outside shot at a 2 seed if they made it to the finals tomorrow. Now they are probably looking at a 4 seed, with a slim chance of being a 3 seed still only because of all these teams get upset. 
 

Said it most of this year. This team very easily could make a deep run in this tournament, this team also very easily can lose the first game. 

A lot closer game than I expected. Survive and advance that’s all that matters right now. Last year Cooper got upset in the first round, and almost happened again. Now that they got the first game out of their system, I think they will play much better tomorrow. 
 

Congrats to Danville Christian on playing one heck of a game!

I think this will be an attractive job. I know in regards to football I have always said that Louisville isn’t a job a coach would stay at if bigger schools came calling. However, it is the opposite for basketball. I do think there are many coaches at good schools right now, that would be interested in the Louisville job. Louisville is definitely a job a Drew, Mussleman, Pearl, and even a Donovan would consider IMO. Louisville basketball is a job people don’t leave if they are successful. 

On 1/4/2024 at 11:47 PM, Purple88 said:

Very good team. I’m interested to see their 2024 Schedule. Will it most likely mirror their 2023 schedule?

Same regular season schedule since it is the second year of a two year deal. However, they will have two new scrimmages. They will scrimmage Christian Academy of Louisville (CAL), and Simon Kenton. 

6 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

I did not realize that Mixon is tied with Christian McCaffrey with the most years of at least 1400 scrimmage yards since 2017 with 4.

Durability and touches. He has been in the top 10 in the NFL in touches for running backs for most of those years.