KU **** OFFICIAL 2013-2014 Kansas Basketball Repository Thread, Part 2 **** - Page 151

ArrowheadHawk · 11:22 AM

#10 (23-8,14-4)

Players

Spoiler!

Non Conference

Spoiler!

Conference

Spoiler!

Big 12 Championship
3/13/2014 Texas Tech/Oklahoma State Kansas City, Mo. 2PM ESPN2

Reerun_KC · 03-02-2014, 06:54 PM

Woke up at noon today, just sitting down to watch the OSU game. Should I watch it or should I just delete it?

KC_Connection · 03-02-2014, 06:58 PM

People are taking it hard because the KU's archenemy and the world's greatest evil Marcus Smart was the instrumental factor in it. Any other player/team and it would be easier to take. The loss really absolutely nothing, though, beyond yet another reminder that this particular KU team has difficulty with motivation. The next two games aren't going to be any easier to get up for either.

Reerun_KC · 03-02-2014, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

People are taking it hard because the KU's archenemy and the world's greatest evil Marcus Smart was the instrumental factor in it. Any other player/team and it would be easier to take. The loss really absolutely nothing, though, beyond yet another reminder that this particular KU team has difficulty with motivation. The next two games aren't going to be any easier to get up for either.

How much sperm did you and your buddies bambi and prison flopper spew last night?

Chiefs Pantalones · 03-02-2014, 07:09 PM

Ouch. Harsh article from Forde on Cal...

As his program crash-landed at rock bottom Saturday at South Carolina, John Calipari excused himself from the proceedings. He got himself tossed by the officials, and then blew off the press conference after his Kentucky Wildcats lost to a team ranked No. 178 in America according to the RPI.

When the going got tough, Cal got out.

It was a nostalgic flashback to December, when Calipari made a four-minute postgame interview appearance after losing to Baylor, then abruptly got up and left when the first question was directed toward one of his players. His freshmen sat there and answered the rest of the queries without him.

Had Calipari shown up to answer questions Saturday after the worst defeat of his Kentucky tenure, instead of sending assistant John Robic and two freshmen to the interview room, here are the questions Calipari should have been asked.

Q: Your preseason No. 1 team should by all rights fall out of the top 25 this week. What has happened to the squad that had you dancing in the car on the way to the office in October?

Q: The season is not lost, but it's headed that direction at a high rate of speed. What are you going to do about it?

Q: Is it still Ryan Harrow's fault? That poor kid – who you recruited – was the scapegoat last year. He was the point guard who didn't run the team the way you wanted, and thus was run off to Georgia State. Archie Goodwin went pro with minimum lamentation. Kyle Wiltjer transferred, and nobody blinked. They all left under a cloud of blame that accompanied a trip to the NIT and a humiliating first-round loss to Robert Morris.

"The stuff I had to accept this year, the program almost got hijacked," you said last spring. "Never in my career have I surrendered in any way to any team, and I did at times this year – to try to save guys, to try to help guys – and it never works."

Harrow's stats are similar to those of your current point guard, five-star recruit Andrew Harrison. Harrow played about four minutes per game less and averaged slightly fewer points, rebounds and assists – but he had a better assist-turnover ratio and shot better from two-point range.

But stats can be misleading. Can we still pile this disappointing season on the 2012-13 bunch?

Q: If not Harrow & Co., is it time to throw the Greatest Recruiting Class in College Basketball history under the Big Blue bus? You've started moving in that direction recently, Cal.

After losing to Arkansas at home Thursday, you mentioned "a couple no-shows" without naming names. And you blamed forward Julius Randle for wearing down by not taking himself out of the lineup. "I'm trying to get guys to sub themselves," you said. "They just don't get it." For $5.2 million a year, you'd think the coach could add "manage the substitution rotation" to his list of responsibilities, as opposed to leaving it up to the players. Who are young. (Stop me if you've heard this before: Kentucky has a young team.)

Then there was your comment to the Kentucky radio crew Saturday night: "They're counting on me too much." Apparently we are reaching the Pontius Pilate stage of the season, where the coach washes his hands and turns an increasingly unpleasant endeavor over to the unpaid laborers.

Q: But if it's not the players' fault, and they weren't all massively overrated coming out of high school, who hasn't done the job of coalescing them into a team?

Q: As a follow-up: Who recruited these guys again? And called them "alpha males" and raved about the renewed breed of nasty that would return Kentucky to national championship contention? Who cornered the market on one-year transient players – when it was a bull market (Wall, Cousins, Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist) and when it's a bear market?

Q: What happened to this plan: "What we're going to have is unbelievable competition. We may have three teams, so 15 guys that can play. Let's go." That was the antidote for a "hijacking" – the bench. Guys who were not playing well were going to sit.
Instead, you've played seven guys. Four players – Julius Randle, James Young and the Harrison twins – average more than 30 minutes per game. Last year, Team Hijack had three players averaging that many minutes. When it comes to playing time, there is little disincentive for poor performance. The stars get the minutes, even if they aren't getting the job done.

Q: Jim Boeheim made an idiot of himself in a loss at Duke the week before, but he showed up at the postgame press conference to answer for it. Cincinnati's Mick Cronin made an idiot of himself on the sidelines Saturday in a loss to Connecticut, but he took questions afterward. If they can do it, why not you?

Q: In October you proclaimed, "We are college basketball." Does that mean this entire college basketball season has been a disappointment? Because it doesn't feel that way, but we want to be sure.

Q: If February you proclaimed this to be the most overanalyzed team in the history of sports. Are five losses in a weak SEC a clever ploy to slow down the rampant analysis of the Wildcats?

Q: Can the 40-0 T-shirts people have been using to wax their cars be forwarded to the good people of Wichita? Just in case?

Q: Kentucky fans used to derisively call Tubby Smith "Ten-Loss Tubby." You are two defeats away from a second straight season with double-digit losses. If the moniker "Ten-Loss Cal" starts being thrown around, how will you take it?

Q: Did you know that the two Kentucky teams relying solely on your recruits as the major contributors are last year and this year? And that their record is 42-20, 23-11 in the SEC, with an NIT berth and four losses to teams ranked outside the Ken Pomeroy top 100?

Q: Did you know that your first three teams at Kentucky all had veteran players recruited by previous coaches in key roles? Those teams went a combined 102-14, 40-18 in the Southeastern Conference, with two SEC titles, two SEC tournament titles, two Final Four appearances and a national title.

Those last two are rhetorical questions, by the way. No need to answer.

Chiefs Pantalones · 03-02-2014, 07:34 PM

I'm trying to get into this AZ/Stanford game but it's hard. Pac-12 games are so hard to watch. I just find them so boring.

ArrowheadHawk · 03-02-2014, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chiefs Pantalones

Ouch. Harsh article from Forde on Cal...

As his program crash-landed at rock bottom Saturday at South Carolina, John Calipari excused himself from the proceedings. He got himself tossed by the officials, and then blew off the press conference after his Kentucky Wildcats lost to a team ranked No. 178 in America according to the RPI.

When the going got tough, Cal got out.

It was a nostalgic flashback to December, when Calipari made a four-minute postgame interview appearance after losing to Baylor, then abruptly got up and left when the first question was directed toward one of his players. His freshmen sat there and answered the rest of the queries without him.

Had Calipari shown up to answer questions Saturday after the worst defeat of his Kentucky tenure, instead of sending assistant John Robic and two freshmen to the interview room, here are the questions Calipari should have been asked.

Q: Your preseason No. 1 team should by all rights fall out of the top 25 this week. What has happened to the squad that had you dancing in the car on the way to the office in October?

Q: The season is not lost, but it's headed that direction at a high rate of speed. What are you going to do about it?

Q: Is it still Ryan Harrow's fault? That poor kid – who you recruited – was the scapegoat last year. He was the point guard who didn't run the team the way you wanted, and thus was run off to Georgia State. Archie Goodwin went pro with minimum lamentation. Kyle Wiltjer transferred, and nobody blinked. They all left under a cloud of blame that accompanied a trip to the NIT and a humiliating first-round loss to Robert Morris.

"The stuff I had to accept this year, the program almost got hijacked," you said last spring. "Never in my career have I surrendered in any way to any team, and I did at times this year – to try to save guys, to try to help guys – and it never works."

Harrow's stats are similar to those of your current point guard, five-star recruit Andrew Harrison. Harrow played about four minutes per game less and averaged slightly fewer points, rebounds and assists – but he had a better assist-turnover ratio and shot better from two-point range.

But stats can be misleading. Can we still pile this disappointing season on the 2012-13 bunch?

Q: If not Harrow & Co., is it time to throw the Greatest Recruiting Class in College Basketball history under the Big Blue bus? You've started moving in that direction recently, Cal.

After losing to Arkansas at home Thursday, you mentioned "a couple no-shows" without naming names. And you blamed forward Julius Randle for wearing down by not taking himself out of the lineup. "I'm trying to get guys to sub themselves," you said. "They just don't get it." For $5.2 million a year, you'd think the coach could add "manage the substitution rotation" to his list of responsibilities, as opposed to leaving it up to the players. Who are young. (Stop me if you've heard this before: Kentucky has a young team.)

Then there was your comment to the Kentucky radio crew Saturday night: "They're counting on me too much." Apparently we are reaching the Pontius Pilate stage of the season, where the coach washes his hands and turns an increasingly unpleasant endeavor over to the unpaid laborers.

Q: But if it's not the players' fault, and they weren't all massively overrated coming out of high school, who hasn't done the job of coalescing them into a team?

Q: As a follow-up: Who recruited these guys again? And called them "alpha males" and raved about the renewed breed of nasty that would return Kentucky to national championship contention? Who cornered the market on one-year transient players – when it was a bull market (Wall, Cousins, Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist) and when it's a bear market?

Q: What happened to this plan: "What we're going to have is unbelievable competition. We may have three teams, so 15 guys that can play. Let's go." That was the antidote for a "hijacking" – the bench. Guys who were not playing well were going to sit.
Instead, you've played seven guys. Four players – Julius Randle, James Young and the Harrison twins – average more than 30 minutes per game. Last year, Team Hijack had three players averaging that many minutes. When it comes to playing time, there is little disincentive for poor performance. The stars get the minutes, even if they aren't getting the job done.

Q: Jim Boeheim made an idiot of himself in a loss at Duke the week before, but he showed up at the postgame press conference to answer for it. Cincinnati's Mick Cronin made an idiot of himself on the sidelines Saturday in a loss to Connecticut, but he took questions afterward. If they can do it, why not you?

Q: In October you proclaimed, "We are college basketball." Does that mean this entire college basketball season has been a disappointment? Because it doesn't feel that way, but we want to be sure.

Q: If February you proclaimed this to be the most overanalyzed team in the history of sports. Are five losses in a weak SEC a clever ploy to slow down the rampant analysis of the Wildcats?

Q: Can the 40-0 T-shirts people have been using to wax their cars be forwarded to the good people of Wichita? Just in case?

Q: Kentucky fans used to derisively call Tubby Smith "Ten-Loss Tubby." You are two defeats away from a second straight season with double-digit losses. If the moniker "Ten-Loss Cal" starts being thrown around, how will you take it?

Q: Did you know that the two Kentucky teams relying solely on your recruits as the major contributors are last year and this year? And that their record is 42-20, 23-11 in the SEC, with an NIT berth and four losses to teams ranked outside the Ken Pomeroy top 100?

Q: Did you know that your first three teams at Kentucky all had veteran players recruited by previous coaches in key roles? Those teams went a combined 102-14, 40-18 in the Southeastern Conference, with two SEC titles, two SEC tournament titles, two Final Four appearances and a national title.

Those last two are rhetorical questions, by the way. No need to answer.

Rofl

KC_Connection · 03-02-2014, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reerun_KC

How much sperm did you and your buddies bambi and prison flopper spew last night?

PB actually went on a bit of a trolling run last night. Seemed pretty upset by the loss.

CoMoChief · 03-02-2014, 08:21 PM

Sounds like Cal sold his soul to get the GRCOAT and is allowing the new freshman inmates to run the asylum. The ending of this all results in UK losing to teams like S.Carolina and Robert Morris late in the year. Cal will start getting heat once Florida starts whooping their ass on a consistent basis. But I'd be willing to bet that naughty NCAA sanction demon will reveal it's head in the meantime.

Chiefs Pantalones · 03-02-2014, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoMoChief

Sounds like Cal sold his soul to get the GRCOAT and is allowing the new freshman inmates to run the asylum. The ending of this all results in UK losing to teams like S.Carolina and Robert Morris late in the year. Cal will start getting heat once Florida starts whooping their ass on a consistent basis. But I'd be willing to bet that naughty NCAA sanction demon will reveal it's head in the meantime.

I was like WTF when Randle (comes from a poor single parent family) came out in a $1,000 outfit for his hat ceremony.

Fansy the Famous Bard · 03-03-2014, 08:21 AM

http://www.kansascity.com/2014/03/02/4859779/self-acts-like-party-pooper-after.html

Quote:

March 2
BY YAEL T. ABOUHALKAH
The Kansas City Star

Bill Self has often said he’s proud of the streak of Big 12 championships his University of Kansas basketball team has won. And for good reason: It’s a heck of an accomplishment.

Kansas coach Bill Self needs to get a grip.

Then why did Self act like a $5 million-a-year spoilsport after the Jayhawks clinched sole possession of their 10th straight Big 12 title Saturday night?

To hear Self’s excuse, his team (and my alma mater) didn’t deserve to celebrate after losing to Oklahoma State, 72-65, in a hard-fought game on the road.

So the Big 12 championship T-shirts and hats weren’t passed out by the team’s managers.

Self said: “I told them, ‘Put them under the damn bus,’ because to me, we missed our opportunity to celebrate.”

But those student athletes have worked hundreds of hours this year for Self and their fans, getting the team into the position to win the title.

Yet when the players got to the mountaintop, Self proclaimed they couldn’t even enjoy the view for a little bit.

They could have blown off a little steam, taken a bit of time to look back at what they’ve accomplished so far. After all, as KU fans and Self himself know, winning conference outright is a pretty big deal.

It’s the least Self could have done for his players, the ones he supposedly cares so much about.

UPDATE 4 PM: After a few (OK, a lot of) KU fans have complained about my treatment of Self, let’s read his own words on when he would “let” his players celebrate the Big 12 title.

It wasn’t last week, when KU beat Oklahoma, 83-75, to just clinch a tie for the title.

“The players didn’t stay out (on the court) to celebrate, and I told our guys we will celebrate whenever we win it,” Self said after that victory.

Guess what?

That time came Saturday night.

Yet, once again, in Self’s eyes — no celebration for you!

Sure, some of the players on Saturday night said they saw things Self’s way. We didn’t play well enough, they said.

But what else were they going to say? Self would have exploded if any of his team members had dared to challenge his decision to be a party pooper.

I agree: KU can have a wonderful celebration when the Jayhawks play Texas Tech at Allen Fieldhouse Wednesday night before home fans.

Still, spare me the winning-is-everything attitude that this is what coaches do, teaching players lessons after they play poorly.

Well, I didn’t see Self volunteering to give any of his $5 million salary back after what he thought was a poor performance Saturday night.

Remember, this is a coach who makes a great deal of money off the backs of these student athletes. He gets to call all the shots. He decides when they celebrate, when they don’t.

And I’m sure Self will be ready to bring up the fact that he led KU to all those consecutive Big 12 crowns if and when his next salary negotiations occur.

Self blew his chance Saturday night to be a human being, not an ultra-control freak.

Original title to the article was "Self acts like jerk after KU wins Big 12 title"

After backlash, it was changed to "Self acts like party pooper"

**Buehler445** · 03-03-2014, 08:26 AM

Wow. Self pissed in someone's Post Toasties.

I can't imagine many of the players wanted to celebrate after getting shit stomped by the #9 team in the conference.

**Bearcat** · 03-03-2014, 08:29 AM

Uh, Mizzou grad? PB?

Yeah, I think I'll trust Self to know when to push what buttons, and I doubt the players were in a great mood after the game anyway.

And... "Once again"?

Mr. Plow · 03-03-2014, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chiefs Pantalones

Ouch. Harsh article from Forde on Cal...

Ouch.

KC_Connection · 03-03-2014, 09:07 AM

It's a motivation tactic by Self (for a team that badly needs some kind of motivation to play well and that has 2 largely meaningless games left to play because of how good they've been during conference season). Yeah, I think he's been at this long enough to give him the benefit of the doubt on coaching college basketball players.

KC_Connection · 03-03-2014, 09:15 AM

And yes, this has happened before. KU won the B12 title on March 4, 2009 despite losing by 19 on the road to Tech (I'm sure everyone remembers Voskuil having the game of his life, 9 threes) because Blake Griffin's OU lost to MU. I don't believe they celebrated at all that night either (nor should they have). They went on to win their following game against Texas and did so then.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=290632641

Quote:

"I said, 'Hey congratulations, we won the league and got beat by 19 or whatever we got beat tonight," coach Bill Self said. "It's pretty remarkable that a team that could perform as poorly as we did tonight was able to be 13-2, I guess, and clinch a tie with a chance to win it outright on Saturday."

The Jayhawks close the regular season at home against Texas. Oklahoma and Missouri are tied for second at 12-3.

Self said Kansas just didn't play with an edge against Texas Tech.

"Even if we played with an edge, we probably still would've been unsuccessful because Tech was that much better than us," he said. "We did try. There was just nothing in the tank."

01-14-2014, 08:54 AM
ArrowheadHawk Rock Chalk! Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Topeka, KS Casino cash: $8004961	** OFFICIAL 2013-2014 Kansas Basketball Repository Thread, Part 2 #10 (23-8,14-4) Players Spoiler! Returning Players 1 Naadir Tharpe Guard 5-11 170 Jr. 3 Andrew White III Guard 6-6 210 So. 4 Justin Wesley Forward 6-9 220 RS Sr. 10 Evan Manning Guard 6-3 170 So. 11 Tyler Self Guard 6-2 165 So. 20 Niko Roberts Guard 5-11 175 Sr. 21 Christian Garrett Guard 6-3 185 Jr. 31 Jamari Traylor Forward 6-8 220 RS So. 33 Landen Lucas Forward 6-10 240 RS Fr. 34 Perry Ellis Forward 6-8 225 So. Incoming Class SF * Wayne Selden C * Joel Embiid PG Conner Frankamp SF Brannen Greene PG Frank Mason SF * Andrew Wiggins Transfers Hunter Mickelson Tarik Black Non Conference Spoiler! 11/8/2013 Louisiana Monroe Lawrence, Kan. W(80-63) (1-0) 11/12/2013 Duke Chicago, Ill. W(94-83) (2-0) 11/19/2013 Iona Lawrence, Kan. W(86-66) (3-0) 11/22/2013 Towson W(88-58) (4-0) 11/28/2013 Wake Forest Paradise Island, Bahamas W(87-78) (5-0) 11/29/2013 Villanova Paradise Island, Bahamas L(59-63) (5-1) 11/30/2013 UTEP Paradise Island, Bahamas W(67-63) (6-1) 12/7/2013 Colorado Boulder, Colo. L(72-75) (6-2) 12/10/2013 Florida Gainesville, Fla. L(61-67) (6-3) 12/14/2013 New Mexico Kansas City, Mo. W(80-63)(7-3) 12/21/2013 Georgetown Lawrence, Kan. W(86-64)(8-3) 12/30/2013 Toledo Lawrence, Kan. W(93-83)(9-3) 1/5/2014 San Diego State Lawrence, Kan. L(57-61)(9-4) Conference Spoiler!** 1/8/2014 Oklahoma Norman, Okla. W(90-83)(10-4,1-0) 1/11/2014 Kansas State Lawrence, Kan. W(86-60)(11-4,2-0) 1/13/2014 Iowa State Ames, Iowa W(77-70)(12-4,3-0) 1/18/2014 Oklahoma State Lawrence, Kan. W(80-78)(13-4,4-0) 1/20/2014 Baylor Lawrence, Kan. W(78-68)(14-4,5-0) 1/25/2014 TCU Fort Worth, Texas W(91-69)(15-4,6-0) 1/29/2014 Iowa State Lawrence, Kan. W(92-81)(16-4,7-0) 2/1/2014 Texas Austin, Texas L(69-81)(16-5,7-1) 2/4/2014 Baylor Waco, Texas W(69-52)(17-5,8-1) 2/8/2014 West Virginia Lawrence, Kan. W(83-69)(18-5,9-1) 2/10/2014 Kansas State Manhattan, Kan. L(82-85)(18-6,9-2) 2/15/2014 TCU Lawrence, Kan. W(95-65)(19-6,10-2) 2/18/2014 Texas Tech Lubbock, Texas W(64-63)(20-6,11-2) 2/22/2014 Texas Lawrence, Kan. W(85-54)(21-6,12-2) 2/24/2014 Oklahoma Lawrence, Kan. W(83-75)(22-6,13-2) 3/1/2014 Oklahoma State Stillwater, Okla. L(65-72)(22-7,13-3) 3/5/2014 Texas Tech Lawrence, Kan. W(82-57)(23-7,14-3) 3/8/2014 West Virginia Morgantown, W. Va. L(86-92)(23-8,14-4) Big 12 Championship 3/13/2014 Texas Tech/Oklahoma State Kansas City, Mo. 2PM ESPN2 Last edited by ArrowheadHawk; 03-10-2014 at 11:22 AM..
Posts: 15,672

03-02-2014, 06:54 PM	#2251
Reerun_KC Rock Chalk Jayhawks! KU!!! Join Date: Aug 2005 Casino cash: $8301160	Woke up at noon today, just sitting down to watch the OSU game. Should I watch it or should I just delete it?
Posts: 934

03-02-2014, 06:58 PM	#2252
KC_Connection Perpetual Mediocrity Join Date: Jan 2006 Casino cash: $5392783	People are taking it hard because the KU's archenemy and the world's greatest evil Marcus Smart was the instrumental factor in it. Any other player/team and it would be easier to take. The loss really absolutely nothing, though, beyond yet another reminder that this particular KU team has difficulty with motivation. The next two games aren't going to be any easier to get up for either.
Posts: 48,864

03-02-2014, 07:09 PM	#2254
Chiefs Pantalones GO CHIEFS!!!!!! Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $7918717	Ouch. Harsh article from Forde on Cal... As his program crash-landed at rock bottom Saturday at South Carolina, John Calipari excused himself from the proceedings. He got himself tossed by the officials, and then blew off the press conference after his Kentucky Wildcats lost to a team ranked No. 178 in America according to the RPI. When the going got tough, Cal got out. It was a nostalgic flashback to December, when Calipari made a four-minute postgame interview appearance after losing to Baylor, then abruptly got up and left when the first question was directed toward one of his players. His freshmen sat there and answered the rest of the queries without him. Had Calipari shown up to answer questions Saturday after the worst defeat of his Kentucky tenure, instead of sending assistant John Robic and two freshmen to the interview room, here are the questions Calipari should have been asked. Q: Your preseason No. 1 team should by all rights fall out of the top 25 this week. What has happened to the squad that had you dancing in the car on the way to the office in October? Q: The season is not lost, but it's headed that direction at a high rate of speed. What are you going to do about it? Q: Is it still Ryan Harrow's fault? That poor kid – who you recruited – was the scapegoat last year. He was the point guard who didn't run the team the way you wanted, and thus was run off to Georgia State. Archie Goodwin went pro with minimum lamentation. Kyle Wiltjer transferred, and nobody blinked. They all left under a cloud of blame that accompanied a trip to the NIT and a humiliating first-round loss to Robert Morris. "The stuff I had to accept this year, the program almost got hijacked," you said last spring. "Never in my career have I surrendered in any way to any team, and I did at times this year – to try to save guys, to try to help guys – and it never works." Harrow's stats are similar to those of your current point guard, five-star recruit Andrew Harrison. Harrow played about four minutes per game less and averaged slightly fewer points, rebounds and assists – but he had a better assist-turnover ratio and shot better from two-point range. But stats can be misleading. Can we still pile this disappointing season on the 2012-13 bunch? Q: If not Harrow & Co., is it time to throw the Greatest Recruiting Class in College Basketball history under the Big Blue bus? You've started moving in that direction recently, Cal. After losing to Arkansas at home Thursday, you mentioned "a couple no-shows" without naming names. And you blamed forward Julius Randle for wearing down by not taking himself out of the lineup. "I'm trying to get guys to sub themselves," you said. "They just don't get it." For $5.2 million a year, you'd think the coach could add "manage the substitution rotation" to his list of responsibilities, as opposed to leaving it up to the players. Who are young. (Stop me if you've heard this before: Kentucky has a young team.) Then there was your comment to the Kentucky radio crew Saturday night: "They're counting on me too much." Apparently we are reaching the Pontius Pilate stage of the season, where the coach washes his hands and turns an increasingly unpleasant endeavor over to the unpaid laborers. Q: But if it's not the players' fault, and they weren't all massively overrated coming out of high school, who hasn't done the job of coalescing them into a team? Q: As a follow-up: Who recruited these guys again? And called them "alpha males" and raved about the renewed breed of nasty that would return Kentucky to national championship contention? Who cornered the market on one-year transient players – when it was a bull market (Wall, Cousins, Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist) and when it's a bear market? Q: What happened to this plan: "What we're going to have is unbelievable competition. We may have three teams, so 15 guys that can play. Let's go." That was the antidote for a "hijacking" – the bench. Guys who were not playing well were going to sit. Instead, you've played seven guys. Four players – Julius Randle, James Young and the Harrison twins – average more than 30 minutes per game. Last year, Team Hijack had three players averaging that many minutes. When it comes to playing time, there is little disincentive for poor performance. The stars get the minutes, even if they aren't getting the job done. Q: Jim Boeheim made an idiot of himself in a loss at Duke the week before, but he showed up at the postgame press conference to answer for it. Cincinnati's Mick Cronin made an idiot of himself on the sidelines Saturday in a loss to Connecticut, but he took questions afterward. If they can do it, why not you? Q: In October you proclaimed, "We are college basketball." Does that mean this entire college basketball season has been a disappointment? Because it doesn't feel that way, but we want to be sure. Q: If February you proclaimed this to be the most overanalyzed team in the history of sports. Are five losses in a weak SEC a clever ploy to slow down the rampant analysis of the Wildcats? Q: Can the 40-0 T-shirts people have been using to wax their cars be forwarded to the good people of Wichita? Just in case? Q: Kentucky fans used to derisively call Tubby Smith "Ten-Loss Tubby." You are two defeats away from a second straight season with double-digit losses. If the moniker "Ten-Loss Cal" starts being thrown around, how will you take it? Q: Did you know that the two Kentucky teams relying solely on your recruits as the major contributors are last year and this year? And that their record is 42-20, 23-11 in the SEC, with an NIT berth and four losses to teams ranked outside the Ken Pomeroy top 100? Q: Did you know that your first three teams at Kentucky all had veteran players recruited by previous coaches in key roles? Those teams went a combined 102-14, 40-18 in the Southeastern Conference, with two SEC titles, two SEC tournament titles, two Final Four appearances and a national title. Those last two are rhetorical questions, by the way. No need to answer. __________________ Don't be fooled by my username, I'm white.
Posts: 26,630

03-02-2014, 07:34 PM	#2255
Chiefs Pantalones GO CHIEFS!!!!!! Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $7918717	I'm trying to get into this AZ/Stanford game but it's hard. Pac-12 games are so hard to watch. I just find them so boring. __________________ Don't be fooled by my username, I'm white.
Posts: 26,630

03-02-2014, 08:21 PM	#2258
CoMoChief Mahomes Dynasty Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Parts Unknown Casino cash: $8052254	Sounds like Cal sold his soul to get the GRCOAT and is allowing the new freshman inmates to run the asylum. The ending of this all results in UK losing to teams like S.Carolina and Robert Morris late in the year. Cal will start getting heat once Florida starts whooping their ass on a consistent basis. But I'd be willing to bet that naughty NCAA sanction demon will reveal it's head in the meantime. __________________
Posts: 39,156

03-03-2014, 08:26 AM	#2261
Buehler445 Supporter Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Scott City KS Casino cash: $2334734	Wow. Self pissed in someone's Post Toasties. I can't imagine many of the players wanted to celebrate after getting shit stomped by the #9 team in the conference.
Posts: 56,771

03-03-2014, 08:29 AM	#2262
Bearcat Would an idiot do that? Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Arizona Casino cash: $2834931	Uh, Mizzou grad? PB? Yeah, I think I'll trust Self to know when to push what buttons, and I doubt the players were in a great mood after the game anyway. And... "Once again"? __________________
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03-03-2014, 09:07 AM	#2264
KC_Connection Perpetual Mediocrity Join Date: Jan 2006 Casino cash: $5392783	It's a motivation tactic by Self (for a team that badly needs some kind of motivation to play well and that has 2 largely meaningless games left to play because of how good they've been during conference season). Yeah, I think he's been at this long enough to give him the benefit of the doubt on coaching college basketball players.
Posts: 48,864