College basketball thread...

For a program of its stature, Kentucky's roster is a joke.
Who would you blame that on, Sam?

 

Which completely ignores the fact that Tubby is a system guy who never recruited the McDonald's All-Americans other coaches chase. Kentucky made a choice to go away from that system, so now they are stuck with the guys Tubby recruited to his system and who won 20 games every year in his system. That those guys cannot win in Gillispie's system ain't Tubby's fault.

 

Tubby recruited plenty of McDonalds All-Americans and big-time players. The problem was that from 2002 to 2006, with one year being the exception, he didn't get any of them.

Tubby Smith coached seven Burger Boys at UK.

 

Ty Willingham.

 

I have to call BS on this.

I've posted this many times before...Tubby recruited kids, telling them he was going to change styles. THIS would be the year Kentucky would run and gun and shoot the lights out. And he'd get these good recruits (not always great). But then, they'd get to Lextown and he'd cram them into that goddamned half-court Tubbyball. Did it work? Not as well as I think it would have had he run the system that was geared to his players. And it would have cut down on the grumbling from within the program.

 

If Tubby would have stayed,
- Cats still would have had Patrick Patterson
- Cats would have had All-American point guard Jai Lucas (ended up at Florida), which would have made last night's horrid play at PG moot with Jasper injured
- Cats would have kept Randolph Morris (now in the NBA, would have given Kentucky an inside game other than still-raw Patterson)

Kentucky's roster would have been BETTER with Tubby, not worse.

And I don't think there's any way Tubby loses to Gardner-Webb at home.

And where were these "oh, but we're in transition with a new coach" or the "our roster is not that good" jokers when Kentucky was killing Pikeville and Seattle in scrimmages and cruising past Central Arkansas (not much better, or worse, than GW) THE NIGHT BEFORE?!

Sorry, if you weren't using that crutch to lean on before, you ain't getting it now.

No sympathy here.

 

I think it was pretty obvious from the first three nights that UK wasn't playing good basketball. The offense wasn't in sync, the defense wasn't all that great (at least according to Gillispie), and the overall play wasn't good. Good performances by one or two players masked UK's deficiencies in the first three games, and when the Cats didn't get that last night, they suffered.

Nothing excuses losing to a team like G-W. But I think anyone who looks at this as an indictment of Billy Gillispie is overreacting, just as the people who thought BG would be an instant-savior overreacted.

But look at Gillispie's past. The guy can coach. I don't think there's any doubt about that. And all of UK's talent is in the lower classes, with much more already committed to coming to UK in the next two years.

And look at Kentucky's past. Rick Pitino struggled early -- different situation, I know, but his teams still lost some games they shouldn't have in his first couple seasons. Tubby Smith had a great first year but struggled mightily in the next two before righting the ship. Hell, even Joe Hall struggled initially after taking over the program, though it's not as reflective in the team's win-loss records. It takes time for guys who haven't coached at prominent schools to adjust to coaching a place like UK, especially with the fan and media pressures.

UK will be fine. Hell, Kansas and Wisconsin were fine last year after bad losses. UNC was fine after an 8-20 season and after falling to Santa Clara. UK has some major holes, but those holes should be filled with more talented players in the next year or two.

It's too early to judge Gillispie, just as so many fans were too early to judge Smith after the 1999 season and too many were too early to anoint Gillispie a savior before he ever coached a game.

There are just too many people that carry so much passion toward UK basketball -- whether it's the love or hate crowd -- that someone is always clamoring that the sky is falling or that the rest of the NCAA should just bow down. It's all overreaction, especially since college basketball has changed so much since the days of downright UK or UCLA dominance. Teams are going to get upset. Teams aren't going to win it all every year, or even go to the Elite Eight or Final Four every year. But in the end, programs like Kentucky, UNC, Kansas and UCLA are all going to turn out just fine, no matter what kind of down night or down year they have.

 

You are correct and I wrote that poorly. What I meant to suggest was that he did not build his program around the Big Macs the way its done at NC, Duke and (for a while) Florida. He's more like Ben Howland in that if he can get a burger boy to fit his system fine, but the tag is not a prerequisite to a scholie.

 

You're right, but most of the kids on UK's roster right now weren't Tubby's first targets at their positions. Hell, even Joe Crawford wasn't.

And look around America right now. You'll find pretty good power forwards on a lot of teams that Orlando whiffed on -- Tyler Hansbrough and Tasmin Mitchell being two of them. He recruited Brandon Rush heavily, and lost. Same with Leo Criswell (who has since changed his last name) and Korvotney Barber at Auburn. Or Jamont Gordon at Mississippi State.

I don't want to bash Smith, because the guy was a flat-out good basketball coach. But his recruiting at UK wasn't anything to write home about, especially in the last four or five years (with the exception of the Crawford-Rondo-Morris class).

 

Did you guys see they were booing Gillispie at halftime?
Gee, that might set the record for shortest honeymoon by a UK coach.

 

Heard tonight from a coach in the biz that Gillispie had the team run the steps at Rupp during the shootaround before the game because he was mad about the way they played the night before. Might explain why they looked like they were running in quicksand out there. Nice move, Billy.

 

No talk of Michael Beasley's debut?

Only 32 points and 24 rebounds.

Can we say the next Durant, but with a markedly different game?

Should be interesting to watch him develop.

I also read Kansas State coach Frank Martin isn't letting him talk to the media 'until further notice.' Did I miss something there?