And McInnis had a decent NBA career. There are tons of guys who should never go pro but if a kid is listening to his "handlers" as opposed to his coach he is a dope anyway. With Bennett; Rice was quoted as saying he knew that Bennett could have gone from HS to the NBA so they knew they would only have him for a year and they pushed him to leave. Apparently it wasn't as easy a decision for Bennett as some assumed it would be. He cried at his press conference and sai it was a very hard decision for him. Rice says he is always up front with kids and told Savon Goodman before he signed that they were probably going to redshirt him (turns out they didn't) but Goodman really wanted to be a part of UNLV and was ok with the redshirt as he knew it would help his development. I bet K was burning when Irving announced he would go pro which if I recall he did while the season was still ongoing. Irving is a future superstar and he absolutely should have gone pro. I just can't imagine these Duke kids don't know their value. K may have some influence but you have to know Jabari Parker is a one and done but we'll see how that plays out.
I think he knew w/ Irving, he probably held out hope after the injury though. The guys that burned him were maggette, Avery, Deng, Dunleavy,...
they have the best team in the country every year according to you. your assertion on the matter can hardly be taken as objective or credible, and certainly does not dispute to what I said. that would be the equivalent of my claiming that UCLA was a legitimate title contender simply because they had great recruiting classes, and then making excuses when they actually didn't perform up to those expectations.
That's the laziness I expect from you. They were preseason #1, they were a huge favorite. even when not playing well they lost by a point at Rupp where UK hadn't lost under Calipari. They then lost starting 2 guard Dexter Strickland in January, John Henson got hurt in the ACC Tourney then lost Kendall Marshall for the Tourney in rd 2 and still nearly beat KU in the elite 8. Anyone who knows anything about CBB knows Carolina was the best team entering that season and anyone who knows anything about CBB knows they expected Carolina and UK to play for the title. Next time UCLA is preseason #1 getting 62 of 65 #1 votes in the AP poll and 30 of 31 1st place votes in the coaches poll then is a #1 seed you can call them contenders. You act like they were a 6 seed, they were a 1 seed even w/ losing 2 key guys for the season before the Tourney then seeing 2 key guys go down in the ACC Tourney and NCAAs. But thanks for your input, it's always nice to read info from folks who have no clue what they are talking about!
And somehow this gets turned into "they would have won the title if not for injuries". UK was the favorite. They were ahead of UNC from week 4 on. But I'm sure the homer is right about it.
I like how Cal and the players that go play from him know it's a one year thing. If you want to come back, good for you, but he's not holding anything over them to come back or anything. He just goes after a new set of recruits without a care if they are staying. I understand the players should try to get a degree and all, but if you are playing basketball at a high level, high enough to get paid, it's important to grab that money and then if you want to, go back for the degree and education
I didn't bring it up, some other poster who never posts in this thread posted misinformation. I correct him like I so often do in football threads. Thanks for your contribution!
preseason rankings are meaningless when the season performance does not match them. that isn't even laziness on your part, that is outright ignorance to claim just because a group of people believed they were the best team before the season even started equates to them actually being the best team when it does. your argument actually disputes your position. despite the number one ranking Roy Williams could not deliver on that. that only supports exactly what I said. talk about your fantasy number argument. you are actually attempting to argue that peoples opinions hold greater weight than the team's performance. holy shit, man, you can't be serious. sorry, us big boys talk about reality of performance, not people's opinions.
It's an interesting way to look at it that's for sure. He pretty much recruited over all his "star" players this year with even better ones next year. I think Calipari would have much less success if kids were required to stay 3 years. His big selling point is I want you to go to the NBA after your freshman year while a guy like K is able to bring in top recruits and hold onto them for 2 or 3 years. I hear K all the time saying the NBA needs to change the rule but I think it's more about him than it is about the kids. Don't get my wrong it's all about Cal and his ego too but I think K comes off much more insencre than Cal. Calipari isn't trying to hide it in the nonsense that he is doing it for the kids.
They were a 1 seed so their season performance was pretty damn good and that was minus 2 top 8 guys most of the year. When you look at it in black and white it looks worse than reality. The season was derailed by a dirty play that knocked their most important player out for the tournament. On top of that they had another key guy playing hurt and had already lost guys for the year. It's laziness not realizing the circumstances and despite all that they lost in a very close game in the elite 8 w/ a 4th string freshman PG who barely played during the year.
Interesting points. And yeah Cal's biggest selling point is I will get you into the NBA and also on top of that "look who I put into the NBA" Knight, Wall, and Cousins are some names off the top of my head. I'm sure there are some others too who aren't as big. Oh Rose from Memphis, I was just thinking Kentucky. I agree that K wants the rule changed for him primarily. He does a very good job of building a team and identity and things like that. He likes the consistency that he can get from 3-4 year players. While I think for the players that don't have set NBA careers, it's important to "Get" an education. But for stars like Kyrie and such, it makes no sense to keep on passing up on a paycheck to play for free and risk a career ending injury. Cal is better for stars or players who could probably go HS->NBA while K is better for kids who might not make a living in the NBA or might be bouncing around. That's my look on it. For the record, I don't really consider Kyrie a product of Duke/coach K. That might be my anti-Duke bias, but he basically didn't play for them, they didn't win a title with him. He was never really there in my opinion haha
MacAdoo, Hairston & Bullock are all coming back so that's great news for the Heels. It's been too long since their last Final Four run. Time to end that drought next year. Now they wait on Andrew Wiggins.
The NCAA is a disgrace, look at the way they "botched" the Shabazz Muhamed nonsense. They play favorites and punish the powerless. If there was ever an organization that needed a federal investigation it's the NCAA especially when you consider how many of their members recieve federal dollars.
Bullock is leaving for the NBA draft, MacAdoo is still expected to return though nothing is official. This makes getting Wiggins less of a luxury than it would have been had Reggie returned.
McAdoo is officially coming back so 2 of the 3 return. This will be a legit top 5-10 team next year and could be higher if the #1 recruit commits soon.
