Kentucky Basketball: Will Experience Always Trump Talent?

So many things have to go “right” for any team to win a championship. We have the SECOND most championships of ANY college in the land and we only have SEVEN. We can all think of great UK teams that should have put a run together, but for a myriad of reasons did not. 1977, 1984, 1997 come to mind. Tge reason championships are so special is because they are so rare for everyone.

IF anybody can do it, Cal can. The fab 5 made it to the finals and had the game within reach until webber screws up. Because he was a fr? No, because he made a dumb mistake that anyone in the heat of action could make. We’ve all seen guys make buckets in the wrong end, call timeouts that they didnt have, throw the ball to the wrong team………etc. As forrest once said, ‘it happens’. The single biggest reason fr. dominated teams havent won very often, IMHO, is that a class of fr. with the necessary talent to win doesnt come together all that often. i.e. the fab 5 and out group this yr. There’s no real reason the fab 5 couldnt have won that game. And, there’s no reason our guys couldnt have won this yr. History will show that they DID. BUT, they COULD HAVE. I know its been said a thousand times, but they didnt lose because they were fr. They lost because the team as a whole went cold shooting one night. OK, so SOME boneheads will say we lost because we didnt have enough experience. B.S. Experience didnt help KU, SYR, OSU, MSU or any other ‘veteran’ team. In the tourney, you cant afford a bad game. Certainly not in the elite-8 and beyond. At the beginning of the tourney, which team would you have traded our team for? Does anyone really think that Puke was the BEST team? They by far had the easiest bracket and were lucky enough to catch WV on a bigtime hangover. Even Butler took them to the limit. No disrespect to Butler.

Tru, it could happen. The one and done winning the Big Dance. Its happened once, I guess. But what’s the odds? How many times has it been played, you know the tournament? What’s the odds of a school of 2400 making it to the finals? What’s the odds of Cal recruiting another class like the last one?
If you really want to go out on a line, what’s the odds of Kentucky winning it all in the next five years? The current coach has never won it. He might but there’s other programs just as capable of winning it also. And most of them are not trying to gather lightening in a bottle to do it.

that Orton & Bledsoe would declare for the NBA. I don’t think they were on anyone’s radar at the beginning of the season. Perhaps it was Cal’s coaching that got them to that level. If that is the case we might have more “one & dones” than anyone is able to predict each & every year. Kind of a two-edged sword if you know what I mean.

Let’s give him 3 or 4 yrs before we get all discombobulated.

that winning a national championship is the ulitmate measure of success in college basketball. Yes of course it would be a tremendous accomplishment. However, if these Cats proved anything to me it was that the personal (vicarious) connection with each member this team and the pure adrenalin rush they gave me were more than worth the price of the ticket. I was dejected for several days after the WVU loss, but came to realize that what I had witnessed from November thru March was not only memorable but, was as special as any connection with any UK team ever.

sorry for the mistakes/errors in my previous posts…

us winning a national championship with one and dones(meaning more then two one and dones). But this is a new era of basketball so I am basing that on what I have seen the last thirty years. I do think that sophomores can carry us through………its not just about freshman though……..the one thing I mentioned at the end of last season was the tourney and for everyone not to get their hopes up. Because NO ONE had sweet sixteen experience……PPat hasn’t had any experience. We all need to understand that its not about the ability to play anyone……….its the mental aspect of experience. No doubt that we had the most talent of any team in the nation…….but its hard to explain to kids the mental aspect of playing lights out every single tourney game because well they have never played on this big of stage.

Keeping quality talent around two seasons will suffice in getting championships. they hone their skills in front of killer crowds (not many NBA stadiums as loud as simplest college ones) and get most of schooling completed. three offseasons in NBA would finish their degree requirments (maybe quicker). These guys would be the explosive 2nd year types. Much like we thought of D Cuz before he blew up.

Project studs will stay 3-4 and develop against other NBA picks and keeping stability of program. bench of 6-8 proj studs and mixture of 3 or 4 super soph with 1 or 2 WonNDon sprinkled in.

there’s ur recipe. now get cookin!

What exactly does that mean? There is a greater chance they will win one than not? Win one within three years? Five years? Ten years? Cal has already admitted he will ‘only’ be at UK for only a few years and given his history, you may not want to count on that. ‘Probably’ seems a little vague.

Just announced

with one and dones (let’s say you have to have at least two to be considered a OAD team) will eventually happen. Whats missing in the discussion is the positions played by the OADs. I think Cal is probably going the toughest route with his main OAD being the point guard. It would likely be easier if they were perhaps any combination not involving the point guard.
Following that argument would lead me to believe next year may still be within reach since BK’s ball handling at this point is on par with Wall’s this time last year. Although BK doesn’t bring some of the inside scoring that Wall offers from being the talented freak that he is, the pure point talents of BK could bode well.
I see we just got Lamb so a balanced backcourt will be put on the floor again! Yessssssssssssss…..

getting through 6 games in the tournament requires at least a few breaks along the way, this whole argument against “a bunch of one and doners” comes down to very basic statistics in terms of opportunity.

How many teams comprised of “a bunch of one and doners” have there even been? How many teams that were not “a bunch of one and doners” have there been? What is that ratio?

I could just as easily make a statement that a team comprised of “a bunch of guys with first names that have 3 syllables and last names that end in the letter ‘s’”, will never win a championship.

One-and-doners have just as much chance as anyone else. The team we just watched was in a great position to do so, if they could have found the shooting range in the dome.

What’s the conclusion of all this jabber?
I vote for experience.
And you?

Yea but you didn’t apply yourself during your fprmative years so who knows how great you could hve been? lol And I doubt you fully have grasped the fact we didn’t win the tournament with what was considered the pest freshman class ever assembled. At least that’s what I read here.

I don’t really know what your purpose is on this board. I understand from your football posts that you don’t like anything about our football program. Now it seems that you feel the same about Cal and his program. If that is the case why don’t you look for someone you approve of? I don’t think your negative posts about almost everything adds much to the board:-)

What have I said that isn’t true?
I’m not here for the pep rally. When someone does something good I praise them as much as anyone. I din’t go after players, former coaches, especially those that have a personal problem and I am not among those who hate anyone that is more successful than the Cats. i.e. Coach K, Duke basketball, Bobby Knight, and others. I saw not joy in Stansbury getting fined as many of you did.
I’m want a winner as much as any of you. The ways and means to getting there is debatebale.
Don’t question my loyality, interests and comments because I’m not beating a drum about how great we are all the time.
That’s for those who don’t want to consider we can get better and all will be perfect in the future. Not my style.

“Still would I feel better with an average Kentucky team with talent than one with four or five freshmen that are simply stopping by to get that year out of the way before they go to the NBA” Example! Just stirring the pot.

That’s exactly what I said, or tried to.

No one will win the NC. When these early exits dilute the talent base as they have; the teams with third and fourth year players who learned the scheme and inproved every year will bring home the bacon. With all the talent we are bringing in, we will have almost no bench for 2010-11.