i was pretty ****** we were playing duke this early, considering they've got about 8 players who have more experience in a duke jersey than the entire UK team combined. but at the end of the season? they will have 0. i think UK may have the LEAST experienced team in the history of CBB, except i guess for the first season a school starts playing. they only had ONE player who played on UK more than 1 game in their life, going into that game. so, i think if Duke lost, that would say a LOT more than if UK lost.

anyway, no doubt we all would take duke in game 2 of the season. but game 30? my money is on the cats! i was pretty stunned at how bad they beat the dukies on that run from down 14 to down 3, they've really got potential - but i dont expect them to have reached it, uh, after 1 game in their college careers :)

best part of the game - half time interview, John Calipari - "these guys are flopping all over the place! if it was the NBA, they all get suspended" aaaahahah i love it. you have to give it to cal, no matter how much you like him - he SURE AS HELL gets what it means to be the coach of kentucky. i mean how perfect was that? i can't stand duke and their flopping, been watching it for 20 years now, it makes me sick (especially with dukey v in the background going, man, duke never gets the calls. what? are you kidding me?). i was glad to hear our coach call em out on it, its about time - and he gets +100 bonus points in the book of all the UK fans. i really hope hes not cheating badly over there, because if not, hes really one of the most amazing coaches of all time (game coach, not so much, not even possible to consider him top 10 all time. but recruiting, and more importantly, being an ambassador of kentucky, which is line 2 on the job description after "WIN", its hard to imagine someone doing better. even slick rick didnt capture the magic like cal does, and i LOVED pitino. still root for him, in fact).

if cal has anybody like wooden's sam gilbert getting home those recruits, man, kentucky is going to be in BAD shape. when it comes to recruiting shadiness, wooden/gilbert make coach cal look like jesus... kentucky would get blasted back into the stone age if they were caught doing anything like that today :(

yeah, i know, its definitely suspicious. but still, compared to the **** gilbert did at ucla, cal is jesus. thats all im saying. 

Posted by colonels19 on 11/15/2012 3:58:00 PM (view original):
Well hell, look how he left Memphis...Cal is shady no doubt

Massachusetts too...

This is akin to saying that Coach K is shady because of Corey Maggette and Lance Thomas.  The NCAA is the king of selective enforcement.  UK has been the beneficiary of this too.  Jerry Tarkanian was completely right when he stated, "The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky, it will probably slap another two years' probation on Cleveland State."  While maintaining ever-changing bias the NCAA has always held different programs, usually either because of the program's standing or the coach's reputation, to different standards.  I've even heard that there are trends that show the NCAA rules to differing degrees of severity based on race (although i've never seen the data to support this claim).  Tarkanian is a great example of the hypocrisy associated with the NCAA.  He received a $2.5 million settlement for his harassment claim against the NCAA.  I think the nature of the system is shady, largely because of the NCAA, and not so much the coach's operating within the system.  That and the NCAA completely rips off these kids.  Every year college athletes have their careers, both collegiate and professionally, cut short and miss out on millions of dollars while the NCAA isn't even willing to give merchandising and licensing payments to the athletes. 

UK has gotten a lot more than a slap on the wrist though... one of 2 death penalties EVER given out to d1 programs (although they survived it a hell of a lot better than SMU - actually the NCAA was worried UK would tell them to screw off and play anyway, but UK complied - that was a turning point in NCAA history), plus the 90-91 two year post season ban (fricken sutton, come on, if you are going to get us in trouble, you should at least win 4 championships while giving a fifth away by refusing to play in the NCAA tourney for the **** they pulled that season. i mean seriously, isnt that obvious?)

but i totally agree with your post and premise. just saying, of all the schools the NCAA favors, i cannot bring myself to believe UK is one of them :)

i have to admit, when he said it, i was only cheering because of past duke seasons. i really didnt think they flopped that bad that game, it was no where near one of the most offensive duke games ive watched. and i also dont really have anyone on this duke team who i can enjoy hating like on duke teams of the past, so it really wasn't as fun as i hoped. i mean, losing didn't help obviously - but with UK so new, i really havent fallen in love with any of those players yet, and duke doesnt have anyone like jon schyer who i totally despise. if i cant love someone in the game, hating someone has always been a solid substitute, but this season was like... i dont know. its a waste of a duke UK game to have played so early in the season, if you ask me, for how few we get.

i will acknowledge that duke largely totally outplayed UK and i thought we were damn lucky to be down 2 at the half and 3 right there at the end. i really did not and would not see us winning that game anywhere close to 50% of the time, and think its crazy how high the pollsters have been putting young UK teams the last few years. i mean, i guess they are trying to project the reality that UK WILL BE good, but that just doesn't mean they are right now. i did take a LOT of comfort when UK fought back from down 14 to down 3, you could tell the players were more athletic and skilled than duke's players (which is saying something), and that they really do have potential when they get some experience and start to play a little smarter. i think they've got a pretty long way to go though, and find the little adds or whatnot i see around basketball articles - can UK win again? - to be somewhat ridiculous at this point.

Posted by caesari on 11/17/2012 10:13:00 AM (view original):
Nerlens Noel is one heck of a talent.

Defensively, he's already very good, but as a Duke fan, I was hoping UK would feed him the ball every time they had it on offense.  He's still pretty raw on that end of the floor, for sure, and threw up some pretty wild shots.  He'll get better with time, but right now, he's got a lot of work to do. 

Now Alex Poythress, on the other hand, is just downright nasty.  I can certainly see why Coach K was after him.  Kid's got an NBA body already and doesn't show the least bit of fear or hesitation.  If he doesn't end up being their number one option by the end of the season, someone's done something wrong.