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2013-2014 NCAA Men's Basketball |OT|

Laura Keeley ‏@laurakeeley 21m
RT @JPiz1: Decision making= Working at your own pace. Becoming your own boss. What's in your best interest. What makes you happy.

Laura Keeley ‏@laurakeeley 16m
Jabari Parker, making the awards circuit rounds, tells ESPN he will meet with K next week & make a draft decision by Tuesday or Wednesday

^
 
Former Dukie Seth Curry scored 44 in a D league game the other day. He's so talented like his brother, but 6'2 shooting guards are bound to play in Europe. Hope he makes it though.
 

Fjordson

Member
Damn. Yeah, 6-2 as a shooting guard is pretty limiting for the NBA.

His brother though <3 as a Warriors fan I hope he never leaves Golden State. Just had a triple double last night against LA.
 

Pollux

Member
Damn. Yeah, 6-2 as a shooting guard is pretty limiting for the NBA.

His brother though <3 as a Warriors fan I hope he never leaves Golden State. Just had a triple double last night against LA.

How the hell did you become a Warriors fan? I'm trying to figure this one out...
 
ulisharrison.png


Future UK point guard Tyler Ulis being guarded by current UK point guard Andrew Harrison back when they were both playing in AAU.

Looks like a mismatch
 

Fjordson

Member
ulisharrison.png


Future UK point guard Tyler Ulis being guarded by current UK point guard Andrew Harrison back when they were both playing in AAU.

Looks like a mismatch
Omg lol. Ulis looks like he's 8. He still kinda does, though I think he'll be damn good in a year or two.

Anyone watch the Nike Hoop Summit? Think it's the best all-star type game, definitely the most competitive. The three Duke recruits were balling. Tyus sucked for the first three quarters, but had a bunch of baskets in the last two minutes to basically seal the win . Okafor struggled a bit against the length of Karl Towns and this other white guy on the World team, but he got it going eventually and had a double double. Winslow was really impressive. Great defense, great finisher and even ran the point some in the second half.

Towns and Lyles for UK did fine. Towns has improved a lot since he first committed to UK . Much more athletic and he's turned into a good rim protector.

Two guys that continue to look really impressive are Kelly Oubre and Emmanuel Mudiay. Probably the two misses that are most disappointing for Calipari in this class.
 

Fjordson

Member
So if the Harrison twins go pro, will Kentucky's only PG be a 5 8 freshmen?
We'll have Dominique Hawkins also. Who is...not that good yet, but he's shown a lot of potential.

And hey, don't try to sell Ulis short. He had a big growth spurt a few months ago
now a whopping 5-9

But yeah, it'll suck to lose the Twins. Up front we'll have four McDonald's All-Americans, two of them 7 feet and two of them 6-10, but our backcourt will be small with almost no depth.
 

bachikarn

Member
Is this WCS official twitter account? Pretty surprised...

Willie Cauley-Stein &#8207;@THEwillieCS15

I'm proud to say I'm coming back for my junior year. I still have an empty spot to fulfill and in no rush to leave the best fans in the USA!
 

Fjordson

Member
Yasss. He's officially coming back.

Our frontline is going to be ridonkulous. If the Twins come back then it'll be a monster team.

Though I do wonder now if Dakari Johnson is going pro.
 

iamblades

Member
Yasss. He's officially coming back.

Our frontline is going to be ridonkulous. If the Twins come back then it'll be a monster team.

Though I do wonder now if Dakari Johnson is going pro.

I think Dakari needs another year to be NBA ready, but he can develop at the NBA level if a team is going to draft him in the first. He is not likely to become any quicker, so I'm not sure he has the same upside for returning if he is hearing he is going to be a mid-late first.

If he came back we would have like 6 NBA quality bigs though. Would be a disgustingly good frontcourt.

I feel good about Ulis at point even if Andrew goes pro(his best skill is driving and passing, and god knows he will have plenty of targets to pass to), but if both twins and Young all go pro, we will be terribly thin and small at the guard/wing positions overall. We need 1 of the 3 to stay, but everyone assumes Young is for sure leaving and the twins are either both staying or both leaving.


If the both stay we would be ridiculously good. If they all three go, we will need to pull a late transfer or JUCO player out of nowhere late or there could be issues. Still have good potential, but foul trouble or an injury could destroy us.
 

Fjordson

Member
If Jabari comes back, would K start him at the 4 and start Winslow at the 3? Or bring him off the bench. Or is Winslow a shooting guard?

Jabari and Winslow would be a dope small ball lineup (other than Okafor at the 5).
 
If Jabari comes back, would K start him at the 4 and start Winslow at the 3? Or bring him off the bench. Or is Winslow a shooting guard?

Jabari and Winslow would be a dope small ball lineup (other than Okafor at the 5).

If Parker returns, they'll simply have an embarrassment of riches. Still not that big, all told, but with Parker, Okafor, Winslow, Jefferson, and Plumlee playing (more or less) down low and Jones, Cook, Sulaimon, Allen, and Matt Jones on the perimeter, there's no reason Duke couldn't really have two 5-man units that can play fast and hard all game long.

So of course, Parker will leave, two of the others simply won't develop quickly, and it will be the same 7 man rotation as always.
 
If Parker returns, they'll simply have an embarrassment of riches. Still not that big, all told, but with Parker, Okafor, Winslow, Jefferson, and Plumlee playing (more or less) down low and Jones, Cook, Sulaimon, Allen, and Matt Jones on the perimeter, there's no reason Duke couldn't really have two 5-man units that can play fast and hard all game long.

So of course, Parker will leave, two of the others simply won't develop quickly, and it will be the same 7 man rotation as always.

Don't forget that we're only using Okafor for setting screens, Matt Jones will still be airballing threes, Winslow is transferring, Plumlee will break his foot, and Cook and Sulaimon are still going to be inconsistent.
 
Don't forget that we're only using Okafor for setting screens, Matt Jones will still be airballing threes, Winslow is transferring, Plumlee will break his foot, and Cook and Sulaimon are still going to be inconsistent.

I think Wojo's offseason program for bigs involved dropping anvils on their exposed feet. With Capel taking over big men last year, and Wojo moving to Marquette, I think Plumlee is safe. The rest? Not so much.
 
If Jabari comes back, would K start him at the 4 and start Winslow at the 3? Or bring him off the bench. Or is Winslow a shooting guard?

Jabari and Winslow would be a dope small ball lineup (other than Okafor at the 5).

He's not coming back. Chatter is he's actively shopping for agents at the moment. I'm guessing he's telling K he's leaving today, makes his decision tomorrow, and actually announce on Thursday/Friday.
 

bachikarn

Member
I personally don't think Cuonzo is a good coach. He had a lot of talent this year but Tenn lost to so many crappy opponents. They should have been in the top 10-25 most of the year, but underachieved incredibly in the regular season. Obviously did well in the tournament though.
 

jjasper

Member
Any opinions on Cuonzo Martin? I don't know much about him.
He isn't a great coach. This last year was terribly disappointing outside of the tournament. Maybe he will grow as coach but right now not many UT fans are too upset over him leaving.

Edit: he is still realitively young as a coach so it isn't unreasonable that he learned a lot from this year both the good and the bad and is a better coach because of it.
 

lush

Member
Cuonzo seems like a really good guy, unfortunately he's just not a very good coach at this point. The potential is definitely there, but if you're not going to coach then you best put a staff around you that will do so, unfortunately that wasn't the case at UTK. I still see him as a good hire. Overall he recruited decently and performed well here.

Pearl/the Pearl situation was just a tough act to follow. Hopefully the AD decides they give a shit with this hire, recent history gives me absolutely zero confidence.
 

Brian Fellows

Pete Carroll Owns Me
Stauskas and GR3 going pro as expected. Hopefully Mitch decides to stay but I'm thinking he goes too.

Thank god we're eligible for another foreign trip this year.
 

jjasper

Member
Pearl/the Pearl situation was just a tough act to follow. Hopefully the AD decides they give a shit with this hire, recent history gives me absolutely zero confidence.

The school doesn't care about winning in anything. They enjoy putting very little money into anything and reaping the rewards of a fanbase that still goes to the games and SEC money. They will hire Howland cause it is the easiest thing to do.
 

lush

Member
The school doesn't care about winning in anything. They enjoy putting very little money into anything and reaping the rewards of a fanbase that still goes to the games and SEC money. They will hire Howland cause it is the easiest thing to do.
Howland would be a success honestly. Guarantee we go with a "rising star" that made a deep run in the NIT or some shit.

But yeah, easily one of the worst athletic departments in the country.
 
Straight baller and talker.

The sturm and drang over this decision is pretty hilarious.

When he makes that phone call to whichever agent he ends up picking, he can pencil in a ~$20 million contract and a legitimate chance to play for LA/BOS straight out of the draft.

Anyone rationalizing coming back to college. Just stop.
 

DominoKid

Member
for 20 mil i wouldnt give a shit who i had to play for in the beginning

as a wise man once said, "There's a bank in every city." he don't have to play there forever.
 

jjasper

Member
He's done a great job this year. Players loved him.

I'm a little surprised he left for Cal. Seems like a sidestep, but I guess they offered him more or something.

Wait what? He did not do a great job this year. He did a great job for 2 weeks and an awful job for the other 3 months.

It is clear why he left. He turned down Marquette because he though stokes was staying and he would get a transfer from Tennessee St that was eligible immediately. Soon as Stokes left he knew the team would be terrible next year and he would be fired. He got out while he could so he could get another 3-4 years of being able to put it together before the pressure mounted again.
 

Fjordson

Member
Wait what? He did not do a great job this year. He did a great job for 2 weeks and an awful job for the other 3 months.

It is clear why he left. He turned down Marquette because he though stokes was staying and he would get a transfer from Tennessee St that was eligible immediately. Soon as Stokes left he knew the team would be terrible next year and he would be fired. He got out while he could so he could get another 3-4 years of being able to put it together before the pressure mounted again.
I guess great job is overstating it, but Tennessee had only been to the sweet 16 six times before this year, so his tournament run was pretty good for that school. And I remember a Tennessee writer coming on Kentucky Sports Radio near the start of the tourney (he was a friend of the main host Matt Jones) and he said the players really loved Martin. So I was a little surprised when I saw that he left, but what you said makes sense. And to be honest, I had no idea Stokes was leaving.
 

Talon

Member
Seems like the UNC academic scandal is about to get a second wind. Maybe the NCAA will grow a pair.
UNC officials have said two people are to blame: former department chairman Julius Nyang&#8217;oro, who was forced to retire and now faces a criminal fraud charge; and his former department manager, Deborah Crowder, who retired in 2009. But records obtained and interviews of others connected to the scandal suggest the tutoring program for athletes knew the classes were suspect but used them to help keep athletes eligible. Athletes made up nearly half of the enrollments.

Since Jan. 1, the scandal has drawn sustained national coverage, leading to a new investigation led by Kenneth Wainstein. He has been tasked with trying to find out how the fraud began and why it went unchecked for more than a decade. He has not been given a timetable to complete his work.
____

UNC correspondence and an interview with a former adviser not affiliated with the academic support program for athletes show the advisers sent Crowder students in need of a class to graduate or to keep their full-time status. But the advisers did not show the level of awareness about the classes that the athletes&#8217; tutoring program had.

Other evidence indicates Crowder wasn&#8217;t willing to help everyone get into the classes. One email suggested Crowder was struggling to manage all the students enrolling in independent studies classes and sought to ramp them down. An academic adviser said in the email that Crowder was concerned knowledge of the independent studies had &#8220;sort of gotten into the frat circuit.&#8221;

Two professors in the African studies department said in correspondence that they suspected Crowder favored athletes. Kenneth Janken told a special faculty review that Crowder was an athletics &#8220;booster.&#8221; Reginald Hildebrand, in an essay titled &#8220;Anatomy of a Scandal,&#8221; chastised The N&O and other media over their coverage of the scandal, but he also suspected Crowder had overstepped her authority to help athletes in ways that should have been called out by athletic officials.

&#8220;Over a thirty year period, our former department administrator accumulated far too much power, in part because the former chair was often disengaged,&#8221; Hildebrand wrote. &#8220;She used that power to become a major supplier of academic wiggle room, but she also helped all kinds of students in legitimate ways.&#8221;

Mary Willingham, the former learning specialist for athletes who blew the whistle on the no-show classes, said the academic support program for athletes used Crowder routinely to enroll athletes in the classes. When an athlete struggled academically or would be away from the university for long periods of time, such as a baseball player participating in a summer league, they contacted Crowder to get the athlete in a no-show class.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/04...owders-role-in-unc-scandal.html#storylink=cpy
 
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