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2013-2014 NCAA Men's Basketball |OT|

R

Randolph Freelander

Member
Proelite said:
The best centers in Duke history were 6'9 260+. I like him as a commit more than the year we will get out of Jahil Okafor.
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Well, yeah, they've had some 6'9" guys that were really good playing center, but they were playing out of position. I'm thinking of Brand and Boozer, specifically, but also Shelden Williams. Brand and Boozer play the 4 in the league, and Williams never really found his place up there. Great Duke career, though.

The other best centers I can think of are Laettner at 6'11", Parks. I can't recall if Ferry played center or at the 4, but he was also listed at 6'10. Then you get to Zoubek and the Plumlees. Anything before Ferry (Class of '89, I really started watching around 87) was really before my time as a fan.
 
G

Grover Cleveland

Member
ACC Schedules released for the next two years. I think we only really have Duke, UNC, UVa, Syracuse, and Louisville fans here (shout out to jakncoke, RIP homie), so I'll post all of their opponents for next year.

Duke 2014-15

Home/Road: North Carolina, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Notre Dame
Home: Miami, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Pittsburgh, Boston College
Road: Florida State, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Louisville


2014-15 ACC opponents for North Carolina

Home/Road: Duke, NC State, Georgia Tech, Louisville
Home: Florida State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Notre Dame
Road: Miami, Clemson, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Boston College

2014-15 Syracuse ACC Men’s Basketball Opponents

Home & Road: Boston College, Duke, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech
Home: Florida State, Louisville, Miami, Virginia, Wake Forest
Away: Clemson, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, N.C. State, Notre Dame

Louisville 2014-15
Home/Road: Pittsburgh, Virginia, Miami, North Carolina
Home: Clemson, Duke, NC State, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame
Road: Florida State, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Boston College, Syracuse

Virginia 2014-15
Home/Road: Louisville, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, NC State
Home: Florida State, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Duke, Pittsburgh
Road: Miami, North Carolina, Boston College, Syracuse, Notre Dame

I don't like the fact that Duke's playing Syracuse twice as opposed to NC State, but I can see what the ACC and their television partners (read: ESPN) are doing. Those two games last year were two of the highest rated games for the whole season including the NCAAT, and the conference wants to force a rivalry.
 
B

Bowser

Member
An aside, but McBob aka Air Sandals has been totally awesome for the Horncats this year. Dropping bombs on fools' heads

McRoberts.gif


ibuJa4vcwwKgfe.gif


LiveFrenchGrebe.gif
Click to expand...
 
R

Randolph Freelander

Member
Bowser said:
An aside, but McBob aka Air Sandals has been totally awesome for the Horncats this year. Dropping bombs on fools' heads
Click to expand...

The Bobcats are a pleasant turnaround story this year. To win 43 games just two years after winning only 7 in a lockout-shorted year is quite remarkable, despite however many teams in the east that were "riggin for Wiggins" and "sorry for Jabari."

I'll be happy when they get to the offseason and change that name, though.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
:lol Kentucky's Kenny Payne was on a recent recruiting visit and apparently the kid was told by another coach that Calipari pressured Willie Cauley-Stein and made him come back. Payne called Willie on speakerphone and told him the truth. That not only did Calipari not make him come back but that Calipari told him he should enter the draft.

Negative recruiting is always lame, but how dumb are these other coaches? The narrative is that Cal is a ruthless salesman who pushes kids out the door, not that he makes them come back.
 
G

Grover Cleveland

Member
Bowser said:
An aside, but McBob aka Air Sandals has been totally awesome for the Horncats this year. Dropping bombs on fools' heads

McRoberts.gif
Click to expand...

MP5 wanted no part of that poster. Duke-on-Duke violence

Fjordson said:
:lol Kentucky's Kenny Payne was on a recent recruiting visit and apparently the kid was told by another coach that Calipari pressured Willie Cauley-Stein and made him come back. Payne called Willie on speakerphone and told him the truth. That not only did Calipari not make him come back but that Calipari told him he should enter the draft.

Negative recruiting is always lame, but how dumb are these other coaches? The narrative is that Cal is a ruthless salesman who pushes kids out the door, not that he makes them come back.
Click to expand...

Alex Poythress to return to UK

maruseesu2.png
 
F

Fjordson

Member
I'm not saying guys never return. But a coach telling a kid that Calipari pressures them into coming back? That's hilarious and total bullshit.
 
I

iamblades

Member
truly101 said:
In UK's defense, nobody is going to draft Poythress until the 4th round. Too bad for him, there are only two rounds.
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A team would've taken a shot on him in late second and stashed him in the d league just because of his athleticism. If he can learn to shoot the corner 3 at a high 30% rate he will have a role on an NBA roster. You don't find 6'8" 240 guys with that kind of athleticism every day, so he would have a chance to develop for at least a year or two just on that alone.

I also think he has much more fundamental skill (as far as ball handling and shooting goes) than he usually shows, he just has no confidence in his decision making and he over thinks everything instead of playing loose and instinctual. You can see him hesitate for a good 2 seconds every time someone passes him the ball on the wing and by the time he reacts the defense has recovered.

There's a reason he looks so impressive in the open court or when receiving the ball on cuts to the basket where he doesn't have to make any decisions and is able to just wind up and throw it down. People knock his motor, but I don't think that is it, he plays hard consistently.

It isn't a decision making thing either, Alex is one of the smartest basketball players we've had, he's a 4.0 student. Alex's issues are primarily confidence related.

Sure he needs to improve his handling and his jumpshot if he wants to have an NBA career, but if he just played reactive and instinctual basketball instead of hesitating and calculating every time he catches the ball, he would be one of the best players in college.

He is the opposite of an 'irrational confidence guy', he is a guy who should be dominating people physically, but doesn't have the confidence to do it.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
iamblades said:
A team would've taken a shot on him in late second and stashed him in the d league just because of his athleticism. If he can learn to shoot the corner 3 at a high 30% rate he will have a role on an NBA roster. You don't find 6'8" 240 guys with that kind of athleticism every day, so he would have a chance to develop for at least a year or two just on that alone.

I also think he has much more fundamental skill (as far as ball handling and shooting goes) than he usually shows, he just has no confidence in his decision making and he over thinks everything instead of playing loose and instinctual. You can see him hesitate for a good 2 seconds every time someone passes him the ball on the wing and by the time he reacts the defense has recovered.

There's a reason he looks so impressive in the open court or when receiving the ball on cuts to the basket where he doesn't have to make any decisions and is able to just wind up and throw it down. People knock his motor, but I don't think that is it, he plays hard consistently.

It isn't a decision making thing either, Alex is one of the smartest basketball players we've had, he's a 4.0 student. Alex's issues are primarily confidence related.

Sure he needs to improve his handling and his jumpshot if he wants to have an NBA career, but if he just played reactive and instinctual basketball instead of hesitating and calculating every time he catches the ball, he would be one of the best players in college.

He is the opposite of an 'irrational confidence guy', he is a guy who should be dominating people physically, but doesn't have the confidence to do it.
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Totally agreed. He has insane potential. I still remember one of his first games here against Duke two years ago where he had 20 points and like 9 boards.

I'm hoping with all of our frontcourt guys that Cal eases him into more time at the 3. Especially since we'll have extra shooting from guys like Lyles and Towns in the frontcourt, so I think we can overcome subpar outside shooting from Poythress while he develops that part of his game.
 
D

Deleted member 12837

Unconfirmed Member
Grover Cleveland said:
Springsteen ended up not coming to save that super meh concert. Easily the worse LDOC concert I've been to.

The afterparties tho

EZ1Homc.png
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Yeah I skipped it this year. Sounds like I made the right decision, although I wanted to see Spencer Brown. Afterparties at Shooters, or off-campus houses?
 
T

Talon

Member
Feel bad for Mitch. Should have left after the tournament last year when his stock was high. Was never going to be able to match that hype again even if he was healthy.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
Very happy the twins are coming back. I was expecting a slight down year for us next season, but I guess not with these returnees.

Media going overboard as usual, though. We are still losing our two best players to the draft and I don't believe any of our recruits coming in are quite the force that Randle was. The type of player teams key their entire defense on. So I think we will be very good, but not unstoppable.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
Wtf, just read the McGary story. Smoking weed gets you a year-long ban? That's seems insane.

I can understand schools trying to avoid their players becoming stoners, but a year for the first offense seems so overboard.

Kid has had some incredibly shitty luck since last year's title game.
 
R

Randolph Freelander

Member
Thing is, they just changed the rule to a 6 month ban. But since he tested positive prior to the change, they stuck him with the one year.

6 months still seems excessive, because that can still easily wipe out a season. I don't want to be thought of as encouraging the behavior, because I really don't, but maybe 10 games or so seems more responsible for a first offense for a basketball player, maybe 3 games for a football player. Basically, a quarter to a third of a season. Adjust accordingly to other sports.
 
I

iamblades

Member
Fjordson said:
Very happy the twins are coming back. I was expecting a slight down year for us next season, but I guess not with these returnees.

Media going overboard as usual, though. We are still losing our two best players to the draft and I don't believe any of our recruits coming in are quite the force that Randle was. The type of player teams key their entire defense on. So I think we will be very good, but not unstoppable.
Click to expand...

Not in the same way of course, Randle is a pretty unique player in his playstyle, but I do think our over reliance on him to make things happen offensively is what hurt us most of the season, because it forced him into bad situations going 1 on 3. Opposing teams keying their defense on Randle also hurt our offense more than it helped because it clogged the lane terribly for our dribble drives.

I do think Towns is as least as offensively skilled as Randle and more versatile, and the team overall should be more balanced. Towns in the high post with either WCS or Dakari down low seems completely unguardable to me, so its not one particular player that is unguardable, but a combination of them can be even more unguardable. Randle may or may not be a better overall player than Towns, but I think just switching out Randle for Towns improves the offensive spacing way more than it hurts to lose Randle as a 'go-to guy'. Towns can spread the floor and find the open man, how many big men can pass the ball like this:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=10805565

I think Towns is actually being underrated by a lot of Kentucky fans. He's not physically dominant like a Cousins or a Randle, and not a high flyer like Davis or Noel, but he might just be the most skilled big man we've seen in college in over a decade.

Next year will certainly be interesting though, we should be good out of the gate for a change, because this is the first time we've had a returning starter at point guard, and we are taking a overseas trip this summer which means an early start to practice. The adjustment period early in the season should be drastically reduced given the amount of experience we are returning.
 
H

hoos30

Member
DominoKid said:
UVA is owed a year where they have to play 2 of Duke/UNC/Syracuse home and away. They always get off easy.
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I read that as Duke/UNC/SYR getting off easy :)

We now have Louisville as a permanent partner, so I don't want to hear "unbalanced schedule" from the misinformed journalists all year.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
iamblades said:
Not in the same way of course, Randle is a pretty unique player in his playstyle, but I do think our over reliance on him to make things happen offensively is what hurt us most of the season, because it forced him into bad situations going 1 on 3. Opposing teams keying their defense on Randle also hurt our offense more than it helped because it clogged the lane terribly for our dribble drives.

I do think Towns is as least as offensively skilled as Randle and more versatile, and the team overall should be more balanced. Towns in the high post with either WCS or Dakari down low seems completely unguardable to me, so its not one particular player that is unguardable, but a combination of them can be even more unguardable. Randle may or may not be a better overall player than Towns, but I think just switching out Randle for Towns improves the offensive spacing way more than it hurts to lose Randle as a 'go-to guy'. Towns can spread the floor and find the open man, how many big men can pass the ball like this:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=10805565

I think Towns is actually being underrated by a lot of Kentucky fans. He's not physically dominant like a Cousins or a Randle, and not a high flyer like Davis or Noel, but he might just be the most skilled big man we've seen in college in over a decade.

Next year will certainly be interesting though, we should be good out of the gate for a change, because this is the first time we've had a returning starter at point guard, and we are taking a overseas trip this summer which means an early start to practice. The adjustment period early in the season should be drastically reduced given the amount of experience we are returning.
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That's true. Our spacing and balance will probably be better this year. And Towns is definitely more versatile than Randle. Lyles too probably.

I will miss Randle's tenacity, though. When playing well he was a beast on the boards. I don't know if any of our remaining front court guys have that sort of aggression.

Also, it looks like new assistant Barry "Slice" Rohrrsen is already putting in work for UK. Was at an EYBL event in California watching top 10 2015 guys Cheick Diallo and Thomas Bryant. Diallo would be a huge get and it looks like most media are predicting UK will get him because of the Slice hire.

hoos30 said:
Cal's connection with WWW definitely has benefits.
Click to expand...
I was thinking it was Drake. I remember he was wearing a James Young t-shirt during the tourney and isn't he dating Rihanna? Might have been one of his seats.
 
B

bachikarn

Member
Lil Horford transferring to UF. Should help with our front court depth. Could start too if we decide to go big and have DFS play the 3.
 
G

Grover Cleveland

Member
Fjordson said:
I was thinking it was Drake. I remember he was wearing a James Young t-shirt during the tourney and isn't he dating Rihanna? Might have been one of his seats.
Click to expand...

He should be more careful, the NCAA has been patiently waiting on something they can hammer UK with since Cal went there. Player sitting courtside at an NBA playoff game next to a music star sets off all kinds of impermissible benefits alarms.

EDIT: Forgot that he actually declared. In that case, it's fair game
 
S

Seth C

Member
Grover Cleveland said:
He should be more careful, the NCAA has been patiently waiting on something they can hammer UK with since Cal went there. Player sitting courtside at an NBA playoff game next to a music star sets off all kinds of impermissible benefits alarms.

EDIT: Forgot that he actually declared. In that case, it's fair game
Click to expand...

Yeah, and probably already signed with an agent so who knows who hooked him up.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
Grover Cleveland said:
He should be more careful, the NCAA has been patiently waiting on something they can hammer UK with since Cal went there. Player sitting courtside at an NBA playoff game next to a music star sets off all kinds of impermissible benefits alarms.

EDIT: Forgot that he actually declared. In that case, it's fair game
Click to expand...
Yeah, if he hadn't declared we may have been in deep shit. Not only a likely violation, but seen on national TV :lol
 
F

Fjordson

Member
So bored without college bball. Especially since the Warriors are going to lose in the first round of the playoffs.

I didn't know that the Champions Classic-esque event with UK, UCLA, UNC and Ohio State is starting this year. UK vs. UCLA and UNC vs. Ohio State right before Christmas at the United Center. Should be good.

I wonder how this will work with the home and home series we have with UNC. Doubt we'll play them twice when the rotation comes up for us to play them.
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
Iowa 0 for 2 on their top recruits so far :(

We should still be alright, but this season we won't have a go-to player and can't afford an implosion if we want to make the tourney.
 
T

theprodigy

Member
Fjordson said:
So bored without college bball. Especially since the Warriors are going to lose in the first round of the playoffs.

I didn't know that the Champions Classic-esque event with UK, UCLA, UNC and Ohio State is starting this year. UK vs. UCLA and UNC vs. Ohio State right before Christmas at the United Center. Should be good.

I wonder how this will work with the home and home series we have with UNC. Doubt we'll play them twice when the rotation comes up for us to play them.
Click to expand...

Hey there's a chance now!
 
D

Deleted member 12837

Unconfirmed Member
I'm guessing Turner goes to Kansas or Texas. What time does he announce today?
 
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