BTI’s Rants and Ramblings: Crushing the Freshman Record Books Under Calipari
Sorry Rex, your place in the records books is fading away.
Hey everybody, did you know John Calipari plays freshman a lot? I bet you didn’t. But see, I pay attention to things like this. And I pay attention to the record books as well. And I am amazed how drastically the record books have changed under the John Calipari administration. OK, not really the entire record books, but the FRESHMAN record books for sure. Take a look at some of the freshman records and how they have changed in the 4 short years John Calipari has been the coach:
Freshman Points pre-Calipari
1. Rex Chapman- 464
2. Chris Mills- 459
3. Sam Bowie- 440
Freshman Points post-Calipari
1. Brandon Knight- 657
2. John Wall- 616
3. Terrence Jones- 595
4. Demarcus Cousins- 575
5. Anthony Davis- 567
6. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist- 476
7. Doron Lamb- 469
8. Archie Goodwin- 466
9. Chapman
10. Mills
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Freshman Rebounds pre-Calipari
1. Chris Mills- 277
2. Sam Bowie- 276
3. Rick Robey- 214
Freshman Rebounds post-Calipari
1. Anthony Davis- 415
2. Demarcus Cousins- 375
3. Terrence Jones- 336
4. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist- 297
5. Mills
6. Bowie
————————————————-
Freshman Assists pre-Calipari
1. Dirk Minnefield- 126
2. Rajon Rondo- 118
3. Rex Chapman- 103
Freshman Assists post-Calipari
1. John Wall- 241
2. Marquis Teague- 191
3. Brandon Knight- 159
4. Minnifield
5. Rondo
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What strikes me the most about that is how much we criticized Archie Goodwin for his freshman year. The kid is selfish and takes horrible shots and on and on. Consider this: ARCHIE GOODWIN TOOK LESS SHOTS THAN REX CHAPMAN IN EACH MAN’S FRESHMAN SEASON. You think Goodwin was a ball hog, what about Chapman? And people consider Chapman’s freshman season to be legendary, while Goodwin was some kind of bust. And don’t think Chapman’s freshman team was so great and that’s why people love him. His 1987 team was bounced in the first round of both the SEC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.
My point is 2 fold: that we look at freshman basketball players at UK in a completely different light. Some would call it an unfair light. And second, the performance of the freshman in 4 years at Kentucky is something that is unheard of in college basketball, and certainly in Lexington. And I think even more unheard of or appreciated than UK fans are doing.
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42 Comments for BTI’s Rants and Ramblings: Crushing the Freshman Record Books Under Calipari
Doesn’t post-Calipari mean after Calipari as in after he left.
I think I get your point. Freshmen score s lot of points at UK with Calipari as coach
Throwing salt at the fanbase on a Friday morning, yup BTI is back…I’d like to see the stats on how many times Chapman wound up on his arse while wide open man stood their and watched, though.
Shots taken while fouled are not counted as FG attempts.. What about turnovers? What about lack of defensive intensity or ability to get thru screens? Much more goes into the assessment of a player than points and shots
Where is Mashburn in all this? I would have thought the 5% horse owner would have developed players far beyond imagination?
In all fairness to the argument, you aren’t comparing apples to apples here. It’s a lot easier to score, rebound and assist as a freshman when they are a majority of freshman in the rotation. If 60% of your starting lineup are freshman, that’s more opportunity for freshman to accumulate stats.
*there are
I think the most problems with Archie people have is that he can’t hit an outside shot and he insisted in not playing by what coach was trying to instill. So, he drove to the basket and sometimes he made it and sometimes he didn’t. So, in the Chapman comparison in regards to frustration, it’s more than numbers.
4, I show Monster Mash putting up 362pts his freshman season 90-91.
Archie deserves 0% of the blame, that falls on Ryan Harrow. Every game we won last year was because Harrow had a good game. (exception being Maryland becausee he did not play.) I don’t have the time to give the stats line at the moment but if you go look them up you willl see Harrow played poorly in our losses. Proving a team is only as good as the PG lets them be. Next year, we will have the best PG in the country.
*because*
How many more games did Goodwin play than Chapman? Chapman and Davender were the best players on that team in 1987 thus they took most of the shots. Goodwin led Kentucky in scoring true but he was on a team with better players than Chapman esp Noel.
You will always be an Intern!!!!!!
9- Great point & I agree with that in regards to our team chemistry and success rate -except the “0%” number given to Archie I have trouble with. Gotta rise that up some -but again, good point overall.
Okay, totally off subject here, but do you ever notice how blurry the pictures are of the “older” players. I mean look how grainy that pic is. Makes me wonder if it was actually that grainy when taken (I don’t remember it being that way), or if they intentionally make it grainy to make it look older. Same goes for some of the game footage. If you see highlights from games in the 80’s and 90’s (all sports) they always look darker and grainy. I surmise that they do it on purpose to give the image a feeling of age.
Okay, I’m done now….back to bashing BTI.
Great stuff BTI, it’s fun for me to tell you that you suck but the truth is you give us interesting stats and information. Keep up the good work #BTISucks
One important stat You’re leaving out is chapman actually made shots and big plays. Archie threw up bricks early in the shot clock whick killed our offense, had no heart and was out of control. I think ill take chapman.
There is NO WAY you can accuse Rex of being in ANY WAY the same type of player that Archie was. Yes, that 1987 teacm wasn’t great, but it was lack of an inside game, not lack of guard play (Rob Lock shooting 50% from the free-throw line didn’t help…”Hack a Locke!”). Like #15 indicates, Rex was a play-maker and his shots went IN. I’ll bet if you look up shooting percentages Rex’s are higher.
13, some of that is probably because these photos are scanned from media guides, Cat’s Pause Yearbooks, etc. (as opposed to having the originals), and not scanned very well. Maybe folks also like the Instagram 70’s filter too.
“Hack a Lock” not Locke.
I agree Archie deserves some blame, i was just using 0% as a hyperbole to emphasize my point lol. 🙂
The stats are somewhat close, but this is why looking at averages vs. totals is more effective since Chapman played 29 games. He scored 16 a game, had more assists, and less turnovers. He also hit 4 times as many 3’s in less games, and was a better free throw shooter. However, let’s be honest, Rex Chapman is a white Mr. Kentucky basketball player that chose to play at UK. There are people that seriously believe Hood should be getting big minutes not because of a lack of effort by other players (which is a logical argument), but because they think he can play. No information/#’s will change their views.
Although I do think Chapman was a much more efficient player and is better than Archie, I also feel that Archie played hard, and was our best player in March for whatever that’s worth.
The fact that Archie scored more points as a freshman than Rex did is pretty amazing to me.
Jon Hood would be getting PT if not for the ACL injury. that messed him up, he got PT in his freshman year with John Wall’s team and that team was deep.
Can such a good post come from someone that sucks so badly? Paradox!
#21) Last year was the most MPG he’s had while at UK.
The Kentucky freshman with the highest scoring AVERAGE pre Calipari was Alex Groza who averaged 16.5 in 1945. Freshmen were elgible to play varsity ball then because so many players left early to serve their country in the military. In fact that’s why Groza didn’t have a higher point total. He was drafted into the army after 10 games. He would come back to lead kENTUCKY to two NCAA championships in 1948 ND 1949. he also won a gold metal playing on the 1948 Olympic basketball team. he finished his career at Kentucky with 1744 points, which is still good for 10th place on Kentucky’s all time scoring list.
I’m not talking about 3-4 minutes a game. I’m saying there are people that think he should play 20-30 minutes a game. I’ll trust Cal’s player evaluation skills though.
Because many public bathrooms have POOLS on the floor (among other things!)! Yeesh. This isn’t that hard.
And by POOLS I don’t mean just water!
I’m in Panama City, about to be listening in the shower.
I bet the sales of the lemon flavored snowcones drops a lot!
BTI’s report card:
Effort: B+
Interesting: B+
Organization: A-
Moral: D+
Length: B
Summary: BIG strides for BTI in organization from last semester (yesterday). And, his GPA went from 2.4 to 2.8. he may make the honor roll next semester (next week).
This is cool. More evidence the Calipari Kentucky is the Kentucky we always thought we were.
Freshmen styaing four years at UK was the norm before CAL so you should have done a pre and post Cal on that topic. The UK program we have today was built by Cal. No.1 recruiting classes and top ten players and No.1 high school players were things that happened everywhere else. Cal has turned the program into the dominant force it is today. Thank You John Calipari.
31. Exactly
Hahahahaha! BTI gives us an April’s Fool post!
Goodwin can’t carry Chapman’s jock.
Chapman hits a higher percentage of both dueces, treys, and FTs.
And he kicks out 25 more assists (that’s extra scoring for UK).
And commits 40 less fouls (that is essentially a form of defense, keeping the other team from scoring or retaining the ball)
And he has 30 less turnovers (which is also a form of defense, by reducing the other team’s opportunities to score)
When Matt says the mission of the site is to cover UK sports in the “most ridiculous manner” – then BTI gets today’s MOST RIDICULOUS award!
BTI, please take a grammar class for God’s sake. I counted 8 errors in 3 short paragraphs. Take some pride in your work! Even a UNC football player learned more in a fictitious class then you evidently did in real ones!
What?! UK basketball fans have unrealistic expectations of boys who play basketball? Say it ain’t so!
I love UK, am an active Alum and especially love the passion of most of my fellow fans, but to all the idiots who berate these kids because they don’t live up to the inflated expectations that they have created for these kids, I would like for them to have their kids emotionally and verbally assaulted like they do to these players. Maybe then they would understand how stupid they are acting.
I can’t believe some of the tweets I saw here on KSR after Wiggins announced for KU. They should be shunned from BBN.
Also, the BTI sucks thing is equally as stupid. Grow up!
Yep, BTI is back with his suckiness…I don’t care what stats you can pull up…anybody that was living and old enough to see Chapman play would tell you that Goodwin does not even belong in the same sport with Rex.
Another post where BTI takes numbers that mean very little to piss off the readers. Obviously, a kid who is “almost 28 years old” didn’t see Rex play and has no idea what he’s talking about. Rex was one of the elite players in college basketball. Remember, he left school early (thanks to some bigots in UK’s administration) and was the 8th pick of the draft at a time when leaving early was fairly rare (He was also the very first Charlotte Hornet – franchise player). Archie isn’t even in the same league as Rex. Rex was on a bad team his frosh year and was the focus of every team’s defense. The next year they won the SEC with a 6-loss record. Eat a booger, BTI.
#5 – correct. There are too many variables for these stats to be valid as far as one on one comparisons.
And why is it necessary to dump on other teams and players to try to make a good point about the more teams? This is ridiculous – and unlike Not Jerry Tipton, this post I think it supposed to be serious.
21 – Jon Hood was also ill with mono much of this year from what I understand. He played with heart and was enjoying himself when he was finally able to play – and didn’t act scared / intimidate like the other guys did – he got right in there and played.
Thank you for the numbers. A point is a point. I am not surprised Brandon leads in points. Look out for James Young this year, among others that can really shoot. I think Archie was trying too hard to make something happen. Going to miss his effort. Just a little off the subject. Noel and #1 draft pick? I don’t get that? He was great at defense. He could dunk. That is it. Not enough of a shooter to be a Forward. He will be a 6ft 10in. 210lb Center in the NBA. That is very small for a center. He will get banged up bad in there. I hope he gains at least 30lbs. for his sake. Archie, is quick, is not scared to drive to the basket. He needs to become more consistant at shooting 3’s. They don’t play a lot of D in the NBA anyway. He will be fine IMHO.