Floppers gonna flop
And then he said, “They’re flopping all over the place. In the NBA, they’d all be suspended.”
At halftime last night when Coach Cal spoke these words, we all looked at our friends next to us on the coach with wide eyes and then turned and gave John Calipari a collective thumbs up for having the cajones to open up that can of worms. And it seems like most of the Duke-hating nation had Cal’s back on this one, which is a rarity. Looks like the college basketball world can unite behind Calipari on the fact that Duke flops more than Mitt Romney in 2012 election. (Not taking a political side, but just based on the expected results versus the actual results.)
Well, unless you are Pat Forde, who calls out Calipari for his comments this morning. He’s not taking Cal’s back that fast. Big surprise…
Many of them have been legit charges, earned with hustling help defense and a willingness to give up their bodies for the cause. And many have been Academy Award efforts by the Blue Devils.
But coming unprompted at halftime from an opposing coach, this was a startling statement — one that immediately got major run on Twitter and all over the Internet. When one national championship coach calls out another, that’s news. And it was especially interesting coming from a coach who works the refs as relentlessly as anyone in the game, and who has gotten more than a few calls in his favor over the years — particularly the last three seasons at Kentucky.
He may have a point, especially later in the article when he calls Kentucky the ‘Establishment’ in college hoops now. Point taken, but he had a little more to say on Cal:
“It was a joke,” Calipari said. “Come on, you guys can take a joke at Duke. Geez.”
It’s reasonable to wonder how the pugnacious Calipari would have taken the joke, if the joke were on him. And it might have been better received if he had stood behind the comment with some conviction. At least he didn’t claim to be quoted out of context.
None of these comments are surprising coming from Forde, but I do think there is a greater question to be examined — will this UK team see a lot of offensive fouls called against them? With Ryan Harrow and Archie Goodwin’s fierce desire to get into the lane and Poythress/Noel/WCS’s knack for using a bit too much strength when backing a man down into the post, there will be a lot of contact when UK is on offense.
I think Goodwin’s speed and fearless attitude when crashing into the lane will force referees to either swallow their whistle for most of the game, or try to even out his free throw attempts by throwing in charge calls every once in a while. If refs call every foul Archie draws, he’ll be shooting 20 free throws a game. Right now, he is going into the lane a bit reckless, but you have to love his fearlessness and ability to almost baptize every defender. As the season gets going and the freshman jitters leave him, I expect he will be polish up his drive game and start finishing on guys with finesse, avoiding charges.
But I guarantee that every team UK faces this year will come into the game ready and hoping to draw as many charges on Goodwin as possible. But what can you do…
Floppers gonna flop.
57 Comments for Floppers gonna flop
Seriously, it was clearly a joke. And like all good jokes, there was some truth in it.
I was proud of Cal for calling Duke out on that. Some, some, were legit charges, but a lot of them were flops, just like in the second half when Ryan Kelly’s arm grazed Wiltjer’s and he fell to the damn floor.
What is this fierce desire Harrow has of getting into the lane? One thing he has not shown the ability to do in games or scrimmages is show an ability to get in the lane. A for effort though I suppose.
If Pitino had said Duke were a bunch of floppers, Forde would be flopping around on the ground
himself, just to show how floppingly he agreed with the point. Forde’s an oaf. Useless, self-serving,
navel-gazing oaf. Typical Ewe uv Hell fanboy.
will someone please tell Archie to at least look like he has a good time playing basketball. If, and when the time comes for him to interview with NBA teams, he will NOT win anyone over with his charm or personality. It almost makes him unlikeable IMHO…
Shut the hell up boy . . . you’ve been unlikeable since you were 1.
I hate Coach K for making the flop such a big part of the college game. They are by and large not as athletic as the competition and Coach K has taught this garbage to even the playing field. His teams get a reputation for playing good defense which helps sell the flops. I also want to point out the state of North Carolina loathes the school and the team. Imagine that. Coach K brought us defensive flops and Dean Smith at UNC almost by himself, ruined the game of basketball with the 4 corners offense. This was the single most mind numbing affront to competition in the history of humanity. I am sure many of you are too young to remember this, but ask your dad about it. Imagine a team spreading the court and passing for 2-6 minutes while the defense chases the ball. Eventually there would be a breakdown and someone would get a backdoor layup after the defense fell asleep. FYI- Digger Phelps beat UK famously using this strategy. He always had unbelievable talent at Notre Dame, but never did much with it. But against UK he went into the four corners and squeaked out a win with a final score which resembled a third grade game. Dean Smith should have been thrown out of basketball for making this style acceptable. Why he is lauded to such a degree has always mystified me.
“Got a major run on Twitter and all over the internet”
Haha Forde – please get out of your bubble. Twitter is like comparing a high school student government to the United States Government (especially these days)
Yeah guys, because a couple of bang-bang calls decided the game… Get a grip. The referees did not affect the outcome of this game. Plumlee played the 2nd half with 4 fouls, but Duke got all the calls? Maybe if Goodwin & Co. didn’t attack the rim with a lowered shoulder, UK wouldn’t be called for charges. Coach Cal’s comments were just that– unprompted, and its a shame he didnt have the balls to fess up after the game. “It was a joke”, yeah right, he said it with a straight face and meant it. If you’re gonna call someone out, stand by it, don’t run and hide after the game and call it a joke.
5- agree. body language for sure. Maybe that is just how he always is. Archie is awesome, but yeah he does not look like he is happy to be where he is at.
“…coming from a coach who works the refs as relentlessly as anyone in the game, and who has gotten more than a few calls in his favor over the years — particularly the last three seasons at Kentucky…”
WTF? Cal was coaching his team, COACH K WAS LECTURING THE REFS!!!
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/dukenow/kentucky-coach-john-calipari-on-his-halftime-criticism-of-duke-it-was-a-joke
shut up woman and get back in the kitchen. Donny Jr is on to something here. Why is archie so mad at the world?
Will this team get called for a lot of offensive fouls? Well, if last year is any indication, YES…We will.
Seriously, how many layups did MKG get taken away from him because of bogus charge calls? It’s a violation that is only called correctly about 55 or 60% of the time.
That being said, we benefit from that some too…There are plenty of times we get sent to the free throw line when it could have gone either way.
Our opponents are gonna flop? Ya think??
We run the dribble drive offense, we take the ball to the hoop. Opposing coaches tell them “get in their way, and throw yourself backwards across the lane. Refs fall for that every time”
“When one national championship coach calls out another, that’s news.”
Cal didn’t call out the other coach; he called out the floppers. If Coach K encourages flopping (which he probably does), let him say so himself. I got Cal’s back on this.
uh, the results of the election were exactly as expected by anyone outside of fox news. nate silver predicted every state correctly. every one.
I’m gonna stick by my guns here and say Calipari was out of sorts on this one. I mean come on in our whole offensive structure we don’t have one play where we set a screen to free up a wing shooter (Wiltjer)? That was their whole plan don’t let Wiltjer’s threes beat us and thats exactly how they did it.
Charges have contact, flopping doesn’t. Look at the film, Cal.
Strategic maneuver. And brilliant i might add. He starts the season by making national waves over a comment about basically Duke getting help from the refs, without fussin about the refs. Which can get a coach in trouble. If you take a shot at a coach, all it gets is airtime. Duke got all the calls last night, including 3 or 4 that were game changing non-calls late! Duke has always gotten the favor of the refs, Cal knows it, and now Duke has to go the rest of the year under this microscope, which will also gradually intensify. Duke has always gotten away with murder, just like NC does, only worse even. He’s shedding some light on this, doing it early, and i hope often. Smart move!
Fuke Duck
I think Cal backtracked because he didn’t want this to be used against him as in it was an excuse that we lost. UK & Cal need no excuses and the flops weren’t the reason we lost, just one of multiple contributing factors.
absolutely loved it. one of the best bball related quotes this 30 yr long fan has ever heard.
i did actually LOL and got goose bumps when he said it
19 – flopping involves minimal contact, like barely brushing a guy and he flops to the ground as if he was aggressively pushed. That’s Duke’s game plan in a nut shell. It works for them, so why change it? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That doesn’t mean we can’t make fun of them for looking like pansies.
i immediately jumped on facebook and said to my friends please tell me u heard what Cal just said!
The charges called last night were kinda like the holding penalties called in every football game. They COULD be called every play, but shouldn’t be. I saw at least 4 of Archie’s buckets where he was hit while shooting (no foul.) But who cares? It’s a November game and I’m just worried about March(April.) Nearly filling the Georgia Dome with screaming BBN’ers should will be more important in determining a teams seed than a neutral court loss to a team ranked in the top-10.
# 7, great point about the old game-killer…the 4 corners. Back in 1981, Kentucky beat Notre Dame 34 – 28 in overtime. That’s right, OT. At the end of regulation it was tied at 23.
In 45 minutes of basketball, Notre Dame hauled down SEVEN rebounds. Had 3 turnovers. Thank god for the shot clock.
I don’t get the comment moderating. I made a rational comment without insulting anyone or using any cuss words or veiling any cuss words and for some reason it doesn’t make the cut. Yet comments like 21 do. What gives, KSR?
Listen, taking charges as strategy is bitch basketball. It just is. I would prefer Kentucky players didn’t do it. I’ll take it if it happens, but I just hate it. I think it’s cheap basketball, and if you tried to do that in any other situation than organized basketball, you’d get punched in the face.
Someone please put together a reel of Duke flops from last night. There were plenty. Nice to see the refs ignored them in the second half, at least.
HA! Cal is well liked and respected in college ref circles because of how little he bitches to them compared to other coaches in college, who seem to spend literally the entire game riding the officials (coach k, Stallings, etc.). Absolutely, completely unfounded comment there by Forde. You can just tell he watches Cal all game every time he is there to find something he doesn’t like…a true mark that he hates him.
Duke bastardizes the game, how can their fans be proud of it? Players constantly hurling themselves to the ground like they’ve just been hit with some sort of 50 cal. bullet to the chest. Awful. Duke absolutely lucked into the championship in 2010, and it’s not going to happen again for them/coach k.
Listen up people…I know something about Flopping…I’m a well known Flip Flopper and DUKE FLOPS! Trust me on this
No question “if”. Been like that since Cal got her beginning with Wall.
Takes them a while to get used to it. Seems like always 5 charge calls before
we ever get one to go our way and like the IU game last year, often come at a time
to stop a run.
Que up last year’s “blarge” post/discussion on this site.
Cal made himself look bad last night with those comments. I wish he would handle himself with a little more class in front of the mic, but that’s not him or UK. In your face 24/7. It came off as more of an excuse to why they we were behind at halftime. Then in the post game he claims it was just a joke? Coach K then fires back saying his players wouldn’t be fined because they don’t get paid in the first place. Burn……..
Coach Cal has gotten his share of calls the last 3 years? I don’t ever blame refs for losing and I really get iratated when fans blame the refs for everything. However, we have not gotten as many calls go our way than our opponents have. Especially the block, charge calls last year. It was pathetic. Every time we drive the lane we charge and every time the other team drives the lane we block.
19) You’re wrong. If there was no contact it would be obvious. A flopper exaggerates contact to draw a foul. The one that bothered me most was when we (Archie?) was at the top of the key, turned his back to the defender, and backed in(same as a post move). The dude fell backward 5 feet. Not only was it a flop, but it was completely legit contact.
That being said, Duke was the better team and deserved the win, no matter how bad the calls were. If you can’t admit that, you weren’t watching the same game as me. The refs didn’t lose this one for us, we did. But they still sucked.
Off the subject, but I see us having some serious problems with Wiltjer this year. He looks so slow and clumsy out there. The only thing he can do is spot up and shoot. One of my IU buddies cracked a joke about Wiltjer needing some Werther’s Originals at halftime to boost his energy. Kid needs to get a motor.
5 & 10. Did you catch the ‘dumb’ last night? Geez. Making a big deal out of a kid’s facial expressions and body language during a game? Grow up
Calipari has forever earned a place of honor in my view for his astute and overdue insight into Duke’s flopping. We ALL have seen it. In my almost 25 years of watching Duke play, I can confidently conclude that they don’t teach defense at Duke–they teach acting.
Shocking that UK fans think they got robbed by the refs in a loss, its absolutely shocking. I’ve never heard a UK fan admitting a team outplayed them even during the bcg era. You sound stupid. You’re young and talented and you lost early in the season to an older team, nothing more.
The DDMO sets this up. It encourages players to stupidly charge at the rim and get out of control. Duke sat in a 2-3 zone and just waited for it. I saw a few times where players passed up throwing the ball to an open teammate for a 3, just so they could drive out of control. This happens at the beginning of every year, but Cal is smart enough to figure out that it isn’t working and goes back to running sets.
No one is going to mention Plumlee violently slamming into everyone in the paint? I believe someone mentioned that our players use to much strength to back down in the post? I in no way think Duke flopping lost the game for us. We jumped at every pump fake, made bad passes and didn’t set up the best shots. Wiltjer was non existant. That being said, Duke flops all the time, and they get preferable calls ALL the time. Even if Laettner had never happened, those facts alone would make me hate them
Great…..Yahoo is running an article by Forde on Cal complaining about the flopping and making us look like we are making excuses. Screw Coach K for his “our players don’t get paid so they can’t be fined” comments. That was a direct shot at Cal and UK and won’t be forgotten.
I can’t understand why KSR has to mention Forde so often.I would’nt know he existed if you guys did’nt mention him.
34 not even a good try, troll. You couldn’t even cover up your trolling, throwing the “they” before “we”…ha ha ha…FAIL!
hey 34 coach K lied. We do actually get paid…in gold chains!
You people are nuts, DUKE is just the better team and you guys know it!
I immediately twittered, facebooked, tumblr’d, gave a +1, wrote a blog about it on my livejournal and added this quote to my resume on linkedin.
Refs calls made no impact on this game at all. Sometimes fouls go your way sometimes they don’t. That goes for every school that fields a team. Duke should have killed UK last night. UK has great talent and an equally great coach, but they are young and not the team we fielded last year. Duke has a veteran ball club starting 4 seniors and, according to them, a National Player of the Year candidate. UK has no legit point guard. This game should have been over in the first 10 minutes. If this year’s Duke team was playing last year’s UK team, UK would have put the game out of reach in that fission. With regard to Coach Cal’s comments, while his observations are spot on and everyone who isn’t a Duke fan has known for years they are big time FLOPPERS, there is no upside for Cal to state the obvious. Those who are critical of Cal for not “standing” behind his words are guilty of the same transgression by not openly acknowledging Duke is in fact a FLOPPING team. It is as much a part of their teams defensive philosophy as anything. Which is, if you can’t keep your man in front of you, FLOP. If your man makes any attempt to gain position regardless of how light or benign, FLOP. Our coach is highly regarded and beyond question so we will get away with it regardless of how bad it is for the game we say we love so much. Cal is correct if you pull that crap in the NBA you get fined. Coach K’s response is indicative of one who is stung by the truth.
If Cal said the sky was blue Pattycake Forde would make a negative out of it. The truth is that Duke has a reputation for flopping, I didn’t see any obvious myself in the first half but I don’t have the same perspective as Cal. I do know that having Tony Greene as a referee never works in our favor and for loser Forde to say we’ve gotten more than our share is just the whining of a hater. I honestly do not know why a Kentucky fan would want to read that douche. I quit reading his crap while he was still at the C-J and from the samples posted here it hasn’t changed, once a pitiful whining hater always a pitiful whining hater. Let’s move on.
The truth is officiating had nothing to with the loss. The truth is Puke has always flopped. The truth is that it is chicken S defense. The worst is when they are falling down after the player has passed the ball, That contact has no one gaining advantafge because the ball has been passed. But they get the calls and it is what it is. I did enjoy what Cal said because a lot of us were thinking the same way.
didn’t Cal say they would get suspended for flopping, not fined? Pretty sure he did. Which makes Coach K’s ‘we don’t get paid’ comment stupid.
Who cares, what I can’t understand is why can’t Cal just own up to his comments. Just say your joking and move on! Two things don’t go together on this board UK fans and objectivity. True Pat Forde could wrote a story on another subject, but he didn’t tell Cal to say it! Duke out played them tonight, the real issue is they better start rebounding! SOFT!!!
Look.
If someone brushes you, and that is allowed in basketball or everyone would foul out. Anyway, if someone brushes you and you react like a F u king Bull ran you over or someone shot you in the head and fall on the floor and flayl around…….then yeah that’s FLOPPING!
And it is the way Coach K teaches his kids. Drama and theatrics rather than real basketball….NICE coach K. NICE.
Congratulations to all you tard Duke fans. Your team beat pretty much a HIGH SCHOOL team and they almost got you to top it off….Be proud baby!
So is that an insult to UK or Duke. I think Duke. Meaning kids that are as young as 17 almost took your almighty Seniors…
Oh and F you Digger
dewskilowe. Duke 31 boards UK 30. Don’t understand your observation. Duke got one more rebound and UK is soft at rebounding. Is your comment an example of the “objectivity” you see lacking on this board? What Cal said is true. Duke players flop and NBA players get fined/suspended punished for flopping. What is wrong with that? Just because you, some “reporter” and other Duke fans don’t like that everyone sees it for what it is doesn’t make it less true. I will agree with you on one subject. Duke was better on Tuesday night than UK was. 5 points better. If wins are the measure of the best team then who has more than UK???
To add to your comments #55. As it has been pointed out in the past, the young Calipari teams have a big upswing in potential between November and March. Duke’s 3 seniors used all their bag of tricks and barely beat us. How much better will they be by March…not much.
Cats89 I know your going to say numbers don’t lie. But Duke had 13 touches on the OB where it went out of bounds for UK or UK got the scramble. Trust me that number is to High considering UK is very athletic people are playing them physical bodying them up. My biggest problem with Cals comment is he never said that kind of stuff to another coach who won a national championship until he got his ring. He tells his players to play and move on just be the bigger guy an keep comments to yourself. Just win and move on!