What The So-Called Experts Are Saying About Kentucky Basketball
Kentucky’s convincing win over Duke last night caught the eye of just about everyone with the slightest interest in college basketball. Today, this year’s Cats are the biggest story in college basketball around the interweb.
Here are some of the hot takes from the so-called experts:
Skip Bayless, ESPN First Take
Is it possible 5-foot, 9-inch Tyler Ulis of Kentucky will make a run at college basketball's Player of the Year?
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) November 18, 2015
Chad Ford, ESPN NBA Insider
NBA scout: "UK's backcourt may have the best two players in the country in it. I'm dead serious." Murray & Ulis earning that praise tonight
— Chad Ford (@chadfordinsider) November 18, 2015
Myron Medcalf, ESPN College Basketball
That smirk accompanied an announcement to the college basketball universe that John Calipari might have built another Wildcats juggernaut that’s equipped for another Final Four run following last year’s 38-1 campaign. [ESPN]
Jeff Goodman, ESPN College Basketball
Gimme Tyler Ulis as my point guard any day of the week. Tough kid, makes people better, defends, makes shots, leads, controlling game.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) November 18, 2015
Jon Rothstein, CBSSports.com College Basketball
Having Tyler Ulis as your point guard is like investing in a ROTH IRA that's FDIC-Insured. Safe, secure, and super reliable. #BBN
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) November 18, 2015
Gary Parrish, CBSSports.com College Basketball
Yes, Kentucky lost its top seven scorers from last season early to the NBA Draft, and that’ll probably show up at some point, especially in the frontcourt and, more specifically, on the defensive end of the court. But the Wildcats are still really, really talented and good.
They probably won’t start 38-0 again.
But they could easily be playing on the final weekend again. [CBSSports.com]
Rob Dauster, NBCSports.com College Basketball Talk
Tyler Ulis isn’t the most talented player on Kentucky, but he is the best — and most valuable – player on Kentucky’s team. He may just be the best point guard in the country. [NBCSports.com]
Mike DeCourcy, The Sporting News
Oh, sure, Kentucky won 38 in a row last season, and it reached the Final Four in both 2014 and 2015. But remember the player to whom Calipari handed the ball before each of those games, hoping more than trusting his faith would be rewarded.
In Andrew Harrison’s place now are three point guards Calipari can believe in. [TSN]
Pat Forde, University of Louisville Yahoo! Sports
Ulis was Calipari’s best point guard last year, but he clung to sophomore Andrew Harrison as his primary point — clung to him so stubbornly that it helped get Kentucky beaten in the Final Four against Wisconsin, when Harrison and twin Aaron seized up down the stretch. This year, with the Harrisons gone, the 5-foot-9 Ulis has the job to himself. And he is ready to star, as his 18-point, six-assist, four-rebound, zero-turnover stat line showed. [Yahoo!]
39 Comments for What The So-Called Experts Are Saying About Kentucky Basketball
Pat Forde can eat a dick
Forde gonna Forde
Forde is right the twins sucked and Cal cost us #9 by playing them.
The troll JTsaysHey is back.
The twins do not suck. They got us to a national title game and a final four, back-to-back.
UK Big Board has a two word vocabulary…troll and Cardinal. I find it amazing that he bases his self worth and self esteem on cheering for a group of kids that don’t know he even exist! He hates other UK fans simply because they dont gargle the same loads of Kool-aid as himself.
Lol cats paw one of the few times I agree with you. He does seem to regard himself as the ultimate UK fan.
Awwww…… 😉
I don’t think he bases his self worth or self esteem off of UK, I’m not sure why anyone would make that assumption. Oh yeah, bc cats paw is worthless and wants others to be down on his level. He hates you bc you aren’t really a UK fan but continuously try to fool people like you are. You’re pathetic.
Most people disagree with your hater negative views, and you definitely gargle a certain type of load, but thats none of my business…. 😉
Oh, and a few of the UK guys know who I am.
I bet they do know you Big Board….I imagine a couple have restraining orders against you. And yes, I have a VERY negative view on UK football and any homer that supports this joke of a program! UK basketball is something to be proud of…pretty simple concept.
Funny, I’ve never seen you post a SINGLE positive comment in regards to the basketball team….
In fact, you posted this soon after our win against dUKe last night:
cats paw November 17, 2015 at 11:04 pm | Permalink
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but ill help you all out here for future knowledge. if Duke plays us again, pick Duke! they will not miss that many 3’s again. Hate all u wish but i can fill this thread full of my predictions that are generally 100% on! and thats why i get under your skin so much!!
3GOGGLES, RICK PITINO’S.
Troll or no troll, I actually agree with Forde and JTsaysHey. Just don’t think that Ulis would string together such bad possessions to end the game. For whatever reason, Cal stuck with the twins and it cost us in this case. But, to be fair, the twins won some games for us, too. Just sucks that they decide to go null and void in the semi finals.
Yep, dead on.
Can’t believe some doofus calling others a troll when they agree with someone with a different opinion than theirs. I don’t agree very often with Forde,but he is right on this time.
While, troll is often overused, saying the twins suck is both wrong and uncalled for.
Papa didn’t say the twins sucked. But what he DID say was correct. They cost us that game and so did Cal by leaving them in.
But this year is a new year and is going to be much more fun. No undefeated expectations so the team and the fans can relax and enjoy it.
I didn’t say that Papasnapper said they sucked, but JTsaysHey sure did, and others agreed with him.
JTsaysHey November 18, 2015 at 1:24 pm | Permalink | Reply
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Forde is right the twins sucked and Cal cost us #9 by playing them.
I love Ulis, but he had 6 points and 1 assist last year against Wisconsin in 17 minutes. Nothing to get excited about there.
Our whole team did not play well down the stretch in that game, dumping all the blame on the twins is unfair. Besides, how many games did the Harrisons win for us late? Can you honestly say you wouldn’t have kept the twins in the game after all of their late game heroics in the past?
I don’t think it would have mattered who was in the game last year. IMO, Cal would have gone into that stall the last four minutes of the game, which made them throw up some wild last second shot b4 the time clock ran out, regardless of which guards were in the game! And NO, we wouldn’t have even been in the final 4 without Cal…..but we seen last night how much better it is when you’re playing to win vs playing not to lose in the final minutes of a game.
I think what really cost us the game was adopting a “play not to lose” mindset instead of a “play to win” mindset going down the stretch after UK had seized the lead. UK seemed to go to a conservative “milk the clock” plan way too early. Instead, they should have stayed aggressive and tried to keep scoring. I don’t think you can hang all of that on the twins.
Let’s move on from that atrocity – the future of UK basketball is bright!
Ulis wasn’t playing great in that game either. We still would’ve lost. Twins did not cost us the game. The team as a whole played pretty crappy. And Cal not calling timeouts hurt.
Biggest difference I see is that the current backcourt appears to have fun, vs. being afraid of failure. Yes, Aaron had his game winning moments, but the twins often played tentative for long stretches.
When did a person who isn’t afraid to disagree with someone automatically labeled as a “troll”?? I usually can’t stand Forde but this time he’s pretty accurate. I can’t imagine a scenario where Tyler Ullis would allow 3 straight shot clock violations in ANY game, let alone the national semifinals. The point is, the Harrisons were good but Ullis is great.
Just bc he may not have had shot clock violations doesn’t mean he or anyone else would’ve scored. Our team crapped out that game, not just the twins.
To be fair, they had a few shot clock violations last night…. and Ulis played all 40 minutes.
Can we just, like, not talk about the Wisconsin game for, like, one entire day
Jamal Murray is blowing my mind with how fluid he is during the game. The way he plays is smoother than Will Smith eating gelato on a slip and slide.
Everyone wants to blame the twins last year but I don’t really. WCS was a non factor as a defender and scorer in that game and the big slow white guy schooled him. Also Cal should have been going Townes every time.
Agree that WCS was not much of a factor after that lob dunk at the beginning of the game. In fact, for most of the tournament Willie did not seem to play as aggressively as he did earlier in the season. In fact, IMO the whole team’s defensive intensity seemed to slide as the season wore on. In the pre-conference, they would absolutely demoralize teams with their D.
Time to forget about yesterday and smile about tomorrow!
WCS held Kaminsky to only two points in the second half. Not having Alex hurt us in that game.
UK bb. Perfect antidote for UK football!
Football? What’s a football?
Number nine this year! Number ten next! The question is will Tyler stay one more year? Will he be a first rounder this year?
“Having Tyler Ulis as your point guard is like investing in a ROTH IRA that’s FDIC-Insured. Safe, secure, and super reliable”
If Jon Rothstein is putting his IRA investments in something FDIC insured, he’s going to be waiting a long, long time for that to pay off.
Forde is not wrong. Cal himself even said he kept the twins in because of the experience they had and the shots they made in the past.
…..because of the experience they had and the shots they made in the past.
The fact is Forde has had a stick up his azz about the twins from day one. Ulis and Booker were defensive liabilities in the Wisconsin game. Nether could score.Had Cal kept them in Wisconsin would have been up 10 at the end.
The twins are gone, Forde needs to move on and stop crying about them…..geez. A grown man hating on 19 year olds is beyond sad.
The main reason we lost against Wisconsin was Willie Caulie Stine being lazy. He did it in multiple games throughout his time at UK. When he came to play we were pretty much unstoppable.