Does Kentucky go undefeated in the ACC?

[pfister1]

If dakari johnson was the number 2 center in the land and Marcus lee was a top 20 recruit, then I don't know anymore

Dakari Johnson was the ESPN #7 player behind Joel Embiid. Marcus Lee was ESPN #25, Rivals had him #19, Skout had him #24

But maybe that speaks to what an advantage it is to bring in the number of McDonalds All Americans that Kentucky does. If you have a couple of guys that are late bloomers you've got other stars to pick up the slack and give them time to grow into their potential. So Dakari Johnson wasn't the force he was expected to be. They slide Karl-Anthony Towns in to the starting lineup instead.

 

[DeGrozz]

Should they? If you take a collection of players that in most measures are significantly superior to all other teams in terms of the talent you are putting on the floor, should they be proud that they did what was expected?

If you put an NBA team in a college conference and they go undefeated should the NBA team be proud that they beat a bunch of undermanned teams?

You take the dream team to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and the mop the floor with their competition, should they be proud of that achievement?

Is this Kentucky roster that much better than all of the other college teams competing that anything less than an undefeated season and National Championship should really be viewed as a monumental failure?

Here is the roster

Marcus Lee - 2013 McDonald's AA - Consensus top 20 recruit
Devin Booker - 2014 McDonald's AA - Consensus top 30 recruit
Aaron Harrison - 2013 McDonald's AA - Consensus top 10 recruit
Andrew Harrison - 2013 McDonald's AA - Consensus top 10 recruit
Dakari Johnson - 2013 McDonald's AA - #2 Center in the Nation
Tyler Ulis - 2014 McDonald's AA - Consensus top 25 recruit
Karl Anthony Towns - 2014 McDonald's AA - Gatorade Player of the Year
Willie Cauley-Stein - Top 50 Recruit class of 2012 - Kentucky's version of a Project
Trey Lyles - 2014 McDonald's AA - Consensus top 15 recruit
Alex Poythress - 2012 McDonald's AA - Consensus top 20 recruit - Only played 8 games this year because his season cut short due to an ACL injury

If you really think that the talent gap between UK and the rest of college basketball is comparable to the '92 dream team vs. the world and that not going undefeated is a monumental failure, then I can't help you.

We've seen so many top-30 type recruits that failed to live up to their hype their freshman year, that I'm surprised you'd have such high expectations of such a young team. Imagine a team filled with guys like freshmen Dajuan Coleman, Paul Harris, Donte Greene, Chris McCullough, Rakeem Christmas etc. All top-30 type recruits their freshman year. All players that needed a few years to develop (if they ever did).

If we put them all on a team with no upper classman leadership, would you really expect them to win it all? No way. It's crazy that they made it as far as they did before they got knocked off. And they got knocked off by a team with the player of the year and a ton of upper classman leadership.

I know it's fun to hate Kentucky, but at least be reasonable in the criticism.

 

[sufandu]

They had 3 games they squeaked by in SEC play. Calipari stated there were 5 or 6 games they could've lost during the regular season. They definitely don't go through the ACC undefeated. They wouldn't have made it through the B1G without a loss either.

 

[jncuse]

If you really think that the talent gap between UK and the rest of college basketball is comparable to the '92 dream team vs. the world and that not going undefeated is a monumental failure, then I can't help you.

We've seen so many top-30 type recruits that failed to live up to their hype their freshman year, that I'm surprised you'd have such high expectations of such a young team. Imagine a team filled with guys like freshmen Dajuan Coleman, Paul Harris, Donte Greene, Chris McCullough, Rakeem Christmas etc. All top-30 type recruits their freshman year. All players that needed a few years to develop (if they ever did).

If we put them all on a team with no upper classman leadership, would you really expect them to win it all? No way. It's crazy that they made it as far as they did before they got knocked off. And they got knocked off by a team with the player of the year and a ton of upper classman leadership.

I know it's fun to hate Kentucky, but at least be reasonable in the criticism.

Good point.

A great basketball team is a function of talent and a function of class age.

Kentucky may have a big gap talent wise, but when you add in "class age" the gap between them and other elites was slight.

 

[Eric15]

They'd lose at Duke 98 out of 100 times.

98 out of 100? Holy cow, I'd say more like 50 out of 100.

 

[PoppyHart]

Maybe? :noidea:

We'll never know.

 

[CusefanATL]

Two toughest games UK played season.

ND-Won by 2
Wisconsin-Lost

cmon... you act like they played nobody all season. They played 1 helluva non conf schedule:

kansas (n) won by THIRTY TWO
providence won by 20
texas (they had talent and were ranked top 5) won by 12
UNC won by 14
UCLA (n) won by THIRTY NINE
@Louisville won by 8

 

[CusefanATL]

They'd lose at Duke 98 out of 100 times. I bet ND or UVA could've taken them too.

Are you being serious?

 

[HoustonCuse]

If you really think that the talent gap between UK and the rest of college basketball is comparable to the '92 dream team vs. the world and that not going undefeated is a monumental failure, then I can't help you.

We've seen so many top-30 type recruits that failed to live up to their hype their freshman year, that I'm surprised you'd have such high expectations of such a young team. Imagine a team filled with guys like freshmen Dajuan Coleman, Paul Harris, Donte Greene, Chris McCullough, Rakeem Christmas etc. All top-30 type recruits their freshman year. All players that needed a few years to develop (if they ever did).

If we put them all on a team with no upper classman leadership, would you really expect them to win it all? No way. It's crazy that they made it as far as they did before they got knocked off. And they got knocked off by a team with the player of the year and a ton of upper classman leadership.

I know it's fun to hate Kentucky, but at least be reasonable in the criticism.

I agree the gap isn't Dream Team level, but remember there is a big difference between a Top 30 recruit and a Top 5 to Top 10 recruit. The Top 5 guys are program changers with virtually no busts, the Top 10 guys are legit studs with almost no busts. The rest of the Top 50 probably has a 75% of being a bust their freshman year. In this context, DC2, Harris, McCullough, and Christmas were all busts. Remember, by bust I mean they aren't a stud player/team leader/1st team all conference type as a freshman.

 

[sufandu]

cmon... you act like they played nobody all season. They played 1 helluva non conf schedule:

kansas (n) won by THIRTY TWO
providence won by 20
texas (they had talent and were ranked top 5) won by 12
UNC won by 14
UCLA (n) won by THIRTY NINE
@Louisville won by 8

That's true. I think the problem is that teams in tougher conferences have the challenges at the right time of year when you want to be peaking for the tournament. Additionally, teams can change so much throughout a season that I don't think those help you quite as much when you don't also have a good conference schedule.