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Well there aren't alot of college basketball fans on this website but I want to talk about something today. I am a huge Kentucky fan and historically, they are one of the top, if not the top college team with 7 national championships. However, these years have been a downfall; yes they've made it into every NCAA tournament (aka March Madness) but with the exception of 2005, their seed rankings have been no better than like a 6 which basically means they play better teams and even if they advance, they play even a better team (considering no upsets)
Well this year has been pretty bad, almostworst than last year. They got a new coach named Billy Gillespie and alot of fans had expectations; he coached very well in other programs and turned them all around to respectable teams. The previous coach, Tubby Smith, well basically every UK fan was tired of him because he never won another championship (yes, UK fans are very greedy) However, by now, I'm sure they are begging him to come back. You see, last year, UK lost to some really bad teams like Gardner Webb, Houston, and this year they lost to VMI. Kentucky got to a solid start, lost to U of L by 3 by a buzzer beater and got blown out by UNC but what else do you expect? They started off winning 5 of their first SEC (their conference) games and was picked to win it easily b/c there are no other good teams. Actually, LSU and South Carolina are playing very well (LSU just lost though) However, they lost their last 6 or 7 out of 9, mostly close games but nevertheless games they should've won. Alot of them were because of bad defense; my god how open the opponents were when taking threes.
Today, UK lost to Georgia, the WORST team in the SEC, 90-85. Same thing happened, Georgia hit 12-14 in their three pointers and never looked back. I have no clue why UK is playing so horribly but it seems like they won't even make it into the NCAA tournament, the first time in about 17 years. UK has one more game to play at Florida but it probably won't make a difference; the only way to get in now is to win the SEC championship with no byes which is pretty difficult. UK last year had three solid scorers; Crawford, Bradley and Patterson. Unfortunately, Crawford and Bradley were seniors so they're gone and Patterson that year was hurt. Thankfully, Jodie Meeks, an often-injured player, came out of nowhere and got national attention; scoring 54 points against Tenessee. But it also had its cons, as other teams swarmed against him and prevented any type of good shots. Now, UK has two solid scorers and Meeks can't even play that well anymore because of the defense so its basically up to Patterson to carry the whole team and that never works well. Last year in the tournament, Joe Crawford scored 38, Bradley scored 19 and Stevenson, a player thats up and down, had 10. The 38 points were not enough to get past the first round but I was awfully proud of him and Bradley. Crawford btw, was 58th pick overall to the Lakers but they waived him  Not sure what Bradley's doing.
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United States24701 Posts
Haha I remember playing ncaa basketball for ps2 and the intro videos were done by Tubby Smith (I actually was thinking of him when I read the title of this).
This is very frustrating but goes with being a fan of college basketball. I went to Maryland a year or two after they won the national championship, and saw it slowly degrade into shit while I was a student. Fortunately freshman year was a lot of fun with the acc champsionship with three consecutive wins over the opponents who trashed us earlier in the season, and an epic rivalry rapage of duke.
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Oh man Maryland was awesome but I read some articles about how their recruiting system is horrible; this 5 star prospect walked in the campus and the head coach wasn't even there; the assistant walked him into the gym and wrote stuff on a whiteboard telling him why he'd be a good fit to the team. Done in 20 minutes.
Btw Maryland has a korean baller; represent!
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College basketball is sweet (Gogo Michigan State) I think its a lot better then pro basketball. UK is supposed to be the historical giant of college BB but your right there has been a decline the past decade. It seems to me though that every program in college goes through this. Look at UM and Notre Dame, they are not good at all really when they are both historically really good. UK just needs a good coach who can come in and stabilize things while getting solid recruits and building the program. Kind of like what the new Michigan State football coach is doing.
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Oh wow there are some college hoops fans 
Yes but Michigan State won outright the Big Ten, close game against the Hoosiers though last night.
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Yea they are a bit inconsistent and have a lot of young players on team, as well as dealing with some injury issues. Izzo is prolly going insane over it lol, although he did say that he will keep his promise of shaving his head after the season (he told his players that if they win the big ten title he would).
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United States13896 Posts
As a UK fan myself, having grown up in Kentucky in the heydays of the late '90's, I felt like absolute shit watching the game today. I couldn't even bitch at bad calls or call Porter a disgusting excuse for a college basketball player (not because of apathy though, but he actually played well for the first time in his pitifully talentless career - whattaya know?). I could only just sit back and shake my head.
I don't know what this month is gonna be like without UK in the tournament ... it's is just gonna feel so empty without the cats to cheer for. That and the baseball season doesn't start for another month and a few days so I don't even have that to look forward to in the near future. Well, the WBC is coming up, but I digress.
Moral of the story: March just isn't going to feel like March this year.
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CA10828 Posts
does USC have a basketball team? -_-;
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As a UT fan, I don't quite get UK's struggles. They kind of manhandled us in two games (with Meeks going off @ UT), but lose to UGA? Honestly, I don't think UK will make it to the NCAA tourney unless they win the SEC Tourney
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lol losingid8 of course they do. Floyd landed like a top 5 recruit last year. But yeah I mean you gotta give billy some time to recruit his type of players to kentucky. Two years isn't enough time for him to put his system into place. If you look at the texas a&m job he took him like 3 or 4 years before they really started to win. Also I'm a HUGE Duke fan and their recruiting class this year should be top 10 but 2010 is the recruiting class I'm looking forward too. Duke is like tops on the number 2, 3, and 4 recruits in the country and already has 2 commits from that class as well. In addition Duke has a a lot of other recruits interested in them as well; God I'm so excited to see how that class turns out. Also a lot of teams key on a teams best player(s). So if Meeks was really that good he would be able to get himself open and prevent some of that defensive pressure himself. Although meeks does score like 25 points/game so you can't complain too much in that department.
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On March 05 2009 13:20 p4NDemik wrote:
As a UK fan myself, having grown up in Kentucky in the heydays of the late '90's, I felt like absolute shit watching the game today. I couldn't even bitch at bad calls or call Porter a disgusting excuse for a college basketball player (not because of apathy though, but he actually played well for the first time in his pitifully talentless career - whattaya know?). I could only just sit back and shake my head.
I don't know what this month is gonna be like without UK in the tournament ... it's is just gonna feel so empty without the cats to cheer for. That and the baseball season doesn't start for another month and a few days so I don't even have that to look forward to in the near future. Well, the WBC is coming up, but I digress.
Moral of the story: March just isn't going to feel like March this year.
Yeah, Kentucky will be NIT champions 09! Get hyped! Hahaha, jk. Btw where do you live?
And yeah Duke is just always a top recruiting team with their coach. But as you know Duke_ss, Kentucky fans are impatient and although I hated to see Tubby go, Gillespie is another story. His coaching is not very good and it shows; you start Porter, this white guy that isn't even a true point and he always makes like 5 turnovers and UK overall is like the worst in making turnovers. You would think by March that he would get that fixed but nope, he keeps Liggins on the bench for later. Also, against Vandy, Patterson was hurt so he obvioulsy let Harrelson start. But then where was he in the second half the whole time? On the bench probably for doing one thing wrong So then the Vandy center, Oglivy just dominated and made all his freethrows.
On March 05 2009 13:38 OchoCinco wrote:
As a UT fan, I don't quite get UK's struggles. They kind of manhandled us in two games (with Meeks going off @ UT), but lose to UGA? Honestly, I don't think UK will make it to the NCAA tourney unless they win the SEC Tourney
Yeah Tenessee isn't what they were last year but they're still decent and had a very strong non-conference schedule.
And about Meeks, I love that guy, he's a humble player and he's a good baller but seriously, sometimes I think he's overrated for now. I'm sure I'll have to wait until he gets better but either he or the coach needs to figure out better ways to get himself free. And some of his stats are missrepresentatives sometimes; he hits threes like at the end of the game and hes just wetting them down when its too late to win. Patterson and Meeks, I want them to stay at Kentucky but I think they're better off going pro or something cuz they are wasting time to Gillespie.
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United States13896 Posts
On March 05 2009 13:43 DukE_ss wrote:
But yeah I mean you gotta give billy some time to recruit his type of players to kentucky. Two years isn't enough time for him to put his system into place. If you look at the texas a&m job he took him like 3 or 4 years before they really started to win.
UK fans are not going to be nearly as forgiving about missing the tournament as Texas A&M fans. Being the head coach at UK comes with at least as much scrutiny as managers in some of professional sports' most difficult to hold positions.
If Billy G doesn't improve things immediately next year he's gonna be on the hot seat. Sad thing is, his fate next year is probably entirely out of his own hands - it's going to depend on Meeks and Patterson coming back. Imo, if they leave he's gonna be hung out to dry next season as the team flounders to it's worst record in recent history.
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My god if they both leave UK is so screwed. They do have one 5 star player though which is pretty good.
Btw where do you live p4ndenmik?
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United States13896 Posts
On March 05 2009 14:08 il0seonpurpose wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2009 13:20 p4NDemik wrote:
As a UK fan myself, having grown up in Kentucky in the heydays of the late '90's, I felt like absolute shit watching the game today. I couldn't even bitch at bad calls or call Porter a disgusting excuse for a college basketball player (not because of apathy though, but he actually played well for the first time in his pitifully talentless career - whattaya know?). I could only just sit back and shake my head.
I don't know what this month is gonna be like without UK in the tournament ... it's is just gonna feel so empty without the cats to cheer for. That and the baseball season doesn't start for another month and a few days so I don't even have that to look forward to in the near future. Well, the WBC is coming up, but I digress.
Moral of the story: March just isn't going to feel like March this year. Yeah, Kentucky will be NIT champions 09! Get hyped! Hahaha, jk. Btw where do you live? And yeah Duke is just always a top recruiting team with their coach. But as you know Duke_ss, Kentucky fans are impatient and although I hated to see Tubby go, Gillespie is another story. His coaching is not very good and it shows; you start Porter, this white guy that isn't even a true point and he always makes like 5 turnovers and UK overall is like the worst in making turnovers. You would think by March that he would get that fixed but nope, he keeps Liggins on the bench for later. Also, against Vandy, Patterson was hurt so he obvioulsy let Harrelson start. But then where was he in the second half the whole time? On the bench probably for doing one thing wrong So then the Vandy center, Oglivy just dominated and made all his freethrows.
I live in Northern Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati.
And yeah, that Vandy game was pure hell. We came out in the second half with that speedy, short lineup and just fell flat on our faces, and Billy did nothing to stop the game from getting out of hand. Really frustrating.
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hah I completely understand how you guys feel. If Duke ever went through this I'd be sooooooooooooooooo pissed. So glad I wasn't into sports that much in the mid 90's when Duke went through it's rough patch. And yeah if Meeks and Patterson both leave oh god Kentucky is gonna go downhill quickly. I'm still pretty pissed patterson picked Kentucky over Duke but hey he made his bed and now he has to sleep in it right  ?
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16998 Posts
College basketball is huge here (I mean fuck, I lived in a tent for five weeks to get into a game), and I completely know what you mean. It's really frustrating when you know your team could do better, but consistently lose to teams you shouldn't be losing to.
Also @micronesia, Duke is epically raping Maryland this year.
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On March 05 2009 16:07 Empyrean wrote:
College basketball is huge here (I mean fuck, I lived in a tent for five weeks to get into a game), and I completely know what you mean. It's really frustrating when you know your team could do better, but consistently lose to teams you shouldn't be losing to.
Also @micronesia, Duke is epically raping Maryland this year.
Five weeks?? What game was this? The only places I know they do this is the UNC Duke game.
On March 05 2009 14:39 DukE_ss wrote:hah I completely understand how you guys feel. If Duke ever went through this I'd be sooooooooooooooooo pissed. So glad I wasn't into sports that much in the mid 90's when Duke went through it's rough patch. And yeah if Meeks and Patterson both leave oh god Kentucky is gonna go downhill quickly. I'm still pretty pissed patterson picked Kentucky over Duke but hey he made his bed and now he has to sleep in it right ?
I thought Patterson was deciding over Florida b/c Jai Lucas, a pg that left, tried to convince him to come and play together.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc109/iloseonpurpose/c_laettner_i.jpg)
