(03-22-2017 03:21 PM)MemphisFan95 Wrote:  He was going to Arizona if Kentucky didn't offer he was never going to be here after that season

True... unless that letter of inquiry had been made public. You'd have to think neither AZ nor KY would have looked at him, IMO.

(03-22-2017 02:58 PM)ncrdbl1 Wrote:  

(03-22-2017 02:15 PM)TigerTim Wrote:  110% the NCAA would have dropped the hammer.

Cal was never staying. He know he would be much safer at Kentucky in terms of NCAA sanctions.

The poster who said something about UNC made my point. The NCAA will never got after a blue blood and Cal knew it.

Why else would he leave that roster that could have been the most loaded college basketball team ever?

Cal was damaged goods when he arrived. He had just lost another NBA job and was working as a commentator. The NCAA was still keeping an eye on him. He was not on the radar of any P5 schools. He took the Memphis job to regain his stature and was failing at it until WWW started hand delivering players. Without the Laurenburg prep class he would have continued on winning 2 out of every 3 games and not going deep into NCAA.

He was not winning big until those last four years. Never won any titles until Louisville, Cincinnati and USF left CUSA. We all remember the last four years but forget the previous five years before that. 115-55 with only 2 NCAA appearances and 1 NCAA win and 2 losses.

You are a trip dude. You still got this stuff wrong.

(03-22-2017 03:09 PM)ncrdbl1 Wrote:  

(03-22-2017 02:50 PM)HoopDreams Wrote:  LOL - I'll gladly take a first round NIT loss if it's sandwiched in between this:

2009–10 Kentucky 35–3 NCAA Elite Eight
2010–11 Kentucky 29–9 NCAA Final Four
2011–12 Kentucky 38–2 NCAA Champions
2012–13 Kentucky 21–12 NIT First Round
2013–14 Kentucky 29–11 NCAA Runner-up
2014–15 Kentucky 38–1 NCAA Final Four
2015–16 Kentucky 27–9 NCAA Round of 32
2016–17 Kentucky 31–5 TBD

With his final four years at Memphis and these teams at UK he had talent level far and above 99% of the other schools. Yet only got one title out of the group. Imagine what Kirk could have done with that level of talent year after year.

You do realize kirk was actually found to have cheated by the ncaa while cal was cleared by the ncaa? You realize one of our best teams maybe ever was not allowed to compete in the ncaa tourney because of kirk? you make strange sports arguments.

Kirk was a hell of a basketball coach though.

(03-22-2017 03:12 PM)EvilLore Wrote:  

(03-22-2017 02:58 PM)ncrdbl1 Wrote:  He was not winning big until those last four years. Never won any titles until Louisville, Cincinnati and USF left CUSA. We all remember the last four years but forget the previous five years before that. 115-55 with only 2 NCAA appearances and 1 NCAA win and 2 losses.

The only thing I would counter that with (because it's an argument that Cincinnati fans frequently make against Memphis), is that our talent level was so strong those last four years, we still would have won C-USA regardless of the teams.

I think people forget that we continued to play Cincinnati from 2005-2009 after they had already left for the Big East. We went 4-0 against them winning every game by double digits. Some of the games were so embarassing, ESPN cut away to different telecasts.

You could make the argument that the Bearcats were down those years and that Louisville and Marquette would have provided much stiffer competition, but neither of those teams were as good as Acie Law's Texas A&M squad, the Texas Longhorns with Augustin and Abrams, and UCLA with Kevin Love and Westbrook.

Played them once a year but we did not play that level of talent every other week as we would have if those teams had remained. One thing to win a bunch of easy games with a strong team thrown in every once in a while. Than to play those better teams at least every 3 to 5 games. Back to back games against Louisville and Cincinnati is way different than playing Cincinnati sandwiched between Tulane and UCF of that era.

(03-22-2017 03:09 PM)ncrdbl1 Wrote:  

(03-22-2017 02:50 PM)HoopDreams Wrote:  LOL - I'll gladly take a first round NIT loss if it's sandwiched in between this:

2009–10 Kentucky 35–3 NCAA Elite Eight
2010–11 Kentucky 29–9 NCAA Final Four
2011–12 Kentucky 38–2 NCAA Champions
2012–13 Kentucky 21–12 NIT First Round
2013–14 Kentucky 29–11 NCAA Runner-up
2014–15 Kentucky 38–1 NCAA Final Four
2015–16 Kentucky 27–9 NCAA Round of 32
2016–17 Kentucky 31–5 TBD

With his final four years at Memphis and these teams at UK he had talent level far and above 99% of the other schools. Yet only got one title out of the group. Imagine what Kirk could have done with that level of talent year after year.

That is one more than we have in our history... I would gladly take those results.

(03-22-2017 02:56 PM)Briskbas Wrote:  

(03-22-2017 01:11 PM)Great Scott Wrote:  Its been a few years and I haven't googled any of this but is this roughly correct?

G John Wall
G Xavier Henry
G Eric Bledsoe
F Demarcus Cousins
F Will Coleman

Don't know if Calipari goes after Bledsoe if he's got Henry and Wall coming.

As I recall, Cal indeed did NOT go after Bledsoe here. He had Henry, Wall - and was high on Dennis. He went after Bledsoe after he got to UK - and got into a recruiting battle with Pastner over him.

In fact, I heard Pastner had been recruiting Bledsoe and laid the delay in offer on Cal not wanting him here. Didn't do much good though.

(03-22-2017 02:00 PM)SigEpMike Wrote:  

(03-22-2017 01:58 PM)tiger2000 Wrote:  

(03-22-2017 01:55 PM)HoopDreams Wrote:  

(03-22-2017 01:52 PM)tiger2000 Wrote:  

(03-22-2017 01:14 PM)aTxTIGER Wrote:  Shawn Taggart wouldve been back too probably.

All those guys would have transferred out when the NCAA hammered us/Cal.

There wasn't a postseason ban, don't see why anything would affect them.

They wanted Cal. If Cal had stayed it would have been likely much worse than we received.

If they wanted him and had proof they could have had him. Leaving doesn't change that. However, instead, they specifically cleared him of wrongdoing.

I don't believe they cleared him of wrongdoing. He requested a letter from them to pacify UK. The letter said something like "not at risk at being charged". That's not exactly a ringing endorsement of innocence.

Point is, they would have killed us had he stayed. At least a 1-year ban. Remember, they dole out whatever punishment they want regardless of guidelines or precedent. If questioned - they would not have been - they would have justified harsh punishment by LOIC, and since the staff was still in place, we weren't doing enough to clean it up.

Had he not gone straight to the NBA, LeBron was headed to Duke.

Man would they have been really good.

Cheese.

(03-22-2017 05:15 PM)Mimi Wrote:  Had he not gone straight to the NBA, LeBron was headed to Duke.

Man would they have been really good.

Cheese.

Wrong. He was headed to Ohio State.

I don't think he was headed to college period. In his high school senior year, his mother bought a $50,000 Humvee from a bank loan on his future potential earnings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/14/sports...ation.html

(03-22-2017 05:15 PM)Mimi Wrote:  Had he not gone straight to the NBA, LeBron was headed to Duke.

Man would they have been really good.

Cheese.

Not that it matters but I believe you are thinking of Kobe. He was always a big Coach K fan.

I believe you guys are correct.

Duke would have been really good with Kobe, and OSU with James.

(03-22-2017 02:56 PM)Briskbas Wrote:  

(03-22-2017 01:11 PM)Great Scott Wrote:  Its been a few years and I haven't googled any of this but is this roughly correct?

G John Wall
G Xavier Henry
G Eric Bledsoe
F Demarcus Cousins
F Will Coleman

Don't know if Calipari goes after Bledsoe if he's got Henry and Wall coming.

He was already going after Bledsoe. Remember how pastner called him to try to get him to go to Kentucky?

(03-23-2017 11:48 PM)jgardne Wrote:  

(03-22-2017 02:56 PM)Briskbas Wrote:  

(03-22-2017 01:11 PM)Great Scott Wrote:  Its been a few years and I haven't googled any of this but is this roughly correct?

G John Wall
G Xavier Henry
G Eric Bledsoe
F Demarcus Cousins
F Will Coleman

Don't know if Calipari goes after Bledsoe if he's got Henry and Wall coming.

He was already going after Bledsoe. Remember how pastner called him to try to get him to go to Kentucky?

Pastner had relationship with Bledsoe, but the Cal staff at Memphis had chosen Wall and Henry. Just keeping Bledsoe in the wings in case something happened. They weren't getting all 3. When Cal went to UK he knew he lost Henry to KU. That's when he started back with Bledsoe - as did Pastner.

I remember a poster in the athletic office back in 2004 or so signed by Amare Stoudemire that said if he would have played in college he would have played for Coach Cal. Everyone on campus talked about how Amare would have brought us a national championship and altered the course of history of Memphis basketball.

Amare "committed" to Cal

(03-26-2017 03:22 PM)Memphis10Tigers Wrote:  I remember a poster in the athletic office back in 2004 or so signed by Amare Stoudemire that said if he would have played in college he would have played for Coach Cal. Everyone on campus talked about how Amare would have brought us a national championship and altered the course of history of Memphis basketball.

Yes, Amare committed to Memphis. After he decided to turn pro instead, I ran into DK one night at The Flying Saucer and we got to talking about it. His words? Amare would NEVER have been eligible to play college basketball.