It's not that the team didn't have "pros", a high % of power conference players end up as "pros" in Europe. It's that there weren't any lottery picks or draft picks, no superstar player. It was just a perfectly constructed team. This is actually the ideal to recruit towards, unless you have a generational freakshow type player that can make a difference in 1 year. You want ranked recruits, but ones that are planning on sticking in college 3-4 years with no thoughts of 1 and done. Most of those players were ranked in recruiting rankings, so nobody is saying they were a bunch of walk-ons that Donovan converted into success. However none were considered "1 and done" coming in, the only one close to a 5* as I recall was Patrick Young who was pretty much a consensus top 50 player. That team was more or less constructed of 3* and 4* players (Yeguette might not have even been ranked, and Wilbekin I don't believe was either - although that was because he was a local kid who reclassified to come a year early). The back to back team was also constructed in this same way, but instead of a balanced team of near NBA players, it had 3 guys that developed into lottery picks, oh and they came back another year when they all could have been top 10-20 picks. Including Noah who probably gave up the #1 pick. Something that will probably never happen again in modern CBB. Interestingly, none of those guys came in as 1 and done's either. It was guys outside that 5* elite. It's just that Donovan literally struck gold with that class. Green was a top 150 player. Noah was a top 100 player, Horford was a top 50 player, Brewer was top 50. So again, none of these guys came in as 5*.
I think late in his junior year he caught a pass @ Rupp, drove the lane and MONSTER dunked in UK's face. That was one of those "lights on" plays that sparked Casey's confidence. He was never a good shooter, but developed a decent 3pt shot in his senior year. Was a defensive guru and very athletic. One of my faves
Very well written and I don’t disagree, but I feel as though you are writing a response to something you think I said that I actually did not say.
If I read your post correctly, it was that the team should not have been considered “blue collar” or overachieving because it had “pros”. I was just pointing out lots of SEC (and major conference) teams have pros on their roster. As that team had no lottery picks, I think the description of the team fits just fine. As I said, that’s probably the ideal way to do it if you can get it right. Of course those guys didn’t come out of nowhere, in addition to generally being “ranked” top 150 recruits, they already had key roles in a run of elite 8’s to prove they were good.
They were unfairly characterized as blue collar and that narrative became a self-fulfilling prophecy that manifested itself in the draft. If they had Duke on front of their uniforms, they would all have been drafted. Scottie Wilbekin blue collar? Lol. Do you not know how talented that guy is? He even made the G-League and summer league players look silly before dominating overseas.
I was at this game. We have up a huge lead and the UK fans were rockin. I was very nervous on that final play.
— I was there and nervous too. Our large lead vanished quickly. So glad we held on. I had tickets right in the middle of a UK section. It was lower level, but I ended up moving to the terrace level that had Gators everywhere. It was behind one of the baskets. Much better experience. We celebrated for a while after the win. Fun times!
The whole arena was a Uk section… lol! i think I was side court toward the opposite end of where the final play occurred… as I remember watching it from an angle.
