Agreed. Yet all the best programs are developing their own talent--and not necessarily just highly recruited kids, either. Houston, UCLA, Gonzaga, Tennessee, UConn are all driven by fairly middling-to-above average recruits who developed their games over time, along with some selective additions from the portal. Heck, most of Donovan's best teams (2005-07, 2010-11, 2013-2014) were built on kids who may not have been recruited by everyone, but were fits for what we wanted and improved over time. That's still the way to build a program. I keep seeing people say that Golden shouldn't need 4 years to turn over the roster and win with his guys, but I disagree. Yes, he can--and is--turning over the roster now (and hopefully winning as a result). These portal guys are just stopgaps, though--at least the older ones. What we need is for him to develop his own guys over multiple years. Kugel (NBA prospects aside), Richard, Fudge, Szymczyk (sp?), Haugh, Conlon, hopefully Thomas would give us a solid base for the next year or two, while a possibly exceptional 2024 class (Yeaney, Castillo, Gicari Carter, maybe even Bidunga) would elevate the talent and complement what we already have. Even in a portal universe, though, it takes time.
Why? I know we didn't see any major signs this year, but when pressed into service against very good competition he was serviceable, esp. as a freshman. Remember what BillyD did with Greg Stolt, who was not an overly talented or physical player, but who was very skilled. I certainly can envision the possibility that Smitty develop into a decent if not good player. As freshmen . . . Per 40...pts.....rb.....fg%.....asst.....stl.....blk.....t/o Stolt......14.5....6.7....39.7.....0.7.......1.2....0.6.....2.4 Smitty....11.1....6.7....39.3.....1.1.......2.6....0.4.....2.2
On a good day I wasn’t bad on 16 ounce lifts. On rare occasions I could hoist a 32 ounce, but generally that was to watch bubba eat.
Oh, look at the trust fund baby that could afford 32 ouncers while in school! BTW - anybody else in here remember Nell's in the student ghetto?
I am interested if anyone remembers the pet store on 34th that had a monitor lizard named bubba. For a buck you could toss a mouse into feed bubba. Docspore and I would buy quarts of crap beer and buy a couple of mice. The dream was to find a girl that would like that. lol.
CJ Felder in the portal. Looking for a college that does not play basketball so he can sit out the 23-24 season. Seriously, we lose CC, KReeves, JJ, CJ, Lofton (sr), Lane and who else? The portal will have to restock this team since TG high school recruiting plan is to do minimal. I hate having to rebuild a team from scratch year after year. No continuity means no Dance. Even all those past UK fr teams had some returning players to go along with the one and doners to have a foundation.
I don't quite get this take. We signed 3 freshmen last year, including two that Golden recruited on his own in a short time span. We have two committed for next year, and we are close to getting a commit from a pretty elite potential 2023 reclass. We also are heavily recruiting a number of highly ranked 2024s, with a nice chance at signing several of them that like us. Unless you are a blue blood or your new coach is recruiting the same kids as at his previous stop, not many are going to have immediate pull in their first full cycles. Those are usually much smaller. White, who wasn't a bad recruiter at all, brought in Hester, Bassett, and Gak. It took him until his third cycle to really heat up. Donovan's first full cycle was Brent Wright, Major Parker, and maybe a third, whose name I don't remember. He didn't nail a class until 98-99, his second full cycle.
This is his 5th season. In his first four seasons: 66-56, 2 conference tournament wins, 0-2 in the CBI Let's give our first year coach a little time. I'm willing to take some lumps if we can acquire/retain/develop players. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
After all that happened this year, expected this. Don’t know what transpired between him & the staff, but the hand-writing was on the wall when he wasn’t playing, left the team, returned & still didn’t play….when we desperately needed a PF.
Updated turnover: # NAME POSITION CL Status 0 Myreon Jones G Gr. Graduating 11 Kyle Lofton G Gr. Graduating 12 Colin Castleton F 5th Graduating 4 Niels Lane G Jr. Transfer 14 Kowacie Reeves G So. Transfer 33 Jason Jitoboh C Sr. Transfer 1 CJ Felder F Sr. Transfer
Whose left # NAME POSITION CL 2 Trey Bonham G Jr. 3 Alex Fudge F So. 5 Will Richard G So. 10 Denzel Aberdeen G Fr. 13 Aleks Szymczyk F Fr. 20 Jack May G R-So. 21 Alex Klatsky G R-Jr. 24 Riley Kugel G Fr.
I get the criticism about the quality of recruits in the current class, but not quantity. How is he supposed to draw players during the recruitment period when those scholarships are occupied?
You’re right in that there were only 3 available scholarships until now. The complainers as to quality know nothing about the 2 commitments. They simply rely on rankings which is why they have missed the boat for years and years. Let’s renege on Erving Walker’s scholarship. Kasey Hill is better than Wilbekin and Chiozza. We should take Fab Melo over Patric Young and Khalid Moore over Keyontae Johnson. Tre Mann is the best entering point guard in the country. Shane Larkin and Ques Glover are mid-major players at best. It goes on and on. The rankings of Haugh and Condon are meaningless right now. No one knows squat about them unless they personally scouted them which, presumably, TG did.
You have to understand the lack of trust that exists at the moment. Billy didn't have to explain to anyone why he liked someone or not. His track record spoke for itself. There's only one way to turn this around and that's to be right. We'll find out by this time next year.
Yes, gotta start recruiting basketball guys. As I’ve said before stop looking at height, Weight, vertical, etc. and ask Is he basketball smart Can he shoot Does he put team first
