2024-2025 schedule

[ALLoverCANE]

^^^ This. We'll be improved, but everyone is forgetting the whooping that UK put on us last year in Rupp with a team that should have been good. And that same Coach Cal and half of that roster he beat our *** with is now at Arky with some pretty good supporting pieces.

No disrespect to calinative...but much like Lloyd Christmas thought about John Denver, "That Kenpom is full ****, man".

I think he is referring to Bart Torvik, not Kenpom.

In any case...Kenpom was right about us last year, while everyone here was saying the model was bonkers for not buying into our hype.

And Cal isn't bringing with him his 3 best players from UK. Arkansas will likely not be all that good. Cal has missed the tournament and fielded mediocre teams several times in recent seasons. He's not such a good coach that you should assume he'll have success right away at Arkansas.

 

[Notsince1985]

You guys complain when the schedule is bad. Now you're complaining when the schedule is good.

 

[IndayArtHauz]

You guys complain when the schedule is bad. Now you're complaining when the schedule is good.

They’re wrong. Schedule is mid. I hate it.

 

[AmherstCane]

I'm bearish on Bethea's ability to be a difference maker right away. I think he 'contributes' early and then maybe blossoms on the backend of the season.

Maybe he can lead a postseason run - especially if our shooters are hot at the right time. I just hope it's a good enough season that we can play our way into the tournament and not have to win the conference tournament.

This team is a lot like the 2021-2022 team. Not saying they're gonna make an elite 8 run or anything. But full body of work. Not going to be the consistent force the 2022-2023 team was that played great all year and was still able to hit their stride and then take it to another level and made it to a final 4.

Regardless, it takes getting hot and playing the best basketball at the end of the year no matter how good you are... unless you're UConn level good.

This is the mother of all hedges lol. Not going to be good but going to be like a prior team that finished 4th in the ACC and went to the Elite 8.

I don’t think we’re going to be anything like that team (Lykes, Wong, and McGusty…), but we are going to be bigger and deeper than we have been in a LONG time.

 

[JayCane20]

This is the mother of all hedges lol. Not going to be good but going to be like a prior team that finished 4th in the ACC and went to the Elite 8.

I don’t think we’re going to be anything like that team (Lykes, Wong, and McGusty…), but we are going to be bigger and deeper than we have been in a LONG time.

“Not saying they’re gonna make a run to the elite 8”

We have 1 guy that makes us “bigger” than we have been. As soon as he’s in foul trouble or sitting on the bench it’s the same thing we’ve dealt with for most of L’s tenure.

Trying to say I think the team has 13-15 losses. Has an average regular season, nothing special in the conference tournament, and any run in the tournament is dependent on being hot at that time. 2022-2023 we dominated the regular season and looked destined to make a run in the tournament.

A few bigger bodies but still not a “big” lineup or rotation. Arkansas and Tennessee will prove that.

 

[AmherstCane]

“Not saying they’re gonna make a run to the elite 8”

We have 1 guy that makes us “bigger” than we have been. As soon as he’s in foul trouble or sitting on the bench it’s the same thing we’ve dealt with for most of L’s tenure.

Trying to say I think the team has 13-15 losses. Has an average regular season, nothing special in the conference tournament, and any run in the tournament is dependent on being hot at that time. 2022-2023 we dominated the regular season and looked destined to make a run in the tournament.

A few bigger bodies but still not a “big” lineup or rotation. Arkansas and Tennessee will prove that.

Kidd: 6’10”
Huie: 6’9”
Johnson: 6’8”
Cleveland 6’7”
Djobet: 6’8”

Those are all expected rotation players (with Djobet being the only ?? as a major contributor ). That makes us MUCH bigger than we have been in a LONG time.

Are we Duke/Tennessee big? No. But way bigger than anything we’ve seen around here since probably 2013. But also still very athletic with some serious shooting.

I have no idea how this team will gel and there are concerns… but I like your prediction of anywhere from fringe bubble team to Elite 8 team. That probably covers where we’ll end up.

 

[JayCane20]

Kidd: 6’10”
Huie: 6’9”
Johnson: 6’8”
Cleveland 6’7”
Djobet: 6’8”

Those are all expected rotation players (with Djobet being the only ?? as a major contributor ). That makes us MUCH bigger than we have been in a LONG time.

Are we Duke/Tennessee big? No. But way bigger than anything we’ve seen around here since probably 2013. But also still very athletic with some serious shooting.

I have no idea how this team will gel and there are concerns… but I like your prediction of anywhere from fringe bubble team to Elite 8 team. That probably covers where we’ll end up.

I’ll gladly end the “hedge” and tell you this roster isn’t making it past the round of 32.

Bubble team that may win in the 1st round

 

[ALLoverCANE]

I’ll gladly end the “hedge” and tell you this roster isn’t making it past the round of 32.

Bubble team that may win in the 1st round

You have absolutely no basis for this. March is a crapshoot.

 

[ALLoverCANE]

“Not saying they’re gonna make a run to the elite 8”

We have 1 guy that makes us “bigger” than we have been. As soon as he’s in foul trouble or sitting on the bench it’s the same thing we’ve dealt with for most of L’s tenure.

Trying to say I think the team has 13-15 losses. Has an average regular season, nothing special in the conference tournament, and any run in the tournament is dependent on being hot at that time. 2022-2023 we dominated the regular season and looked destined to make a run in the tournament.

A few bigger bodies but still not a “big” lineup or rotation. Arkansas and Tennessee will prove that.

This isn't football. 1 guy makes a difference. Small team + 1 legit big guy starter = no longer a small team.

If Kidd gets hurt, sure. The team looks different. Every team looks different with a key injury.

 

[TheRichtShow]

...“Not saying they’re gonna make a run to the elite 8”

We have 1 guy that makes us “bigger” than we have been. As soon as he’s in foul trouble or sitting on the bench it’s the same thing we’ve dealt with for most of L’s tenure.

Trying to say I think the team has 13-15 losses. Has an average regular season, nothing special in the conference tournament, and any run in the tournament is dependent on being hot at that time. 2022-2023 we dominated the regular season and looked destined to make a run in the tournament.

A few bigger bodies but still not a “big” lineup or rotation. Arkansas and Tennessee will prove that.

I mean ESPN has us a 6-seed in their early bracketology. 247's national writer just picked us to finish 3rd in the ACC behind Duke and UNC.

The national expectation is that we'll bounce back and be a definite NCAAT team.

Also, your attempt to correlate height with winning is weird and makes no sense. We won the ACC and went to the Final 4 with a 6'5" center and nobody taller than 6'8".

 

[jkdood]

I don’t think we’re going to be anything like that team (Lykes, Wong, and McGusty…), but we are going to be bigger and deeper than we have been in a LONG time.

Lykes had moved on to Arkansas that year, and was not sorely missed, but point taken.

On paper, while recent additions suggest optimism, i don't think this coming season compares with last season's disaster outcome (on paper). Legitmately, if they all stayed healthy (last season) and played their best (especially in March) the sky was the limit. They did nothing of the kind and never meshed well.

Coaches and chemistry have to excel once again, and round of 16 seems a stretch even IF all attributes are maximized, for this new, almost totally different, roster. Coach L and staff have made magic happen before, so I suppose it could happen again, and hope it does. (but) 4th in ACC and round of 16 would be a fully welcome improvement in my book rn.

 

[JayCane20]

I mean ESPN has us a 6-seed in their early bracketology. 247's national writer just picked us to finish 3rd in the ACC behind Duke and UNC.

The national expectation is that we'll bounce back and be a definite NCAAT team.

Also, your attempt to correlate height with winning is weird and makes no sense. We won the ACC and went to the Final 4 with a 6'5" center and nobody taller than 6'8".

Not correlating height with winning.. at least at a full season perspective. Mentioning height and size specifically for these Arkansas and Tennessee matchups where they’re both significantly bigger than we are and more dynamic offensively at the same time.

 

[Canedude08]

You guys complain when the schedule is bad. Now you're complaining when the schedule is good.

This fanbase lives to complain, so I'm not shocked.

 

[Canedude08]

You have absolutely no basis for this. March is a crapshoot.

Exactly, and the teams that tend to do well in March tend to be guard heavy, with the ability to shoot from deep. Miami has one of the better shooters in the country in Pack, a young, hyper athletic guard that should be a factor(Bethea) and some decent size, with the ability to matchup with most teams. The question isn't roster construction, the true question is whether this team comes together, whether all of the toxic nonsense was weeded out. How this team deals with adversity will be something to watch. The Final Four and Elite 8 teams never felt they were out of games, they never fell apart, those teams had mental toughness in spades.

 

[Gables Canes]

Exactly, and the teams that tend to do well in March tend to be guard heavy, with the ability to shoot from deep. Miami has one of the better shooters in the country in Pack, a young, hyper athletic guard that should be a factor(Bethea) and some decent size, with the ability to matchup with most teams. The question isn't roster construction, the true question is whether this team comes together, whether all of the toxic nonsense was weeded out. How this team deals with adversity will be something to watch. The Final Four and Elite 8 teams never felt they were out of games, they never fell apart, those teams had mental toughness in spades.

What’s still so odd about last year is a lot of the guys who flexed their mental toughness during the F4 season and run were totally different last year. Wooga is the best example of this, but even guys like Joseph looked like they mailed it in.

 

[Canedude08]

What’s still so odd about last year is a lot of the guys who flexed their mental toughness during the F4 season and run were totally different last year. Wooga is the best example of this, but even guys like Joseph looked like they mailed it in.

Once they lost Wong and Miller, you saw that a lot of the guys couldn’t do it on their own. They needed a leader and Norchad and Pack couldn’t replicate what had been there before.

 

[AmherstCane]

Lykes had moved on to Arkansas that year, and was not sorely missed, but point taken.

On paper, while recent additions suggest optimism, i don't think this coming season compares with last season's disaster outcome (on paper). Legitmately, if they all stayed healthy (last season) and played their best (especially in March) the sky was the limit. They did nothing of the kind and never meshed well.

Coaches and chemistry have to excel once again, and round of 16 seems a stretch even IF all attributes are maximized, for this new, almost totally different, roster. Coach L and staff have made magic happen before, so I suppose it could happen again, and hope it does. (but) 4th in ACC and round of 16 would be a fully welcome improvement in my book rn.

Haha duh sorry. I meant Moore not Lykes!

The question for this team will be ball handling and penetration. Plenty of shooting and enough size and athleticism if we stay healthy… but can we keep turnovers down and assists up. I think that will tell the story of the season. Also need Bethea or a surprise to have the ability to penetrate and finish.

 

[Gables Canes]

Haha duh sorry. I meant Moore not Lykes!

The question for this team will be ball handling and penetration. Plenty of shooting and enough size and athleticism if we stay healthy… but can we keep turnovers down and assists up. I think that will tell the story of the season. Also need Bethea or a surprise to have the ability to penetrate and finish.

Defense will be the key too. We were absolutely porous defensively last season. How much have we improved on that end remains to be seen. I’m concerned that our starting backcourt is extremely small, and we all know how bad Pack is defensively.

 

[AmherstCane]

Defense will be the key too. We were absolutely porous defensively last season. How much have we improved on that end remains to be seen. I’m concerned that our starting backcourt is extremely small, and we all know how bad Pack is defensively.

I think 3-5 we should be very good defensively. Backcourt is a question for sure… hopefully Pack and Jalen can level up and Bethea can get up to speed quicker than most freshmen.

 

[BWCD]

I think he is referring to Bart Torvik, not Kenpom.

In any case...Kenpom was right about us last year, while everyone here was saying the model was bonkers for not buying into our hype.

And Cal isn't bringing with him his 3 best players from UK. Arkansas will likely not be all that good. Cal has missed the tournament and fielded mediocre teams several times in recent seasons. He's not such a good coach that you should assume he'll have success right away at Arkansas.

The KenPom thing was a joke more than anything since it's June and we're quoting CBB team rankings. You can't really start hanging your hat on off-season KenPom or Bart Torvik rankings...especially with how different our roster is gonna look.

Arky's gonna be better than you're thinking, I believe. Cal always tends to have big positive impacts early on when he arrives somewhere, and he did bring a lot of that UK roster/recruiting class with him (and whatever the knocks on Cal are, it's not recruiting, so those guys are talented), and they're adding Aidoo at C from Tennessee and Johnell Davis from FAU - both really solid pieces. One guy that followed Cal from UK as a recruit is Karter Knox as well and I'd project him to be threatening for PT on the wing.

Cal ain't gonna roll his UK squad from last season out on the floor that blasted us...sure. But he's not gonna have a team of scrubs either. DJ Wagner sure ain't a scrub. Neither are Thiero and Ivisic...the latter wasn't eligible yet when we played otherwise he'd a have probably logged some minutes/stats against us in the blowout last season. UK fans were super high on him.