Consistent Tournament Success

Let's talk about unadulterated results. Simply winning games in the NCAA tournament. That's it. No qualifiers. No situational analysis. Which coach has won more games in the tournament year-in and year-out with their squads? Last 5 years? Last 10 years?

Who'da thunk it? Coach Cal wins. In the last five years, Calipari's got a Runner-Up, a Final Four, two Elite Eights, and a Sweet Sixteen. Looks good moving into the future. His team (every single year) is in a major position to do some damage in the tournament. You can claim that he has put together a roster or two or three that's underperformed to its talent level ... but he still wins more games consistently once he reaches the postseason than any of the other coaches out there. The crazy one in this span is the fact that Coach K is sixth even with last year's championship. He'd be going on a near disastrous run since 2004 if it wasn't for that one. Calhoun is the coach that's the most bi-polar. His rosters are built to compete for championships and then completely fall apart and take a few years to even sniff competing again. The only other thing you need to note is that Bruce Weber blows.

Over a full decade's span, Roy Williams displays his dominance despite a fluke NIT appearance two years ago. Calhoun, K, and Self round out the multi-round winning elite. Calipari drops harshly from first to sixth because of his pre-Rose Memphis seasons. I calculated these by awarding a point for every tourney win and a negative point for every non-tourney appearance and averaging that crap. Technical stuff. The sad thing for this decade span is the Pitino-era in Louisville. He averages simply getting to the second round in any given year. Not very good. And I killed off Brad Stevens for this ranking since he's only coached the last four years. Sean Miller's the only other asterisk guy because he started at Xavier in '05.

Regardless ... I just wanted to add another bullet into your Coach Cal argument pistol moving forward. The championship ring is coming. It has to be. Please.

... and Free Enes.

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The Lost Recruits: 2011

I love the heavy months of high school basketball recruiting. Having John Calipari as your head coach will make you obsessive about that kind of thing. So many kids become the most important thing a UK fan could possibly keep tabs on, only to fade from our entire conscious the second they pick the hat of another program. I wanted to bring back our old temporary dudes to give a perspective on if Coach Cal has been making the perfect recruiting pulls that we assume he's been making as our infallible grand puba. I covered the 2009 class here and the 2010 class here.

All of the given rankings are according to Rivals.

#5 (PF) Quincy Miller - Baylor
Before Anthony Davis burst into everyone's collective attention, Quincy Miller was the guard-like skilled forward who everyone was ogling over. He even crept into being the number one overall prospect at one point on Rivals, all while notoriously sporting UK gear everywhere he seemed to show up for a while. Everyone thought Miller was the third in line to join Michael Gilchrist and Marquis Teague at UK to form potentially the greatest class of all-time. Enter the aforementioned Anthony Davis as well as Kyle Wiltjer. Miller then became the odd big out. The rumblings then turned to the possibility that despite all of his unlimited potential and talent, Miller may be a little ... extra. So instead of completely overloading the talent bus with a questionable character, Cal took the safer Wiltjer commitment and moved on. This lead to a noted "death stare" that Miller gave to Calipari as he walked past him at the UK-UL football game while Miller was on a recruiting visit at Louisville. There was also complications involving Miller's coach Brian Clifton, who originally came into the UK conscious when he openly tried to steer John Wall away from Calipari to Duke. That's a double-fault, sir. You lose. Anyway ... Miller ended up spurning even UL, choosing to pair up with surprise returnee Perry Jones at Baylor next season.

#9 (SF) DeAndre Daniels - Undecided
DeAndre the Second flirted with enrolling early at UK to possibly play midseason last year. Who knows how it would've affected our team, but I would've loved the position that would've put Daniels in going towards his pseudo-sophomore season with the rest of Kentucky's monster class. But either way, DeAndre never enrolled anywhere early and has now moved on from making UK fans sweat to probably choosing between Kansas and Duke. He's a slick, super-athletic wing with a jumper who would've fit perfectly in Cal's system, but we'll see how he does elsewhere. He'll probably be one of the lasting grudges that the Big Blue Nation holds out of this class.

#23 (PF) Chane Behanan - Louisville
Here's the one recruit Pitino managed to snag in the Bluegrass battle from Cal. The local Bowling Green power forward looked like the one in-state talent who was good enough for Calipari to pick up and appease a certain branch of the fan base who want Kentucky boys to so desperately actually hit the floor. Even thought Pitino had made Behanan a major priority, it seemed like Cal was in a great position to do so, adding him to UK's already-established 2011 triumvirate. But then Calipari took a verbal from Kyle Wiltjer. Minutes gone. No one knows for sure if Cal thought Kyle was the better option or if he knew Chane was leaning elsewhere, but it happened. Behanan hasn't been shy with Wayne Blackshear to stoke the future flames of the UK-UL rivalry, so we'll see if they can actually back it up. And four years from now, we'll check back on the impact of Behanan versus Wiltjer to see the direct results of one of the few Player A-or-B recruiting decisions by Calipari.

#30 (PG) Tony Wroten - Washington
As a dominant multi-handle Twitter personality, Wroten tweeted himself onto the UK recruiting scene by teasing fans about his possible impending UK commitment. Fans checked his awesome highlights on YouTube and immediately envisioned a Wall-Bledsoe 2.0 backcourt between point guards Teague and Wroten. But as this drug on, the assumption became that Wroten was a little too loose with his words and attitude and Coach Cal preemptively backed off Wroten despite his friendship via the USA U17 team with Gilchrist and Teague. Wroten eventually chose to stay home at Washington, but not without fanning the UK flame one last time by lamenting to the Twitter universe: “@UKCoachCalipari aye coach. I just wanna know why u stopped recruiting me?” I still expect him to be a major player, but it'll be away from the spotlight in Washington. We'll see if he can stay away from trouble.

#33 (PF) Kadeem Jack - Rutgers
Once it became apparent that Kentucky wasn't going to fill out the extent of its roster for the 2010-2011 season, Calipari took a quick look at Kadeem Jack as a potential addition. After a short flirtation period, Jack spurned spots in Lexington and Chapel Hill to go to a year of prep school. I kind of wish he would've snagged Eloy's spot on the roster, but that unfortunately speaks to how Calipari had genuinely put his hope in Vargas being a contributor. Regardless, Jack reclassified to the 2011 class and picked Rutgers as his destination.

#34 (SG) Trevor Lacey - Undecided
If he doesn't commit to UK, he's immediately the most high-profile, dwelt-on miss since Jai Lucas jump-started the KSR movement. Everyone's wanted Lacey to commit for a full year now. He seems like the single missing piece to a monster recruiting class to make it the single all-time greatest. They would become the first ever legit Fab Five 2.0 with a guy at every position: Teague-Lacey-Gilchrist-Wiltjer-Davis. Lacey is a pure shooter even steps beyond the line (a la Knight and Jodie Meeks). The only reason he's not a unanimous top-15 talent is because he's somewhat limited athletically. If the going assumption is that Knight stays in the draft this summer, Calipari needs to go all-in on snagging Lacey. Since Daniels seems to be a sailed ship, Lacey is easily the top uncommitted talent left in America. One of the possible hang-ups that's been reported is Lacey's potential academic issues that may prevent him from gaining eligibility initially. Here's hoping he gets those straightened out and doesn't sign with Arkansas, Auburn, Kansas, or Connecticut.

#47 (C) Michael Chandler - UCF
Chandler de-committed from Louisville over the summer and it was quickly rumored that UK might take a major look at the big man. He was always considered an academic risk, but that hadn't previously kept Cal from getting recruits he really wanted. Some blame the Eric Bledsoe algebra situation for changing that whole angle. So Kentucky backed off of him and Chandler committed to Xavier before switching his mind quickly and heading to UCF. Chandler was once considered a top-10 prospect for the 2011 class, which originally made him a pivotal cog in UL's class, but has since fallen to the back of a loaded graduated class of big men. Hence the whole Central Florida thing.

#56 (SG) Kevin Ware - UCF
Ware was a Bruce Pearl commit who opened his recruitment back up after the annual backyard barbecue was canceled. I think that's what I read. He floated out UK as a possible destination along with Louisville and UCLA once the media swarmed to him as a newly available 2011 piece. With Lamb staying at Kentucky, the assumption is that Coach Cal never really looked in his direction all that much. Even though we were never serious with Ware, he made UK fans smirk slightly by spurning Louisville to go to Central Florida. Michael Chandler, anyone?

#92 (C) Joseph Uchebo - Undecided
Baru is from John Wall's high school, but we never got around to knowing him like C.J. Leslie because Baru committed non-dramatically to Sidney Lowe at N.C. State. But then Sidney Lowe got fired and Baru says the new coach doesn't like fancy lil' in-state talent and sent him packing. Paraphrasing. So of course Coach Cal sent a quick phone call in the direction of the kid's high school coach. This is a developing scenario.

#122 (SG) Achraf Yacoubou - Villanova
The funny-named shooter was the least known name of the immense talent that came to visit for Coach Cal's inaugural State of the Big Blue Nation speech. Weirdly enough, non-commits Harris, Leslie, and Irving all were in attendance as well ... so I guess it's safe to say that Calipari simply can't seal the deal. While it was an initial disappointment that he committed so quickly to Villanova before we even got to know him, he plummeted (un-)mightily in the rankings across the board after a less-than-stand-out senior year of high school.

Uunranked (PF) Braeden Anderson - Kansas
Anderson committed to DePaul last year and no one cared. Then he de-committed when most all of the other big men prospects were off the board and everyone cared. After seeming like an inevitable UK pick-up for awhile, it came to be known that Calipari never really went after him that hard as anything more than a last option. Hence the eventual Kansas commitment. It may have been much ado about nothing, since he's an undersized big who's not actually that talented. Unranked and all.

It's hard to even fathom wondering about players we didn't get when our class is currently the four-man juggernaut of (#2) Marquis Teague, (#3) Michael Gilchrist, (#6) Anthony Davis, and (#25) Kyle Wiltjer along with transfer (2008 3-Star) Twany Beckham. And we'll probably get one more guy. Anyways ... we'll see what happens.

... and Free Enes.

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One-and-Done Effect on Calipari's Teams

#1 pick, a coach, #1 pick

You probably think the one-and-done thing is a really big deal that is possibly responsible for destroying college basketball.

It's not. But for this post I'll just focus on the slick-haired Italian not named Pitino who's the lightning rod for all things one-and-done.

John Calipari - Memphis (4), Kentucky (4)
(2002, #6 pick) Dajuan Wagner
(2006, #17 pick) Shawne Williams
(2008, #1 pick) Derrick Rose
(2009, #4 pick) Tyreke Evans
(2010, #1/5/18/30 picks) John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, Daniel Orton

So Coach Cal is the evil face of this system, right? He's runs an NBA farming squad that fast forwards guys right into the pros, right? Or maybe his first year at Kentucky was simply an outlier. An anomaly. A crazy happenstance. Calipari coached nine seasons in Memphis and churned out an enormous quantity of ... four freshmen NBAers. He also happened to send one early-entry sophomore and one early-entry junior, Darius Washington and Chris Douglas-Roberts, to the professional ranks. How many pros do you think he had spend a full four seasons in college? None or maybe a single random guy, right? This one-and-done recruiter can't have possibly developed players over the extent of their college careers and put them into a positive position maybe even beyond their natural capabilities, right? Five Memphis seniors under Cal have played in the NBA. Robert Dozier, Joey Dorsey, Rodney Carney, Antonio Burks, and Earl Barron.

And what about Cal's success in post-1&Done seasons? Surely if players leaving too early is such a monumental problem then it would create a noticeable correlation to the following season's detriment. Memphis went from 27-9 NIT Champions with Dajuan Wagner to 23-7 making the NCAA Tournament in 2003. They went from the 33-4 Elite 8 with Shawne Williams to the 33-4 Elite 8 in 2007. They dropped from 38-2 losing the championship game with Derrick Rose to dropping 33-4 in the Sweet 16 in 2009. Calipari left Memphis after Tyreke Evans' single season to start over at UK, remolding a team that went straight to the Elite 8 in 2010.

Then there was the 2011 mass exodus. But I've already covered that enough.

So Calipari hasn't won a championship. If that's your end-all-be-all argument, then you win. If all of Derrick Rose, John Wall, and Demarcus Cousins came back for multiple follow-up seasons, then yes, Calipari probably would've claimed a title by now. But then again, maybe not since proceeding recruits might've looked elsewhere for more prevalent playing time. Then there are always freak injuries, chemistry problems, and situational transfers ... so ... there's no guarantee either way. Calipari has milked pretty much every ounce of blood, sweat, and tears out of his roster every year. I honestly think the only underachievement you can mark him for is his first Kentucky squad not at least making a Final Four. But even with that, you're talking about a team with a brand new coach who's starting three freshmen with a single returning contributor from the previous season. So it's strictly off talent and will that they were a favorite at all.

Bottom-line: There have been two seasons where a one-and-done departure has seriously affected a John Calipari team. 2009 without Derrick Rose and 2011 without Wall, Cousins, Bledsoe, and Orton.

The 2008-2009 Memphis starting five could have hypothetically been Derrick Rose/Tyreke Evans/Antonio Anderson/Robert Dozier/Shawn Taggart ... but is that even a guaranteed championship contender in a year with Hansbrough's Tar Heels stomping the field? The 2010-2011 team would've hypothetically been an all-time juggernaut if any two of the four departures would've stayed ... but then you don't know who stays healthy or if Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones wind up here at all. And we made the Final Four as constituted. Sooo ...

Calipari's career in summary
19 years coaching [8 at UMASS, 9 at Memphis, 2 at UK]
509-152 (77%) record [193-71 (73%) at UMASS, 252-69 (79%) at Memphis, 64-12 (84%) at UK]
13 NCAA Tournaments [5 at UMASS, 6 at Memphis, 2 at UK]
9 Sweet Sixteens [3 at UMASS, 4 at Memphis, 2 at UK]
7 Elite Eights [2 at UMASS, 3 at Memphis, 2 at UK]
3 Final Fours [1 at UMASS, 1 at Memphis, 1 at UK]
1 Championship Game loss [Memphis]

... and Free Enes.

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The Lost Recruits: 2010

I love the heavy months of high school basketball recruiting. Having John Calipari as your head coach will make you obsessive about that kind of thing. So many kids become the most important thing a UK fan could possibly keep tabs on, only to fade from our entire conscious the second they pick the hat of another program. I wanted to bring back our old temporary dudes to give a perspective on if Coach Cal has been making the perfect recruiting pulls that we assume he's been making as our infallible grand puba. I covered the 2009 class here.

All of the given rankings are according to Rivals and all the stats are displayed as points/rebounds/assists blocks-steals with percentages given as (field goal/three-point/free throw)%.

#1 (PG) Josh Selby
NCAA - Kansas (2010-2011): 8/2/2 0-1 with (37/36/76)% at 20 MPG in 26 games
NBA - Declared for 2011 NBA Draft (#44 by Chad Ford)
A number of UK fans grieved once news got out that Selby wouldn't be joining Brandon Knight to create a second straight year of a dual point guard backcourt. Shortly after his Kansas announcement, UK fans took a sigh of relief once it was announced Selby would be suspended by the NCAA for the first nine games of the the season after receiving $4,607.58 in improper benefits by an agent that included clothes, transportation, meals, and lodging. If this would've happened to a UK recruit, it would've been widely assumed that John Calipari directly set up those expenses through that agent. Once Kansas broke past the cupcake part of its non-conference schedule, Selby's production plummeted and he essentially became a non-factor as Tyshawn Taylor's back-up. He did debut on fire, making 8 three-pointers between his first two games, but his stroke quickly wavered and his elite penetration ability never surfaced effectively against collegiate defenses. He also only totaled two games with more than four assists, so his playmaking never settled in to allow him to contribute on the court when his shot wasn't dropping. Selby has already declared his intention to leave for the NBA this summer, despite his expected fall to a late-first round pick.

Bottom-line: Great pass. It was unknown at the time, but Selby was a huge ineligibility risk. It's crazy to say that we should be glad we missed the top 2010 recruit, but we should be glad. He may have flourished given extensive minutes in Kentucky's offense, but he would've taken the ball out of Knight's hands and killed off much of what Knight did to run this ball club. Even if he were swapped out with Knight, our offense would've stagnated and been far more turnover-prone than it already was.

#4 (PG) Kyrie Irving
NCAA - Duke (2010-2011): 18/3/4 1-2 with (53/46/90)% at 28 MPG in 11 games
NBA - Declared for 2011 NBA Draft (#1 by Chad Ford)
Back when Irving spurned Kentucky and Indiana to sign with Duke, he was assumed to be in the second tier of top talent in his class. Brandon Knight was leaning towards UK at the time and was the top 2010 prize in most fans' eyes at the time, so everyone quickly got over the Irving defection. Irving pretty much universally jumped to the top of the heap as a potential world-class playmaker after his commitment. Irving proved everyone right as he was an absolute sensation from the very second he stepped on the court. He scored and got to the line with ease, never forgetting to set up his teammates along the way. The only force that could take the super-frosh down a notch was when a structural foot problem flared up, killing his toe and requiring surgery. There goes the youngster's season. Except he popped right back up at tournament time playing at near-full strength and was able to get to the rim with the exact same ease as before, netting 28 points in his possible final game as an amateur ballplayer.

Bottom-line: Situational toss-up. The problem here is the word "structural." I give the hypothetically-healthy Irving the "best freshman in the world" award, hands down. In that case, he's a huge miss for Calipari who's made his living on securing those guys. But if we travel down the road of what-ifs ... what if Irving selects UK and Knight decides he doesn't want to play off-ball, heading up to Connecticut or down to Florida? Kentucky breaks out of the gates in monstrous fashion to secure a top-5 early season ranking, but Irving's inevitable foot problem shows up less than a month in. We're sunk the rest of the season with an inadequate point-guard-by-committee line-up since we have no clear back-up. That's a disaster. If his toe was bound to be a problem, it's a miracle we passed on him. Amazing player and, by all accounts, a great kid, but we couldn't have survived signing him and not Knight.

#7 (PF) Tobias Harris
NCAA - Tennessee (2010-2011): 15/7/1 1-1 with (46/30/75)% at 29 MPG in 34 games
NBA - Declared for 2011 NBA Draft (#29 by Chad Ford)
Harris dropped Kentucky and Syracuse for Tennessee before his future Vol teammates were caught with a gun and other inappropriate things to have in a car you're driving, but stuck faithfully to his commitment. The kid was obviously a big Bruce Pearl guy and is now set to head to the NBA since Pearl got the boot from TN. Harris was one of UK fans' original big men to fawn over (along with Terrence Jones and C.J. Leslie) before he instantly became hated for picking our SEC rival. He kept a much lower profile than we're accustomed to seeing from Tennessee players off the court. And while he was highly ignored in the grand scheme of things with UK's freshman stealing all the SEC attention for the second straight year, he might've been the second-best frosh after Brandon Knight in the conference.

Bottom-line: Miss. I think Harris would've been a more consistent force in UK's system than what Jones turned into late. He was lost amidst a disorganized and troubled Tennessee squad all season, yet still managed to be one of their few bright spots as the team's second-leading scorer and rebounder. He's a hard worker who would've fit in seamlessly with any squad he chose to commit to. Plus, if he had come to UK then he might've been the type of guy who'd be more inclined to stay longer than just his freshman season. At worst, fans would've thrown less things at their TVs than Jones caused in the second half of the season.

#11 (SG) Will Barton
NCAA - Memphis (2010-2011): 12/5/3 1-2 with (43/27/70)% at 31 MPG in 35 games
NCAA - Will return to Memphis for 2011-2012
Numerous sites reported Barton as Calipari's first 2010 commitment before he'd ever even coach a game wearing a UK blue tie. Fans were relieved because we have a penchant for stressing about stuff years before it even affects us. Then Barton signed right away ... with Memphis. A year later as he was finally getting out of high school, the NCAA declared him academically ineligible. But then they cleared him before the season started. That minor crisis was averted and he took his top-10 talent and played great all year, forcing his way into the starting line-up after only a few games. His only misstep along the way was guaranteeing a championship for the Tigers in the preseason.

Bottom-line: Toss-up. It depends on what you value out of the off-guard position as to whether you'd prefer Barton or Lamb with UK's 2010-2011 squad. Barton is much more dynamic and a freak athlete, but Lamb shot nearly twice Barton's percentage from deep. Both seem set to come back for their sophomore seasons, so you can't even weigh that into the long-term debate. Do you want the benefit of the potential superstar-type slasher or the long-range stud role player who accidentally drops seven 3s one night? Though Barton was an eligibility risk at one point, he would've been a great plug-in addition to our squad.

#14 (PF) C.J. Leslie
NCAA - NC State (2010-2011): 11/7/1 1-1 with (43/25/54) at 25 MPG in 30 games
NBA - Expected to enter 2011 NBA Draft (#37 by Chad Ford)
Most UK fans assumed that John Wall's high school teammate was a shoe-in to follow his foot steps to Lexington. Little did they know that Wall helped talk Calipari off recruiting Leslie. While a number of writers questioned Cal for "losing" Leslie to N.C. State, it's pretty obvious that Cal was actually the one doing the spurning. On the basketball side of things, Leslie has limitless athletic potential and a natural NBA-type body, but his skill set itself is much less defined. He had quite a few solid scoring games this year, but was wildly inconsistent with nine games of 5 or less points. He was also suspended on the eve of his squad getting blown-out by Duke for an unspecified violation of team rules.

Bottom-line: Great pass. On the court, Leslie would've been a downgrade across the board from Terrence Jones (16/9/2 2-1). Off the court, he would've brought character issues to a team who pretty much succeeded solely on the basis of team chemistry. UK detractors would've had a field day with Leslie, but he's gone essentially unnoticed in the less-than-bright lights of N.C. State.

#16 (C) Fab Melo
NCAA - Syracuse (2010-2011): 2/2/0 1-0 with (61/0/36)% at 10 MPG in 33 games
NCAA - Expected to return to Syracuse for 2011-2012
Melo eliminated Kentucky when he cut his list down to his final four schools. It was always an outside shot of getting in close with him, but Calipari and his staff were found at quite a few of his games. He's a mammoth of a center who was pegged for U of L for quite awhile, though Jim Boeheim ended up pulling him for Syracuse. Now that I think about it, once getting a Melo commitment wouldn't result in spiting Rick Pitino, maybe Calipari simply lost interest and let Boeheim keep him. Melo also did little for the majority of the season to show his potential as a legitimate post presence, failing to even put up Daniel Orton numbers off the Orange's bench in his freshman season. He was also suspended toward the end of the regular season for missing practice.

Bottom-line: Irrelevant. Though Cal switched up his offense to allow Cousins to flourish last year, Melo isn't half as talented as Demarcus and probably would've been a rough squeeze into the dibble-drive motion offense. While he may have had a major opportunity in the wake of Enes' ineligibility and Harrellson's graduation, it seems as if UK didn't miss out on too much by not snatching Melo. He would've been a tremendous upgrade over Eloy Vargas, though, and is a player that people still believe could be an NBA prospect.

If you can think of any other 2010 guys, let me know. Even though we missed out playing the big guy, Cal's seven-man class of (#3) Enes Kanter, (#6) Brandon Knight, (#13) Terrence Jones, (#21) Doron Lamb, (#33) Stacey Poole, (#26 in 2008) Eloy Vargas, and (not ranked) Jarrod Polson proved to not be too shabby. None of the other guys I just discussed are getting sized for their Final Four rings this year. Next time I'll tackle the upcoming class of 2011 ... even though we can't even begin to evaluate them yet. Ha. Oh well.

... and Free Enes.

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The Lost Recruits: 2009

I love the heavy months of high school basketball recruiting. Having John Calipari as your head coach will make you obsessive about that kind of thing. So many kids become the most important thing a UK fan could possibly keep tabs on, only to fade from our entire conscious the second they pick the hat of another program. I wanted to bring back our old temporary dudes to give a perspective on if Coach Cal has been making the perfect recruiting pulls that we assume he's been making as our infallible grand puba.

All of the given rankings are according to Rivals and all the stats are displayed as points/rebounds/assists blocks-steals with percentages given as (field goal/three-point/free throw)%.

#8 (SG) Xavier Henry
NCAA - Kansas (2009-2010): 13/4/2 0-2 with (46/42/78)% at 28 MPG in 36 games
NBA - Grizzlies (2010-2011): 6/1/1 0-0 with (44/22/70)% at 21 MPG in 16 starts
In a year where Coach Cal seemed to be picking his recruits straight off the factory line, Xavier was the single one who actually got away. Which is kind of weird because he already had his commitment to start off. X and Demarcus Cousins were the flagship guys that Cal already had signed to play for him at the University of Memphis, marking his first dual superstar class to one-up his Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans recruitments. Once Calipari took the Kentucky job, Henry immediately de-committed from Memphis and proceeded to have one of the most confusingly indecisive recruitments ever. On any given day, Henry was reported to have committed to Kansas or to have switched his verbal to Kentucky or to have been told by either of his parents to attend opposite schools. This went full circle through the media rounds two separate occasions before he finally suited up for the Jayhawks, drawing the ire of UK fans who minutes before were pleading for him. He tore our heart strings out twice and was probably amongst the most hated humans out there last season for the Wildcat faithful. Before we quickly forgot that he existed, of course. After an early bounce from the NCAA tournament, Xavier proceeded to bolt from KU right for the league (as was always expected) and was selected 12th by the Memphis Grizzlies. His NBA career started out with a rough PR patch when he held out from signing his rookie contract for a significant amount of time over the small wiggle percentage that NBA teams are allowed to finagle under the rookie scale. His play on the court was never an issue, but prima dona claims have followed him due to weirdness of his recruiting journey and certain statements he's let slip publicly.

Bottom-line: Miss. Henry possibly could have been the missing piece to a championship season last year as he would have been an immense upgrade over Darnell Dodson and redefined the team as the probable starting shooting guard, relegating Eric Bledsoe to a 6th man role. As an outsider, though, he could have created chemistry problems due to not connecting early with "The Three Amigos" of freshmen John Wall, Cousins, and Bledsoe.

#11 (SG) Lance Stephenson
NCAA - Cincinnati (2009-2010): 12/5/3 0-1 with (44/22/66)% at 28 MPG in 34 games
NBA - Pacers (2010-2011): 3/2/1 0-0 with (33/0/79)% at 10 MPG in 12 games
Lance had his fair share of image issues in high school that left him as the last beauty pageant contestant on the runway. Before Cincinnati accepted him an entire month after the last day of the late signing period, not a single flagship program was willing to take a chance on Stephenson's elite talent after Kansas, St. John's, Maryland, and Arizona all severed ties after he floated them as his "finalists." He was an ineligibility risk at one time due to his involvement in a documentary following his high school basketball exploits. Beyond that, his personal reputation was sullied to begin with due to being suspended as a high school senior for fighting with a teammate as well as facing a misdemeanor sexual assault charge in the same year. Before his first season as a Pacer even started, he was arrest for third degree assault in an incident involving his girlfriend. Lance was always slated as a probable one-and-done guy and he upheld that by bolting for the NBA right away, being selected in the second round by the Indiana Pacers with the 40th pick. Just months earlier he told reporters: "I don't think I have had an NBA season this year so the best choice is for me to stay."

Bottom-line: Great pass. It's undeniably a good thing we skipped giving "Born Ready" a chance. His rap sheet reads as every problem people thought Demarcus Cousins would be. Great talent, but an eligibility risk and would have caused chemistry problems for the single season he would have spent at UK. He also was a mediocre long-range shooter and would have required the ball to be taken out of John Wall's hands.

#19 (SF) Royce White
NCAA - Minnesota (2009-2010): did not play, left team
NCAA - Iowa State (2010-2011): did not play, sat out due to transfer
Royce was originally a Tubby commit who never suited up for Minny due to a mall arrest because of shoplifting and misdemeanor assault on a security guard. This was followed up with him being mentioned in the case of a stolen laptop from a dorm. White left the team after the hard stance Minnesota took with him, though he claimed to know nothing about the laptop. All of this has temporarily stymied the basketball career of a McDonald's All-American who was renowned as a monster rebounder who can score from anywhere on the floor as a combo forward. White originally vowed that he was quitting basketball altogether because of the way he was treated at Minnesota, but Coach Cal highly considered adding him to UK's 2010 class once he reneged and started looking for a school to transfer to. In later interviews, White said that he felt Iowa State was a better fit than Kentucky even though Calipari offered him a scholarship. However, it's contrastingly been reported that Kentucky pulled back on its pursuit of White before he committed to the Cyclones.

Bottom-line: To be determined. White could have been an invaluable frontline addition to create a legitimate big man trio with Terrence Jones and Josh Harrellson in 2010-2011, but his ability has yet to be shown against collegiate competition and his possible character issues could have plagued the team through media scrutiny. Once he hits the court and stays out of trouble, we'll see if we actually missed out on a ball player.

#58 (SG) Nolan Dennis
NCAA - Baylor (2009-2010): 2/1/1 0-0 (44/29/50)% at 8 MPG in 25 games
NCAA - Baylor (2010-2011): 2/1/0 0-1 (41/23/50)% at 8 MPG in 15 games
Dennis was supposed to be great slasher with a solid shooting stroke coming into the collegiate ranks. Calipari obviously agreed by making Dennis part of his broken-up Memphis class (along with Cousins, Henry, Darnell Dodson, and Will Coleman). Everyone out of that class except for Coleman bounced to another team, with Dennis heading to Baylor. He's barely made a ripple of an impact since, only hitting his career high of 10 points in two separate games and not even stepping on the floor for a large percentage of the games beyond that. There's always room for him to carve out his role as an upperclassman, but he simply hasn't shown his talent as of yet.

Bottom-line: Irrelevant. Maybe Baylor's just the wrong system for Dennis and he could've made a bigger impact under Calipari, but the evidence is that he's just not that good yet. He probably would've never seen rotation minutes at the off-guard position over Bledsoe/Miller/Liggins in his freshman season, nor Liggins/Lamb/Miller this season. He might've been an all-world bench cheerer a la Stacey Poole, though.

If you can think of any other 2009 guys, let me know. I don't expect there were many more since Cal had to completely gut his inaugural UK roster just to fit in the six newcomers of (#1) John Wall, (#2) Demarcus Cousins, (#22) Daniel Orton, (#23) Eric Bledsoe, (#40) Jon Hood, and (#130 in 2007) Darnell Dodson. Next time I'll tackle the super-messy class of 2010 ... where Cal pretty much swung for everybody in the top 15.

... and Free Enes.

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Analyzing UK's 2011 Schedule

So everybody and their mom can look at the end-of-season records/rankings of any team and interpret whatever they want from that. But I want to go a lil' deeper. I want to go back through our season and genuinely analyze our worthwhile games. There needs to be a more significant perspective put upon the ups-and-downs of the full season that you don't get from simply looking back on the internet schedule. For instance, who knew back on the fateful day of December 8th that UK demolished a newly-ranked squad on a "neutral" floor that would go on to tear up the rest of their schedule and be in contention for a number one seed at the end of the year? When our schedule dropped in the summer, absolutely no one had the non-Harangody's pegged for our signature win of the season, but it actually turns out to be so in retrospect.

I'm gonna give you the full range of all of Kentucky's significant victories as well of all their losses and rate them accordingly. I want to save us from the snap judgements that have rendered our match-up against North Carolina as a must-see clash of titans turned into a miserable foretelling loss turned into a strongly competitive road miss against an immensely talented squad. We need perspective people! Note: this only analyzes our scheduled regular season games.

Big wins:
Nov. 23 - Washington by 7
#11 when we played them
#17 Preseason
#11 Peak Ranking in week 3
#23 End of season, #7 seed in NCAA, second round loss
Bottom Line: Good Neutral Court Win (+2)

Dec. 8 - Notre Dame by 14
#23 when we played them
Unranked Preseason
#4 Peak Ranking in week 18
#6 End of season, #2 seed in NCAA, second round loss
Bottom Line: Terrific Neutral Court Win (+3)

Dec. 31 - Louisville by 15
#20 when we played them
Unranked (with votes) Preseason
#11 Peak Ranking in week 17, 19
#11 End of season, #4 seed in NCAA, first round loss
Bottom Line: Terrific Road Win (+3)

Jan. 29 - Georgia by 6
Unranked when we played them
Unranked (with votes) Preseason
Peak Ranking with votes in weeks 10, 11, 12
Unranked End of season, #10 seed in NCAA, first round loss
Bottom Line: Okay Home Win (+1)

Feb. 8 - Tennessee by 12
Unranked when we played them
#20 Preseason
#7 Peak Ranking in week 6
Unranked End of season, #9 seed in NCAA, first round loss
Bottom Line: Good Home Win (+2)

Feb. 15 - Mississippi St. by 6
Unranked when we played them
Unranked (with votes) Preseason
Never Ranked but with votes in weeks 2, 3, 4
Unranked End of season, no tournament
Bottom Line: Okay Home Win (+1)

Feb. 26 - Florida by 8
#13 when we played them
#11 Preseason
#10 Peak Ranking in week 2
#13 End of season, #2 seed in NCAA, Elite Eight loss
Bottom Line: Terrific Home Win (+3)

Mar. 1 - Vanderbilt by 2
#20 when we played them
Unranked Preseason
#18 Peak Ranking in weeks 15, 16
#21 End of season, #5 seed in NCAA, first round loss
Bottom Line: Good Home Win (+2)

Mar. 6 - Tennessee by 6
Unranked when we played them
#20 Preseason
#7 Peak Ranking in week 6
End of season, #9 seed in NCAA, first round loss
Bottom Line: Okay Road Win (+1)

Losses:
Nov. 24 - Connecticut by 17
Unranked when we played them
Unranked Preseason
#4 Peak Ranking in weeks 6, 7, 8
#8 End of season, #3 seed in NCAA, Final Four team
Bottom Line: Okay Neutral Court Loss (-2)

Dec. 4 - North Carolina by 2
Unranked when we played them
#9 Preseason
#7 Peak Ranking in week 18, 19
#7 End of season, #2 seed in NCAA, Elite Eight loss
Bottom Line: Good Road Loss (-1)

Jan. 8 - Georgia by 7
Unranked when we played them
Unranked (with votes) Preseason
Never Ranked but with votes in weeks 10, 11, 12
Unranked End of season, #10 seed in NCAA, first round loss
Bottom Line: Okay Road Loss (-2)

Jan. 18 - Alabama by 2
Unranked when we played them
Unranked Preseason
Never Ranked but with votes in weeks 14, 17, 18
Unranked End of season, #1 seed in NIT
Bottom Line: Okay Road Loss (-2)

Feb. 1 - Mississippi by 2
Unranked when we played them
Unranked Preseason
Never Ranked
Unranked End of season, #5 seed in NIT
Bottom Line: Terrible Road Loss (-3)

Feb. 5 - Florida by 2
#23 when we played them
#11 Preseason
#10 Peak Ranking in week 2
#13 End of season, #2 seed in NIT, Elite Eight loss
Bottom Line: Good Road Loss (-1)

Feb. 12 - Vanderbilt by 4
#24 when we played them
Unranked Preseason
#18 Peak Ranking in weeks 15, 16
#21 End of season, #5 seed in NCAA, first round loss
Bottom Line: Good Road Loss (-1)

Feb. 23 - Arkansas by 1
Unranked when we played them
Unranked Preseason
Never Ranked
Unranked End of season, no tournament
Bottom Line: Terrible Road Loss (-3)

So by my arbitrary mathematics, we came out +3 on our collective of 17 games that mattered in retrospect. This deems our additional 9 games (all wins) against East Tennessee State, Portland, Oklahoma, Boston University, Indiana, Mississippi Valley State, Winthrop, Coppin State, Pennsylvania, and LSU as irrelevant place holders. The closest of any of those contests was a 12-point victory over Oklahoma in our opening Maui Invitational game. If we hadn't have lost to Arkansas and Mississippi then they would've been reviewed as irrelevant games, as well.

So here's the easier review of our surprisingly legit regular season schedule that reframes our assumed meh 22-8 record into the #7 RPI ranking at season's end, significantly higher than our ESPN or AP poll slots at any given point of the year.

Preseason: games against 9, 11 (twice), 17, 20 (twice)
Only four of our opponents were ranked in the top 25 (North Carolina, Florida, Washington, and Tennessee) to start the season. Three teams (Georgia, Louisville, and Mississippi State) sat on the ranking outskirts with scattered votes. We went 4-2 in games against the anticipated top 25. That extends to 7-3 if you include the teams receiving votes.

End of Season: games against 6, 7, 8, 11, 13 (twice), 21 (twice), 23
See any kind of difference? We wound up playing nine games against seven opponents that finished in the top 25 (Notre Dame, North Carolina, Connecticut, Louisville, Florida, Vanderbilt, and Washington). We went 5-4 against these end-of-season elite and while that's a mile from great, anything over .500 against the top squads in the nation is nothing to overlook.

Peak Breakdown:
0-1 against UCONN who peaked at #4
1-0 against Notre Dame who peaked at #4
0-1 against North Carolina who peaked at #7
2-0 against Tennessee who peaked at #7
1-1 against Florida who peaked at #10
1-0 against Louisville who peaked at #11
1-0 against Washington who peaked at #11
1-1 against Vanderbilt who peaked at #18
4-3 against teams who were at one point in the top 10
7-4 against teams who were at one point in the top 18
9-5 against teams who at one point received top 25 votes

Now here's where we see the bigger deal and get a much better perspective than that given by UK's 2010-2011 schedule printout that only credits us with 5 snapshot wins against ranked opponents all outside of the top 10 and has us losing to the dually unranked-at-the-time UCONN Huskies and North Carolina Tarheels.

Bottom Line: we played a surprisingly blistering schedule this season and came away from it looking pretty sweet if you can possibly convince yourself to overlook the gutter road losses we endured to Mississippi and Arkansas. Looking at it this in-depth, maybe we were far better prepared for the deep tourney run we find ourselves in than even any of us Big Blue Faithful gave our boys credit for.

... and Free Enes.

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The Maui Invitational

Us being all dejected ... (AP Photo/Eugene Tanner)

Terrence Jones
Game 1: 29/13/3, (12-17 FGs, 0-2 3PT, 5-9 FTs), 2 steals, 4 blocks in 35 minutes
Game 2: 16/17/2, (4-13 FGs, 0-2 3PT, 8-14 FTs), 1 steal, 4 blocks, 4 fouls in 36 minutes
Game 3: 24/4/1, (6-11 FGs, 4-4 3PT, 8-9 FTs), 2 steals, 2 blocks, 4 fouls in 27 minutes
You know what TJ got most hyped about in his Game 1 performance? Taking the ball off a rebound and sprinting with it across the entire court and throwing a no-looker to catch Josh Harrellson perfectly in stride for a lay-up. You couldn't erase that ensuing grin if your life depended on it. Terrence got the most buzz of anyone not named Kemba Walker in this tourney and even got the Chad Ford nod in his potential to be the top pick in the NBA draft. Crazy stuff. But it's undeniably justified when you see how thoroughly Jones seems to be able to do any and everything he wants to on the floor. Besides not get whistled for fouls. His tournament-concluding night of 4-for-4 three-pointers was nearly mind-boggling. He’s the heart and soul of our team right now.
Outlook: If it weren't for foul trouble, Jones' trip would have been flawless. While all of the calls against him weren't deserved, he has to get used to it and avoid the situations anyways. He’s averaging 21/10/2 on 50% shooting from the field … so why don’t we just go out on a limb and put the lofty expectations on him of maintaining that? Just to push meaningless what-ifs on you a little more: if Terrence made all of his free throw attempts so far, he’d be averaging 25.4 points a night in these opening 5 games. The kid’s slated as Kevin Garnett’s heir at that point.

Brandon Knight
Game 1: 13/2/3, (4-15 FGs, 2-8 3PT, 3-5 FTs), 5 TOs in 35 minutes
Game 2: 24/4/0, (10-17 FGs, 1-6 3PT, 3-6 FTs), 1 steal, 8 TOs, 4 fouls in 28 minutes
Game 3: 6/2/5, (3-15 FGs, 0-8 3PT, 0-1 FTs), 1 steal, 5 TOs in 38 minutes
He had the worst shooting night of his young career in the opening game and followed it by his worst ball-handling game in the semis. And then he followed it by an even worse shooting night. Not the greatest of vacations for our resident superstar point guard ... in fact, it was egregiously painful for the most part. He finished 3 of 22 three-pointers and averaged 6 turnovers a game compared to 2.7 assists. If it wasn't for his 24-point outing showing off his strong floor game against a strong Washington team, this would have been an unsalvageable trip for the guy.
Outlook: His shooting stroke was off and at times he almost looked selfish. He has to hone his confidence while understanding that he's not going to get the benefit of the doubt in throwing his body around recklessly in big games. He simply needs to keep his eyes open for kick-outs. I in no way think these rough games are a sampling of things to come for Knight. He's too intelligent on the floor for that.

DeAndre Liggins
Game 1: 12/5/4, (5-9 FGs, 2-4 3PT, 0-2 FTs), 3 steals in 35 minutes
Game 2: 7/4/2, (2-7 FGs, 3-6 FTs), 3 steals, 1 block in 26 minutes
Game 3: 8/3/1, (3-10 FGs, 0-2 3PT, 2-3 FTs), 1 steal, 4 TOs in 38 minutes
The stats aren't quite all the way there for Dre, but everyone watching the game knows he's been high impact every minute. And because of that, we’ll forgive him for not being able to shut down Kemba Walker while Walker was doing his best Michael Jordan impression. Most of DeAndre’s focus has been on the defensive end where he’s proven productive against such scorers as Jared Stohl and Isaiah Thomas, but his offensive output hasn’t registered with the same vigor. He’s only averaging 9 points per game in the early going.
Outlook: With Dre’s driving and shooting ability, he needs to up himself to around 13 or 14 points a night. His body’s big enough to where he should be a free throw shooting machine, but he’s only averaging 3.6 attempts per game. That could easily be doubled with how well he gets to the rim and absorbs contact. Since Dre is already the ultimate intangibles guy, there’s no need to harp on his peripheral stats. He’s going to give his all by being unselfish, hitting the boards, and digging in on defense no matter what the numbers tell you.

Doron Lamb
Game 1: 12/3/2, (4-8 FGs, 2-3 3PT, 2-4 FTs), 1 steal in 30 minutes
Game 2: 6/1/1, (2-10 FGs, 0-2 3PT, 2-2 FTs), 1 block, 4 fouls in 28 minutes
Game 3: 5/0/0, (2-5 FGs, 1-2 3PT, 0-0 FTs), 2 TOs in 14 minutes
After the Oklahoma win, Lamb was riding the waves of a magical early freshman run. After the pressure defense imposed by Washington’s guards, Lamb was brought back down to earth with exposed growing pains. Whether it was simply getting the ball ripped from him or being drawn into a charge, Doron couldn’t manage to handle the ball and get the team into its offensive sets. But what he could do, minus his awful Washington showing, is shoot the ball. He’s 9-of-16 so far on the year. That’s killer.
Outlook: His ball-handling woes have to be cured. The Washington game tape will be a how-to training video for all future opponents on how to guard Doron and try to entice him into turnovers. If that can be tightened, then the focus can turn back to how sharp and lethal his shooting stroke has looked. There’s no reason he can’t average 12 points off the bench with a 3-pointer (or five) nightly.

Darius Miller
Game 1: 5/5/0, (2-5 FGs, 1-3 3PT), 1 steal, 4 fouls in 26 minutes
Game 2: 8/3/1, (2-5 FGs, 1-2 3PT, 3-4 FTs), 1 steal, 1 block, 4 fouls in 24 minutes
Game 3: 15/4/2, (6-14 FGs, 2-5 3PT, 1-3 FTs) in 29 minutes
Darius has mysteriously looked lost since he made his way into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. If it weren’t for his more focused effort in the UCONN loss, fans would’ve probably wholly given up on Miller as major force. We thought he got caught in the headlights of last year’s freshmen and their collective shiny hype, but Darius has unfortunately seemed to take a firm backseat to this year’s group again.
Outlook: I like him taking around 15 shots a game far more than I like him watching the ball from the wing and accidentally throwing up 5 afterthoughts. Miller being offensively aggressive will make Brandon Knight’s job a whole lot easier going forward. If opposing defenses are taking note of Darius as a three-point threat (making a good 4-of-10 in the tourney), Knight will find himself with a lot more space on both his pick-and-rolls and simple drives. If Darius can focus on forcing himself to stay involved by creating his own shot opportunities, the rest of his game with naturally follow and he’ll be the do-everything 15/6/4/2/1 guy that we so desperately want him to be. And know he can be.

Josh Harrellson
Game 1: 2/3/0, (1-3 FGs), 4 fouls in 20 minutes
Game 2: 9/14/1, (4-6 FGs, 1-2 3PT), 1 steal, 2 blocks in 34 minutes.
Game 3: 0/6/0, (0-1 FGs), 1 steal, 2 blocks in 25 minutes
Game 2 was the best effort of Josh's career. Between the timely three-pointer, the gorgeous alley to TJ's -oop, and the 14 boards, we had ourselves an impact player. He didn't even get in foul trouble! But as soon as we thought he got himself into the swing of things, he comes up with a donut in Game 3 with only 6 meager boards to show for it.
Outlook: We simply need more of the Harrellson we got against Washington. I don’t care if he scores double digits for the entire season, but he just can’t be a guy who’s afraid to take shots, finish put-backs, or secure rebounds. He needs to nestle in around a 7-point, 7.5-board average and prove himself valuable enough to stay on the floor for over 25 minutes a game. The occasional surprise three-pointer will be awesome, too.

Eloy Vargas
Game 1: 2/4/1, (1-1 FGs) in 16 minutes
Game 2: 4/1/0, (1-1 FGs, 2-2 FTs) in 6 minutes
Game 3: 6/6/0, (1-2 FGs, 4-4 FTs), 1 steal, 2 blocks in 19 minutes
He's still incredibly irrelevant for the most part, but Vargas bookended Game 2 with a fantastic tip slam and two clutch free throw swishes. I'll take it. I’ll also take the confidence Vargas showed in calling his own number by backing down and taking a strong hook shot in Game 3. Those opportunities will be few and far between though if he’s not able to get stronger and give Coach Cal a reason to believe that he can hold his own and not be sent sprawling to the floor by any random opponent regardless of size.
Outlook: He has to simply be competent as Josh’s back-up since it looks like Coach is staying away from the small ball line-up for now. His offensive opportunities will continue to be few and far between, but his 5-of-7 field goal shooting and 6-of-6 free throw shooting for the season so far is definitely encouraging. He doesn’t quite look like he’s all the way there to be any more than a 3-board, 1-block a night contributor, but there’s always room for him to surprise us in a stretch run against the right team.

Jon Hood
Game 1: 1/2/0, (1-2 FTs) in 3 minutes
Game 2: 0/1/0, (0-3 FGs, 0-2 3PT), 1 steal in 9 minutes
Game 3: 3/3/0, (1-2 FGs, 1-1 3PT) in 9 minutes
He shows no confidence when he’s on the floor. He just looks like he’s fiending to get a shot up as quick as possible to prove his worth, even though making a jumper or two won’t be anywhere close enough of a reason to keep him out there in the wing rotation anyways.
Outlook: Jon doesn’t look like he’s taken the leap yet to be an NCAA contributor. The only way he sees the floor this season is with further significant foul trouble or an injury and a half to the rotation wings.

Stacey Poole
Game 1: DNP
Game 2: 0/0/0, (0-2 FGs, 0-1 3PT) in 8 minutes
Game 3: 0/0/0, (0-0 FGs) in 1 minute
Stacey only got into the action in Game 2 due to some unforeseen wing foul trouble, and he immediately attempted to jack up shots to make up for lost time. And he missed.
Outlook: He didn’t make anything of his Game 2 opportunity to close the first half. So we’ll just keep him in the non-factor folder until further notice.

Jarrod Polson
Game 1: DNP
Game 2: 0/0/0, (0-0 FGs) in 1 minute
Game 3: DNP
Outlook: None whatsoever.

... and Free Enes.

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UK-Portland 11/19/10

We started out 15-0 in a matter of minutes. That's all you really need to know about this game, but I'll go a little more in depth. We're gonna be giant killers this year.

Top Players:
1. Brandon Knight: 21 points (7-13 FGs, 2-5 3Pt, 5-5 FTs), 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks. Who cares if he didn't rack up Wall-like dime numbers? Knight is a scorer and will be against any player he opposes this season. I can't wait until he faces another top tier point guard and proves this point to everyone for good. His jumper is beautiful. Just plain gorgeous. And he's a fantastic layer-upper, too ... which real basketball fans understand. He plays all the angles perfect and seems to know exactly what he needs to accomplish with the basketball 95% of the time. People are discounting this kid's athleticism just because they don't think he'd match Wall's numbers at a football combine, but this Knight is a sneaky freak athlete in his own respect. I'd almost mark him down today as an All-American at the end of the season. As I said last time, his production's only going to go up from here.

2. Darius Miller: 15 points (6-7 FGs, 3-4 3PT), 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals, 4 blocks. Darius owned this game from the tip. He almost broke the stat sheet by getting close to an old Andrei Kirilenko/Shawn Marion 5x5. Add in the fact he only missed one of his seven shots, including three triples ... sickness. Nothing else to say besides that this is a perfect Miller game if there is one. Gave the team any and everything that they needed.

3. Doron Lamb: 13 points (4-5 FGs, 3-4 3PT, 2-2 FTs), 3 rebounds, 1 assist. In my opinion, our NY-representer didn't make a single mistake while he was on the floor. He filled in great once again as our spot-minutes secondary point guard and even better as our designated sharp shooter. Where he was taking his shots from in the exhibition games had fans scared that he wasn't the long ball shooter that everyone hyped him up to be, but Lamb made a statement against Portland, making threes look like lay-ups. He showed great restrain in picking his spots (that's how you wind up with 13 points on 5 shot attempts) and definitely didn't look like a freshman out there. Lamb can definitely be an X-factor all season as our resident "Microwave" off the bench if he proves his understanding of the game is already as developed as it's looked in the early going.

4. Terrence Jones: 12 points (5-14 FGs, 0-2 3PT, 2-5 FTs), 5 rebounds, 3 assist, 2 blocks. He made the first basket of the game and then struggled mightily after that. Foul trouble and an errant jumper plagued him, but he came back pretty nice in the second half to put up some highlights on both sides of the ball. He threw down a sick pump faking blow-by jam along the baseline, showcasing his bread and butter in being able to create unguardable mismatch situations on the floor at any given moment. TJ took the same kinds of shots that netted him 28 against ETSU, so you can't fault him in that department. He's just gotta make em from here on out against better opponents. Look for him to do exactly that. As a final note, his penchant for on-man shot blocking has been a notable surprise for me. Very few non-7-foot freaks can pull that off consistently.

5. DeAndre Liggins: 6 points (1-4 FGs, 0-1 3PT, 4-4 FTs), 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal. Our resident Kobe-stopper wasn't any kind of aggressive in taking shots himself tonight ... prolly cuz he was 100% intent on destroying All-NCAA shooter Jared Stohl into missing 7 of his 9 shots. Owned. Dre really is the do-anything, unselfish-to-a-fault glue guy who fits into Coach's on-court philosophy brilliantly. All he needs to do is smack his teammates around a little more to get him some shots on nights where he's rendering the other team's best player useless.

6. Josh Harrellson: 6 points (3-4 FGs), 12 rebounds. After a foul prone start to the season, Jorts came into Oregon and fulfilled everyone's hopes for his best case scenario in production on a game-by-game basis. He grabbed every single board that he could have, he didn't turn the ball over, and he actually was aggressive on his limited touches and put back opportunities. We don't need Harrellson to be Enes Kanter and score any amount of points consistently. We just need him to be a big body on the floor that the other team actually recognizes as a big body. Here's hoping that the rest of Josh's senior year brings a lot more of these kinds of games.

... and Free Enes.

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The Enes Kanter Crap

Photo by Lexington Herald-Leader's Mark Cornelison

Barring a shocking appeal overturn on the grounds of "logic" and "human feeling", Enes Kanter will be permanently ineligible to play any form of NCAA basketball. That sucks. For us and him. Here's why ...

For Us
No matter what you're hearing from fringe reactant stories by certain writers, Enes would be the best player in college basketball this season. He is a workhorse like few you've ever seen at his age, most likely due to his priming in the Turkish junior leagues practically since he hit puberty. He's chiseled out of granite in the form of an NBA All-Star at the age of 18 since he spends countless hours voluntarily weightlifting beyond the normal basketballer's regiment. Juggling the randomness of the NCAA allowing and then not allowing him to practice with the team on a daily basis, Kanter has become best friends with the ball-return machine. I once witnessed knock in 20-foot jumper after 20-foot jumper while yelling across the court at Brandon Knight's assigned rebounder, jokingly insulting him the entire time. He's a complete goofball who has more fun with his mildly broken English than anyone has a right to. It's a shame that he's been mostly kept under wraps from the media by the athletics association due to the ongoing eligibility concerns; by now he would even more of a national celebrity and UK advocate by way of his hilarious irrelevant commentary on all things in life.

And none of this even speaks to how he makes the full-team practices a joke. In case you thought Kanter's 34-point/13-rebound domination in at the Nike Hoop Summit (mostly against Terrence Jones) was a fluke ... it wasn't. Kanter scores at will in every way imaginable, pushing Harrellson, Vargas, and Jones into a constant game where it's a braggable badge of honor whenever someone's able to score on him. Kanter breaks up every alley-oop, pins every driving lay-up on the backboard, and makes attempts at post-up scoring irrelevant. In fact, the only thing Kanter hasn't seemed to master yet is the art of not goaltending. He seems dumbfounded every time he's reminded that you ... um ... can't do that in America.

Here's the bottom line: if Kanter (being a hair in front of Jared Sullinger as the most dominant post presence in college basketball) were available in this Wildcat line-up, we'd be a top-4 team all year and a feared championship contender by April's end. It sucks that we have to now play small ball for 70% of the game now and have to simply try and make it work instead of playing small ball for 10% of the game when Enes takes a breather to go and lift some weights. We would even more-so be the national headline-dominating squad of the year, seamlessly transitioning from the Wall/Cousins era and perfectly priming the public for the unimaginable Gilchrist/Teague/Davis era of next season. But now we're going to have to settle for being a top-15 squad who relies a little too heavily on massive amounts of 3-pointers and prays that the opposition doesn't dump it down in the post too often. We're still in for a highly entertaining year with some great personalities on a team that seems to genuinely enjoy playing with each other, but with Enes in the fold ... it would have been legendary.

For Him
He's a good kid. No matter how slimy you think Coach Cal's recruiting tactics are, no insinuated amount of improper benefits could compare to what Kanter could have made simply by staying home and playing overseas on a real contract for two or three years until he wanted to make NBA money. Instead, Kanter came to America for the hope of playing as an amateur and being part of the amazing college basketball system we have. Instead of being the completely unknown and uncared-about Andrea Bargnani pick, Kanter wanted to be the locally relevant and massively popular Shaquille O'Neal of the 2011 NBA Draft.

Here's the random facts of his case: Kanter never signed a professional contract with Fenerbahce, he played as a barely-used reserve with some professionals for 9 games two years ago, he left that club to play a year of high school prep ball in America in hopes to play basketball in the NCAA, and his parents are rich. He didn't need any extra amount of money, much less $33,033. If he was really looking for a quick cash in, he would've stayed in Europe for millions and not wasted his time playing in an American high school. And this is even furthered by the fact that $20,000 was said to be used on educational expenses and the remaining $13,033 is sitting unused in the bank. The Kanters have offered to pay it all back and anything else the NCAA wants them to. What is the principle under all this? Yes, Kanter was "paid" but Kanter was not bought by some high-reaching sports agent hoping to sway all future 15-year-olds to sign under the table with their agency and sponsored shoe contracts to make millions off children. It's not like that. This crap was an innocent mistake that the Kanters didn't know would jeopardize their son's future basketball plans. It's not about the money. No one can disagree with that at this point.

For the NCAA
So what's it about? Is it about standing by the dry ink printed on a million-page document hoping to keep morals in check at the collegiate level? What morals were shattered by Kanter? Enes is an 18-year-old kid who's made his life and all its happenings completely transparent for the mythical NCAA people to judge him by. His parents received money in excess of what the NCAA deemed necessary and that's why he's not allowed to play. But they are willing to pay it all back because they don't need it and never did need it. Enes wants to play college basketball after doing no more than being an afterthought on a foreign team where he happened to mingle with Turkish professionals for 9 games. What about this seems subversive and ill-intentioned? What is the wrong-doing in this very specific case of Enes Kanter? He's offered to do every single thing the NCAA potentially would ask him to do to achieve eligibility, including willingly being suspended x amount of games with no questions asked. He just wants to be able to spend time practicing and traveling with these other 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds that he's become close with and wants a chance to contribute to and be a part of Kentucky basketball lore.

He's a human being. So I really hope human beings consider his case and make a final ruling with this impending appeal. And that's all I'll have to say about that.

... and Free Enes.

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UK-East Tennessee State 11/12/10

UKAA swirly green dots picture

We made 13 of 26 three-point attempts. What?!?! Hence the 88-65 final score thing we had going for us. Imagine if we hadn't have shot 9 of 23 free throws ... why does Coach still not make any of his guys practice freebies, again?

Top Players:
1. Terrence Jones: 25 points (10-19 FGs, 2-3 3PT, 3-10 FTs), 12 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 steals, 2 blocks. How do you miss that many free throws? Oh well. Jonesy put on what was probably up there with the best first game of any UK frosh ever. Especially considering that he could've notched a big 30 if he's just made 5 of those 7 missed freebies. When he wasn't busy getting fouled, he was knocking down threes, finishing off alley-oops, driving past his man to the bucket, and swishing midrange pull-ups that you simply never see college ballplayers even attempt. He looked every bit the tempo-pushing, mismatch-creating enforcer on opening night that most people expected to finally see from him around February. If we get this kind of effort from Terrence on a nightly basis, maybe the 2010-2011 season will be remembered for who was actually on the roster as opposed to the big Turkish-accented elephant in the room who wasn't.

2. Doron Lamb: 20 points (7-10 FGs, 3-5 3PT, 3-5 FTs), 5 rebounds, 3 assists. We all knew TJ had that kind of potential in him, but Lamb was the real opening night eye-opener. He only hit 70% of his shots, including three triples, and filled in valiantly in his first duty as falling down the position ladder as the resident back-up point guard when Knight takes a breather. My favorite shot was his late-game 18-foot pull-up jumper. Nobody does that in college basketball (as previously noted a paragraph up). Doron can get a little lazy with his handle, but when he's going full force he's bound to cross his opposition something hard. Be sure and double-knot those laces. He nearly dropped an ETSU guy who had tracked him down on a fast break runout, but instead settled for leaving him stapled to the floor and scoring on an uncontested lay-in. If we can get high-teen to twenty-point nights on a regular basis from our resident New Yorker, we've got a potential monster on our hands between all these stellar wing scorers.

3. Brandon Knight: 17 points (6-13 FGs, 4-7 3Pt, 1-4 FTs), 4 rebounds, 5 assists. In what easily could have been Knight's statement opener, our resident point guard sensation relinquished ball-dominating duties to the hot hand. Knight spent all of his time effortlessly setting the tone early by dropping jumper after jumper, and pretty much just handed over the keys after that. He could've gone for 30 and easily gotten it like he did pretty much every single game in high school, but Knight is taking the Cal-induced facilitator thing seriously. If he can be this efficient while trying to develop and understand his role on the squad, imagine how deadly he'll be once he figures everything out. I promise you that this is going to be considered quite tame in comparison with future college games by Knight.

4. DeAndre Liggins: 14 points (5-10 FGs, 2-4 3PT, 2-3 FTs), 3 rebounds, 6 assists. Dre was perfect for all intensive purposes. He tried to get his long-range stroke going a little late in the game, and if it wasn't for those jacks then he might've gone 100% on the floor. He got to the rim at will and showed off his superb vision and team-oriented nature in donating out a team-high 6 dimes. He was aggressive without ever forcing the issue, only attempting 10 shots, but look for that number to creep up and he figures out that he's mistakenly one of the last Wildcats that opposing defenses will be specifically be paying attention to. This game was a great sign of things to come from the new statistically adept DeAndre. Last year he fell into the category of impact players with no actual discernible box score contribution. Not now. Look for this man to be the Tayshaun Prince/Andrei Kirilenko-type stat filler as the team's most aggressive wing defender.

5. Darius Miller: 8 points (3-9 FGs, 2-5 3PT), 10 rebounds, 1 assists, 1 steal, 1 block. While he looked a little timid on offense (which I only hate because that was the egregiously regurgitated story line on the dude), but the truth is that UK really didn't need Darius to assert himself this game. All you really need to know is that he put in 2 threes and got double-digit rebounds. That'll definitely be the Miller stat to keep track of this season as he's our pseudo power forward. The guy needs to pull boards. Pat barely even did that with any consistency his junior year (only 11 double-digit rebounding games).

... and Free Enes.

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Best/Worst/Probable Case for UK 2012 Roster

Signing day was yesterday for all the high school seniors who wanted to ink themselves to their basketball school, which of course has the most impact for UK fans as we're the rabidly drooling rankings perusers ever since Cal didn't walked through that one door we watched live feed of. So here's my personal opinion on the different scenarios that will form our roster for our predestined 2012 national championship.

Best Case: NBA LOCKOUT!!! I hate the notion as a pro fan, but UK fans want to personally go to David Stern and talk ish to ensure that he takes his wrath out on the Players Association. In this case, our only roster departure would be our resident senior, Josh Harrellson. Enes, Brandon, and Terrence would have no choice but to remain as the greatest sophomore class of all time and not take their talents straight to the lottery (as they'll pretty much be guaranteed to be drafted in, otherwise). Darius and DeAndre, who'll both have the NBA itch due to their breakout 2010-2011 campaigns, won't even have to send out draft feelers and put their names in for consideration. All the incoming freshmen will simply have to accept and make the most of their unexpected secondary roles since ... well, they've already signed in blood on their letters of intent. Besides, this would be the single most talented team in college basketball history. Ever.

C: Enes Kanter/Anthony Davis/Eloy Vargas
F: Darius Miller/Terrence Jones/Kyle Wiltjer
F: DeAndre Liggins/Michael Gilchrist/Jon Hood
G: Brandon Knight/Doron Lamb/Stacey Poole
G: Marquis Teague/Jarrod Polson

Calipari would have quite a job on his hands to define the roles and playing times for all the eligible ballers on this squad. There are literally ten starting-caliber players on this roster, so he gets to divvy up the new and experienced guys in whatever fashion he deems best. My guess is that the main starting line-up shake-up is Knight sliding to the 2-guard to take advantage of his scoring prowess and Teague's pass-first mentality. It would be the ultimate Wall/Bledsoe version 2.0 combo, though I would venture to say this incarnation would be more lethal due to Knight's consistent shooting stroke over Bledsoe's streaky one.

The front court would be where all the tough choices would lie. It would be hard to bench the two seniors in Miller and Liggins, especially considering their expected stellar production along with them earning their stripes in every way imaginable. So in this case I see the 4-wing/1-big combo being used at its finest. Terrence would have to take a slight back seat after being a freshman starter, but the promise of him being the leader of the second team should still hold appeal. His skill-set sure isn't going anywhere, so neither is his draft stock even if he comes off the bench. At this point, Cal can throw out any combo of skill sets that he wants. Defense? Kanter and Davis become the longest and most feared shot-blocking tandem since Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo. Shooting? Kanter and Wiltjer can pick and pop with the best, even extended to the three-point line. Small ball? Jones and Miller have the versatility to handle the ball with ease as well as the size to give nothing up to opposing big men. The best part about it all is that Eloy Vargas wouldn't be relied on to produce in any greater capacity than Perry Stevenson in 2009-2010. And that induces a sigh of relief.

The fact that Liggins and Gilchrist are interchangeable parts at this point is about the greatest situation you could ever have at the small forward position. Maybe Cal wants Dre's defensive intensity to head the back-up attack and Mike even gets the start on most nights. It wouldn't matter because they're both going to see monstrous amounts of floor time and have an impact every second. Perimeter shooting would never be a problem ever when you have the likes of Knight, Miller, Liggins, and Lamb still around in addition to Kanter, Jones, and Wiltjer being able to step out. This squad could literally put eight guys in the first round of the 2012 NBA Draft. As long as they won a championship, not a single fan in the world should be disappointed in those decision. But maybe one or two of either Gilchrist, Teague, or Davis would want to stay that extra year to jump from the 25th pick to a top-5 guy the next draft. You never know at that point. Every kid who dons the UK jersey doesn't have the same mind state as Daniel Orton, ya know?

Bottom line ... this squad should and would run the table. I don't see how anyone could disagree at that point. High quality senior leadership? Two full #1 recruiting classes? Two elite, interchangeable point guards? Easily the best big in the nation? Over two-and-a-half deep at every single position? Perfection.

This is all assuming Kanter gets cleared to play college ball at all, of course. Sorry to pull you back into reality for a second ...

Worst Case: The crazy thing is that the starting line-up for our absolute worst case is still absolutely sick. That's the kind of thing you get when you net three of the top six freshmen basketball studs in the nation. But I'll focus on why we lose on everybody at this point ...

Enes, whether or not he's cleared to play a single game, is a top-3 draft pick next year. Most likely he's going to in the consensus 1-2 combo with Harrison Barnes a la Oden/Durant a few years back. It's that simple ... he's gone. Next is Terrence Jones who has far too much potential to not be capable of immediately making the jump. He really is a Lamar Odom clone; and with how well LO is killing it this season, teams will no doubt put a premium on that kind of contributor. He's got by pick #7. Next up is Brandon Knight. There's a reason why he used to be the best ranked player in his class across the board. The kid will put up monster scoring numbers, probably be the SEC player of the year, and on one of the All-American teams. Avery Bradley put up mediocre numbers as Texas' lead freshman guard and went #19 in the 2010 draft. Knight is picked by #15 in 2011.

Now for the unexpected departures. Miller and Liggins will both test the waters and will thoroughly enjoy what they hear. Both guys will be told that they're mid-first round picks due to their NBA size, skill sets, and winning mentalities displayed in UK's surprising 2011 season. Both will play the Jodie Meeks undecided game and finally choose to stay in the draft last-minute. Liggins goes #24 off the strength of his individual workouts, still farther back than he was initially told, and Miller slips to the #36 in the second round, having to fight his way into earning a guaranteed contract. But the fact remains ... the NBA stole five of our guys for the second straight year!!!

C: Anthony Davis/Eloy Vargas
F: Kyle Wiltjer/Trans. or Freshman
F: Michael Gilchrist/Jon Hood/Stacey Poole
G: Doron Lamb/Trevor Lacey
G: Marquis Teague/Jarrod Polson/Trans. or Freshman

Even with our roster being overturned on its second straight binge-and-purge, the remaining guys are still contender quality in the same way as Michigan State's Fab-5 was right off the bat. Gilchrist and Teague already have proven their unselfish chemistry on the U17 Olympic team this last summer together. Neither is your traditional high school blue chipper. Gilchrist didn't notch 50-point games, he wowed the scouts with his warrior-mentality of doing every single thing necessary to win, showing off his skill set and basketball IQ across the board. He's already got a pro's mentality to the game, he didn't have to show off and shoot 40 shots a game to prove to the recruiting gurus that he was a top-ranked guy. Teague also has lesser stats than other elite league guards of the last few years, but his outrageous yo-yo handling combined with his speed and pass-first mentality has him in the position as the best point guard coming out of high school, anyway. Davis is a guy who's going to come out as an elite shot blocker immediately and be a match-up nightmare who can fit in with whoever he's put out on the floor with. Wiltjer is simply a bonus at that point who switches up the looks from the bench as a more prominent shooter than low-post guy. With this roster-gutting, though, Coach Cal will have to work his magic to pull at least shooter Trevor Lacey and one or two more recruits we haven't heard of yet. We can't be going into the 2011-2012 season expecting to even hold a complete practice with 9 guys.

Even if Doron Lamb goes off this year, he's definitely not a sneak-in NBA guard in the mold of Eric Bledsoe. People question if Lamb can even dunk or not. Ha. So he'll be back as ... *gulp* ... the most experienced leader on the floor. But it will definitely be a pain with having to put 85% of our hopes on freshman production. The '10 team had Patterson, Miller, and Liggins as prominent experienced contributors while '11 had Miller, Liggins, and Harrellson in that same role. I sure don't wanna put all that weight on Lamb, Hood, and Poole. We'd still be insanely fun to watch and a threat to win any game we play, but the lack of depth will hurt us in the long run. I love our freshies, but for them to be required to put up transcendent numbers every single game is a stretch. Wall had a couple minor struggles while Cousins and Bledsoe had quite a few major struggles. So unless Anthony Davis is Greg Oden, Mike Gilchrist is Carmelo Anthony, and Marquis Teague is John Wall, we simply can't put up a transcendent sub-3-loss season like everybody's going to be wanting out of this squad.

Bottom line ... we're a sneaky Elite 8 team fighting the odds all season since we're too incredibly thin at all positions. A single injury would be crushing, and you definitely don't want to be sitting on a roster where you stress out every single drive and rebound over a sprained ankle.

Probable Case: The NBA isn't gonna lockout, so we'll meet somewhere in the middle. Enes, Knight, and Jones will all be beckoned away. But Miller and Liggins will stay after testing the draft waters and throw their names in as a 4-year UK legends. This slates our top three freshmen as starters to go with them and Doron Lamb as our bonafide scoring 6th man. We still need to get Trevor Lacey to have any level of depth at all and probably one additional big man recruit or transfer. We definitely still have title hopes with the talent on this squad, but we'll need Jon Hood to turn the corner as a legitimate college player and for Eloy to be able to pull down boards in spot minutes during his senior campaign. But simply noted, we will still have the most feared starting line-up in the NCAA with talent bulging out the seams.

C: Anthony Davis/Eloy Vargas
F: Darius Miller/Kyle Wiltjer
F: DeAndre Liggins/Jon Hood/Stacey Poole
G: Michael Gilchrist/Doron Lamb/Trevor Lacey
G: Marquis Teague/Jarrod Polson

Bottom line ... we're a definite Final Four team. We probably stay top-3 in the rankings for the entire season and are the favorites at tourney time. It's that simple.

... and Free Enes.

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Lakers: 8-0 Perfection

The Lakers are winning basketball games. That's all you really need to know.

Win vs. Rockets by 2
Win @ Suns by 8
Win vs. Warriors by 24
Win vs. Grizzlies by 19
Win @ Kings by 12
Win vs. Raptors by 5
Win vs. Blazers by 25
Win vs. Timberwolves by 5

So half their wins were by double-digits and three of them were last-minute competitions. What's good about that is the fact that every significant contributor on the roster besides Bynum is healthy and we've been able to see the situational line-ups for the squad.

For the last 6 minutes against the Rockets: Blake/Brown/Bryant/Odom/Gasol.
For the last 6 minutes against the Raptors: Fisher/Brown/Bryant/Odom/Gasol.
For the last 6 minutes against the Wolves: Fisher/Bryant/Artest/Odom/Gasol.

I think it's pretty much all mind games for PJ at this point. He knows he can't hurt Derek Fisher's psyche, so he gave Blake the ultimate confidence boost by putting him in a position to make a big play at the end of his very first Laker game ... which he perfectly did by sealing the game with a three off a Kobe kick-out. And then Phil knows he has complete mental dominance over Ron-Ron, so he's not afraid to play the hot hand and stroke Shannon Brown's ego when he's having a productive night. Not many people thought Brown would be logging heavy minutes with the Blake and Barnes additions, but he's proven to be far too valuable to ride the pine in the early going.

And it's only up from here. When Bynum gets in game shape, the NBA collectively goes on big-man-potential watch. He's strickly a role whenever he's hobbled by a knee injury, but he's still got the skill set, size, and intelligence to be an All-Star center. I still believe it, at least. Regardless, he'll instantly bring the team defense up a significant notch with his interior rotations and intimidating shot-blocking presence. Pau and him haven't seen many days where their offensive games clicked perfectly on the same night, but as long as the two of them add up to around 1.5, the Lakers are sitting pretty. Lamar seems more focused than at any point in his entire career, so a soft 6th man demotion should do none to deter his stellar production so far this year. It's crazy how those World Championship games seemed to prime him perfectly in a strange pre-training camp way to get him in amazing shape with a clear mind. His minutes won't even see a real drop with Bynum back since Ratliff/Caracter's collective floor time and a little bit of Matt Barnes' clock will make up the difference.

I got a great feeling about this team. Screw all the pre-season commentators trying to make Kobe's knee and age the non-LeBron headline as a reason why the Lakers weren't going to be able to three-peat. Maybe the stats simply don't compute as pretty for the squad with a top-two shooting guard of all-time, the best post player in the world, the most versatile 6'10" big ever seen, three of the grittiest perimeter defenders in NBA today, and a flurry of outside threats and veteran leaders that are collectively headed by the greatest coach in any professional sport ... ever. Maybe. But who cares? Does the computer get sad when it gets its calcumatated numbers wrong (just go with me on that one word)? The answer to that question is "no." Unless they wire those kinds of computers to have emotions now. Which is entirely possible with John Hollinger and Kevin Arnovitz' conniving asses. I don't even know. But even if that reference is rendered completely superfluous, the Lakers are a band of killers. No Brandon Flowers. Get ready for #17.

Team Highlights:
Scoring - 1st in the league at 112.1 points per game
Rebounding - 4th in the league at 46.1 rebounds per game
Assists - 4th in the league at 24 assists per game
Points Allowed - 11th in the league at 99.6 points given up per game

Individual highlights:
Kobe Bryant
Averages: 24.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1 steal
Best Game: 30/10/12 triple-double with 3 threes against Sacramento
Pau Gasol
Averages: 23.4 points on 55.1% shooting, 10.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.5 blocks
Best Game: 20/14/10 triple-double on 9-13 shooting with 3 steals against Portland
Lamar Odom
Averages: 15.8 points on 62.1% shooting, 10.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.3 3PM on 66.7% shooting
Best Game: 18/17/5 double-double on 8-12 shooting with a steal against Phoenix
Ron Artest
Averages: 10.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals
Best Game: 17/1/4 on 7-11 shooting with 3 threes and 2 steals against Sacramento
Derek Fisher
Averages: 8.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.38 steals, 1.0 3PM on 57.1% shooting
Best Game: 14/1/3 on 5-6 shooting with a three against Golden State
Steve Blake
Averages: 6.9 points, 1.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.8 3PM on 50% shooting
Best Game: 14/1/2 on 4-6 three-point shooting against Toronto
Matt Barnes
Averages: 9.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists
Best Game: 16/14/2 double-double with a block and steal against Memphis
Shannon Brown
Averages: 9 points, 1.6 rebounds, .9 assists, 1.13 steals, 1.5 3PM on 50% shooting
Best Game: 16/1/1 on 6-9 shooting with 4 threes and 4 steals against Houston

... and Free Enes.

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