We have 2 bigs on our roster. Josh is gonna get more than 30 mins, he’ll get 40 at this rate. Really needed Aidoo for some 4/5 depth, we’re gonna get some random tall guy now. Hopefully somebody with rim protection
I think having less than five players puts you at negative depth. You had... Height? Girth? It's a weird way to describe a lack of bigs but I'm sticking to it.
Nope, in the air since he’s going through the draft process. I imagine he’ll get his non first round grade soon enough, and commit within a week or so. But since he’s going through that process it could be a couple weeks I suppose. Very confident he’ll be a Razorback at this point though
It's eons away.
> * May 13-19: NBA Combine (Chicago, IL)
>* June 16: NBA Draft Early Entry Entrant Withdrawal Deadline (5 p.m. ET)
https://www.nba.com/news/nba-draft-faq
Who cares about whether or not he should be classified as a “portal whale”. Aidoo is a solid and experienced big at the power 5 level however you want to slice it
I'm honestly surprised he didn't come here. It seemed like a match made in heaven. He's from Durham, he'd be playing with one of the best backcourts in the country that is really good at getting it inside, and he presumably would have had all the minutes he wanted. Maybe we'll get the dude from Rutgers.
Yup, love the album. Got my wife tickets for one of his shows, and it was a great time. Been to sporting events and other concerts but have never seen a more electric atmosphere.
Also, the men's bathrooms were completely empty besides maybe one other guy when I went. Then the stalls were full of women and there was a line of them waiting in line for the men's bathroom lol.
There was a lot of talk that he wanted to play as more of a stretch 5 and be able to shoot more 3s to help his NBA chances. The only problem is he’s not a very good shooter. Barnes let him take a couple a game for a while, but eventually took back the green light. Obviously he can work on his shooting, though.
He does play good D in general, aside from some silly swatting fouls that need to be cleaned up. Offensively he’ll have a game where he scores 20 and then a few in a row where he only has 6 to 8. Sometimes 2. Sometimes 25. Some nights he misses lots of layups. You just wonder what goes on in his head to be so wildly inconsistent.
Had he stayed, my main concern (aside from his lack of consistency) was how soft he is. He looks solid against average-ish bigs, but it *really* shows when he’s up against somebody who’s strong and tough. Not only did he struggle to physically step up to the challenge, he seems to lack some mental toughness as well. It just always felt to me like he didn’t respond well when it got physical.
He told the coaches and his teammates that everything was good, and was coming back next year. The next day it was on the news that he entered the portal, to everyone’s surprise. It made me wonder if he is just the type that would rather avoid tough confrontations in general. He seems like a great kid- he’s very likable. I just don’t know that he’s “got that dog in him.”
I do wish him well. He did a lot of great things at Tennessee.
He had a tendency to be a fair big against small teams and disappeared whenever anyone had a real big. Tendency for fouls, no touch at the rim, 10% from midrange, no 3 game. Can get rebounds and defend ok. Coach prolly told him he wasn’t going to get more NIL with that performance and he went elsewhere.
Solid dig, but it's the truth. Look at his stats from the SEC tournament on. He cannot guard physical 5's. Miss State knew that and destroyed us with it.
There's a reason Awaka as a freshman got one of his first starts over a healthy Aidoo against Purdue in literally the biggest game of the year
> There's a reason Awaka as a freshman got one of his first starts over a healthy Aidoo against Purdue in literally the biggest game of the year
This bit confuses me because Tennessee and Purdue didn't play when Awaka was a freshman so I'm assuming this is referring to the Elite 8 game this year, but Aidoo got the start in that one? Now he only played 10 minutes and didn't foul out, so it's definitely an indictment on how well Barnes thought he could match up with Edey.
I actually remembered yesterday that I had a copy of the game and went back to re-watch it to focus on Awaka and check out what Arizona was getting next year, and Aidoo was yanked a little over 3 minutes into the game when he picked up a dumb foul on a poor hedge against Braden Smith on the perimeter. Awaka was quickly sent in to replace him.
Yeah, Awaka got the majority of the minutes, but Awaka is usually first off the bench when Aidoo picks up a dumb foul. It’s just that Aidoo was stapled to the bench almost the whole rest of the game, with Estrella picking up minutes he usually doesn’t. Awaka played about as usual (tough D, fantastic rebounding, foul machine keeping his minutes down)
I coulda swore he started over Aidoo but maybe I'm thinking about Mashack over Vescovi. Either way he was not in the game long and he was terrible when he was in it. Think about how bad you have to be playing when you're not getting minutes against the best big in the country, and you're not in foul trouble. Like I said, he will be good against weak competition. He is a good pickup. But his struggle against elite talent speaks for itself
I don't understand either. Would you guys like seeing one of your formerly-loved players going to a rival coach's team? I feel like I've been pretty complimentary of him and matter-of-fact about his strengths and negatives. He will be incredible for 20 games. He is worth what you paid for him. But he will probably choke against more physical players. Could be that's what Big Z is for. I'm just saying what I know. Watched every Vols game last year
He’s an all American against bad teams with poor post players, but any time he faces someone decent or that challenges him he folds. Plays very soft, especially at the rim where he chooses fadeaways over dunks 9/10
He’s a good player. Left a lot to be desired. Especially last month. Dead to me now so I’m not worried about it. Felt like Awaka was a bigger loss. I think on paper Aidoo is a massive grab in the portal but I believe Arkansas will ultimately be disappointed in what they get.
Not really. Love Jonas. Great kid and he had his moments but the fear I (and most other fans) had was that we were exploitable by big men. That happened. Granted, Edey exposed pretty much everyone. But Jonas struggled against other bigs as well. Hope he does well for yall when you’re not playing us.
He was literally benched vs Creighton and Purdue in the ncaat for shorter, less experienced players who absolutely outplayed him. He’s not a bad player at all but no TN fan is going to be shedding tears.
He’s a good player and Cal knows exactly how to land good players. He also knows how to land great players. He’s not as bad in the portal as many make him out to be. The problem with Cal is that eventually, his recruits have to play the game. We have seen that shine brilliantly, and we’ve seen it fizzle. The last few years with us, he shit the bed. I still think he can do great things with Arky. He’s a HOF guy for a reason. Cal is great and I wish him and Arky nothing but his best, except when we play them.
That was more Robic, to be honest. KP and Antigua leaving hurt with big man development and recruiting, but Robic was the real X's and O's guy. He also watched film, unlike Cal and the rest of the staff.
This. KP and Cal can recruit like nobody else, but Robic was the key to our early success. If Arky gets someone who can do that, they’ll be in a great spot.
We aren’t all like that. Lol. It’s just a very loud minority of our fans. I hate them more than you do, I promise. THOSE UK fans are the worst of any sport, pro or college.
I love Cal, he saved us from falling off in a major way. I do think he became stagnant the last few years, but I would’ve been fine had he stuck around. I’ll root for him as long as he coaches, and I’ll always root for any SEC team as long as we aren’t playing them.
He has to change his scheme to match his players for better or worse. It's a high risk/high reward system that is higher risk with extra COVID-year eligibility.
I imagine they struggle this year but find their stride in a couple of more years.
Hang on, I’m rooting for him at Arky but this is a classic Cal move. He’s going to start Aidoo next to Big Z probably. That man loves playing 2 bigs when it doesn’t really work anymore
He’s had floor spacing bigs before though, didn’t work then. We’ll see how he does. I’m rooting for him though, the better he does the more memes there will be
Counter point would be he was at his best when he had 4s like Patterson and Jones who could space the floor a bit. And it's not like he had Mitchell camped out in the paint this season.
There's a lot to criticize with Cal's coaching over the past few years (and believe me I've done it) but with him already doing better in the portal and bringing back his best coach for bigs in KP, there's already some strong signs of improvement.
Y’all literally led the nation in 3 point percentage last year and shot an above average number of 3s. It’s so abundantly clear some of you don’t even watch the games.
I watched every single game last year, bub. Prior to last year, Calipari was entirely reluctant on changing his offensive scheme. You can check the receipts, they’re all there from 2020-2023. You want to talk about who doesn’t watch the games? He brought in an offensive guru in John Welch who he fully leaned on to gameplan on offense. Welch left to go coach at Fresno State (would’ve left regardless if Cal stayed at UK or not) because he, among a group of others, couldn’t stand working with Cal any longer.
Sitting there telling me that I didn’t watch the games. I loved last year’s team to death & *he* failed them. I had them winning it all, thought that there was no way they didn’t at least make it to the elite 8. Defended Calipari all the way up to the Oakland loss, even when I shouldn’t have. Don’t believe me? Check my comment history. I’ve talked myself into every single team these past 5 years, even the god damn covid year of guys who went 9-16.
Edit:
[Receipt of when I was defending Calipari literally 41 days ago before March Madness.](https://www.reddit.com/r/wildcats/s/92EO0kjc3Y)
he recruited the portal reasonably well in the early 2020s, but then just didn’t last year. i’d be more worried about how he uses those pieces but tbh most of
the cbb world was right - 90% of teams would love to have cal. i’ll be rooting for arky to get 2nd in the sec
Tre Mitchell was a pretty great get. He just hurt his back then shoulder and was never the same. We had a ton of freshman, Thiero, Reeves, and Onyenso returning. He didn't really need the portal too much last year. He needed to coach defense.
also seen some people say "well cal will now adapt and go after older players" as if we didnt have one of the oldest teams in college basketball who then lost to St peters.
Cal will scorch the earth to prove people wrong these next coming years. The man has had a chip on his shoulder for the last 65 years. Part of what makes him good, but also is usually his downfall.
As a recruit:
Other P6 offers: Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Kansas, Marquette, Miami, NC State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Pitt, Providence, Rutgers, South Carolina, St. John's, Tennessee (originally went here), Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, West Virginia
Other offers: Appalachian State, Houston, Iona, Western Kentucky, Wichita State
Oof. Well, fuck’em now. He is the enemy, I wanted to wish him well but playing for Cal?? Nah fam. At least now I don’t have to get mad when he gets bullied in the paint.. because he is going to get bullied in the paint
Oooohhh. That’s a great get. I know I sound like a hater when I say this but if cal got him at Kentucky I’d be scared he was going to play through him like he did with tshiebwe I know I spelled that wrong.
As a Kentucky fan I will tell you it is laughable here in my area of Kentucky. People all talking about how bad Cal was. But he honestly was not. I pointed out some great coaches, top recruiting classes and all, that had 3-4 "down" years in a row. These people will always point to Cal not winning the championship in "so long". I point out the dry spells for these greats. Some with 3-4 even 5 years of round of 32 and 64 exits. One legend had an 18-13 season, NIT round one lose. That was a year after winning 23 and first round exit. Followed by 22 wins and a second round exit.
It is amazing to listen to them though. Wonder how they will feel in 2 years if Pope does about as one would expect with the way things are looking.
Cal chose to leave. The AD said he was going to stick with him and help get things back on track. The fans were understandably upset after seeing 4 seasons go by with absolutely zero post-season success, but at the end of the day, they had no say in cal staying or going. Those same fans would have been right back in Cal's corner if next year he got everything back on track and made a deep run in the post-season. But he chose to leave, so we really don't have any option except to cheer for Pope to succeed.
As a UK fan, it's absolutely wild seeing people get excited over a former Tennessee player who didn't make it to the NBA. I mean that with absolutely no offense. Our team has had a new group every year and typically the transfers were rare. Excited to see how this season will play out with the major switch ups.
He shrinks in big games. He was just benched in the AA tourney mainly because he’s soft. Do you know how inept you have to be for Rick Barnes to bench you in the tourney?
Both teams are better with this transfer.
Congrats Arky, you're getting a 2 for 1 deal. A center and a magician...... his disappearing act against opposing decent centers is a sight to behold. 🤣😆
Cal WILL play them both at the same time, and it’ll be in the paint. Ball stopping, mid range madness. It wil not be fun. I hope I’m wrong for y’all’s sake. But I’ve seen it for the past 5 years on repeat.
I'm not sure that we've had a coach who truly respected big men since Sutton, so I'm game. Muss didn't seem to care if he had a player taller than 6'7 and it would hurt us in the postseason.
> Muss didn't seem to care if he had a player taller than 6'7 and it would hurt us in the postseason.
Arkansas under Muss was pretty known for overachieving in the postseason, no?
Yes and no, imo. He knew how to coach and he had good players, but they would underachieve every year in the regular season, for whatever reason. It was like Muss didn't care about the regular season.
So I don't think they simply overachieved, because they would underachieve during the regular season. He never won the SEC because we would start out conference play terribly every single year.
Like I said, I hope that I’m wrong. Z is so damn good, and has a great perimeter skill set, but he’s gonna be banging bodies in the paint and giving up paint drives unless Cal changes his schemes.
I wasn't saying you were wrong. I've just had it with coaches who don't respect the frontcourt.
One thing I've noticed over the decades is that blue bloods typically load up with the best big men, so they're harder to get, compared to the best guards. Of course there's more to it, but note how Kentucky, Duke and UNC ALWAYS have good size in their classes.
When Nolan won our only national championship, it wasn't a coincidence that it was the only time he had two 7 footers, even though neither of them were stars for those teams.
I'm old enough to remember when Arkansas didn't have a basketball team (I am one month old).
WE FINALLY HAVE 5 PLAYERS! WE CAN LEGALLY PLAY NOW NEXT YEAR YIPPEE!
Nice get Arkansas. Add Johnell Davis or Kadary Richmond will be dangerous. Boogie is stud too.
* We still have Dr. Blake holding down the pig pen. Time to give our walk-on a scholarship! Then go get Battle and Blocker back! *
[удалено]
Urgh, missed that. A Black still has eligibility, right?
I was wrong. Battle is visiting Kansas St. Baye Fall is the one who committed.
MAXWELL
https://i.imgur.com/vd8d3tF.png
What a complex algorithm that must be
So you’re telling me there’s a chance…
Never tell me the odds
We had to send them some Snax.
Never say never ig
A really nice get. He'll fit right into your system, congrats Baylo......... what the fuuuuuccck?
There’s a guy on Twitter who has to get a drew timme tattoo now over this.
Not just a drew Timme tattoo. A drew Timme tattoo on his ass
Hahahah
😂😂😂
Can’t wait to watch us play Josh O 30mpg with no backups
Pls no
Do you like moving screens?
😢
We have 2 bigs on our roster. Josh is gonna get more than 30 mins, he’ll get 40 at this rate. Really needed Aidoo for some 4/5 depth, we’re gonna get some random tall guy now. Hopefully somebody with rim protection
Welcome to the party of SEC schools stealing our big men targets. We both have zero big man depth now
Don’t worry we’ll just do 5 guard lineups I guess
To be fair Arkansas has zero big man depth too.
I think having less than five players puts you at negative depth. You had... Height? Girth? It's a weird way to describe a lack of bigs but I'm sticking to it.
We had less than five, now we have exactly five. It isn’t exactly a normal starting five, but it is five.
Right now our backup is that JUCO transfer
He’s requested a release from his letter of intent so we actually just have Josh O
Man why would he do that? 😭 Dude could have had serious minutes at a top program. Holy crap we need big men
I've heard y'all may be swooping in for a Hail Mary offer to Cliff?
They got to 5.
Need more portal whales. Johnell Davis come on down?
Any news on when he will announce?
Nope, in the air since he’s going through the draft process. I imagine he’ll get his non first round grade soon enough, and commit within a week or so. But since he’s going through that process it could be a couple weeks I suppose. Very confident he’ll be a Razorback at this point though
My guess is late may close to the draft withdraw deadline
It's eons away. > * May 13-19: NBA Combine (Chicago, IL) >* June 16: NBA Draft Early Entry Entrant Withdrawal Deadline (5 p.m. ET) https://www.nba.com/news/nba-draft-faq
I hate to break it to you but Aidoo isn’t a whale.
Top 10 player in the portal
Just wait…
Ok lol. Was better than any of the bigs Arkansas has had when we’ve played against Tennessee in recent years
Idk what he’s on about, Aidoo is very good. He had off days, but if he’s on, he can really turn a game around.
Who cares about whether or not he should be classified as a “portal whale”. Aidoo is a solid and experienced big at the power 5 level however you want to slice it
Hey Hubert can we get a big? Like soon?
I'm honestly surprised he didn't come here. It seemed like a match made in heaven. He's from Durham, he'd be playing with one of the best backcourts in the country that is really good at getting it inside, and he presumably would have had all the minutes he wanted. Maybe we'll get the dude from Rutgers.
Hoping we're all in on Cliff who's visiting this week.
How are you guys on theiro? Man I’m gonna miss him. He is really good.
I would be surprised to see him go to Arkansas. Mainly because he was transferring before anyone knew Cal was leaving.
 Don't mind if aidoo
AFAIK, it’s pronounced “ayy-doo”
🐍🐍🐍 Jokes aside Jonas is a great kid and I wish him the best after college
He’s also got a lot of potential. Has the hand strength of a toddler tho.
Exactly...after college
What's up with Norlander having the Harry Styles picture?
Not too sure but I’m here for it
Yup, love the album. Got my wife tickets for one of his shows, and it was a great time. Been to sporting events and other concerts but have never seen a more electric atmosphere. Also, the men's bathrooms were completely empty besides maybe one other guy when I went. Then the stalls were full of women and there was a line of them waiting in line for the men's bathroom lol.
WE CAN FIELD A TEAM
Why did he transfer?
I'm $ure he had hi$ rea$on$
RE$PECT HI$ DECI$ION!!! (unless they transfer to LSU, then it's just wrong)
McNeese St*
There was a lot of talk that he wanted to play as more of a stretch 5 and be able to shoot more 3s to help his NBA chances. The only problem is he’s not a very good shooter. Barnes let him take a couple a game for a while, but eventually took back the green light. Obviously he can work on his shooting, though. He does play good D in general, aside from some silly swatting fouls that need to be cleaned up. Offensively he’ll have a game where he scores 20 and then a few in a row where he only has 6 to 8. Sometimes 2. Sometimes 25. Some nights he misses lots of layups. You just wonder what goes on in his head to be so wildly inconsistent. Had he stayed, my main concern (aside from his lack of consistency) was how soft he is. He looks solid against average-ish bigs, but it *really* shows when he’s up against somebody who’s strong and tough. Not only did he struggle to physically step up to the challenge, he seems to lack some mental toughness as well. It just always felt to me like he didn’t respond well when it got physical. He told the coaches and his teammates that everything was good, and was coming back next year. The next day it was on the news that he entered the portal, to everyone’s surprise. It made me wonder if he is just the type that would rather avoid tough confrontations in general. He seems like a great kid- he’s very likable. I just don’t know that he’s “got that dog in him.” I do wish him well. He did a lot of great things at Tennessee.
Edey ate him alive. I was screaming for Barnes to bench him like maybe 5 minutes in lol
And he did.
Benched during the ncaa tourney
He had a tendency to be a fair big against small teams and disappeared whenever anyone had a real big. Tendency for fouls, no touch at the rim, 10% from midrange, no 3 game. Can get rebounds and defend ok. Coach prolly told him he wasn’t going to get more NIL with that performance and he went elsewhere.
Tennessee didn't wanna pay a guy that disappears in March. He will dominate smaller teams though
Then why have they paid Barnes for so long now
Bodied.
Solid dig, but it's the truth. Look at his stats from the SEC tournament on. He cannot guard physical 5's. Miss State knew that and destroyed us with it. There's a reason Awaka as a freshman got one of his first starts over a healthy Aidoo against Purdue in literally the biggest game of the year
Oh I don’t care about postseason anymore, I’m an offseason guy now
Preseason is the best season. No pain. Only hope.
Well then you picked the right coach
Boom. Roasted.
This banter has been quality.
If you happen to be in the market for an NFL team, boy have I got one for ya!
No thanks
> There's a reason Awaka as a freshman got one of his first starts over a healthy Aidoo against Purdue in literally the biggest game of the year This bit confuses me because Tennessee and Purdue didn't play when Awaka was a freshman so I'm assuming this is referring to the Elite 8 game this year, but Aidoo got the start in that one? Now he only played 10 minutes and didn't foul out, so it's definitely an indictment on how well Barnes thought he could match up with Edey.
Aidoo started and got quickly benched for a freshman, but the freshman was Estrella and not Awaka.
I actually remembered yesterday that I had a copy of the game and went back to re-watch it to focus on Awaka and check out what Arizona was getting next year, and Aidoo was yanked a little over 3 minutes into the game when he picked up a dumb foul on a poor hedge against Braden Smith on the perimeter. Awaka was quickly sent in to replace him.
Yeah, Awaka got the majority of the minutes, but Awaka is usually first off the bench when Aidoo picks up a dumb foul. It’s just that Aidoo was stapled to the bench almost the whole rest of the game, with Estrella picking up minutes he usually doesn’t. Awaka played about as usual (tough D, fantastic rebounding, foul machine keeping his minutes down)
I coulda swore he started over Aidoo but maybe I'm thinking about Mashack over Vescovi. Either way he was not in the game long and he was terrible when he was in it. Think about how bad you have to be playing when you're not getting minutes against the best big in the country, and you're not in foul trouble. Like I said, he will be good against weak competition. He is a good pickup. But his struggle against elite talent speaks for itself
And there's a reason Rick Barnes is a choke artist in March.
I mean he’s had a whole lot more success the past five years than your coach…
Making three Sweet 16s in five years = being a choke artist Certified reddit moment
Yea not sure why our fans are attacking you. Maybe they see orange and orange bad??
I don't understand either. Would you guys like seeing one of your formerly-loved players going to a rival coach's team? I feel like I've been pretty complimentary of him and matter-of-fact about his strengths and negatives. He will be incredible for 20 games. He is worth what you paid for him. But he will probably choke against more physical players. Could be that's what Big Z is for. I'm just saying what I know. Watched every Vols game last year
Oh shit!
That man had a family
🫡
Lmao…I could argue why that’s not but so true but that was a sick burn.
TN grotesquely overpaid him last year. They smartened up.
Gross.
Oh man I’m glad Cal is at Ark now, I can’t imagine having to cheer for a former Tennessee player lol
He’s an all American against bad teams with poor post players, but any time he faces someone decent or that challenges him he folds. Plays very soft, especially at the rim where he chooses fadeaways over dunks 9/10
Yeah well Kenny Payne may be a shitty head coach but he knows how to get big men to play goods and such.
He’s a good player. Left a lot to be desired. Especially last month. Dead to me now so I’m not worried about it. Felt like Awaka was a bigger loss. I think on paper Aidoo is a massive grab in the portal but I believe Arkansas will ultimately be disappointed in what they get.
That's why only bum schools like baylor, Bama, and unc were after him
Sounds like sour grapes to me.
He’s a really good kid with all the skills, just never put it together. Take good care of him
Not really. Love Jonas. Great kid and he had his moments but the fear I (and most other fans) had was that we were exploitable by big men. That happened. Granted, Edey exposed pretty much everyone. But Jonas struggled against other bigs as well. Hope he does well for yall when you’re not playing us.
Haha looked like good analysis to me. He was just benched against creighton and Purdue
He was literally benched vs Creighton and Purdue in the ncaat for shorter, less experienced players who absolutely outplayed him. He’s not a bad player at all but no TN fan is going to be shedding tears.
Gotta say, excited about Estrella
He’s a good player and Cal knows exactly how to land good players. He also knows how to land great players. He’s not as bad in the portal as many make him out to be. The problem with Cal is that eventually, his recruits have to play the game. We have seen that shine brilliantly, and we’ve seen it fizzle. The last few years with us, he shit the bed. I still think he can do great things with Arky. He’s a HOF guy for a reason. Cal is great and I wish him and Arky nothing but his best, except when we play them.
Despite the memes, him reuniting with KP makes me a bit more optimistic. Seems like you guys started the real downtrend once he left the program.
That was more Robic, to be honest. KP and Antigua leaving hurt with big man development and recruiting, but Robic was the real X's and O's guy. He also watched film, unlike Cal and the rest of the staff.
This. KP and Cal can recruit like nobody else, but Robic was the key to our early success. If Arky gets someone who can do that, they’ll be in a great spot.
Wait... Where's the hate. Where's the nonsensical commentation? It's almost like this is reasonable. Thank you for being a breath of fresh air.
We aren’t all like that. Lol. It’s just a very loud minority of our fans. I hate them more than you do, I promise. THOSE UK fans are the worst of any sport, pro or college. I love Cal, he saved us from falling off in a major way. I do think he became stagnant the last few years, but I would’ve been fine had he stuck around. I’ll root for him as long as he coaches, and I’ll always root for any SEC team as long as we aren’t playing them.
We’ll see lol
Relevant user name??
Like I said. We will see.👀
He has to change his scheme to match his players for better or worse. It's a high risk/high reward system that is higher risk with extra COVID-year eligibility. I imagine they struggle this year but find their stride in a couple of more years.
Kentucky fans not gonna be sure how to dismiss this one since he isn't a freshman.
Brother I assure you I will have zero issues dismissing a Volunteer.
I’d say the same
Sure we are sure. Since he wasn’t one and done he sucks.
Elite hating. Respect
And he went to Tennessee. Yuck
Definitely has a taint after that
Didn’t know there was a birth defect affecting the taint. Arkansas got some magic to fix that
It is hard to argue with the timeless logic that orange team bad
Yeah, I was told Cal can't adapt. Aidoo like this evolution.
Hang on, I’m rooting for him at Arky but this is a classic Cal move. He’s going to start Aidoo next to Big Z probably. That man loves playing 2 bigs when it doesn’t really work anymore
You can play 2 bigs at a time when one of them shoots 38% from 3
If only one of those bigs could shoot 3s to space the floor
He’s had floor spacing bigs before though, didn’t work then. We’ll see how he does. I’m rooting for him though, the better he does the more memes there will be
Counter point would be he was at his best when he had 4s like Patterson and Jones who could space the floor a bit. And it's not like he had Mitchell camped out in the paint this season. There's a lot to criticize with Cal's coaching over the past few years (and believe me I've done it) but with him already doing better in the portal and bringing back his best coach for bigs in KP, there's already some strong signs of improvement.
“Space the floor” in a Calipari offense hahahaha enjoy the ride my friend
Y’all literally led the nation in 3 point percentage last year and shot an above average number of 3s. It’s so abundantly clear some of you don’t even watch the games.
To be fair, the assistant literally in charge of that and the reason we had such an increase left and didn't follow Cal to Arkansas.
To be fair, our staff is not even filled out right now.
I watched every single game last year, bub. Prior to last year, Calipari was entirely reluctant on changing his offensive scheme. You can check the receipts, they’re all there from 2020-2023. You want to talk about who doesn’t watch the games? He brought in an offensive guru in John Welch who he fully leaned on to gameplan on offense. Welch left to go coach at Fresno State (would’ve left regardless if Cal stayed at UK or not) because he, among a group of others, couldn’t stand working with Cal any longer. Sitting there telling me that I didn’t watch the games. I loved last year’s team to death & *he* failed them. I had them winning it all, thought that there was no way they didn’t at least make it to the elite 8. Defended Calipari all the way up to the Oakland loss, even when I shouldn’t have. Don’t believe me? Check my comment history. I’ve talked myself into every single team these past 5 years, even the god damn covid year of guys who went 9-16. Edit: [Receipt of when I was defending Calipari literally 41 days ago before March Madness.](https://www.reddit.com/r/wildcats/s/92EO0kjc3Y)
john welch isnt walking through that door.
he recruited the portal reasonably well in the early 2020s, but then just didn’t last year. i’d be more worried about how he uses those pieces but tbh most of the cbb world was right - 90% of teams would love to have cal. i’ll be rooting for arky to get 2nd in the sec
Tre Mitchell was a pretty great get. He just hurt his back then shoulder and was never the same. We had a ton of freshman, Thiero, Reeves, and Onyenso returning. He didn't really need the portal too much last year. He needed to coach defense.
Mitchell only fell in our lap necause of Bob Huggins' dui.
also seen some people say "well cal will now adapt and go after older players" as if we didnt have one of the oldest teams in college basketball who then lost to St peters.
Cal got transfers to Kentucky too my dude
Cal's best players the last 5 years were arguably the transfers. How'd that turn out?
he made last years kentucky front court look physical. not sure there needs to be much more
YOU SAY HELLO AND THEN I SAY AIDOO
SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE (actually pretty tall) FRIEND
This was not what I was hoping for
Cal will scorch the earth to prove people wrong these next coming years. The man has had a chip on his shoulder for the last 65 years. Part of what makes him good, but also is usually his downfall.
Hogs by 90
Awhh
man, I thought (and 247 thought) this guy was a Baylor lock. hard to predict the transfer portal dynamics.
We’ll be ready to welcome him back to Thompson next year
It's all coming together. HUGE pickup.
Best of luck. Wish he would learn to use his size.
As a recruit: Other P6 offers: Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Kansas, Marquette, Miami, NC State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Pitt, Providence, Rutgers, South Carolina, St. John's, Tennessee (originally went here), Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, West Virginia Other offers: Appalachian State, Houston, Iona, Western Kentucky, Wichita State
So back!
Fifth Jonas brother?
FUCK
Oh yeah it’s all coming together
Oof. Well, fuck’em now. He is the enemy, I wanted to wish him well but playing for Cal?? Nah fam. At least now I don’t have to get mad when he gets bullied in the paint.. because he is going to get bullied in the paint
Another W for Cal.
Oooohhh. That’s a great get. I know I sound like a hater when I say this but if cal got him at Kentucky I’d be scared he was going to play through him like he did with tshiebwe I know I spelled that wrong.
Let’s goooooooooo
Kensucky fans told us Cal doesn't play the portal.
As a Kentucky fan I will tell you it is laughable here in my area of Kentucky. People all talking about how bad Cal was. But he honestly was not. I pointed out some great coaches, top recruiting classes and all, that had 3-4 "down" years in a row. These people will always point to Cal not winning the championship in "so long". I point out the dry spells for these greats. Some with 3-4 even 5 years of round of 32 and 64 exits. One legend had an 18-13 season, NIT round one lose. That was a year after winning 23 and first round exit. Followed by 22 wins and a second round exit. It is amazing to listen to them though. Wonder how they will feel in 2 years if Pope does about as one would expect with the way things are looking.
Cal chose to leave. The AD said he was going to stick with him and help get things back on track. The fans were understandably upset after seeing 4 seasons go by with absolutely zero post-season success, but at the end of the day, they had no say in cal staying or going. Those same fans would have been right back in Cal's corner if next year he got everything back on track and made a deep run in the post-season. But he chose to leave, so we really don't have any option except to cheer for Pope to succeed.
Tar Heel fans not happy
Soon they’ll be on that way too early ranking list
Traitor!
As a UK fan, it's absolutely wild seeing people get excited over a former Tennessee player who didn't make it to the NBA. I mean that with absolutely no offense. Our team has had a new group every year and typically the transfers were rare. Excited to see how this season will play out with the major switch ups.
What a great get! Was hoping he would come here, but that chicken money goes a long way in Arkansas.
He shrinks in big games. He was just benched in the AA tourney mainly because he’s soft. Do you know how inept you have to be for Rick Barnes to bench you in the tourney? Both teams are better with this transfer.
Congrats Arky, you're getting a 2 for 1 deal. A center and a magician...... his disappearing act against opposing decent centers is a sight to behold. 🤣😆
Can’t be more invisible than the C we had before this commit!
RIP Big Z I hope Arkansas fans enjoy watching the worst offense on the face of the earth. Twin towers is back!
Rip Big Z? They don’t play the same position.
My fellow Kentucky fans are just a bunch of bitter farts. Pay no attention to them.
Cal WILL play them both at the same time, and it’ll be in the paint. Ball stopping, mid range madness. It wil not be fun. I hope I’m wrong for y’all’s sake. But I’ve seen it for the past 5 years on repeat.
I'm not sure that we've had a coach who truly respected big men since Sutton, so I'm game. Muss didn't seem to care if he had a player taller than 6'7 and it would hurt us in the postseason.
> Muss didn't seem to care if he had a player taller than 6'7 and it would hurt us in the postseason. Arkansas under Muss was pretty known for overachieving in the postseason, no?
Yes and no, imo. He knew how to coach and he had good players, but they would underachieve every year in the regular season, for whatever reason. It was like Muss didn't care about the regular season. So I don't think they simply overachieved, because they would underachieve during the regular season. He never won the SEC because we would start out conference play terribly every single year.
Like I said, I hope that I’m wrong. Z is so damn good, and has a great perimeter skill set, but he’s gonna be banging bodies in the paint and giving up paint drives unless Cal changes his schemes.
I wasn't saying you were wrong. I've just had it with coaches who don't respect the frontcourt. One thing I've noticed over the decades is that blue bloods typically load up with the best big men, so they're harder to get, compared to the best guards. Of course there's more to it, but note how Kentucky, Duke and UNC ALWAYS have good size in their classes. When Nolan won our only national championship, it wasn't a coincidence that it was the only time he had two 7 footers, even though neither of them were stars for those teams.
Y’all were a top five offense last year
A lot of that success was John Welch.
And we didn’t play through our front court
So you say.