Patience, Patience, Patience....

[bluebayou]

It seems that folks are panicing about a big man for next year to help PPat down low. Folks, BCG will develop our current players. It takes time. Perry Stevenson has shown tremendous strides. AJ Stewart will do the same in time. M Williams may be a good role player in the future also. This year is a big adjustment year for our upper classmen. And the injuries have really made the situation twice as bad. It takes time folks. Rome wasn't built in a day. We are showing improvement every week. We are being raised from the dead, it seems like. Just be patient, and in a couple of years we will see that U.K. is one of the most feared teams out there, like we used to be. I trust BCG. We all should.

[billoliver40]

Nice post. Sometimes we worry so much about what might that we don't enjoy what is.

Concerns I have about next year:
1) who scores? DJ is not a threat on offense this year so far. Will he be?
2) who runs point? Jasper is an excellent ball handling/ passing forward, but is ill suited to match up against quicker true point guards for the entire season. (reminds me a bit of Pelphrey...fine passer, excellent small
forward but struggled when tried at point guard)

I actually believe with the development of Stephenson and the anticipated
development of Stewart, MW and possibly Carter, we will actually be better on the front line....and of course I believe PP will be back.

Appleton (juco) is anticipated to bring the point to Kentucky. Anticipated.
Last I read, Kansas was putting feelers his way.
Miller and I hope Liggins will bring more offense to the table. If JMeeks returns from his lost season he has proven he can fill the basket. IF.

Recruiting is going to be interesting again.

[WildcatRick]

While I agree with you that people need to be patient, you never stop recruiting. What they are seeing is a lot of commitments from other spots than the 4 or 5 and it worries folks, cant blame them. I am also not sure the players you name are the answer in either quantity or quality. I like AJ and Perry, but that is just not enough. I hope Mike Williams works out, but you never know.

Whether people are concerned with immedite help or help down the road, I cant disagree with either.

[teamchemistry09]

I love what Dick Vitale said last night during the uofl game. He said something to the extent of "Give Billy G a few years down in Lexington and it will be amazing how dominant they will be"

[Mark Blueblood]

I agree Rick. I have serious concerns about our ability to score next year. Also, you can't develop a 6'6" guy to be 6'10".

The long haul is bright - the immediate future is - well - iffy.

[freethrow]

I have faith that both Carter and Williams are improving right along with the other players that have clearly done so. How much is the question? I suspect that their biggest liability right now is their quickness in getting back on defense. I hope we get to see one or both against Vandy and they show us good things.

The above said, I agree that we do need to recruit a solid big. I am not as worried about the scoring we lose this year as some though. We have a couple solid players coming in already to go with the players coming back and I am pretty sure there will be one or two more before next season. Possibly a Juco, as we all know.

[djleecatfan]

We really do need a big man to go with Patterson down low next year.
Perry Stevenson has made strides, but I feel he will always be like McCarty or Riddick and never really put on alot of weight.
As far as Mike Williams and Jared Carter, and AJ Stewart, I really do belive Billy Clyde has NO cofindence in them at all!! That is why he doesn't play them and I think he might be hoping that they will all 3 transfer, so he can bring in his own players, not Tubby's.
Let's just hope for the best in the recruiting wars and maybe the team will hit a home run and land a good quailty big man.:thumbup:

[Cal_tucky]

I like it how people are waiting for Carter and Williams to just suddenly explode on the scene. Look, if neither has played up to this point, neither will play from this point for this season. BG has his rotation down. I have hope for Williams for the future, but I think injuries will keep Carter from ever being a significant part of a UK team which is unfortunate.

We can win with Jasper/Meeks/Patterson/Harris/Stevenson/Liggins/Miller, no doubt about it. Add a 4 or 5 start PF/C to that mix, and we can be dominant. My only concern is we are running out of time with Patterson, I would be surprised if he doesn't leave after next year and SHOCKED if he's not gone after his junior season.

[RCS]

I think Stewart will be a solid contributor next year as he matures. I think he will make a Stevenson like leap to very servicable. That would give us 3 solid contributors down low. Carter may get some spot minutes. I doubt Williams ever does much here. He is SO slow. I hope he can, but I don't forsee it.

[bleedbluelady]

We really do need a big man to go with Patterson down low next year.
Perry Stevenson has made strides, but I feel he will always be like McCarty or Riddick and never really put on alot of weight.
As far as Mike Williams and Jared Carter, and AJ Stewart, I really do belive Billy Clyde has NO cofindence in them at all!! That is why he doesn't play them and I think he might be hoping that they will all 3 transfer, so he can bring in his own players, not Tubby's.
Let's just hope for the best in the recruiting wars and maybe the team will hit a home run and land a good quailty big man.:thumbup:

I'll take a McCarty or Riddick on my team any day and twice on Saturdays. :) As for Coach G having no confidence in the players you mentioned and hopes they transfer. :shrug1: I'll just say, it seems some fans are jumping to some pretty rash conclusions.

[countrycat]

We really do need a big man to go with Patterson down low next year.
Perry Stevenson has made strides, but I feel he will always be like McCarty or Riddick and never really put on alot of weight.
As far as Mike Williams and Jared Carter, and AJ Stewart, I really do belive Billy Clyde has NO cofindence in them at all!! That is why he doesn't play them and I think he might be hoping that they will all 3 transfer, so he can bring in his own players, not Tubby's.
Let's just hope for the best in the recruiting wars and maybe the team will hit a home run and land a good quailty big man.:thumbup:
I am not at all sure BCG has no confidence in Carter, Williams and Stewart. I believe it is as simple as he has settled on a rotation for the rest of this year. As far as posters on this spread trying to run players off by not playing them is simply not true IMO.

[poodoo]

I'll take a McCarty or Riddick on my team any day and twice on Saturdays. :) As for Coach G having no confidence in the players you mentioned and hopes they transfer. :shrug1: I'll just say, it seems some fans are jumping to some pretty rash conclusions.

Exactly, bleedbluelady. Further, Coach Gillispie himself adamantly says to such fans that the current UK basketball players are HIS players.

[UKfaninCO]

I like it how people are waiting for Carter and Williams to just suddenly explode on the scene. Look, if neither has played up to this point, neither will play from this point for this season. BG has his rotation down. I have hope for Williams for the future, but I think injuries will keep Carter from ever being a significant part of a UK team which is unfortunate.

We can win with Jasper/Meeks/Patterson/Harris/Stevenson/Liggins/Miller, no doubt about it. Add a 4 or 5 start PF/C to that mix, and we can be dominant. My only concern is we are running out of time with Patterson, I would be surprised if he doesn't leave after next year and SHOCKED if he's not gone after his junior season.

This I agree with. I think we likely won't see Carter or Williams this season unless we are up by 20 with a minute left. Big men notoriously take longer to develop and I think they aren't ready to play the ball that Billy wants them to play. I don't think that he has NO confidence in them. They just aren't ready. I like AJ and I think he will play, but Coach has stated previously that AJ is essentially not ready to get a ton of minutes. He's very athletic but very raw. Patterson is way more polished and you see that. AJ tends to get lost, but has a ton of upside. We'll see good things from him in the next couple of years but he won't see the court much this year.

[nocodecub]

Another thing to keep in mind is that Gillispie has always tended to play a short rotation of 7-8 guys by the time conference play comes around.

Since we're seeing that now, it gives us no extra reason to assume he's trying to push some players out.

That said, I agree with the concerns about scoring next year. I like having multiple threats out on the floor, and unless Jasper develops some more, we may all be missing ramel and joe even more than we expected.

(Although I'm already appreciating them more than I ever thought I would, so I'll miss them anyway.)