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Lets be realistic

LoveTheseCards

LoveTheseCards

Mar 24, 2024
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I'm as passionate as probably 90% of you about Louisville sports, but honestly, lets take a deep breath and be realistic. Most of you get this, but for anyone freaking out about the challenges bring in a big man and filling our roster, who is our buyer and what do we really have to sell?

Our Buyer:
A kid going to his 2nd, 3rd, or 4th school.​
Looking for money.​
Wanting to come into a program for a year or at most two and have a shot at some bragging rights for making a final 4 run or better.​
​
What we have to sell that our buyer cares about:
Great facilities​
A town that loves basketball​
An energetic, player-focused coaching staff​

What do we have to sell that our buyer doesn't give 2 **** about:
Tradition (they're only going to be here for a year or two)​
​
At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, the portal has made college basketball the perfect replica of the 18-22 year olds across the country. They don't want to work. Nobody's coming here to redshirt and then spend 4 years dedicated to rebuilding the program. They want instant gratification. They want to cash in on the work the guy before them did. Unfortunately, the last guy didn't do any work.

This is a hard sell. I think the coaching staff is doing a hell of a job with what they have. In 3-4 years, I believe they will get us back consistently in the top 10, where kids want to be here and we're able to pick from the best. But today, we're trying to sell a **** sandwich when everybody else is offering steak.
 
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^ ^
This.

Reality is difficult for those who don't want to live in it. The Louisville men's basketball program has a huge stain on it and other schools are going to use it as long as they can.

It would be a miracle if a top level big man chose Louisville for the 2024/25 season. I really don't understand why it's not the consensus opinion with Cards fans.
 
I don't understand why the current players would want to transfer to a new school and a new coach. Your already familiar with UofL and now you have UofL with a new coach. Wouldn't you want to stay at home and improve things
 
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TheRealVille said:
^ ^
This.

Reality is difficult for those who don't want to live in it. The Louisville men's basketball program has a huge stain on it and other schools are going to use it as long as they can.

It would be a miracle if a top level big man chose Louisville for the 2024/25 season. I really don't understand why it's not the consensus opinion with Cards fans.
Click to expand...
Kids from around the country have no idea about any stains on this program. Most don't even keep up with sports at all. For the top players it's 100% about money...
 
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jalovell23 said:
I don't understand why the current players would want to transfer to a new school and a new coach. Your already familiar with UofL and now you have UofL with a new coach. Wouldn't you want to stay at home and improve things
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This is a valid point, normally. But there's a reason every single Louisville player entered the portal. The negativity surrounding the program is just not worth the risk when there's other places to go.

Whether it's right or wrong, it's going to take Louisville being a normal team again before many recruits and transfers consider coming here. CPK may succeed his first season. A 17 and 13 record and NIT berth would probably suffice.

Before too long the ineptitude of the KP years will be a bad memory for fans and irrelevant to recruits and transfers. Louisville basketball will be back where it belongs. The Yum center will be mostly full and NIL cash will flow.

We just got to get past one more season and pray that CPK has at least a winning record.
 
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Respectfully disagree; it is all about money period. If the money is the same; the selection will turn to exposure and coaching; frankly UL conference affiliation with ACC is significant.
 
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2330859 said:
Respectfully disagree; it is all about money period. If the money is the same; the selection will turn to exposure and coaching; frankly UL conference affiliation with ACC is significant.
Click to expand...
I'm sure any big man who may feel a bit unsure about going to Louisville, would ignore that for 2 million dollars.

Money talks there's no doubt. However, if the money is about the same between UofL and Indiana or Texas Tech, the Cards are still the school with the more risk. CPK would need to be the hoops version of Jeff Brohm and excite these transfers to commit to Louisville.

That may still happen and all of us fans have our fingers crossed it will. It's just not looking good right now.
 
The biggest negative around the basketball program was a coach and staff who couldn’t win ballgames. They were so bad that nobody even talked about our problems from the past. The talking heads were only talking how bad the coaching staff was and that Louisville needs to move on to a new coaching staff. I didn’t think any of these players would stick around whether KP was retained as the coach or not. They were going to transfer to get away from being called losers and a sinking ship. Players are trying to get to the next level and nobody was going to look at them considering how poorly they played and how poorly they were coached.
 
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CardX said:
Everything is in the rear view mirror, however. Nothing that happened has any impact as everyone continues to move forward. It’s all over. Plus, it’s all about NIL now. No one gives a shit, except, you, obviously.
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I give a shit about the negative impact KP had on the program. Just because he's gone doesn't mean it's all over. "Nothing that happened has any impact?"

I can't believe any Cards fan could believe such a thing. KP's tenure will have an impact for awhile until Louisville returns to the elite program it was. We're still feeling the impact of Andre McGee.

I however believe we will be a top program again and the KP years, along with the NCAA issues will be just history. Players will think nothing about the hard times in the past. But that's going to take top players and great coaching by PK.

My entire point is the stain on Louisville basketball is almost over, but it's still fresh with some recruits and transfers and that may be part of the reason why it's been difficult landing a big man or two? I would love to see two of these big dudes pick Louisville and my reservations would no longer be necessary.
 
jalovell23 said:
I don't understand why the current players would want to transfer to a new school and a new coach. Your already familiar with UofL and now you have UofL with a new coach. Wouldn't you want to stay at home and improve things
Click to expand...
It's free agency, check on their value. It's all about $. After that, maybe a little about relationship with staff if any exists, and maybe role clarification. But it still circles back to $ front and center.

This is pretty much the new norm with a coaching change. Saw this at Arky, UK, UofL, and Wash St.

The only thing Payne did successfully was convince his players fans were the problem. His last PC where he attacked fans gives you a glimpse of what he was telling his players the entire season. Just one more way for Ken to avoid any responsibility for the results,

That narrative probably helped push them all away too, but they probably leave if Ken respected the program and handled his exit with grace anyway. Hilariously, none of them go with him to Arky.

Maybe a couple stay if you tag that HR name brand hire, but even with that, that type of hire might have just sent them packing.

Of course, fans just hated Ken's coaching and W/L product, not the players. But after being told by Ken to "tune out the noise" all year, seeing empty seats, hearing some boos, and reading some garbage on social media, there's plenty of reasons to go and not too many reasons to stay.

A fitting end to the worst era of Cards basketball.
 
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There is another angle on the fans being hung up on tradition. They also know the stain that you are referring better than 95% of the players considering Louisville. The reality is kids don’t care, they live in their own world.

This is a business decision for both parties. This is a classic supply and demand issue. The demand for a quality big far exceeds the supply. If Louisville wants a quality big they are going to have to outbid someone to even get a visit. Then it could swing toward guarantees like with one kid. Or it could become a value thing for the school does that player take them over the top? Is he worth that spend? Does it create internal issues? For the team it can’t be strictly a financial transaction.

Are the last couple of years a factor potentially, but it is way down the list. I don’t value bigs like others but based off current rosters if players goes somewhere else that tells me this was a financial decision. Osobor is unique in that he can go back to a place of comfort while leveraging the most money out of Washington. They aren’t a NCAA even with him.
 
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2330859 said:
If you have ever been to Lubbock TX, you would have second thoughts about signing with TT, particularly compared with UL.
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Yep the High Plains of Texas has lousy weather too.

And hell IU has been a dumpster fire and coaching nightmare for quite some time now. They have sux pretty bad. and Assembly Hall is ancient facility. Bobby Knight won all those games and then...nothing.
 
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Mayoman said:
Yep the High Plains of Texas has lousy weather too.

And hell IU has been a dumpster fire and coaching nightmare for quite some time now. They have sux pretty bad. and Assembly Hall is ancient facility. Bobby Knight won all those games and then...nothing.
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We lost a 5* to frigging lifelong dumpster AZ St. If Great goes to WA or Tech he's choosing lifelong dumpster fires too.

It's the $.
 
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2330859 said:
If you have ever been to Lubbock TX, you would have second thoughts about signing with TT, particularly compared with UL.
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Said the same about Morgantown, West Virginia during the UofL/WVU football rivalry. If I was a young player, I would have never considered WVU.

Never been to Lubbock, but heard there's not much there.
 
TheRealVille said:
Some may care...! Not sure why this isn't a possibility for you.
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It's just not. It's the times we live in man.. It's just not the kind of thing kids worry about. Money however is, especially the better players. Besides that, most of the better players have agents and handlers, and you can bet your sweet bippy they only care about money !
 
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Cardiac Red said:
It's just not. It's the times we live in man.. It's just not the kind of thing kids worry about. Money however is, especially the better players. Besides that, most of the better players have agents and handlers, and you can bet your sweet bippy they only care about money !
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Okay. I appreciate your opinion and believe it's mostly true. I am confident CPK will make the debate irrelevant by winning this upcoming season. I think we all will let out a deep breath after Louisville smokes its first exhibition opponent.
 
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Look at Duke they lost half their team and had to rebuild and it had nothing to do with their wins and losses. It was all about other schools recruiting of their roster and offering more money. I think the only way you have a chance of seeing a team staying together for 4 years is if you recruit a roster of local kids who are playing with pride for their city. Like the team’s Louisville and Memphis had back in the 80’s.
 
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LoveTheseCards said:
I'm as passionate as probably 90% of you about Louisville sports, but honestly, lets take a deep breath and be realistic. Most of you get this, but for anyone freaking out about the challenges bring in a big man and filling our roster, who is our buyer and what do we really have to sell?

Our Buyer:
A kid going to his 2nd, 3rd, or 4th school.​
Looking for money.​
Wanting to come into a program for a year or at most two and have a shot at some bragging rights for making a final 4 run or better.​
​
What we have to sell that our buyer cares about:
Great facilities​
A town that loves basketball​
An energetic, player-focused coaching staff​

What do we have to sell that our buyer doesn't give 2 **** about:
Tradition (they're only going to be here for a year or two)​
​
At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, the portal has made college basketball the perfect replica of the 18-22 year olds across the country. They don't want to work. Nobody's coming here to redshirt and then spend 4 years dedicated to rebuilding the program. They want instant gratification. They want to cash in on the work the guy before them did. Unfortunately, the last guy didn't do any work.

This is a hard sell. I think the coaching staff is doing a hell of a job with what they have. In 3-4 years, I believe they will get us back consistently in the top 10, where kids want to be here and we're able to pick from the best. But today, we're trying to sell a **** sandwich when everybody else is offering steak.
Click to expand...

You make some good points. But we are in the same boat as numerous teams….rebuilding thru portal. Thus the expectation is NCAA tournament as it ALWAYS is. Was with KP and is with PK. However PK actually knows what he’s doing so we should be excited on Selection Sunday next season…..and I would imagine the coaching staff feels the same.

No excuses
 
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