Is signing with Adidas again. Being blackballed by aau coaches/handlers is becoming all too common with the program. We've never been a flavor of the month type of place for these recruits but it has just gotten down right bad.
Tom Jurich lone mistake as our AD
- Thread starter LockdownCard
- Start date
I don't want a kid who makes his choice of school based solely on a basketball shoe, I want kids who want to come here because they want to play for The University of Louisville and Coach Pitino. As far as I'm concerned Tom Jurich is the best AD in college athletics.
I'm sorry to break it to you but kids these days rarely go to a school because of the school. Kids do go places to play for certain coaches though.
Did you forget Kragthorpe? That was the ONE mistake.
D
I wouldn't call signing with Adidas a mistake. I'm sure the university is getting s nice chunk of change. And we are doing fine basketball wise with the players we are getting.
I wouldn't call signing with Adidas a mistake. I'm sure the university is getting s nice chunk of change. And we are doing fine basketball wise with the players we are getting.
I don't know if being with Adidas is a mistake or not, but I would prefer Nike too. I think Nike schools currently have an advantage over schools sponsored by other brands.
At the time Kragthorpe was a hot commodity it was a good hire. It just turned out he was a poor fit, so even that wasn't a mistake.
I won't call it a mistake just yet. All the sports programs across the athletic department seem to be doing well. If this level of success continues, then I think there will be a bidding war for the Cards the next time the shoe / uniform contract is up for renewal.
just to clarify.........The last championship banner won by a team from the state of Ky says hello......
That championship is great but what has it done for the program recruiting wise? These kids now days could care less about a program and the tradition, its all about the shoe affiliation between the schools and aau sponsors. As long as we are with Adidas the playing field will never be leveled.
Oh, and their shoes and apparel is terrible.
Football and basketball brings in more than enough revenue to support every team the university fields.
Yep just look at LSU for example. Thats like our football team coming out of nowhere to recruit head and shoulders above Les Miles and crew.
My point is the "shoe game" hasn't hurt us. The results show it. Sure, we miss out on some Nike kids. Well, other schools miss out on Adidas kids. Adidas hasn't hurt Kansas, and they recruit at a very high level. As does Louisville. Plus, us and Kansas are flag ship schools for Adidas. Other notable Adidas schools: IU, UCLA, Michigan, Wisconsin, among others.
I'm not hung up on athletic gear, so I don't really care. I've got Nike and Adidas stuff. It's all pretty much the same.
Kansas name alone is going to attract top talent, for us that's not so much the case. Therefore we need some kind of recruiting advantage and signing to Nike would've definitely helped us out with recruiting.
You can keep telling yourself that all you want zipp and you'll continue to sound foolish. If these Nike kids wouldn't fit into Pitinos system then why do he recruit them every year?
And if I want Nike kids maybe Louisville should sign with Nike. I can't help that I wanna see a few soon to be nba stars on the team especially for entertainment purposes.
It makes no difference who you "recruit". Pitino has signed ONE Rivals 5-star kid since 2008. As I understand, most 5-star kids are Nike kids. Looks like I've been foolish for at least seven years.
And that's fine with me because I'm not interested in a kid who's overly interested in his shoes. If I was a betting man, I'd bet the kid also wants to get to the NBA ASAP, misses too many free throws and can't shoot as well as he should be able to, doesn't wanna really work that hard, and has a lotta hangers-on whispering in his ears.
Those kinda future NBA stars don't entertain me all that much...
And that's fine with me because I'm not interested in a kid who's overly interested in his shoes. If I was a betting man, I'd bet the kid also wants to get to the NBA ASAP, misses too many free throws and can't shoot as well as he should be able to, doesn't wanna really work that hard, and has a lotta hangers-on whispering in his ears.
Those kinda future NBA stars don't entertain me all that much...
You have to ask yourself what you want. Wins and banners, or flashy one and dones who fold late? Sounds like you've been overcome with UK envy.
You're inferring Louisville isn't a name school... I'm going to stop discussing this with you now.
Lockdowncard has always been a "different" kind of Louisville fan. Nothing wrong with that, but maybe his perception is skewed more towards what attracts the younger generation. Exactly what has Kansas done to surpass UofL in the last 50 years? 1 less Championship? 1 more Final Four? A bunch of conference championships in a football conference? It's all hype, and some like the hype. There's nothing about Kansas on the basketball court that sets them apart from UofL in the last decade, and I highly doubt any of these recruits knows what was going on in the basketball world when they were 7 years old. The ONLY thing making Kansas more attractive, is their recent 1-and-done players. Doesn't matter if Josh Selby or Cliff Alexander are ready for the league, they're declaring anyway because that's what attracted them to the program in the first place. I'm perfectly fine if Kansas continues to get the 1-and-wannabes while UofL gets the 2-4 year players who take a little while to develop. I prefer it actually.
Of course not.You're inferring Louisville isn't a name school... I'm going to stop discussing this with you now.
If you know me then you know how I feel about Kansas. Looks like me and you feel the same way about Kansas being vastly overrated and does less with so much more than every team not named Duke or Kentucky. With that being said you gotta ask yourself self what the hell are they doing to be get these players and what are they doing to deserve so much hype and praise?
That's true and I've actually gone from thinking you're a troll to liking you as a poster because of it.
To me, the difference is Bill Self "gets guys to the NBA", and I can't put enough emphasis on those quotation marks. What did he do for the careers of Henry, Selby, Wiggins, Embiid, Oubre, Alexander, etc? How did those guys help Kansas, and why are those the type of players you want UofL to be getting? Yes, they bring the hype and the cameras will follow, but that hype hasn't led to any more success than UofL is having. Kansas has actually gotten worse as a program since relying on all these one and done guys. Self needs veterans like Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, the Morris twins, and Thomas Robinson to win in the postseason, not young guns with one foot out the door.
Think about how much hype Kansas and their 1-and-done players have recieved in the last few years. And look at what this hype earned them in the postseason
Xavier Henry - 2nd round exit
Andrew Wiggins - 2nd round exit
Joel Embiid - 2nd round exit
Cliff Alexander - 2nd round exit
Kelly Oubre - 2nd round exit
Josh Selby barely saw the court for KU's Elite Eight team after being suspended for illegal benefits
No thanks. I like what UofL has going on without the hype and drama of 1-and-wannabes.
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Make no mistake that those guys you mentioned are great players and I wouldn't think twice about having them here at Louisville. I don't want them because of the hype, but I want them because of what I believe Pitino can do with these type of guys. Just imagine having wiggins,russ,trez,luke,blackshear and rozier and we're looking at back to back titles. Now imagine oubre,alexander,trez,blackshear,jones,
rozier and we are poised for another serious title run.
And that quote about Self getting players to the league is a joke. Those players were nba ready right out of high school.
What you're missing is that Wiggins isn't going to come play for UofL to split possessions with Russ, Rozier, and Harrell. Wiggins and players like him go somewhere where they can be "the man", and that isn't going to happen as a freshman under Pitino. I don't want it to either. We're better off having Peyton's, Russ's, Gorgui's, Rozier's, Harrell's as our guys without having the flair of NBA ready players. Oubre doesn't want to split minutes with Blackshear. Alexander doesn't want to split with Harrell. D'Angelo Russell didn't want to lose minutes to Rozier. It's why those guys don't come to UofL, because we have experienced players that they will be splitting minutes with. If they want to earn minutes, they have to do so with defense and most of the guys that see themselves as "NBA ready" aren't willing to do that.
Notice the quotes around "Self gets them to the league". Yes, it was a joke. Only 2 of the 6 guys I listed were even ready for the league when they left KU. It's another place where players go if they have 1 foot out the door. Sometimes it leads to success, but most of the time it leads to nice regular season records with postseason flame outs.
I am sorry but I have to disagree with alot of you on here. Tom has not made one mistake. Not one. Adidas has made us their premier program and has paid us a ton of money helping us be the most profitable program in the nation. That is smart, not a mistake.
As for Kragthorpe, it looks like it was a mistake on the surface but it really wasn't. Tom knew the next few years after Bobby left were going to be rough. He's even admitted so citing some of the issues that Bobby left behind that needed to be cleaned up. So he knows that the next few years are going to be hard to get through so he brings in his good friend from Tulsa to sort of "fall on the sword" for lack of a better term. Krags gets paid very well to come here and be with his good friend and take the fall from what they both knew was coming. Once, they weeded out the issues, out goes Krags and in comes Charlie. So Tom didn't make a mistake with the hire, he more or less helped a friend get him through a stretch that everyone knew was going to be tough.
As for Kragthorpe, it looks like it was a mistake on the surface but it really wasn't. Tom knew the next few years after Bobby left were going to be rough. He's even admitted so citing some of the issues that Bobby left behind that needed to be cleaned up. So he knows that the next few years are going to be hard to get through so he brings in his good friend from Tulsa to sort of "fall on the sword" for lack of a better term. Krags gets paid very well to come here and be with his good friend and take the fall from what they both knew was coming. Once, they weeded out the issues, out goes Krags and in comes Charlie. So Tom didn't make a mistake with the hire, he more or less helped a friend get him through a stretch that everyone knew was going to be tough.
I'm as big a Jurich fan as there is. But retrospectively, hiring Krags was a mistake. And Jurich would privately admit that, maybe publicly at this point.
Was it JURICH's mistake would be a good question. At the time of his hire, Krags was a hot commodity, and few if anyone questioned the hire. But his style of coaching coming behind Petrino and the kids we had in the program in 2006 was a disaster in the making. Unfortunately, we only realized that after the mistake was made.
But was it a mistake?...Absolutely. And it is the only big one that can come anywhere close to being laid at Jurich's feet...
Was it JURICH's mistake would be a good question. At the time of his hire, Krags was a hot commodity, and few if anyone questioned the hire. But his style of coaching coming behind Petrino and the kids we had in the program in 2006 was a disaster in the making. Unfortunately, we only realized that after the mistake was made.
But was it a mistake?...Absolutely. And it is the only big one that can come anywhere close to being laid at Jurich's feet...
I'm not buying any of that about krags not being a mistake. Any coach that loses four in a row to uk is a MISTAKE.
Krags set the program back a decade imo..luckily we had a savior in coach Strong to resurrect the program.
He, whose name we will not speak, did everything short of burning down Papa John's Stadium in his efforts that set back Cardinal Football years! TJ hired him and I'm sure he owns this error in judgement. However, how about props for a nice recovery in bringing in Charlie and CBP?
Who cares what the championship has done for us recruiting wise? Its a championship which should be the ultimate goal. We won it with the types of players we are recruiting have had now. Recruiting titles are nice but it really doesn't matter if you have all 5 stars or 2 stars if you are winning. That should be the ultimate goal not saying you have X many McdAAs
I understand your point to an extent. Last time I recalled we 3 McDonald's all Americans in chane,Wayne siva.
Kansas much like UK are in a football conference were they are the only school that takes football seriously. Bill Self has had pretty much ZERO success with the 1 and done system IMO. The year he won the title he had Seniors Jackson, Kaun, and RussellRobinson. Juniors Marion Chalmers and Brandon rush. Sophomores Collins and Darell Arthur.
Then the year they lost to UK in the finals he had senior Taylor and Releford . junoir Robinson and Whitey, and johnson. He much like Pitino does better with more veteran squads IMO
LPT fans freak out because they're obsessed with recruiting, and because they know how good their coach is at actual coaching. It's like Stupes and football. They need BETTER talent than the other team to offset their true coaching deficiencies.
If LPT couldn't win with this past year's basketball team and with a team like they had in 2010, they know how important it is that their recruiting goes over the top. They're not there yet for this coming season, nowhere close.
"Elite program", my a$$...
If LPT couldn't win with this past year's basketball team and with a team like they had in 2010, they know how important it is that their recruiting goes over the top. They're not there yet for this coming season, nowhere close.
"Elite program", my a$$...
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