"Zero Percent..."

[the artist FKA zipp]

I guess I don't follow the area teams closely enough in and out of season to accurately gauge their performance. And the above quote was just one guy's opinion--Rick Bozich--on Andy Sweeney's radio show Friday afternoon.

The question posed to Bozich was what percentage did you give each of the area teams--U of L, IU, and the slapd!cks--that their performance would be where it currently is? His answer for U of L was 15%, and for the other two, it was 0% each. Moreover, his answers were pretty definitive and didn't cause him to do any second guessing.

So as pitiful as U of L is performing, in his opinion, the Hoosiers and Pussycats are doing worse, relatively speaking.

I'm not sure how that can be as incredibly and historically bad as we are. Maybe Bozich was just expecting U of L to be bad. How does his asssessment sync up with what other people see in these three teams? I know I was surprised to hear how he ranked the three teams in this respect...

 

[Ipartiedwithhopgood]

IU has had key injuries difficult to evaluate them.

UK preseason T5 with returning NPOY yeah they are way off their projection.

He never has respected UofL's program and he thinks UofL is closer to where they should always be. He always came off as a smug elitist to me.

 

[Louisvillian]

It’s rare territory for a program like Louisville’s but it shouldn’t have been totally unexpected.

This team finished last season 3-15 and started this year with less talent across the board and a new coaching staff with a first time head coach. Granted, much more is expected of KP, Nolan Smith and Danny Manning compared to an interim coach just trying to finish out a lost season.

Regardless it’s mid January now and time to start scratching out some wins.

 

[Ipartiedwithhopgood]

Yesterday's results confirm why UofL truly is way out of their supposed to be position while IU and UK have time to correct their seasons and are in more fluid situations. They both got big wins yesterday and their seasons already look differently than they did just 24 hours ago. Basically Bozich's snapshot time of analysis on them was just that. Whereas UofL is clearly stuck in their suck for a long long time.

 

[2330859]

Not so much about IU, but UK is a legitimate developing national story, as ESPN has been filling up a lot of their air devoted to questioning how the Cats can be this bad with so much depth of talent and unfulfilled expectations, and they too are acknowledging that seriousness about a coaching change. Last year’s humiliating loss to St Peter was bad enough, but losing to So Carolina at home is truly hard to explain. Not to take anything away from their win yesterday in Knoxville, the Vols played about as bad as any time I can recall.

 

[the artist FKA zipp]

I didn’t watch IU yesterday although I suspect the same forces were at work.

If those two other teams are performing as poorly again expectations as Bozich implies, they’re probably getting better opponents overlooking them. Tennessee might beat LPT four out of five games.

I doubt anything fundamentally changed. Slapd!ck fans think their win mostly had to do with which players were getting PT, and that their coach is gonna change how he’s managing the game. Tennessee played a bad game, and LPT only scored 63 points.

It’s far more likely the outcome yesterday was due to Tennessee than the slappies. We’ll see…

 

[Ipartiedwithhopgood]

The issue for Bozich is he may have held UK and IU in too high of regard to begin with. You got to rank somebody. But maybe UK should have been fringe T25 and IU should have been unranked to start the season.

Landscape is full blown parity. Maybe TN and WI just aren't that good either.

 

[2330859]

UK will always be ranked high in pre-season based entirely on their high ranked recruiting class. Having the previous POY returning only added to the high expectations.

 

[Thecycle27]

UK or IU shouldn’t be struggling like they have. They both had way too many pieces coming back to struggle like they have. However both can beat anyone. UK has enough talent to go to the Final Four. Kentucky is going to figure things out. The SEC is not that good. IU could make a good run as well if things come together.

Louisville is worse than I expected that is saying something because I thought they would be really bad.

 

[LouisvilleKid79]

Agree that IU and UK should not be struggling like they have. UK has enough talent to make a Final Four run for sure.

IU looked great to start the season. I thought they were legit after seeing them beat UNC early. IU has several head scratching losses with a few by a couple of points. IU may end up being a fringe bubble tournament team. They have some nice pieces though.