Gottlieb Rips the Squid

[CTBasketball]

http://www.aseaofblue.com/2014/10/2...hots-at-john-calipari-and-kentucky-basketball

Really goes into detail about how his system and how he abuses players is bad for the game. I agree, for once, with Gottlieb on every level. Maybe his move to Westport will turn him into a UConn fan? Not likely, but this is a start.

 

[CAHUSKY]

This is actually the link to Gottlieb's article. The other one goes to an SB Nation critique of the article. http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...ipari-succeed-and-proceed-and-kentuckys-depth

 

[UconnU]

He's spot on with the depth comment. Depth is only valuable if you have an injury or have a bunch of foul prone players and it works to your disadvantage if you have too much depth where you have good players who aren't getting enough touches. This Kentucky team is deep and big but are they really that good? Seems like he had a decent class come in but everyone else are the players who were supposed to leave early but werent good enough. The great ones are gone. Is there much difference between their 3rd guy and than their 9th guy? How will the 9th guy feel that a player of equal talent is getting that much more touches? The whole thing will blow up.

 

[RichZ]

He goes off on his 'too much depth' tangent, and comes up with this gem.

"The Cowboys' lack of interior talent, depth and the presence of a second ball handler opposite Marcus Smart became their ultimate undoing. "

He kind of ignores the fact that Smart simply wasn't nearly as good (or smart) as the press had built him up to be.

 

[Tampahusky]

He likes Ollie and has said good things about the program. You can't agree w everything he's says but for the most part he's fair. I like him.

 

[J-dog]

I just find Gottlieb hard to stomach…

I know he was just a kid when he stole him room-mates credit card @ ND, but I still find it hard to listen to his critiques of others, whether on the radio or in print.

It may be unfair but when you do something like that, even as a kid, it just speaks to a persons character, or lack there of...

 

[Gurleyman]

Not sure what the statue of limitations should be on f-ups, but I still can't stop myself from thinking of him on air telling one of our recruits that he should back out of his verbal.

It was four and a half years ago, so I suppose I should let it go, but it still chaps my nether regions.

 

[champs99and04]

He's spot on with the depth comment. Depth is only valuable if you have an injury or have a bunch of foul prone players and it works to your disadvantage if you have too much depth where you have good players who aren't getting enough touches. This Kentucky team is deep and big but are they really that good? Seems like he had a decent class come in but everyone else are the players who were supposed to leave early but werent good enough. The great ones are gone. Is there much difference between their 3rd guy and than their 9th guy? How will the 9th guy feel that a player of equal talent is getting that much more touches? The whole thing will blow up.

I disagree. In fact, Kentucky's depth last season was one of the main reasons they were able to advance as far as they did - when Willie Cauley-Stein went down, they were able to slide Marcus Lee and Dakari Johnson right in and not lose much. Meanwhile, teams like Arizona and Syracuse - that played mainly six or seven guys - were wagons before injuries and slumps derailed their season. This board bags on Boeheim all the time for not developing enough depth, so you can't then turn around and discredit Cal for accumulating as much as it as possible.

He also mentions UConn as an example of a team that won without depth, but I'm not sure I agree. By the end of the season, Ollie was regularly playing eight guys, and without the emergence of Terrence Samuel, we might not win the championship.

Obviously depth isn't as important as having great players, and Cal's "platoon system" is taking things to the extreme. Seven guys can be enough - and Cal really only played six during his one championship run - but it's preferable to have eight or nine.

 

[TheChamps990411]

Last seasons CHAMPIONSHIP team is a perfect example of depth being overrated. Uk was deeper and bigger than us at nearly every position but you can only play 5 guys at a time and if my 5 can outplay your 5 then i win its that simple. Sure you dont want to have no depth but going 8 guys deep is pretty much all you need.

I think if we play Uk again this year the Harrisons are going to have the same issues dealling with our smaller quick guards and the result will likely be the same. We won the title because our guards were simply better and that neutralized all of uks other advantages.