Kentucky highly touted freshmen may be the most talented team EVER TO MISS THE BIG DANCE

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John Calipari is something of a recruiting genius. Since arriving at Kentucky he has managed to bring in the #1 class in the country 4 out of 5 years. The problem that Kentucky has continually had to overcome is the fact that many of those high profile top recruits, only are coming to college because of the NBA rule against entering the draft directly out of high school. This leaves the Wildcats in the position of having to re-tool their entire starting lineup and replace almost every player in the rotation, YEARLY. It's a situation that is both incredibly fortunate and incredibly frustrating for Coach Calipari at various times throughout the year.

While he continues to cherry pick EXTREMELY heralded and talented recruits that would most likely be starting no matter what team they played on, they are still freshmen. Depending on such young players at every position is risky no matter how talented they are and they are still developing in terms of strength and mental ability in terms of decision making. Many of them have never experienced adversity on the basketball court, these are the players that could roll out of bed and drop 50 back in high school but playing together as a team and winning isn't quite that easy. Just because you have the most talented roster does not guarantee the ultimate success of an NCAA Championship. Just as the Yankees found out they could not buy a championship, throwing hundreds of millions at the top free agents year after year got them many wins, just not when it counted most. Calipari is a savant when it comes to recruiting. He's done it everywhere he's been and while rivals cry foul, coach Cal gets many of the so called "one and done" phenoms just passing through college.

When Nerlens Noel went down with his season ending injury the Wildcats fell apart even though they still had 3 other freshmen rated a 95, 97 and 97 out of 100 by ESPN recruiting. The backup center when Noel was playing was Willie Cauley, himself a 4 star recruit. I don't understand why Kentucky, Calipari or these players for that matter are getting a pass just because they lost Noel. 95% of college teams could only dream of having two four/five star recruits, let alone 4 just in last years incoming class. While Nerlens Noel was no doubt a huge piece of what Kentucky was doing and had the ability to change the game with his incredible shot blocking ability(2nd in the country at the time of his injury I believe) and rebounding. With a team full of Mcdonalds All-Americans and even guys that don't need to bother to wear a jersey beneath that Wildcat warm up that could not only play at numerous D-1 schools but start they should be able to fight their way into this watered down/expanded field that is the NCAA tournament.

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/78513/thursday-observations

Coach gets a little froggy during timeout...

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Coach Mike Montgomery isn't Bob Knight 2.0, not even close really, but in the media age that we live in today he should certainly know better then to push one of his players....in front of 10's of thousands of fans, on a nationally televised game....even if it is with the best of intentions.

Yes, I do think this whole situation got blown out of proportion.  The player in question, Allen Crabbe, did his best to defuse all of the hoopla by defending his coach after the game. Crabbe is the leading scorer on the  Cal Golden Bears while also leading the entire league in scoring. Prior to that forgettable moment Montgomery found his team losing by as many as 15 points in the second half while Crabbe seemed to be coasting. Whether it was the push both literally and figuratively from his coach or simply a big time scorer stepping up when he was needed, California rallied for the win with Crabbe putting up 10 points, nearly half of his entire total output of 23 for the game.

The biggest problem with situations such as this is the inequality of the public's reaction. While I've heard the so called experts talk about a good man losing his head "in the heat of the battle" and ask that we move on, I simply ask this, If the situation were reversed and after missing a few shots Crabbe had let his frustration get the better of him and shoved his coach would he be given the same benefit of the doubt? I HIGHLY HIGHLY DOUBT IT!

From everything that's been reported Mike Montgomery has a close relationship with Allen Crabbe and there is no reason to believe that he isn't being 100% honest when he says he was only trying to get his head in the game and the overreaction on his part by going beyond words and getting physical was a once in a lifetime mistake that will never happen again. Obviously situations like this need to be judged on a case by case basis by both the NCAA and individual teams, I just hope that in the future those "experts" are willing to give a young man/women who happens to get caught up in the heat of the moment the same benefit of the doubt if he's earned the reputation of character traits such as having a good character.

So, what do you think the NCAA or California University needs to do in this situation???

Please post answers on the poll at top of the page so we can see what the verdict of the readers is!

Out with the old and in with the new

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The L.A. Lakers and Kobe Bryant have been an NBA powerhouse throughout the history of the league....back in the day it was Jerry West, Bill Walton, Kareem and then came the trade for the most dominant big man of his generation....Shaq. When the time came to choose between their aging big-man and their rising superstar in Kobe Bryant the Lakers chose to put their faith in Kobe. At that point the Lakers had won rings with Kobe, but Kobe had never won rings without Shaq, he got that proverbial monkey off his back while cementing his legacy as one of the greatest in the game, one of the greatest in history by the time he hangs em up....After last seasons embarrassing end the Lakers went into the off season with needs and came into the year with a revamped lineup that could be it's scariest in years with the addition of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash while retaining Pao Gasol. Scary on paper doesn't get you wins though, and the one thing that the Lakers are doing a lot of this year is LOSING. 

In a game that seemingly featured half of the league's all stars, the consistent championship contender and 5 time NBA champion Kobe Bryant and the Lakers vs last years NBA champion Heat. With the win the Heat moved further ahead in the race for the #1 seed in the East while the Lakers dropped to 4 games under .500 and 10th place in the West. Kobe is scoring 2 points per game more then his career average this season but he's now in his 17th year and combine that with the fact that he's played in the post season(and played deep into it) throughout his career, his body has got to be getting worn down, and the losing isn't helping.

Maybe the changing of the guard came later then some expected but it's happening one way or another....if it's not the Heat then it's the Thunder