Who's going to UK/UNC Alumni game?
- Thread starter jchammock
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After seeing our proposed roster, I don't see how we keep it within 20 points. This will be a recruiting showcase for Calshady at UNC's expense.
Well IC just posted the roster for UNC and it's not good. Folks, this is going to get really ugly on Sunday. I don't know why our guys would agree to play this game.
Told you guys I couldn't see this being a close game. If this was 5 years ago, we would blow them out.
It would be close if our NBA guys showed up... Lawson,Green,Hans,Davis,Williams,Wright, Bullock.... Plenty of talent that's not playing
I don't think some of them have permission to play. Plus, this isn't really a UNC event. It is a UK event that ex-UNC guys can play in if they want. I kind of understand people not being motivated to cancel whatever else they have going on for it.
What I've been saying since the jump. There's no upside IMO and the fact it's UNC instead of dook, Kansas, etc. doesn't sway that opinion even a little bit.
I bet UNC wins. There will be no defense played. The team that is supposed to lose big will have a chip on its shoulder while the team expected to win big will have the "just don't get hurt" mentality. Anthony Davis isn't playing.
They have raised a lot of money for Dean Smith's charity. I don't see the negative here for you guys. It's entertainment without any pressure. A feelgood event for both programs.
They have raised a lot of money for Dean Smith's charity. I don't see the negative here for you guys. It's entertainment without any pressure. A feelgood event for both programs.
If it wasn't for HB40 showing up they would have lost by 30 .. Wish we could have gotten some more alumni out there
The fathers of college basketball coaching were guys like James Naismith, Adolph Rupp, Phog Allen and Henry Iba. After their time, we had another wave of coaches spearheaded by the legendary John Wooden, who we all know was arguably the greatest our game has ever seen and an absolutely wonderful human being. But one guy I want to shed a little more light on today who had an immeasurable impact on our game and a guy who I think our fans need to know a little more about is Dean Smith.
When you think about what Dean Smith did – two national titles, 11 Final Fours and countless ACC championships – and you think about all the lives he touched while he was the coach at North Carolina, you can make a case that he’s one of our game’s top two or three coaches of all time.
I can remember thinking to myself as a young coach, “Will I ever be able to coach this team in an innovative way or will I always follow the pack?” When I went to Dean Smith’s basketball camp as a counselor and began to work for Larry Brown, who played and coached under Dean Smith, he gave me the vision to make it about the kids. He made everything he did about them.
It may seem crazy to think that something so logical as making it about the kids as innovative, but Dean Smith made it part of the foundation that we coach on today. You’ve heard me say many times that during the season it’s about our team but the minute it’s over it’s about each individual player. Well, I got that straight from Dean Smith. He spoke that way through the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s and he inspired me to do the same.
Dean Smith was the original players-first coach. He was the original coach who developed players, yet built a team and let those players drag the program. That’s exactly what we’re trying to do now.
Larry Brown once told me that Coach Smith’s secretary was not to bother him with phone calls unless it was his players. If a call came through from one of his players, it did not matter who was in his office, what meeting he was in or what he was doing; she was to break in on the conversation and put him through to the player – who, by the way, may have played for him 20 years ago and just needed his advice on something.
Dean Smith never forgot a name, he never forgot a birthday, he never forgot a play, a game or a moment. He had an amazing memory for his players.
Coach Smith’s foundation for his program was innovation and his innovation was caring about kids. Everything he did – every innovation he had – was done so with his players at heart.
I’ll give you a few examples of just how ahead of his time he was.
Analytics have become the craze in basketball. With everything we chart, study and break down, analytics are helping revolutionize our game. I hate to break the news to everyone that the science of it isn’t all that new. Coach Smith wrote a book in the early 1970s that talked about analytics. He detailed offensive efficiency, defensive efficiency and points per possession, and he wrote of the importance of evaluating tape and grading each player per possession.
On the basketball court, what he did with trapping, the way he did it, what he did with the point zone and how his teams attacked on the fast-break were truly ahead of what any other coach was doing at the time. His on-court success backs that up. I’d love to ask his early assistants what innovative things he did that he tried but failed. To me, those would be just as interesting as all the things he tried that worked. I know he wasn’t afraid to try if he thought it would help his players and his program.
And I don’t know if Dean Smith was the original coach who hired former players to join his staff, but no one has taken it to the level he did. His coaching tree, whose branches continue to spread into our game today, is absolutely ridiculous, and many of those coaches used to play for him.
Probably the biggest example I can come up with to show you how far ahead of his time he was how he promoted desegregation. He sat at one of the Woolworth counters with a black student and a pastor as they integrated a local Chapel Hill restaurant. He helped another black student at North Carolina buy a house in an all-white neighborhood. And of course, he recruited Charlie Scott as the university’s first black scholarship athlete.
I’d like to think that in today’s age we would have all done what Dean Smith did, but if you think about North Carolina at the time, Coach Smith put his job in jeopardy. He would not put his job ahead of the rights of human beings. He was not afraid to take a chance on what he believed was right over what was popular.
I could go on and on about everything Dean Smith stood for, but as I rehab this morning and I think about what we’re trying to do here, how we are trying to be the gold standard, it basically means being innovative like Coach Smith. We can’t be afraid to try new things whether it’s how we play basketball, how we treat our children or how we run this program.
Dean Smith was truly a great coach and it can be argued that he was the best at what he did. He is a great man that our fans – whether you like North Carolina or not – need to know and remember. He impacted our game and our program in so many ways and I can’t thank him enough for making such an impact on how we do things at the University of Kentucky.
John Calipari
Got to give John C some kudos for being part of this game which was not about the final score but raising funds for some great charitys and for his honest praise of Coach Smith and the impact Coach Smith had on the game of basketball.
All in all, I like the charity aspect of the game. But that's where it ends. Despite the 122-115 score, If you watched, it was a glorified recruiting commercial for UK and Slimy the whole time. It seemed like half the game was filled with in game interviews with Cal himself. As a competitor, the talent disparity of participants for UK and our UNC team were about as wide as you could get on the spectrum. UK's roster featured pretty much every notable player from Cal's years at UK, most of them still young guys and recent lottery picks. Our roster outside of Barnes, featured old heads like Jerry Stackhouse and Shammond Williams, along with people like Dexter Strickland, JMM, Bobby Frasor and Leslie McDonald. Wes Miller even was in uniform.
I just think we got suckered into the event under the charity mantra, only for it to really be about UK and the disparity in talent only made it more beneficial to them. Anybody with a clue knows that if all the UNC players currently in the NBA showed up like the UK guys did, that we would have won, quite handily I believe but nonetheless, I just left yesterday feelings like we were extras in a UK sales pitch.
I just think we got suckered into the event under the charity mantra, only for it to really be about UK and the disparity in talent only made it more beneficial to them. Anybody with a clue knows that if all the UNC players currently in the NBA showed up like the UK guys did, that we would have won, quite handily I believe but nonetheless, I just left yesterday feelings like we were extras in a UK sales pitch.
All in all, I like the charity aspect of the game. But that's where it ends. Despite the 122-115 score, If you watched, it was a glorified recruiting commercial for UK and Slimy the whole time. It seemed like half the game was filled with in game interviews with Cal himself. As a competitor, the talent disparity of participants for UK and our UNC team were about as wide as you could get on the spectrum. UK's roster featured pretty much every notable player from Cal's years at UK, most of them still young guys and recent lottery picks. Our roster outside of Barnes, featured old heads like Jerry Stackhouse and Shammond Williams, along with people like Dexter Strickland, JMM, Bobby Frasor and Leslie McDonald. Wes Miller even was in uniform.
I just think we got suckered into the event under the charity mantra, only for it to really be about UK and the disparity in talent only made it more beneficial to them. Anybody with a clue knows that if all the UNC players currently in the NBA showed up like the UK guys did, that we would have won, quite handily I believe but nonetheless, I just left yesterday feelings like we were extras in a UK sales pitch.
I just think we got suckered into the event under the charity mantra, only for it to really be about UK and the disparity in talent only made it more beneficial to them. Anybody with a clue knows that if all the UNC players currently in the NBA showed up like the UK guys did, that we would have won, quite handily I believe but nonetheless, I just left yesterday feelings like we were extras in a UK sales pitch.
Calipari talked in his post game interview about him and Barnes setting it up for it being @UNC next year.
Of course it will still be for charity and not the final score.
Of course it will still be for charity and not the final score.
The Dean Smith foundation was the biggest winner of the game. I'm not sure how anyone can take a negative approach to this. The UNC players sure didn't.
The charities that won were:
4 Paws For Ability
The Starkey Hearing Foundation
Kids 2 Camp
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Equip, John Maxwell Group
Golden Door Scholars
CISE
Stand Up To Cancer
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Louisville Zoo
Alltech Sustainable Haiti Project
United Way of Central Kentucky
UNC Children’s Hospital
Hall of Fame Legacy Fund in memory of Dean Smith
Samaritans Feet
Urban League of Lexington-Fayette County
Team Focus
This wasn't about fans bragging rights or recruiting pitches. It was all for charity to the above list. Google anyone one of those charities and you can see it was for a great cause. Some notables that I also give to is St. Judes and United Way.
4 Paws For Ability
The Starkey Hearing Foundation
Kids 2 Camp
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Equip, John Maxwell Group
Golden Door Scholars
CISE
Stand Up To Cancer
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Louisville Zoo
Alltech Sustainable Haiti Project
United Way of Central Kentucky
UNC Children’s Hospital
Hall of Fame Legacy Fund in memory of Dean Smith
Samaritans Feet
Urban League of Lexington-Fayette County
Team Focus
This wasn't about fans bragging rights or recruiting pitches. It was all for charity to the above list. Google anyone one of those charities and you can see it was for a great cause. Some notables that I also give to is St. Judes and United Way.
I completely agree. I watched the whole first half and about 5 minutes of the second half. Yes, it was a recruiting tactic by Cal. But all I have to say is...good idea. Maybe we should do the same thing. It's not like only one team can do it.
Secondly, as Clive has reminded us, this was a game to benefit charities. How on earth can anyone get worked up about that?
Thirdly, if you take the game and rivalries so seriously that you can't enjoy a game that means nothing, I advise you to get a new hobby.
Lastly, as far as the rosters, if it was in Chapel Hill, I'm guessing more of our guys would have shown. If indeed we do it again next year in Chapel Hill, I'm guessing we'll have quite a turnout. But to say "if our guys would have shown up, we'd win easily" is just an absurd comment. UK has a ton of talent.
I think it was a great thing for charity. Me, my wife & 2 kids went & had a nice time.
I don't believe that NBA teams wouldn't give our NBA guys permission to play.
T.Jones from the Rockets played but Lawson couldn't?
The Harrison twin from the Hornets played but no PJ or Hans.or M. Williams?
It was set up for UK to have their stars there & UNC to look 2nd rate.
I don't believe that NBA teams wouldn't give our NBA guys permission to play.
T.Jones from the Rockets played but Lawson couldn't?
The Harrison twin from the Hornets played but no PJ or Hans.or M. Williams?
It was set up for UK to have their stars there & UNC to look 2nd rate.
They were invited...........maybe they will show next year.
Seriously, if you think this all about recruiting, have Roy put together
a charity event and invite "K's" kids.
Now, that would be good.
People talking bad about this event pisses me off. There are more important things that wins and losses. 1.5 million to charities guys. Who gives a rats ass who we had playing for us at this point, its a glorified alumni game with probably the two best schools in the books. Hopefully we can do it home and away each year.
One last comment. During the game they had a whole segment on the 100 years event that honored Dean Smith and Capel had the floor. Capel talked constantly about he UNC family, just as Delk did the UK family. The only one sidedness was from the fact it was on UK's floor, but the telecast was far from one sided. Capel and ESPN did a very nice job to honor UNC's past, present and future.
Agree that it's silly for someone to get pissed off for anything about this game. Imagine how many people, that don't watch college basketball, that are about to benefit from it.
That's a lot of charities and 1.1 million dollars is a lot of money. All stemming from this one weekend.
Barnes deserves as much credit as Calipari.
Great post..great attitude...I bet fans like you are a bigger majority at UNC than those that opposed the game.
The vocal minority are the ones heard.......That's the fault of the silent majority. We have the same issues on our board.
The intent was presented with class. The game was positive from all angles. The broadcast was non-biased .
The only negative as I see it was UNC's better pros absence. Were they influenced by the negative attitude of some fans. At times, it's best to lay differences aside for the betterment of a common good.
As far as a recruiting advantage goes, someone posted here that UNC could have won if their better pros had played.
Would that have given UNC more positive recruiting position. Don't know, but wouldn't have hurt.
Jim and Mike, I hope you don't ban me. But I really don't understand "ANY" negativity about this game.
I was there. Calipari went out of his way to try to make the UNC players at ease. Including numerous times thanking the UNC players perticipating.
This game didn't mean ish. Nobody played defense. Both teams knew that it was for charity, if UNC would have beat us by 20 it still wouldn't mean ish.
I can't believe anyone took this game serious!!!!!!!
I liked it and hope it continues next year.
The only thing I didn't like was some dip shit that kept giving out gift cards to fans on the floor during timeouts or TV breaks. During one break, he made a smart arse comment about the baby blue.
Other than that, I think anyone that was there would say it "WAS" just a charity event.
I was there. Calipari went out of his way to try to make the UNC players at ease. Including numerous times thanking the UNC players perticipating.
This game didn't mean ish. Nobody played defense. Both teams knew that it was for charity, if UNC would have beat us by 20 it still wouldn't mean ish.
I can't believe anyone took this game serious!!!!!!!
I liked it and hope it continues next year.
The only thing I didn't like was some dip shit that kept giving out gift cards to fans on the floor during timeouts or TV breaks. During one break, he made a smart arse comment about the baby blue.
Other than that, I think anyone that was there would say it "WAS" just a charity event.
^^^^ who was that guy? He was annoying as hell...I felt bad for the guy from Louisville that got booed.
Yeah, I think more guys will show up in CH next year if it goes down. This was a Kentucky event. Some UNC guys, mainly Barnes, just got some UNC guys together to play. If it was a UNC event it would have been quite different.
The charity aspect of it is great and I don't think the 'negatives' people have mentioned are relevant. They would only be relevant if they mattered. It didn't impact recruiting or matter to anyone in any real sense in terms of being negative for North Carolina. I mean, it was on opening weekend of the NFL. No one except for hardcore fans even knew about it. It didn't trend on Twitter. Recruits weren't interested. Casual basketball fans still don't even know it happened. It raised some money for charity and gave the super hardcore fans a chance to watch some ball.
I am sorry you fill that way, Hope most of UNC Fans enjoyed it Which the event was honoring Dean Smith .
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