What Conclusions Can We Draw?

Lwcat
Wildcats Thunder Senior Moderator

It's always fun to speculate......so here goes.... now we are seeing some 11th hour recruit invites to UK and perhaps an offer or two from BCG.

What conclusions can we draw from this concerning our roster for next season?

First, with Calasan(left) has evaluated the current , a 6'9" PF being invited and apparently offered a scholarship. For me, this means that BCG frontline roster and concluded what many of us at Wildcats Thunder have said.....the frontline is unproven and very inexperienced. Injuries, foul trouble and perhaps even a transfer could spell big trouble for UK next season. There is no question that getting Patterson was a huge get for the Cats, but we still have to remember that Patterson will be a freshman next year. So as BCG has looked at the frontline roster of Carter, Harris, Stewart, Williams, Stevenson and Patterson.....he apparently has concluded that if he can add an good frontline JC player like Calasan it would give the Cats much needed help to shore up a weak frontline. Even acknowledging the obvious weakness of UK's frontline, I don't believe for a minute that BCG would offer a scholarship to Calasan unless he and the staff felt he could contribute meaningful minutes next year.

Certainly, the invitation for Thorns(left) to visit is very interesting and surprising. In looking at the UK roster, one can make the case that UK is very strong and loaded in the backcourt. So why is BCG even looking at Thorns? Well, if we go back to last year we remember that Bradley, Jasper and, to a lesser extent, Porter all played PG, but none excelled. We recall that ball handling and decision making from the PG position too often left a lot to be desired. Now to be sure, one could say that at least some of the problems experienced at the PG position falls on the offense and the lack of development coming from Tubby and his staff. We all know how very critical the PG position is and will be in running BCG's offense. While Bradley can play the PG, it is obviously not his strong suit....he is a shooting guard. Jasper, started off last year looking pretty well at PG, but as the competition increased Jasper struggled in his ball handling, shooting and even free throw shooting. Now obviously we all expect all these players to show improvement under BCG and his staff, but will the improvement at the PG position be enough? It appears that BCG has serious questions as to whether any of the UK guards can run his offense effectively, so he is looking for someone who can. Thorns, apparently much overlooked because of his lack of AAU exposure has garnered some attention from Virginia, VT, UK and a few others. My understanding is that BCG wants Thorns to visit and scrimmage against the Cats to get a feel for whether he can be a future UK PG. Also, BCG might have some concern regarding one of the UK guards transferring out, although there has been no evidence of that as yet. Again, I don't believe for a minute that a scholarship would be offered to Thorns unless BCG and the staff concluded that thorns has the quickness, ball handling and decision making to run a UK offense.

My conclusion is that BCG wants to win now! He is not looking at next year as a rebuilding year, although it will be hard to avoid. Gillispie wants the UK program to start winning now and he is pulling out all stops on the recruiting trail to make that happen.

BCG knows that to have the best chance of being competitive and winning.....he must have a reliable PG. Also, he knows, as we all do, that he must shore up the UK frontline to compete in the rugged SEC. Now, he may not add either of these recruits to the roster.....but, the fact that he is seriously looking at these positions is very revealing.

As I said, speculating can be fun....in any case these are my thoughts on the matter.