The Kentucky Wildcats basketball program had taken a pretty big hit in the offseason with the loss of senior guards Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford, but then the transfer of junior-to-be guard Derrick Jasper hit all Kentucky fans right where it hurts.
With the loss of Bradley, Crawford, and Jasper, the Wildcats lose two of their top three leading scorers. But the Wildcats do return sophomore Patrick Patterson in the post, plus junior guard/forward Jodie Meeks, who had a season full of injuries with a groin pull and a sports hernia and only got to play sparingly last season.
The Cats' backcourt is very much depleted and will have to turn to new players, besides Jodie Meeks, to step up and lead the Cats. But Coach Billy Gillispie has a very good and very deep class coming in to address the backcourt problems in 2008.
The Cats picked up three very good guards to help the backcourt. JUCO transfer guard Kevin Galloway (6'7") can play both the guard and forward spots. Kentucky's Mr. Basketball and highly anticipated incoming freshman Darius Miller (6'7") can also play both the guard and forward spots and will instantly help the Cats' backcourt, as well as incoming freshman guard Deandre Liggins (6'5").
Liggins is having trouble qualifying for UK, but all the news that I have heard on Liggins indicate that he is on track to get into UK and will qualify. I can only hope so.
All three of these very good pickups by Coach Gillispie will step in immediately and help the Cats instantly—and in a very big way.
With the addition of these three players, along with Jodie Meeks, Patrick Patterson, Perry Stevenson, and the rest of the deep Kentucky bench, the Cats have the talent and the coaching to have a much more successful season than last season and the previous seasons.
Nevertheless, the loss of Ramel Bradley, Joe Crawford, and Derrick Jasper will hurt the Cats. But Gillispie picked up three very talented players that can and will step in and help the Cats immediately.
Look for the Cats to have a much more successful season in '08-09. It may be a slow and rocky start to the season, but once the very talented incoming class gets used to the system and style of play, the Cats will be very successful.
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3 months ago
Any word on why Jasper left? And do you think Patterson intends to stay a full four years?
from 3 months ago
The word was that he was homesick. Patterson has said on multiple occasions that he was here to stay and wanted an education. Hopefully he stays all four years.
3 months ago
You said twice that UK should have a more successful season in 08-09 than they have in the past several years - my question is, what's the benchmark for a successful season in Lexington now? The Cats haven't made it to the Sweet 16 or won the SEC in the last three seasons, and my assumption is even if they made it back to the second weekend of the tournament, that wouldn't be enough for some UK fans...and either way it's difficult for me to see how there should be such an improvement with the loss of these three guys. Are these incoming players really going to contribute more than Bradley, Crawford and Jasper?
from 3 months ago
Last season, the Cats had one of the most injury filled seasons in the history of UK basketball. With Bradley getting pretty much knocked out at UGA, Patterson's ankle problems that sidelined him for the last few games in the regular season and all he tournaments, Meeks couldn't hardly play at all the whole season, and Crawford wasn't even close to 100% for some of the season with a foot ijury and couldn;t hardly run.
Even with all these injuries and players hurt, Gillispie still won games with the bench and had them playing pretty darn good. Liggins(if he can qualify), Miller, Galloway will all do great things for the Cats once they get settled in and learn Gillispie's system.
3 months ago
I'm pretty sure Crawford will be the most difficult of this trio to be replaced. He was an oversized shooting guard who could fill it up and take it to the rack.
3 months ago
Will the freshman do not have to replace Jasper, Crawford and Bradley on their own the improvement of the other players will carry the load.
Jordan had it right talking about all of the injuries. If we didn't have Jasper, Meeks, and Patterson out like we did last year we wouldn't have lost all of those easier games at the beginning of the season. We would have still lost to IU, N.C. and UofL but the others we would have likely had. Add wins from Gardner Webb, UAB, Houston, and San Diego you are talking about a team that wouldn't have been on the bubble and would have had a higher seed. Then we would have had Patterson in the tourney to get us likely to the sweet 16 without to much of a challenge.
2 months ago
Nope, UK will be pretty bad next season. I'm sure Jasper left cuz Gillespie is a major asshole who overworked his players into injuries like I've NEVER seen in one college season anywhere. Legion left cuz of him, and others will, too. No way Patterson stays for 4 years.
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