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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Mount Kisco, NY

    Kentucky to host pre-season NBA Combine for its players

    Cal, once again, "raising the bar".

    Got to give the people...give the people what they want.

    Kentucky coach John Calipari finalizing unprecedented scouting combine for NBA personnel
    http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources...141704100.html

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Macon, GA
    Quote Originally Posted by Billy Dat View Post
    Cal, once again, "raising the bar".

    Got to give the people...give the people what they want.

    Kentucky coach John Calipari finalizing unprecedented scouting combine for NBA personnel
    http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources...141704100.html
    If this actually happens it will be huge for Kentucky. That Calipari guy knows what he doing and he is doing it well.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Boston, MA
    Quote Originally Posted by Ichabod Drain View Post
    If this actually happens it will be huge for Kentucky. That Calipari guy knows what he doing and he is doing it well.
    Gotta echo this. This is absolutely ingenious. Cal is, unfortunately, the best at recruiting, and it ain't even close. This is merely the icing on top of the cake (or the cherry on top of the icing, because Cal already has the icing and the rest of the blue chip schools have finished the cake)

    The Cal train isn't slowing down. I hate Cal...
    Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill

    President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Los Angeles
    I'm surprised he doesn't schedule it at the same time as their Big Blue Madness event (which I think is the following week), when the newest crop of recruits is on campus for that extravaganza. That way, the kids who are dreaming of the automatic, easy NBA riches they think come with committing to Kentucky will see tangible "proof" that this is where the NBA comes first when looking for talent.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Deeetroit City
    Quote Originally Posted by Billy Dat View Post
    ...

    Kentucky coach John Calipari finalizing unprecedented scouting combine for NBA personnel
    http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources...141704100.html
    Won't be long until the top recruits skip the ky combine on the advise of their "people:" it could only hurt their draft stock.

    I'd be more impressed if this were done without NBA scouts and done earlier in the training cycle. The combine is all about metrics, metrics which supposedly give an indication of athletic skills beneficial to basketball performance. Since every college player dreams of the NBA, giving them a baseline combine testing will give them incentive and direction in training.

    Frankly, I'll bet every major program does conduct some baseline metric similar to the combine, and probably much more in depth and better focused on on court performance. Therefore, Cal's combine is just a dog and pony show, another way to get attention.

    What happens when the players don't exhibit much improvement between the Cal combine and the NBA combine? Cal must have confidence in the work ethic of this group.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington DC
    Quote Originally Posted by tommy View Post
    I'm surprised he doesn't schedule it at the same time as their Big Blue Madness event (which I think is the following week), when the newest crop of recruits is on campus for that extravaganza. That way, the kids who are dreaming of the automatic, easy NBA riches they think come with committing to Kentucky will see tangible "proof" that this is where the NBA comes first when looking for talent.
    I would think the NCAA and NBA would frown on high schoolers and NBA scouts being in that close proximity to each other. If they do not, they should.

  7. #7

    Kentucky NBA combine


  8. #8
    the more i think about this, the more i realize this is an area i don't really understand.

    > is there more to the sales pitch than "save scouts time" and "keep players from being distracted"? i mean besides "keep kentucky in the headlines for draft related stuff"?
    > do players typically know when scouts are in attendance at a practice and games/is it a real distraction that would be solved for by banning them?
    > how often do scouts attend practice/games - is a solid two days of "kentucky combine" better for them than the information they'd typically glean from going to practices/games as they have historically?
    > conspiracy theory question - can cal and co. tilt the scales in their favor and then have the kids skip the real combine and hide the true measures? did i just miss an opportunity to be the first person on the interwebs to use the word "literally" correctly?
    > would scouts view the October assessment as a fair substitute for later ones, including after the season ones? i don't know about measurements, but game/skill assessment I'd think not. and wouldn't this be a particular issue for guys whose stocks rise during the season and received less attention during the kentucky combine?
    > can they really ban scouts from games? that seems tricky and counterproductive.

    fascinating stuff.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Los Angeles
    Quote Originally Posted by bob blue devil View Post
    the more i think about this, the more i realize this is an area i don't really understand.

    > is there more to the sales pitch than "save scouts time" and "keep players from being distracted"? i mean besides "keep kentucky in the headlines for draft related stuff"?
    > do players typically know when scouts are in attendance at a practice and games/is it a real distraction that would be solved for by banning them?
    > how often do scouts attend practice/games - is a solid two days of "kentucky combine" better for them than the information they'd typically glean from going to practices/games as they have historically?
    > conspiracy theory question - can cal and co. tilt the scales in their favor and then have the kids skip the real combine and hide the true measures? did i just miss an opportunity to be the first person on the interwebs to use the word "literally" correctly?
    > would scouts view the October assessment as a fair substitute for later ones, including after the season ones? i don't know about measurements, but game/skill assessment I'd think not. and wouldn't this be a particular issue for guys whose stocks rise during the season and received less attention during the kentucky combine?
    > can they really ban scouts from games? that seems tricky and counterproductive.

    fascinating stuff.
    From Cal's perspective, I really don't think this has much to do at all with the players already in Kentucky's program, and getting them seen and evaluated at this time of year or that or in this venue or that. I think the entire reason he's doing this is for the impression it will make on the kids he's currently recruiting -- as I said earlier, to try to make the point to them even more strongly than he already does, that if you want to get seen by the NBA scouts and ride a direct and easy path to the league, this is the #1 place in which to do that. As one scout said, he concedes that his attendance at this event essentially boils down to him appearing as "B-roll" or background in Cal's next recruitment video.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Richmond, VA
    Quote Originally Posted by tommy View Post
    From Cal's perspective, I really don't think this has much to do at all with the players already in Kentucky's program, and getting them seen and evaluated at this time of year or that or in this venue or that. I think the entire reason he's doing this is for the impression it will make on the kids he's currently recruiting -- as I said earlier, to try to make the point to them even more strongly than he already does, that if you want to get seen by the NBA scouts and ride a direct and easy path to the league, this is the #1 place in which to do that. As one scout said, he concedes that his attendance at this event essentially boils down to him appearing as "B-roll" or background in Cal's next recruitment video.
    Could this actually backfire? Cal has invited scouts to the "combine", but how much do they actually learn about a player by watching the player this early in the season. As a scout I might go the first year for the curiosity factor, but after that I might prefer watching let's say Fla play Ky and if I am not allowed to attend that game, I might not want to even attend the early season combine.

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