Pitino Era All-Time Starting Five and Sixth Man

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Otis

Otis

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PG: Mason
SG: Carr
SF: Coffey
PF: Murphy
C: Oturu

6th Man: McBrayer or Kalesheur - Hard to say which one would be the better choice. I'd put the Hollins here but they weren't really Pitino players.

Worst Player: Gaston
 

Otis said:
PG: Mason
SG: Carr
SF: Coffey
PF: Murphy
C: Oturu

6th Man: McBrayer or Kalesheur - Hard to say which one would be the better choice. I'd put the Hollins here but they weren't really Pitino players.

Worst Player: Gaston
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How bout Reggie Lynch?🙂
 


Otis said:
PG: Mason
SG: Carr
SF: Coffey
PF: Murphy
C: Oturu

6th Man: McBrayer or Kalesheur - Hard to say which one would be the better choice. I'd put the Hollins here but they weren't really Pitino players.

Worst Player: Gaston
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Don't think there is a better starting 5. I'd go McBrayer over Gabe as 6th man. Dupree could play defense but also could shoot better.
 

Otis said:
PG: Mason
SG: Carr
SF: Coffey
PF: Murphy
C: Oturu

6th Man: McBrayer or Kalesheur - Hard to say which one would be the better choice. I'd put the Hollins here but they weren't really Pitino players.

Worst Player: Gaston
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I wonder how this would actually perform as a team? 1-3 were all ball dominant players.
 



can we also do a worst signings of the pitino era? i could use some comic relief to review some of the heavy hitters we had brought in here
 

upnorthkid said:
can we also do a worst signings of the pitino era? i could use some comic relief to review some of the heavy hitters we had brought in here
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I have Gaston on there for Worst Player of the Pitino era.

Worst Signing? Martin.
 




PG: Deandre Mathieu (much more efficient shooter than Mason and his usage was lower)
2nd Guard: Carr
3rd Guard/SF: Austin Hollins (despite being a Tubby recruit)**
PF: Murph
C: Oturu

** I feel Austin was a much better team player, team leader, and a more efficient player than Coffey

6th man - this is a tough one. Because of the perennial lack of depth of most Pitino teams, this position wasn't filled effectively very often. I'd say McBrayer was the best as a soph after being replaced in the starting lineup by Springs but that was McBrayer's only good year. Curry was also very effective as a 6th/7th man in the same year. Technically, in Pitino's first year, Mo Walker and Malik Smith were 6th and 7th men. Walker was very solid and Smith, while very streaky, wasn't bad.

Worst player: Gaston. Of course, some other players were bad but Gaston has to be in a class by himself.
 

Otis said:
I have Gaston on there for Worst Player of the Pitino era.

Worst Signing? Martin.
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How could Martin be the worst signing? He only took up a scholarship for one year and he left after the fall semester so the coaches knew they had another scholarship opening early.

I would say Fitzgerald was a far worse recruiting mistake. He played for one mediocre season but held a scholarship for 3 years.
 

cjbfbp said:
How could Martin be the worst signing? He only took up a scholarship for one year and he left after the fall semester so the coaches knew they had another scholarship opening early.

I would say Fitzgerald was a far worse recruiting mistake. He played for one mediocre season but held a scholarship for 3 years.
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Martin never even made it to the first game, so to me he was the worst signing/waste of time.

but it is a long list to chose from.
 

Otis said:
PG: Mason
SG: Carr
SF: Coffey
PF: Murphy
C: Oturu

6th Man: McBrayer or Kalesheur - Hard to say which one would be the better choice. I'd put the Hollins here but they weren't really Pitino players.

Worst Player: Gaston
Click to expand...

I view Carr is more of PG than an off guard, so would put Gabe at SG. Would also greatly improve defense of the team
 




The fact that an 8 year all star team doesn’t have a bench to win a conference title means we have had some depth issues
 

I've always subscribed to you start your best 5 which is what I put in the first post. Carr is the best choice for playing the 2 spot between him and Mason. But here is your 2 deep.

PG: Carr/Mason
SG: McBrayer/Kalesheur
SF: Coffey/Hollins
PF: Murphy/King
C: Oturu/Lynch

It is pretty freaking sad the dearth of SF players we have had since Pitino has been here. Blame it on Fitz and Hurt eating up Scholarship space, whatever. It just seems like we struggle to fill that hole. Well, lots of holes!
 

Some guy said:
The fact that an 8 year all star team doesn’t have a bench to win a conference title means we have had some depth issues
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You would have a solid bench.
Dre Hollins
Austin Hollins
Reggie Lynch
King
McBrayer
Kalesheur
Johnson

But teams like Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, and Michigan State seem to run out that level of player every year.
 

cjbfbp said:
PG: Deandre Mathieu (much more efficient shooter than Mason and his usage was lower)
2nd Guard: Carr
3rd Guard/SF: Austin Hollins (despite being a Tubby recruit)**
PF: Murph
C: Oturu

** I feel Austin was a much better team player, team leader, and a more efficient player than Coffey

6th man - this is a tough one. Because of the perennial lack of depth of most Pitino teams, this position wasn't filled effectively very often. I'd say McBrayer was the best as a soph after being replaced in the starting lineup by Springs but that was McBrayer's only good year. Curry was also very effective as a 6th/7th man in the same year. Technically, in Pitino's first year, Mo Walker and Malik Smith were 6th and 7th men. Walker was very solid and Smith, while very streaky, wasn't bad.

Worst player: Gaston. Of course, some other players were bad but Gaston has to be in a class by himself.
Click to expand...


You'd seriously not have Mason or Coffey in the top 6/7 players of Pitino's era???
 


Otis said:
Martin never even made it to the first game, so to me he was the worst signing/waste of time.

but it is a long list to chose from.
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he actually played 7 games for us before transferring right before the B10 season started.
 


This is pretty subjective but I rated recruit types and level of success by how many years of good production- starter or key sub.
Pitino recruits:

Transfers 15- Productive years 16 Not so productive years 5 Vacated years 2 Not done 3
Frosh 24 - Productive years 24 Unproductive years 23 Vacated years 30 Not done 19
Tubby's guys - Productive years 7 (EE1, OO1, AH 2, AH 1, MW 2)

Add it all up an you have about 47 good years of playing time to spread among 8 rosters or an average of about 6 productive players per roster...guys that you were happy to see on the floor...usually.

Pitino really did ok on transfers.

But on freshman recruits - out of 24 - 6 finished really good careers (3 graduated, 1 still playing and 2 pros). The rest transferred or were disappointing or were injured much of their time or had issues).
In the productive years category- I counted Mashburn, but not Freeman or Mitchell or Ihnen- who could yet end up doing well but not much for Pitino yet.

The frosh recruiting killed him.
 
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Otis said:
You would have a solid bench.
Dre Hollins
Austin Hollins
Reggie Lynch
King
McBrayer
Kalesheur
Johnson

But teams like Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, and Michigan State seem to run out that level of player every year.
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2 of those 3 are tubby guys
Lynch got kicked out of school.
Johnson and king not four year guys.

So basically we got two decent role players for four years in an 8 year stretch
 

Otis said:
Thought about him, but he is no where near the player Oturu is. Starting Center on the Pitino All-defensive team and all-infractions team though.
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When the mood lightens I will have to have a post asking for who would be on this team going back to 1970 or so. We will have to pick a coach as well. Large field to pick from.
 

Although he was only here one year I'd consider throwing in Akeem Springs as the 6th man. Could defend, score, and all-around good leader and glue guy.
 




tmvander said:
Don't think there is a better starting 5. I'd go McBrayer over Gabe as 6th man. Dupree could play defense but also could shoot better.
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The same Dupree McBrayer who didn't even shoot 40% lifetime as a gopher? Gabe all day. We thought last year was an atrocious shooting year for him, that would have been McBrayers 2nd highest FG% of his career. Love McBrayer but was not a good shooter.
 
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