What Frank Martin said

[TNCatfanforever]

So let me see:
-UConn plays thru their center
-Alabama attacks the rim with their centers
-Purdue plays thru their center
-Duke plays thru their center
-NC State plays thru their center
Hmmmmmmm

 

[UKWildcats1987]

It used to always be guards win n March.

 

[ck-2]

And we had no center.

 

[Stretch98_rivals101536]

UK's centers, of course, are the least experienced and physically weakest players on the team. Also, two of them were injured and missed the whole preseason conditioning program and months of practice and the third missed even more of that while all the time fearing he would never be eligible until he was.

The strength of the team was the backcourt and that is what we featured. Makes sense to me

 

[UKNothinButNet]

And they all saved over 5M dollars with Geico instead of MB/CCC.

 

[bluveincats]

And the previous 2 years we had the best center in the country and his name is Big Oscar and look where that got us. It’s not necessarily playing through the center it’s having a good coach that execute x and o’s. We simply do not have a coach that knows how to execute anything with the personnel we have. Good coaches take what they have and execute accordingly to the personnel that they have. Cal rolls the ball out to his 5 stars and says Let’s gio

 

[wldctky_rivals70430]

So let me see:
-UConn plays thru their center
-Alabama attacks the rim with their centers
-Purdue plays thru their center
-Duke plays thru their center
-NC State plays thru their center
Hmmmmmmm

we played through Oscar for 2 years and it got us nowhere

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

we played through Oscar for 2 years and it got us nowhere

Because we had the Center and no shooters, now we had the shooters and no center. Cal hasn’t built a great all around team in years. Missing Dickinson hurt us immensely. Cal would have still screwed it up but having a guy who can bang inside and get a bucket is what we lacked.

 

[MakinMusic_rivals]

We’ve had fans crying for years saying using a true center is dead and old school basketball.

 

[4Frusciante#]

we played through Oscar for 2 years and it got us nowhere

But that wasn't because Oscar played poorly; it was all the rest of the pieces and coaching.

The truth is you can win in different ways ands styles but only if the players are well
coached in what they're doing.

 

[UK-Chulo]

But that wasn't because Oscar played poorly; it was all the rest of the pieces and coaching.

The truth is you can win in different ways ands styles but only if the players are well
coached in what they're doing.

Oscar was not passing that thang when he got it. He was a great rebounder but not someone you play your offense through.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

Our centers were adequate. But not when cal insists on playing them together two and three at a time

 

[mebeblue2]

So let me see:
-UConn plays thru their center
-Alabama attacks the rim with their centers
-Purdue plays thru their center
-Duke plays thru their center
-NC State plays thru their center
Hmmmmmmm

one does not look like the other
they should not even be mentioned in a post about playing through their center

 

[4Frusciante#]

Oscar was not passing that thang when he got it. He was a great rebounder but not someone you play your offense through.

Oh, not gonna argue with that. I'm just saying Oscar was a good player a good coach could win with if the coach put the right people with him, like a good coach would.

 

[bbnkat02]

Because we had the Center and no shooters, now we had the shooters and no center. Cal hasn’t built a great all around team in years. Missing Dickinson hurt us immensely. Cal would have still screwed it up but having a guy who can bang inside and get a bucket is what we lacked.

Dickinson was a locker room cancer. And I called that on. The stories out of KU are he’s an immense prick. Shocker I know.

 

[bbnkat02]

We’ve had fans crying for years saying using a true center is dead and old school basketball.

it is….if you have no other offense. And we didn’t.

 

[ManitouDan_anon]

So let me see:
-UConn plays thru their center
-Alabama attacks the rim with their centers
-Purdue plays thru their center
-Duke plays thru their center
-NC State plays thru their center
Hmmmmmmm

UConn is heavy pick n roll . To perfection. Its not that that have a great 5 but a great system
Alabama is a perimeter team .
Purdue has a unicorn . Guy is 7'4 with good skills . I'll give you that one .
Duke's 5 isnt a back to the basket 5 , and they shot a fair amount of threes and again their system isnt to throw it inside to their 5
NC state does have a power 5 . He scores and is back to basket .
Not sure what point of what ever Frank Martin said , but NC needed a miracle to make the tourney . Alabama lost 11 games . Having a 5 that can score sometimes isnt a magic ticket to success IMO.

 

[catfando]

Poor defense is what cost this team. Well, that and a coach that didn't do a good enough job of teaching it and prioritizing it. I still don't understand what happened with Cal and defense. He always had great defensive teams. What made him stop prioritizing it?

 

[catswin]

So many geniuses on this board and on the radio ( Matt Jones) said last spring that they didn’t want Oscar with this group because it would mess up the offense.

Just think if we had a 15/15 guy down low this year which teams had to guard or double.

 

[MakinMusic_rivals]

it is….if you have no other offense. And we didn’t.

Our offense was one of the top in the country. We had offense. We just didn’t have the big guy other teams in the final four have that for them there.

 

[Rockfly78]

I dont want to hear a single one of yall complain that Kentucky didn’t play through their big man. Don’t you dare say it. Mind you this is the same fanbase that many of you did not want Oscar to return. Y’all said he would clog the lane. You needed that modern style and that the traditional big man was a thing of the past.

Don’t even

 

[fatguy87]

Wow! Having a good player at the 5 in the starting lineup is important. Amazing insight.

 

[fatguy87]

Also, Oscar would have worked well on this team. We don't have to pass it to him and have him try and score from post ups and midrange. That's a strategic choice. He can play the 5 like Ugo or even Jorts back in the day. Adding that offensive rebounding dimension would have made this year's offense scary.

On defense, Oscar would have fixed a weakness, defensive rebounding, by himself.

 

[ala_kat2]

Poor defense is what cost this team. Well, that and a coach that didn't do a good enough job of teaching it and prioritizing it. I still don't understand what happened with Cal and defense. He always had great defensive teams. What made him stop prioritizing it?

Must have got lazy

 

[AllBall]

Oscar was not passing that thang when he got it. He was a great rebounder but not someone you play your offense through.

^^^THIS^^^

 

[JonathanW_rivals]

Our centers were adequate. But not when cal insists on playing them together two and three at a time

You shouldn’t exaggerate to try and make a point, because it invalidates your point.
Have we ever played 3 centers at a time? No. The closest was WCS, KAT and Lyles.

 

[CrimsonCats_rivals]

So many geniuses on this board and on the radio ( Matt Jones) said last spring that they didn’t want Oscar with this group because it would mess up the offense.

Just think if we had a 15/15 guy down low this year which teams had to guard or double.

We can only really speculate what that might have looked like. We could have definitely used his rebounding at times this year, but he wouldn’t have helped our defense much.

His offense would have been the wild card. If he was willing to accept a role where he just did rim runs and got putbacks on rebounds, he could have been an asset. If he still wanted to be used like he was the first two years where we ran the entire offense to get him touches in the post, it would have been a horrible fit. He’s not quite a dominant back to the basket scorer, especially with length guarding him, and importantly to your point, isn’t a good or even particularly willing passer out of double teams. We didn’t need that as good as our guards were at scoring this year.

 

[ManitouDan_anon]

Play thru the 5 or dont play thru the 5 ....... CAL SUCKS AT SO MUCH MORE than 1 position .. its total game management and roster management and no adjustments and on and on and on .. the 5 spot is not exactly our issue

 

[bbnkat02]

Our offense was one of the top in the country. We had offense. We just didn’t have the big guy other teams in the final four have that for them there.

I'm talking when we had a big worth playing.

 

[jof2]

Because we had the Center and no shooters, now we had the shooters and no center. Cal hasn’t built a great all around team in years. Missing Dickinson hurt us immensely. Cal would have still screwed it up but having a guy who can bang inside and get a bucket is what we lacked.

Hunter Dickinson was the missing piece. Did they go hard after him or did they worry about losing Bradshaw?

 

[c1doc]

Would love for us to get NFaly Dante the Center from Oregon!

 

[chroix]

So many geniuses on this board and on the radio ( Matt Jones) said last spring that they didn’t want Oscar with this group because it would mess up the offense.

Just think if we had a 15/15 guy down low this year which teams had to guard or double.

I think Oscar could have been a good fit. I never understood the flack he caught. Always felt like he was the only one with real heart on those teams.

 

[chroix]

Hunter Dickinson was the missing piece. Did they go hard after him or did they worry about losing Bradshaw?

We got outbid if I remember correctly.

 

[Wildcats1st]

And we had no center.

“ You’re a fraud without a post presence”

JVC

 

[NociHTTP]

So let me see:
-UConn plays thru their center
-Alabama attacks the rim with their centers
-Purdue plays thru their center
-Duke plays thru their center
-NC State plays thru their center
Hmmmmmmm

Meanwhile, our centers

 

[Montana81]

Oscar would have been great for this team IF cal utilized him properly.

But Cal would have tried Oscar and Tre together, or Oscar and Aaron, or even Oscar and Ugo.

Edward’s and Thiero should have been manning the 4. Thiero was really good when he played the 4 this year and we were really good. Same with Justin.

We put Z, Justin, and the 3 R’s out there for extended minutes against bama and we scored 40 points in like 9 minutes of game time and had them down nearly 40.

Oscar, with the 3 r’s and either Thiero or Edward’s at the 4 would have dismantled teams. But we would have rarely seen that lineup. also oscar was a better defender than given credit for.

 

[revcort]

Because we had the Center and no shooters, now we had the shooters and no center. Cal hasn’t built a great all around team in years. Missing Dickinson hurt us immensely. Cal would have still screwed it up but having a guy who can bang inside and get a bucket is what we lacked.

Yeah, the key is having both. And most of the time either your guards or your center will become a very reliable offensive threat when it's crunch time. So, you play through your strengths when the time comes. Edey is an unusual guy for multiple reasons. When he gets the ball in the low post, he's nearly automatic, or you've got guys fouling out. UK just lacked a true post presence this season. We thought we would have that with our three 7-footers, but they were all either too weak, too young, or too raw, and none of them were reliable. You just never knew what you were gonna get.

 

[Montana81]

Tre should have went back to playing center. Either him or Z. but Cal was trying to get everyone minutes it seemed.

 

[logiUK]

So let me see:
-UConn plays thru their center
-Alabama attacks the rim with their centers
-Purdue plays thru their center
-Duke plays thru their center
-NC State plays thru their center
Hmmmmmmm

Maybe in the college game, but not in the NBA.

And what do you really expect Kentucky basketball to be about?

 

[Eccain01]

So many geniuses on this board and on the radio ( Matt Jones) said last spring that they didn’t want Oscar with this group because it would mess up the offense.

Just think if we had a 15/15 guy down low this year which teams had to guard or double.

Yes that was foolish especially since it turned out all our bigs sucked