Big Blue Madness takeaways...

[theBlues]

N'Diaye is one of the most athletic seven footers I've seen at UK and his shot looks pure. I know his 3 point percentages weren't great last year in Europe but his highlights showed him shooting a lot of step back threes and contested ones. I have no doubt from his stroke that he'll shoot 40% on open corner threes.

Everybody knew McBride had offensive skills and could shoot but most of us assumed he was a below the rim player because of his chunky body. After seeing that he has hops, his ceiling seems a little higher.

Between McBride, N'Diaye, and Hawthorne the four spot doesn't look so shaky to me.

Wilkins is an elite shooter. I know it was without defense but not many players could ever get 31 points in one of those competitions and most of them were dead center.

I believe this will be an elite 3 point shooting team. I think the group of N'Diaye, Milan, McBride, Mason Williams, Kam Williams, Noah, and Potter will collectively shoot around 40% on threes.

If Noah ever gets over the mental hurdles he could help us in games. If not he'll still help in a fight; that boy has definitely been hitting the weights.

Defense will determine this team's ceiling. They've got the height and athleticism to be good defensively; if they are poor on defense that will all be on the coaching staff.

 

[chattanogawildcat]

Op, prepare yourself!

 

[UKWildcats1987]

We shall see what happens when we play real opponents.

 

[KFuqua]

N'Diaye is one of the most athletic seven footers I've seen at UK and his shot looks pure. I know his 3 point percentages weren't great last year in Europe but his highlights showed him shooting a lot of step back threes and contested ones. I have no doubt from his stroke that he'll shoot 40% on open corner threes.

Everybody knew McBride had offensive skills and could shoot but most of us assumed he was a below the rim player because of his chunky body. After seeing that he has hops, his ceiling seems a little higher.

Between McBride, N'Diaye, and Hawthorne the four spot doesn't look so shaky to me.

Wilkins is an elite shooter. I know it was without defense but not many players could ever get 31 points in one of those competitions and most of them were dead center.

I believe this will be an elite 3 point shooting team. I think the group of N'Diaye, Milan, McBride, Mason Williams, Kam Williams, Noah, and Potter will collectively shoot around 40% on threes.

If Noah ever gets over the mental hurdles he could help us in games. If not he'll still help in a fight; that boy has definitely been hitting the weights.

Defense will determine this team's ceiling. They've got the height and athleticism to be good defensively; if they are poor on defense that will all be on the coaching staff.

Good assessment! I expect a good season from this team!

 

[UKCowboys]

N'Diaye is one of the most athletic seven footers I've seen at UK and his shot looks pure. I know his 3 point percentages weren't great last year in Europe but his highlights showed him shooting a lot of step back threes and contested ones. I have no doubt from his stroke that he'll shoot 40% on open corner threes.

Everybody knew McBride had offensive skills and could shoot but most of us assumed he was a below the rim player because of his chunky body. After seeing that he has hops, his ceiling seems a little higher.

Between McBride, N'Diaye, and Hawthorne the four spot doesn't look so shaky to me.

Wilkins is an elite shooter. I know it was without defense but not many players could ever get 31 points in one of those competitions and most of them were dead center.

I believe this will be an elite 3 point shooting team. I think the group of N'Diaye, Milan, McBride, Mason Williams, Kam Williams, Noah, and Potter will collectively shoot around 40% on threes.

If Noah ever gets over the mental hurdles he could help us in games. If not he'll still help in a fight; that boy has definitely been hitting the weights.

Defense will determine this team's ceiling. They've got the height and athleticism to be good defensively; if they are poor on defense that will all be on the coaching staff.

I think thats a fair assessment. Better shooting and a few guys that can penetrate and score should open it up for the shooters we have. I am not worried about the offense. As you said, defense will determine how far we go. We aren't going to be Ewing era Georgetown defensively, but if we can even be an average defense we should be a solid team

 

[Bluesbrother]

Pope on a pedestal ... that was special.

 

[meteordealer]

Good assessment! I expect a good season from this team!

Did you factor in 3 or 4 of our starters being injured all season?

 

[Cats_2010]

I think this team could be capable of good enough defense if they had a coach who could scheme. That’s not pope, he’s a poor defensive coach and as a result I believe this will be his worst defensive team of the 3. Offensively they will be fine but I fear we are going to give up a lot of points and lose shootouts and the end result the same. 12-14 losses. Just not good enough..

 

[BBNinSCar]

I think this team could be capable of good enough defense if they had a coach who could scheme. That’s not pope, he’s a poor defensive coach and as a result I believe this will be his worst defensive team of the 3. Offensively they will be fine but I fear we are going to give up a lot of points and lose shootouts and the end result the same. 12-14 losses. Just not good enough..

This should be a defensive roster with our size. If the coaching staff can get anything out of them. But, I agree, we’ll see many 90-85 games this season.

 

[BBNinSCar]

Has anyone ever seen anything from Hawthorne to make you believe he is a good player? If he was, we would have seen evidence of that by now. He’s an end of the bench player, nothing more.

 

[theBlues]

Has anyone ever seen anything from Hawthorne to make you believe he is a good player? If he was, we would have seen evidence of that by now. He’s an end of the bench player, nothing more.

Well, I have him as 3rd string at the four spot. Want to give me a list of 3rd string players we've had at the four that tower over him in talent?

 

[Anon200440]

Has anyone ever seen anything from Hawthorne to make you believe he is a good player? If he was, we would have seen evidence of that by now. He’s an end of the bench player, nothing more.

Well everyone glazed kam and hes a better ball handler and scorer than kam by FAR so

 

[Wildcat_in_DC]

the fact that fans continue to reference trent noah speaks volumes at where we are at as a program 3 years into pope's tenure.

 

[theBlues]

the fact that fans continue to reference trent noah speaks volumes at where we are at as a program 3 years into pope's tenure.

Well, I mentioned his physique and didn't even imply that he'd be one of our top 10 players. What about the bulk of the post? I respect your posts and I like a lot of them but this one just seems nitpicky.

 

[Wildcat_in_DC]

Well, I mentioned his physique and didn't even imply that he'd be one of our top 10 players. What about the bulk of the post? I respect your posts and I like a lot of them but this one just seems nitpicky.

trent is a glorified walk on. why people keep talking about him in any capacity is beyond me.

 

[OldScratchBlues]

Has anyone ever seen anything from Hawthorne to make you believe he is a good player? If he was, we would have seen evidence of that by now. He’s an end of the bench player, nothing more.

It's like Sasquatch... Hear about it all the time, just haven't seen it.

 

[theBlues]

trent is a glorified walk on. why people keep talking about him in any capacity is beyond me.

You must be too young to remember multiple years of Sheray Thomas as starting power forward. I've never expected players 10-11 deep on the roster to be top flight SEC ready players. I don't see why anybody would expect that since we've never had that before, and nobody else has either.

 

[IEatCerealWithWater]

BBM is horrific now. and who does this ?
seriously, who the hell does this?

 

[Cowtown Cat]

Well, I mentioned his physique and didn't even imply that he'd be one of our top 10 players. What about the bulk of the post? I respect your posts and I like a lot of them but this one just seems nitpicky.

Maybe we can be solid, just as long as nobody mentions Trent Noah.

 

[KYAnywhereEverywhere]

I tuned in late and tuned out early. What I did watch was boring and poorly produced. The sound system was glitching and those player introductions were a disorganized mess. The songs got out of sync with the players entering. Each individual introduction took a random amount of time instead of nice smooth flowing consistent introductions. There was that one weird cutaway for the one player rolling up in a supercar. Not only did that particular introduction not have the impact that it was probably meant to, it kinda rubbed in the fans faces how much money these kids are making. Production quality suffered all night. The announcers were bad. The cutting from camera angle to camera angle was random and bad. The whole event took entirely too long. I tuned out early, because I couldn't care less about dunk contests. Dunk contests have been around so long that they are stale. There's nothing new to see. I had also already saw that there was going to be no 5v5. The 5v5 has always been the most anticipated event of the night outside of the men's player introductions and cutting it was such a bad idea.

All of this said, Pope is not the reason I have less enthusiasm for bbm. The event got stale under Cal. That's when it became apparent that there's only so much you can do with the event. It's basically the same thing year after year. The second year that Cal did his mic drop gimmick instead of a speech, Wheeler's 2nd year, pretty much sealed my lack of enthusiasm for BBM. Cal wanted us to believe that team would be something like as good as the '14-'15 Cats and we saw how that turned out. Also, returning to the same gimmick and being out of speech material made me realize there's really only so much that could be done and said.

 

[Runnin'Ramel]

N'Diaye is one of the most athletic seven footers I've seen at UK and his shot looks pure. I know his 3 point percentages weren't great last year in Europe but his highlights showed him shooting a lot of step back threes and contested ones. I have no doubt from his stroke that he'll shoot 40% on open corner threes.

Everybody knew McBride had offensive skills and could shoot but most of us assumed he was a below the rim player because of his chunky body. After seeing that he has hops, his ceiling seems a little higher.

Between McBride, N'Diaye, and Hawthorne the four spot doesn't look so shaky to me.

Wilkins is an elite shooter. I know it was without defense but not many players could ever get 31 points in one of those competitions and most of them were dead center.

I believe this will be an elite 3 point shooting team. I think the group of N'Diaye, Milan, McBride, Mason Williams, Kam Williams, Noah, and Potter will collectively shoot around 40% on threes.

If Noah ever gets over the mental hurdles he could help us in games. If not he'll still help in a fight; that boy has definitely been hitting the weights.

Defense will determine this team's ceiling. They've got the height and athleticism to be good defensively; if they are poor on defense that will all be on the coaching staff.

My son looked it up while we were there, to put it in perspective, the most points in an NBA 3-pt contest was 31 by Steph Curry. Unguarded, it's *really* difficult to score that many points. (Granted, Madness offered the bonus ball.)

 

[sefus12]

Op, prepare yourself!

Yea, can’t have optimism around here. Only dom and gloom is allowed.

I didn’t watch BBN, but I think this roster, at least on paper, looks better than last year. Pope knows his job is on the line, so I think he’s doing what he thinks he has to do in order to succeed (no matter what some on here say). If he doesn‘t have a much better season, he will probably be looking for another job. I’m excited for the season, as always.

 

[KFuqua]

Did you factor in 3 or 4 of our starters being injured all season?

I'm not a troll, like you, that just wants to complain and stir up trouble, so I choose to watch the season before I judge it.

 

[sefus12]

I'm not a troll, like you, that just wants to complain and stir up trouble, so I choose to watch the season before I judge it.

The sad thing is that I’m 100% convinced there are fans on here who would have a bad season so they can say “I was right about Pope” than have a great season and have to admit they were wrong.

 

[meteordealer]

I'm not a troll, like you, that just wants to complain and stir up trouble, so I choose to watch the season before I judge it.

Not a troll. Just pointing out facts. We already have several guys out, and the season hasn't even started.

 

[AllBall]

Defense, rebounding, and overall physicality will determine this team's success rate. Shooting is a great equalizer but can they get stops when it matters most?

 

[Beatle Bum]

We shall see what happens when we play real opponents.

True. BBM can show athleticism and the ability to shoot from a rack. It’s not without importance, but every team can look impressive without an opponent. Time will tell.

 

[RunninRichie]

We’ll see after the Kansas game,

 

[Beatle Bum]

Oh oh, someone mentioned Trent Noah and heads started to explode. Mufasa!!

 

[theBlues]

Oh oh, someone mentioned Trent Noah and heads started to explode. Mufasa!!

I know. And all I did was make a totally not gay comment on his sexy body...

 

[NociHTTP]

Pope on a pedestal ... that was special.

 

[JwUKFan11]

The biggest takeaway is that anyone spending their night, or god forbid their money, to go to BBM is insane.