Observations re: Blue/white
- Thread starter Jazzycat
- Start date
Tonight, I was most impressed with...
1. Ulis and his 10 assists at half. He was already good but he's looking great now.
2. Murray. Yeah I knew he was good but he has a knack for making shots that we're gonna love.
3. Poythress looked closer to being back than I expected him to be tonight. And if he can hit the 3, UK just became nigh unguardable. We don't need him to shoot this well every night, just hit enough to keep them honest.
4. Mulder knocked down the threes and looked very comfortable doing it. He will get on the floor if he can shoot it like that.
5. Matthews has some amazing hops. I lived watching him fly in there for rebounds too.
6. Labissiere is what we thought he was. Yes he still needs some polish but that will come. His length and athleticism are impressive. His ability to finish that lob dunk that was thrown behind him reminded me of A Davis. He's not that good, of course, but he has some unique gifts. We're gonna love this kid.
7. Willis was very good tonight. I thought he might play well but he was even better than I expected.
Overall, I really love this group. There doesn't seem to be a bad attitude or bad apple in the bunch, and that goes a long way toward a group being able to come together.
The only thing that worries me about a couple of these guys is that they may be too nice. Cal is gonna have to get them to fight. Teams are gonna try to rough them up.
1. Ulis and his 10 assists at half. He was already good but he's looking great now.
2. Murray. Yeah I knew he was good but he has a knack for making shots that we're gonna love.
3. Poythress looked closer to being back than I expected him to be tonight. And if he can hit the 3, UK just became nigh unguardable. We don't need him to shoot this well every night, just hit enough to keep them honest.
4. Mulder knocked down the threes and looked very comfortable doing it. He will get on the floor if he can shoot it like that.
5. Matthews has some amazing hops. I lived watching him fly in there for rebounds too.
6. Labissiere is what we thought he was. Yes he still needs some polish but that will come. His length and athleticism are impressive. His ability to finish that lob dunk that was thrown behind him reminded me of A Davis. He's not that good, of course, but he has some unique gifts. We're gonna love this kid.
7. Willis was very good tonight. I thought he might play well but he was even better than I expected.
Overall, I really love this group. There doesn't seem to be a bad attitude or bad apple in the bunch, and that goes a long way toward a group being able to come together.
The only thing that worries me about a couple of these guys is that they may be too nice. Cal is gonna have to get them to fight. Teams are gonna try to rough them up.
Ask TJ Walker if Skal , Matthews or Briscoe are known as being bad ft shooters. Because being 50% or around is considered noticeably bad. the high school gurus will all tell you those guys are known for being average FT shooters in high school and AAU.
I've been saying for months now .. Give him confidence to be aggressive on offense and put 20 or so lbs of muscle on Matthews and he's MKG 2.0.... Can you guys see it too?
Wiltjer's D sucked at Gonzaga and he was taken out of key stretches of their few close games because of it. It was discussed by experts/analysts. Things are ignored more though when you play cupcakes most of the year and are winning by so much D does not matter as much.
We are going to be a really good passing team. Lee is way better then he's ever been, and right now Ulis has to be the best point guard in the country.
Free throws will not not be a problem. I will go out on a limb and say this will be Cals best FT shooting team since at UK.
It got a little sloppy in the end, both teams were getting tired as they went hard. Cal mixed it up in the first half with both teams being as equal as he could. The second half he went with 3 guards Alex and Skal. I was impressed all around. Skal looks like he is going to be a man. Alex, for not being 100% was good, can I mention he was 3 for 4 from downtown? Murray, Briscoe, and Ulis are going to be the first real DDO that we have seen since Cal has been here. Matthews and Mulder, both impressed me. Matthews is a driver to the basket and dunk wiz, and Mulder showed that he can be a real threat at the 3 point line. Lee was very active, didn't hit his outside shots as much as I hoped but he is a bundle of energy on dunks, rebounds, and defense. Willis had 17 points I think, looked like a different player in my opinion, like he grew up or something. Hit well from from outside. Humphries, the 7 footer, lacks foot speed, but he bangs for rebounds and he is better from the outside in shooting then Willie or Johnson ever was. He played a lot and got really tired but he worked. Overall I was impressed, going 40-0? No, we will lose some games but when they get together as a team this group will be special in March.
He did look good, but I'm not going to think crazy and expect this kid get major minutes. He does have talent and could be able to contribute to our team if we needed him to. I loved that block he had. If he wants to see minutes this year, he wIll have to get after it on D. We all know he has it on offense.
I saw the partial thread title before clicking.
It literally got cut off at, "was busy bagging a Nice White.."
Thought for sure it was a joke about requesting clean white hookers.
Then I open it, see it for what it was intended, and see the posts above'a first sentence.
There was so much potential.
Ulis looks exactly the way I expect the kid to look and that's the best point guard in the country. I don't think it's even going to be close this year. The big Aussie kid is going to be a pro after 2 years here. He takes up so much space and is just so huge. The dude has a very reliable jumper too. Our bench is going to be deep at guard and forward with Matthews and the juco kid. Both of those guys will see minutes and I'm so glad they are on the roster. Murray is just what we all thought he would be. He has that IT factor that you just can't teach. He's special and will be our go to scorer when we need a basket. Briscoe is better than he looked. That frame is going to be deadly driving the lane. Skal will get stronger and when Cal has enough time with him, do any of you really think he won't learn to be more of a post player? I have no doubts about that. Cal is a great coach and Skal will develope in the post just as Towns through out the year. We are going to be scary good and I believe at the end of the season we will be the national champions.
Hey, don't rain on his parade, he hit the first 3 pointer of the game.[winking] Yes he did seem to want to pass more then attack early but hey he's years ahead of what he was as a freshman. I am glad for him.
You have to give me credit after I recovered I did talk basketball, :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
We look like a team that is loaded at guard and will probably have the best group in the country. We look like a team that will rely on playing fast and will thrive playing that way. Even our post players will excel at playing fast. At first I think our post game won't look like a advantage but during the season they developed and look like as good of a starting frontcourt in the entire country. With Murray on our team, I Love Our odds of winning it all. I haven't seen a guard come into college basketball in a long time as ready to score the ball as this kid. I don't care where he's at on the floor, if you're the other team, your guy better have their hand up or they will get burned. Our team needs work and time to gel as a team, but I wouldn't trade our guys for any team in the country. You can see the potential just by watching them pretty much practice. We are not as deep as last year, but we have plenty of talented depth.
Obviously you can only take so much from it, but reading about Kentucky's blue/white game here and Duke's blue/white game (on their scout board) is like night and day. You guys seem optimistic as hell about your team (your guards in particular) while a select few Duke fans seem to think Derryck Thornton has a very long way to go which they think means Luke Kennard will have to play more point guard than expected lol.
It was competitive. I would guess we run an 8 man rotation and there are 6 guys competing for the 6-8 spots. At this point Lee, Matthews, and Mulder are probably those 3 guys but Humphries and Willis aren't far behind. We all know what Hawkins can give us defensively and as a junior I would trust him in any game. Humphries is skilled but probably not in good enough shape right now to keep up with the teams frenetic pace, he was a turnover machine tonight too. We have 11 guys that can and will play, but not all of them will play every game.
This is a dribble drive team if ever there was one. Cal hasn't run much dribble drive since he's been here but we've got the ball skill and shooting to do it this year.
Ulis might end up being the most efficient point guard we've had here under Cal.
Ulis might end up being the most efficient point guard we've had here under Cal.
Ulis,Murray will shoot most FT in close games at the end..
Ulis 80+%
Murray80+%
Alex 75%
Briscoe 70+%
Weaknesses are defense and rebounding, and just overall toughness. We'll block some shots, but Skal and Lee are not as good as Towns and Cauley-Stein under the basket, defensively. I don't see us holding our opponents below 40% on the season. It will be a fun year though, and it will be fun to see them develop. We'll win a lot of games, and likely be in the hunt come March.
Don't anyone give him any details. No loyal Cat fan ever misses a game including a scrimmage.....lol
Ulis and Murray for me. Until he proves last night a fluke Briscoe's free-throws scare me in late game situations
Not worried about free throws, personally (at least not yet) Remember being in Rupp - or any arena - can throw you off a bit if you're used to being in a practice gym. They'll get used to it. These guys all, except for Lee, shoot from the line pretty well I think ? Last night they were off.
The biggest thing that struck me last night was.....it was fun to watch. A LOT of fun. There was a lot of running (big men included), crisp passing - and some not so crisp, lol - and what looked like a lot of talking to each other. And they all seem to like each other - some great team chemistry. I'm excited to see how they all develop over the season on our way to #9
The biggest thing that struck me last night was.....it was fun to watch. A LOT of fun. There was a lot of running (big men included), crisp passing - and some not so crisp, lol - and what looked like a lot of talking to each other. And they all seem to like each other - some great team chemistry. I'm excited to see how they all develop over the season on our way to #9
I may be more excited about Matthews than any player on the floor. He seemed to be the hardest-working player out there - did a little bit of everything. Gave Murray lots of grief on defense.
He's incredibly smooth - a do everything type player, and hopefully someone we'll have as our glue guy and defensive stopper for 2-3 years.
He's incredibly smooth - a do everything type player, and hopefully someone we'll have as our glue guy and defensive stopper for 2-3 years.
Nice to see Mulder is more than a one-dimensional shooter. 7 rebounds and two steals. I like it.
Who's calling for Willis to transfer? Some have said he would be a starter if he transferred to any other school and they always back that up by saying they know he's very talented and that they feel bad for him. I've seen nobody say that he should transfer because he's not good enough.