Finally watched the game. A few thoughts.

[nachosgrande]

Leaf is VERY athletic. Moves well, jumps well, nice shot - don't know where you get that he is a non athlete.

Granted, I have my Bruins colored glasses on, but that is what has most surprised me about Leaf. He is very agile and athletic for his size. His build isn't visually imposing, but he has plenty of strength, quickness and hops. You don't pull down 13 rebounds or make that baseline drive and dunk against a Kentucky if you're a stiff.

 

[BigBlueManSouthCentralKY]

1. We lost our defensive intensity late in the first half and never got it back.

2. We were being impatient offensively.

3. We have guys not playing to their strengths. By this I mean shot selection.

4. Rebounding must get better, I'm sure it will.


I was reading the game thread during the game and have read countless "woe is me" posts since then. I didn't think it was that bad. I tend to think Willis is correct, that several guys were fighting a bug. I think that is what caused our defensive drop off. Ball is very good but I prefer Fox. Ball certainly didn't seem like the second coming or anything. I don't prefer Fox launching a bunch of 3 attempts though. That is not his strength. I saw someone yesterday talking about how great Leaf was. I didn't see it. Athletically he is probably behind, or at best on par with, Willis. He is a good junk man but many of his rebounds and points were from odd tips and bounces instead of superior position.

I thought I would be really frustrated watching the game, but I saw a young team that couldn't play their A game and then tried to make up for it by forcing many, many plays. They will learn some valuable lessons from this one. I hope we see UCLA again in the tournament. Overall, I was not discouraged by the effort. I think that was UCLA's ceiling. It certainly wasn't ours.

How many times did their 3 bigs whip our guys for a rebound?

 

[carolinacat]

How many times did their 3 bigs whip our guys for a rebound?

Consistently. The rebounding and interior defense was a real concern...I'm not sure we can beat the big boys with a steady diet of three 6-3 guards getting heavy minutes. Right now, it looks like Briscoe is the likely candidate to come off the bench and spell both guard positions. Leak is an excellent player with good athleticism and great basketball skills....ditto that for most of the UCLA guys...they really impressed me. Of course, making a ton of tough shots helps you look good.

 

[Hoskins91_rivals]

Consistently. The rebounding and interior defense was a real concern...I'm not sure we can beat the big boys with a steady diet of three 6-3 guards getting heavy minutes. Right now, it looks like Briscoe is the likely candidate to come off the bench and spell both guard positions. Leak is an excellent player with good athleticism and great basketball skills....ditto that for most of the UCLA guys...they really impressed me. Of course, making a ton of tough shots helps you look good.

They only out rebounded us by three. I agree that we could do better but it's a fixable problem. It's not something that makes it necessary to sit one of your guys who should obviously be starting.

 

[carolinacat]

They only out rebounded us by three. I agree that we could do better but it's a fixable problem. It's not something that makes it necessary to sit one of your guys who should obviously be starting.

The interior defense was also soft IMHO.

 

[WallMash]

I actually think Cal could have done more in the game, drill it into Fox's head to go into Bam or Hump and foul out their front line when all three had 4 fouls half way through 2nd. No brainer. I think his substitution pattern didn't get the best out of our team - too much Hawkins. Fox could not quite figure out how to get our rhythm back to where it was in the first half and Cal should have helped him, told him to push, push, the ball every chance, but back out if the easy bucket not there. Fox became a walk it up guard in the second half. I love you Cal, but you could have pulled some strings more instead of just complaining about how your team broke down, AFTER THE GAME.

 

[fla.cat]

"UCLA is just gonna be tough for anyone to beat when they're shooting like that."


The above post is pretty spot on. UCLA shot almost 5% better than their season average. We shot almost 7 percent below our season average.

If they had missed two shots and we made two shots, we would have won.

That's the heart of close games...a missed shot or made shot near the end usually makes the difference.
Both teams actually played very evenly...in this game.

 

[wmoore1024]

1. We lost our defensive intensity late in the first half and never got it back.

2. We were being impatient offensively.

3. We have guys not playing to their strengths. By this I mean shot selection.

4. Rebounding must get better, I'm sure it will.


I was reading the game thread during the game and have read countless "woe is me" posts since then. I didn't think it was that bad. I tend to think Willis is correct, that several guys were fighting a bug. I think that is what caused our defensive drop off. Ball is very good but I prefer Fox. Ball certainly didn't seem like the second coming or anything. I don't prefer Fox launching a bunch of 3 attempts though. That is not his strength. I saw someone yesterday talking about how great Leaf was. I didn't see it. Athletically he is probably behind, or at best on par with, Willis. He is a good junk man but many of his rebounds and points were from odd tips and bounces instead of superior position.

I thought I would be really frustrated watching the game, but I saw a young team that couldn't play their A game and then tried to make up for it by forcing many, many plays. They will learn some valuable lessons from this one. I hope we see UCLA again in the tournament. Overall, I was not discouraged by the effort. I think that was UCLA's ceiling. It certainly wasn't ours.

The silver lining is that UCLA played a very good game and made a ton of shots and we simply didn't play anywhere near our best and it was a 3 pt game with 8 seconds to play. Better defense, rebounding, passing and we will be fine.

The thing you all are missing from this UCLA team is that they really didn't play all that well. Didn't shoot their season average and had 18 turnovers. If you think UCLA played at their ceiling, think again.... It's going to be difficult for any team in the country to guard 6 double figure scorers and a team that is averaging 24 assists a game. Not even the quick Kentucky athletes could do it....UCLA is for real this year and will only get better!

 

[HICATFAN]

The thing you all are missing from this UCLA team is that they really didn't play all that well. Didn't shoot their season average and had 18 turnovers. If you think UCLA played at their ceiling, think again.... It's going to be difficult for any team in the country to guard 6 double figure scorers and a team that is averaging 24 assists a game. Not even the quick Kentucky athletes could do it....UCLA is for real this year and will only get better!

So will our team...and the next time we meet them...we will beat them and beat them handily...Mark me on that!

AlohaCat

 

[JeffGoodmansVestigialTwin]

The thing you all are missing from this UCLA team is that they really didn't play all that well. Didn't shoot their season average and had 18 turnovers. If you think UCLA played at their ceiling, think again.... It's going to be difficult for any team in the country to guard 6 double figure scorers and a team that is averaging 24 assists a game. Not even the quick Kentucky athletes could do it....UCLA is for real this year and will only get better!

I can promise you if Calipari has proven one thing is that you don't want to face him in a re-match. Especially in the Tourny...because he will straight send you home come March

 

[wildcatdon]

i wish we had leaf..He is a good player and would fit in well on our team..

 

[AllBall]

1. We lost our defensive intensity late in the first half and never got it back.

2. We were being impatient offensively.

3. We have guys not playing to their strengths. By this I mean shot selection.

4. Rebounding must get better, I'm sure it will.


I was reading the game thread during the game and have read countless "woe is me" posts since then. I didn't think it was that bad. I tend to think Willis is correct, that several guys were fighting a bug. I think that is what caused our defensive drop off. Ball is very good but I prefer Fox. Ball certainly didn't seem like the second coming or anything. I don't prefer Fox launching a bunch of 3 attempts though. That is not his strength. I saw someone yesterday talking about how great Leaf was. I didn't see it. Athletically he is probably behind, or at best on par with, Willis. He is a good junk man but many of his rebounds and points were from odd tips and bounces instead of superior position.

I thought I would be really frustrated watching the game, but I saw a young team that couldn't play their A game and then tried to make up for it by forcing many, many plays. They will learn some valuable lessons from this one. I hope we see UCLA again in the tournament. Overall, I was not discouraged by the effort. I think that was UCLA's ceiling. It certainly wasn't ours.

The thing about TJ Leaf, he has been doing this all season long. Its not like this was a one time performance. I must give credit where it is due and say he is playing like a first team all freshmen. He may fall off but right now he's a surprise of the class.

 

[wmoore1024]

I can promise you if Calipari has proven one thing is that you don't want to face him in a re-match. Especially in the Tourny...because he will straight send you home come March

seems to me he would've had this so called great team you have this year up for the challenge at home after taking a beating from the lowly bruins last year! BTW, Cal also took a beating from UCLA when he had a supposed great club at Memphis in the tourney...... yes, yes I remember the big win UK put on the Bruins a couple years ago... hope they do meet in the tourney once the Bruins are 100% healthy and have had a year of playing together. it would be interesting to say the least, but the Bruins win it again!

 

[Hoskins91_rivals]

The thing you all are missing from this UCLA team is that they really didn't play all that well. Didn't shoot their season average and had 18 turnovers. If you think UCLA played at their ceiling, think again.... It's going to be difficult for any team in the country to guard 6 double figure scorers and a team that is averaging 24 assists a game. Not even the quick Kentucky athletes could do it....UCLA is for real this year and will only get better!

Your only legitimate point is the turnovers, even though we do a good job of forcing them. You shot over 50% from the field and well over 40% from three. It's not reasonable to expect to do much better than that. If we play again there's no way in hell you shoot that well, even if you still play well offensively.

 

[BleedinBlue85]

seems to me he would've had this so called great team you have this year up for the challenge at home after taking a beating from the lowly bruins last year! BTW, Cal also took a beating from UCLA when he had a supposed great club at Memphis in the tourney...... yes, yes I remember the big win UK put on the Bruins a couple years ago... hope they do meet in the tourney once the Bruins are 100% healthy and have had a year of playing together. it would be interesting to say the least, but the Bruins win it again!

Uk will have the 2 best players on the floor. Monk and Fox. They just panicked a bit. Good luck this year.