What team have you been watching that that forces the ball down to Bam. I would venture to guess Bam does not even average 10 shots per game and he should be averaging 10 per game. I feel like our guard play is what is part of the problem. We have transformed into a dribble dribble dribble team.
Cal ruined this team.
- Thread starter meteordealer
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He doesn't get shots off because he has 0 post moves, he has opportunities. He really is not very good.
I never really thought about that but it lines up time line wise and is a great theory. I'm on board.
Let see he shots 60% from the field, only gets on average 7 shots per game, I don't think that is the Cats problem, you need to look out front and figure out why our guard play is falling off this past few games, have teams figured out how to guard us out front or what. Not very good, lord help us.
Yes, if its not a dunk or within 2 feet he can't get a shot off, Marcus Lee was a better post player. If you judge Bam as a post player, he is NOT very good.
I think the big issue is that the guards were taking bad shots and hardly ever going inside.
Bam had a great FG %.
So it makes sense to go inside more...
But we go to extremes, either outside or inside.
We are not good enough to be a one option offense be it outside or inside.
Monk must be more disciplined - Monk and Fox should only shoot rarely.
Bam needs to post lower and kickout quicker when double teamed - and at times get the ball right back when available.
Bam had a great FG %.
So it makes sense to go inside more...
But we go to extremes, either outside or inside.
We are not good enough to be a one option offense be it outside or inside.
Monk must be more disciplined - Monk and Fox should only shoot rarely.
Bam needs to post lower and kickout quicker when double teamed - and at times get the ball right back when available.
For those who don't know much about basketball, games get harder in conference because you go against coaches who have coached against you every year so they know what you like to run on top of plenty of scouting tape. In OOC teams look much better vs coaches who don't face you as much and don't know you're tendencies
This year's team, not unlike last years team, is unbalanced and lacks depth.
Briscoe and Monk's style and needs are not compatible, cohesive pieces. I wouldn't be surprised if it went further than that. I for one was not enthused about Briscoe returning for this season.
I think Fox does the best he can even though he sometimes tries to do too much and takes shots he shouldn't. I think he usually adds much more than he takes away.
Bam is limited offensively but in his defense he has no help inside whatsoever. Another strong inside player would really help. He is all we have inside.
Willis gives inconsistent threes and a few rebounds. That is it.
Gabriel is frustrating. Never has such an active motor produced so little. If only his timing and skill were just a little better.
The team, as well as Bam, would really benefit from good, inside defender and rim protector. If this would allow Bam to play the 4 that would be ideal.
The team has no real 3 or 4. We're being taken advantage of at both positions.
The team has very little depth. If we were a great team, Willis and Gabriel both come off the bench. Hawkins and Mulder play sparingly and the rest see little to no playing time.
Briscoe and Monk's style and needs are not compatible, cohesive pieces. I wouldn't be surprised if it went further than that. I for one was not enthused about Briscoe returning for this season.
I think Fox does the best he can even though he sometimes tries to do too much and takes shots he shouldn't. I think he usually adds much more than he takes away.
Bam is limited offensively but in his defense he has no help inside whatsoever. Another strong inside player would really help. He is all we have inside.
Willis gives inconsistent threes and a few rebounds. That is it.
Gabriel is frustrating. Never has such an active motor produced so little. If only his timing and skill were just a little better.
The team, as well as Bam, would really benefit from good, inside defender and rim protector. If this would allow Bam to play the 4 that would be ideal.
The team has no real 3 or 4. We're being taken advantage of at both positions.
The team has very little depth. If we were a great team, Willis and Gabriel both come off the bench. Hawkins and Mulder play sparingly and the rest see little to no playing time.
I continue to say AND believe that this team is actually built for the post-season. That means we will lose regular season road games, and sometimes not look good doing so. I am also delighted to see us playing some zone defense. There will be times in the NCAAT when we need to get the ball into Bam, and play zone. But, guard play is THE most important determinant of who wins in April. I think we have that covered.
I agree with the guard play analogy, but we cannot be doubled up on rebounds.
Bam has no replacement, so foul trouble could be a killer.
We must improve on defense.
Our 4 position has to be come consistent.
3 spot is what is.
This could be Cal's best coaching year if we go far in the tourney or his worst roster structure.
To summarize succinctly, the early success against vastly inferior teams reinforced and cast in stone the team's AAU mentality--outscore your opponent, me-first, little to no defense. IMHO, at this point in time this team seems uncoachable.
See my post under the thread "What really happened?" for more details.
To blame Coach Cal for this team's shortcomings is baseless and naive.
I wouldn't be surprised if Briscoe's drop in play is due to a growing frustration and realization that his chances of playing in the NBA are fading. It sure wouldn't help if his limitations were being further exposed by a brand new, elite defender in practice. Just speculating...
I think this is a lot of the problem as well. We just seem out of our element in the half court. Early in the season Cal could be heard yelling for them to go and now he seems to tell them to slow down. I honestly feel he is trying to hard to slow the game and get the ball to Bam which is not playing to the strengths of this team but then again I am not getting paid millions of dollars to coach so what do I know?
The way I took it was that Cal wanted the ball to go into Bam to let the guards know he would pass back out if he's doubled. The guards were starting to attract too much of the def. A lot of the time Bam was open.
Now Bam most the time playing soft because hes getting in foul trouble. That's my opinion though.
I can't disagree with these points. Ironically, UK may be standing at 20-3 or 21-2 if he had left well enough alone. But he clearly saw fool's gold once they got in the tournament. But there is no doubt it has been a painful two weeks adjusting.
Posts like this don't deserve a response, other than to say "you're a fricking idiot".
I can't argue with this. Our strength is our backcourt, not Bam.
He starts 3 guards, because that's where we have the advantage over almost every team in the country, yet he has them feeding a guy that is not skilled enough to score over other good bigs.
Back in November and December this team was ripping decent teams by 30+, but right now we are struggling with everybody and the only thing we have to point to is the philosophy change.
He tried to do this last year with Skal, he was never a back to the basket player, neither is Bam, but he's trying to make him one. He's not Kat or Cuz, he's a face up 4, nothing more.
I'm no coach, I know I hold no candle to Cal, he's a good coach, but he's not doing what he said he does, he's not playing to his teams strengths, he's trying to change them to fit what he wants them to be.
Yeah, Randle manhandled MSU…. He just ran out of time. LOL.
Rayorder in da house!!!!!! Have you ran into ramel bradley lately? Maybe you could run into some of our other players and give them some pointers on how to be more efficient. That thread you had was pure gold. Thank you for your contributions
Are you referring to the urban dictionary version of Plating? How would that work?
So pull Bam and whoever is playing the 4 out to the 3 point line and let our guards drive to the basket. That's what good teams do to us.
We have a different team every year. Also, Rick Barnes has only been here a couple of years. Oh yeah, Mike White, 2 years also.
Why would they come out to guard Bam? He has not shown any ability to shoot from any distance. Go Cats!!
Fine, don't guard him, let him set screens with no defender on him to pick up the ball on a switch.
Thing is , one of the players he LOVES is a player you and I think is killing us . In fact , he says it's his team .
Maybe last year's experience in the tournament is influencing him. I thought he gave up on Skal a little too early last year. When we got to the tourney, we had zero inside post game.
Willis and Gabriel are already permanently camped out on the 3 point line...assume it's at coach's insistence.
AAU HABITS ARE HARD TO GIVE UP.
Thank goodness Rafters has the coaches to take care of these problems. Do you guys realize how ridiculous you sound?
Thank goodness Rafters has the coaches to take care of these problems. Do you guys realize how ridiculous you sound?
Wrong.. he has made several 15 footers. He is a freshman that is still developing. He's called for BS and he gets mugged. His biggest need for improvement is rebounding but that is do
Regardless limited by being called for fouls. To say he is not very good shows little to no basketball knowledge.
Our rebounding comes and goes. But this is the worst defense I can remember at UK.
The numbers say different. I don't know how old you are, but we had a top 10 defense not too long ago, we don't have to look but 9 years back to find some of the worst defense UK has ever played. Surely you're older than 9.
Our rebounding problems have shown to be bad on KenPom all season and it reared its ugly head last Saturday night.
That has been the staple stop UK defense for quite a few years. Evidently there's no way to combat it.
Also defense and rebounding, especially for this team, is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
You would think, with all these losses and near losses, AAU ball would have been knocked out of them by now.
Uh....I played college basketball in the 60's (played against Cotton Nash). I think I am qualified for this discussion as older than 9 and insightful about our issues.
In my humble opinion...It is defense, first and foremost. Rebounding is effort, which did not exist last game.