They hit 14, seemed like every shot was going in. They hit 9 in the 1st half.
My whole point is this, it never fails, teams seem to get hot in Rupp shooting the 3.
Still can’t guard the 3
- Thread starter seccats04
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My whole point is this, it never fails, teams seem to get hot in Rupp shooting the 3.
Oh I 100% agree with you on the second point. Absolutely.
Just not in last night’s game. Those 9 they made in the first half made up 35% of the threes they took. Not bad but not like they lit it up either. They hit 15 of 45 threes overall. Not that great.
Kansas shot 36% from three which is OK but not great and they were 12 of 22 from the line. They also had 12 turnovers before we had seven so let's not act like this is something overpowering team. They scored the same amount points on lesser opponent that we did.. granted they allow lesser points as well
Why he doesn’t tell our guys, or why they don’t listen to have their hands up guarding the perimeter at all times I will never understand. We literally close our late and have hands down. That’s why teams make shots against us.
We knew exactly what they wanted to do, yet they got all the shots they wanted. That’s the problem I see with our team under Pope that hasn’t changed.
If Trey Kaufman Renn suits up he is going to mess up Moreno. He’s a real deal big man. If Morneo somehow has a good game against them if he plays I will feel much better about his long term ability. He still is flat-footed and has hands of stone though. He also gets lackadaisical on defense too often.
True but giving up 15 makes isn’t great against a team you know that’s all they can do. A bunch of them were in and out in that second half so it could have been even more. Only won by 9, that’s 3 makes.
I’m afraid Stokes is really going to be motivated to troll Pope again on Tuesday. We don’t have anyone who can match up with him physically and I don’t think Pope teaches good enough defense to force him into the weak parts of his game.
Pope just needs more games to show what he can teach. 3 totally different teams and yet the same mistakes keep showing up.
To even compete with any decent team, we're going to need to go zone. Momcilovic just has zero chance to guard an sec guy and ousmane isn't far behind.
If we were really going to maximize our chances, we'd go pure zone and just constantly mix up our looks.
I know they took a **** ton of them, I guess because of every time we got a little cushion they'd hit one or two & now there's no cushion lol.
This is ALMOST exactly what I think, too !!! ^^^ I'm not sure we should go PURE zone, but I definitely think we should play a lot of zone !!
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Regardless of "nuclear" or not, my point is that every team that comes to Rupp gets hot & hits a **** ton of 3's.
Yes, visiting teams frequently attempt and make an exceptionally high number of three-pointers at Rupp Arena.
Opponents often view the three-point shot as the "great equalizer" when playing the high-powered Kentucky Wildcats on their intimidating home court. This trend is driven by several historical and record-breaking factors:
- Record-Breaking Barrages: Teams often come into Rupp and launch historically high numbers of shots from deep. For instance, James Madison tied the all-time opponent record against Kentucky at Rupp Arena by launching a massive 45 three-point attempts (hitting 15). The previous record for an opponent at Rupp was 40 attempts by Alabama in 2022.
- The "Underdog" Effect: Lower-tier or non-conference opponents frequently rely heavily on a high-variance, three-point-heavy game plan to counter Kentucky's depth and talent. In the James Madison game, the Dukes scoring strategy was so heavily perimeter-reliant that they scored an incredible 27 of their 39 first-half points entirely from behind the arc.
- Historic Outliers: Some of the most prolific single-game shooting performances by individual opposing players have happened in this building. The arena record for the most individual three-pointers made by an opponent is held by Sam Houston State's Corey Allmond, who shockingly torched the Wildcats for 11 three-pointers in a single game at Rupp Arena.
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I think a lot of it is just a lack of intensity and focus. Pope is not a good communicator himself imo and he’s not an intense individual and his teams are a reflection of that. Often times we come out flat and look unprepared. Defense, in part, is mostly effort.
Keeping their hands up does not make tall basketball players physically move or run faster in a straight line or laterally, because overall movement speed depends on footwork, stride, and lower-body mechanics rather than arm position.
However, keeping their hands active and up (around shoulder or chest height) makes them quicker to react and more effective on defense.
Why Keeping Hands Up Helps Defensive Quickness
- Faster Shot Contests: When a tall player already has their hands up rather than down at their sides, they do not waste precious milliseconds swinging their arms up to block or contest a jump shot.
- Better Balance and Recovery: Keeping hands at active, ready heights helps maintain a balanced center of gravity, allowing a defender to pivot, change direction, or reach for a pass much quicker than dropping their hands and having to reset.
- The "Hands Down" Myth: A common misconception is that keeping hands up leaves a tall player vulnerable to getting "crossed over". In reality, active, high hands discourage quick-release shots from smaller guards and narrow the passing and driving windows.
The Physical Limits of Tall Players
- Longer Levers and Mass: Taller athletes deal with longer limbs and higher body mass, which means it takes more force and coordination to accelerate their bodies compared to shorter, shiftier guards.
- Relying on Length over Foot-Speed: Because tall players generally cannot match the raw lateral quickness of small guards, sound defensive coaching emphasizes using length, positioning, and high active hands to compensate rather than trying to move like a 5'9" player.
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If you know your team has slow lateral quickness, I don’t know why you wouldn’t teach a little zone. Especially against these smaller teams with no inside game and you know their only hope is to make a bunch of threes. Throw a 3-2 zone at them. Try something because we’ve already seen enough to know that we won’t be able to guard the more athletic teams we play.
1000% ^^^ ... it might be that Pope has intentionally kept zone defense under wraps to prevent Kansas from planning for it. Just a thought ...
I remember in the famous Duke game, after publicly lambasting zone defense all season, Pitino went almost exclusively zone against Duke,
He knew we weren't athletic enough to MTM guard them for anywhere near the full forty (40) minutes and was smart enough not to try ...
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Totally agree. I know zone faded away in college, which I assume is a combination of aau culture and kids wanting to display their defense for nba scouts.
That said, there are only one or two guys on this team that has any shot to ever make an nba roster.
So just make the decision now and start installing it. Otherwise these sec bigs are going to blow by momcilovic with ease and moreno is going to eat multiple poster dunks a game. That's when teams aren't just shooting wide open threes.
You should change your name to bigbluesanity ... as I think your posts make a lot of good sense regarding how this team should play defense.
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