Cal will be forced to change Ds...

[MdWIldcat55]

Can't run a switch-on-picks man-to-man with Ulis in the line up. You end up with too many mismatches. This might be the moment when Cal is required to radically re-think his defensive approach.

By the way, I am not one of those 'Kentucky must play zone' types. With very big guards and a massive, athletic front court, the defense Kentucky ran this year struck me as optimal. Few teams had the kind of personnel Wisconsin did that could force mismatches then exploit them.

But next year will be very different. It'll be interesting to see what adjustments he brings.

 

[akaukswoosh]

He played some zone in 2014. Wouldn't be surprised seeing it at times again next year.

 

[BigBlueFanGA]

IMO, he shouldn't run a defense that switches on everything anyway. It will always create mismatches. Just because we can do it doesn't mean we should.

 

[ala_kat2]

Well, the switching man to man did not work against Wisconsin, and it appeared to me that coach did not make any adjustments. How many times did Booker get abused by Kaminski? Big men should have rotated back quickly to double team until Booker could switch back to a smaller man. Easy to say, I know.

 

[BigBlueFanGA]

Originally posted by JasonSpear:

Originally posted by BigBlueFanGA:
IMO, he shouldn't run a defense that switches on everything anyway.

false. If your guards are 6'6" and everyone else on floor is agile enough to cover a guard-center adequately, you absolutely can switch. That's where amazing defensive teams come from. If you have 5 guys on the court 6'9" with 7'0" winspans that run like guards... that'll be the best defensive team of all time. Realistically, it'll never happen. But switching screens with the right personnel is the right decision.

I don't think Ulis is included in that "right personnel" group with his size... nor is Dakari Johnson being left out on an inside to guard the best 2G in the nation in isolation.

Nor are our 6'6" guards when they have to switch to 6'9" and 7'0" shooters. I didn't say we shouldn't do it at all, but we certainly shouldn't blindly do it against teams. Wisconsin proved my point.

 

[sefus12]

Originally posted by BigBlueFanGA:

Originally posted by JasonSpear:

Originally posted by BigBlueFanGA:
IMO, he shouldn't run a defense that switches on everything anyway.

false. If your guards are 6'6" and everyone else on floor is agile enough to cover a guard-center adequately, you absolutely can switch. That's where amazing defensive teams come from. If you have 5 guys on the court 6'9" with 7'0" winspans that run like guards... that'll be the best defensive team of all time. Realistically, it'll never happen. But switching screens with the right personnel is the right decision.

I don't think Ulis is included in that "right personnel" group with his size... nor is Dakari Johnson being left out on an inside to guard the best 2G in the nation in isolation.

Nor are our 6'6" guards when they have to switch to 6'9" and 7'0" shooters. I didn't say we shouldn't do it at all, but we certainly shouldn't blindly do it against teams. Wisconsin proved my point.

Should have called Cal. I'm sure he never thought about that and if you did we would all be partying it up at this moment. I blame the loss on you.

 

[panick]

But since Calipari doesn't care what the other team is going to do, how would he know which teams the Cats should not switch against?

 

[Stenchymouse]

2013 would have looked a lot different if that team had played a zone.

Harrow, Mayes and Wiltjer got abused by quick and/or physical opponents.

That team was built to play zone...

 

[BigBlueFanGA]

Originally posted by sefus12:

Originally posted by BigBlueFanGA:

Originally posted by JasonSpear:

Originally posted by BigBlueFanGA:
IMO, he shouldn't run a defense that switches on everything anyway.

false. If your guards are 6'6" and everyone else on floor is agile enough to cover a guard-center adequately, you absolutely can switch. That's where amazing defensive teams come from. If you have 5 guys on the court 6'9" with 7'0" winspans that run like guards... that'll be the best defensive team of all time. Realistically, it'll never happen. But switching screens with the right personnel is the right decision.

I don't think Ulis is included in that "right personnel" group with his size... nor is Dakari Johnson being left out on an inside to guard the best 2G in the nation in isolation.

Nor are our 6'6" guards when they have to switch to 6'9" and 7'0" shooters. I didn't say we shouldn't do it at all, but we certainly shouldn't blindly do it against teams. Wisconsin proved my point.

Should have called Cal. I'm sure he never thought about that and if you did we would all be partying it up at this moment. I blame the loss on you.

Wouldn't have helped. We all know Cal is nothing if not stubborn. I wouldn't want anyone else, but that doesn't mean you can't criticize him now and then.

 

[eddie3]

K switched from man to zone last night and cofused Wisc for a while. Sometimes i wonder if cals ego wont let him make changes. And why the hell with a team this athletic and with numbers would you not put on a nasty press?

 

[JBnTN]

Cal's been coaching so long, I can't see him changing his style now. Maybe a tweak here and there, but nothing drastic. I'm okay with our defense even though it sacrifices scorers for pure athletes at times. He'll find ways to hide Ulis most of the time.

Besides, it was offensive breakdowns, not defense, that killed us at the end.

 

[JohnBlue]

At 38-1 he's not going to be "forced" to change anything.

 

[C1180]

Originally posted by JohnBlue_:
At 38-1 he's not going to be "forced" to change anything.

38-1, number one all season and another final four where the deal was not sealed. Calipari has a lot of final fours where the deal wasn't sealed for some reason. Could the reason be that Calipari is not flexible enough and doesn't believe that he must make changes when he is competing against the best teams in college basketball?

IMO the refusal to play zone defense is just stubbornness. Other coaches that are mainly man defense teams install zones for use in the right circumstances. I also think he is reluctant to change to suit his personnel. He doesn't try to hid any players on defense. I believe he has actually stated if you can not run my system I can not hide you.

We have all of these great players running through UK but is the end results any better than Tubby Smith. Both have one NC. Shall we say close but no cigar.

 

[CatCop]

Originally posted by MdWIldcat55:
Can't run a switch-on-picks man-to-man with Ulis in the line up. You end up with too many mismatches. This might be the moment when Cal is required to radically re-think his defensive approach.

By the way, I am not one of those 'Kentucky must play zone' types. With very big guards and a massive, athletic front court, the defense Kentucky ran this year struck me as optimal. Few teams had the kind of personnel Wisconsin did that could force mismatches then exploit them.

But next year will be very different. It'll be interesting to see what adjustments he brings.

Will never happen. Cal is a M2M coach and always will be. If anything we learned from this season it should be this. We had the perfect group to play Zone and we blew it because our coach is too stubborn to change with the times.

 

[trinity45_rivals378029]

Originally posted by BigBlueFanGA:
IMO, he shouldn't run a defense that switches on everything anyway. It will always create mismatches. Just because we can do it doesn't mean we should.

That was Wisconsin's game plan to create mismatches off of switches

 

[weatherbird]

Yea, because tubby had 4 FF in 5 years also. Just stop. The man doesn't believe in zone because in the NBA they don't play it. The players are coming here to prepare for the NBA, plain and simple. Probably why he won't all out press either. And by the way, while he was switching everything, they had the lowest 3fg% against in the country. If you're gonna beat us, you're gonna have to play basketball, not luck up hitting a bunch of 3s. And yes, you will find a mismatch doing that every once in a while, but the pros outweigh the cons. And by the way, Cal is 22-4 at UK in the tourney, what was Tubby?

 

[JohnBlue]

Originally posted by C1180:
38-1, number one all season and another final four where the deal was not sealed. Calipari has a lot of final fours where the deal wasn't sealed for some reason. Could the reason be that Calipari is not flexible enough and doesn't believe that he must make changes when he is competing against the best teams in college basketball?

IMO the refusal to play zone defense is just stubbornness. Other coaches that are mainly man defense teams install zones for use in the right circumstances. I also think he is reluctant to change to suit his personnel. He doesn't try to hid any players on defense. I believe he has actually stated if you can not run my system I can not hide you.

We have all of these great players running through UK but is the end results any better than Tubby Smith. Both have one NC. Shall we say close but no cigar.

You post that as if it's a birth right that UK makes it to the final four. Not a easy task, in fact a task that not many programs have ever achieved much less have a coach who's been to four of them in six seasons.

Your post is the down side of success too. Suddenly what once was the next to impossible has quickly been disregarded as not good enough. Calipari doesn't need to change a thing but instead keep doing what he is. A single loss for an entire season is not proof that something is wrong. If he's doing it wrong everyone else is doing a lot worse.