I think they try to play through their bigs more and get them more involved. Thought they went away from that in Vegas. Bam and Hump are going to have to step it up.
How does UNC play us this time around?
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I'm not sure, the bigs are not skilled enough to run offense through him.
It'll somehow have to start with Joel Berry.
It'll somehow have to start with Joel Berry.
They'll play us down 10 the majority of the game
We've gotten a lot better since then. We're a different team. They're the same team they've been all year.
UNC kinda went away from their bigs because Monk was lighting them up from three and in every way possible and UK was in the lead for 99% of the game. If not for the white guy hitting back to back threes for UNC, UK would have cruised to the victory. People forget just how in control UK was for almost the whole game. And everyone says UK "only won because of Monk scoring 47 points" but UNC's bigs scored a combined 33 points, Joel Berry scored 23 points, Jackson scored 35 points. Fox for UK also had his way and scored 24 points. Fox and Monk scored a combined 71 points for UK. Also, the game was played in LAS VEGAS..not Lexington.
NOW though, UK is much more balanced. Willis, Hawkins, Briscoe, Bam, and Mulder all contribute offensively much more. Bam has asserted himself inside and has gotten much better overall. UK plays much much better defense now. UK rebounds much much better now. UNC has gotten better but not much and definitely not as much as UK has. UK probably won't be, but UK should be favored. UK is the better team. Don't let UNC thumping outsized and far less quick and athletic Butler fool you. UK just held the best offensive team in the country to over 15 points less of what they were averaging. UK will be ready.
NOW though, UK is much more balanced. Willis, Hawkins, Briscoe, Bam, and Mulder all contribute offensively much more. Bam has asserted himself inside and has gotten much better overall. UK plays much much better defense now. UK rebounds much much better now. UNC has gotten better but not much and definitely not as much as UK has. UK probably won't be, but UK should be favored. UK is the better team. Don't let UNC thumping outsized and far less quick and athletic Butler fool you. UK just held the best offensive team in the country to over 15 points less of what they were averaging. UK will be ready.
They will again try to exploit their one great advantage, size at the 3. Justin Jackson scored 34 against us because at 6'8", he can shoot over our wing players and is quick enough to drive if we overplay. Jackson is their leading scorer and hits about 41% from 3. I think it is our only position disadvantage.
I think they may try to get us into an uptempo game in an attempt to negate our improved defense. We need to not get caught up in that and stay disciplined and play as we have for the past month and we'll be OK. I do believe we have improved more than they have since December but the score will still start at 0-0 and we will have to prove ourselves. Gonna be another tough one and a nervous day tomorrow getting ready for it.
Bribe the officials? Blackmail the official timekeeper? I put nothing past the best cheaters in the NCAA. I have 0 respect for their team, their "fans" (who endorse cheating like a second skin), or their cheating university (a third rate institution is being far too kind). They are the scum of post secondary education. They represent nothing good and everything purile.
They'll have to shoot it extremely well from the outside. We have better players, plain and simple. They don't have a player even close to the talent level of Fox/Monk. And Bam should be able to handle both Meeks/Hicks in the post as long as the refs don't saddle him with fouls. Not saying they can't win, but they'll have to play extremely well and we'll have to have a subpar game, IMO.
I'm sure they will try to do what they do,it works for them most of the time.We can get up and down the court with them but if we can pick our spots we will be o k
UNC fan here with some more match up details. You have already played us, so you already have an idea of our team, but here we go...
The Obvious: We like to play fast, we are deep, and we rebound extremely well. We struggle with excellent dribble penetration, and that is compounded when the other team's guards are very good at kicking out to three point shooters, because we overhelp something fierce. Our bigs are skilled, with nice post moves and excellent jump shots in the 8-10 foot range. These typical UNC scouting report insights are true this year as well.
The Subtle (I.e. some nuggets about UNC):
1. This is probably the best half court team in the Roy Williams era, actually posting better offensive numbers in half court sets than on the fastbreak (really strange for UNC), and winning most of our games when there are low scores or fewer possessions (usually a big weakness). Unfortunately, we have been much weaker in high possession games than is usual.
2. We are extremely good at passing the ball, with some of the best assist numbers of any Roy Williams team (and some of the best in the country). This is an extremely unselfish, teammate oriented squad. That said, we played poorly against zone this year. We have improved against zone the last 5 weeks with Pinson back from his preseason injury (he is definitely our best passer). However, I would still say we have more trouble with zone than man.
3. Bigs: UNC doesn't block a ton of shots down low. Even so, our bigs are excellent at guarding other bigs in the paint and not giving up many second chance opportunities to teams who rely on offensive rebounds. We hardly ever get beat by a big man scoring in the low post, and it is why we are a top 20 defensive team this year. That said, UNC struggles with stretch fours that can drive and hit threes; Hicks can guard them somewhat, but then gets in foul trouble. However, the biggest weakness of our bigs is fouling; our guards often struggle against dribble penetration from opponents, and once the guards get beat, our bigs get in foul trouble. This scenario happens way too much.
4 UNC is a much better shooting team from deep this year; this is one of our better shooting teams from deep in the last ten years. At 6'8" and with terrific speed for cuts, Justin Jackman is virtually unguardable when his deep ball is going in. Joel Berry is also a great three point shooter, and Nate Britt shoots a better percentage than people realize. Luke Maye is our only stretch four that shoots the deep ball well, but he can really stroke it if left open. Unless he is wide open, cheer when Pinson shoots threes and long twos.
5. Dribble Penetration: this team has really struggled with guards who can break you down one on one with the dribble. Virtually every team that beat us had a guy who tore us up on dribble penetration. Berry had ankles issues for several of those losses that affected his lateral movement, and he appears to have the same issue right now he did earlier in the year; he struggles going backwards with lateral movement when his ankle isn't full strength. I expect Fox to shred him like he did the first time. Pinson has really helped on defense here as well, but he is prone to picking up fouls.
6. Physical Teams: We struggle with teams that can push our guards around. For instance, if Jackson is missing threes, and you are physical with him on his drives, he can have poor shooting nights.
7. Secondary Break: Our fast break sometimes gives us easy initial points, but the main strength of UNC's fast pace is more subtle: establishing our bigs in the low post by beating the other team's bigs down the floor. It is very important your bigs run back hard on defense and beat UNC bigs to the low post, as the initial break isn't the only key; once we have the block secured, we often get easy shots at the rim, lots of offensive rebounds, and get the other team's bigs in foul trouble. Beat our bigs down the floor, and it will help you slow down our offensive rebounding. If you don't, we will live off of the offensive glass and in the paint.
8. Joel Berry's ankle: he is the engine that makes us go, and we drop off when he is out of the game. We drop off even more when he and Jackson are both out of the game. If his ankle is bothering him, we are likely toast.
9. Defense: unless Berry gets in foul trouble, you will likely see very little zone. We only rarely double a big down low since Meeks is such an excellent individual defender and since we value snatching boards and keeping the other team off the glass by having the other big in rebounding position rather than doubling the shooter. Pinson will provide better defense than Monk faced last time with his length and athleticism, but I think Monk can get him in foul trouble as long as he drives instead of settles for long two's and threes.
Summary: (1) Get defensive rebounds, (2) stop our primary and (especially) secondary break (a big key to stopping our rebounding), (3) play physical on D, and (4) get dribble penetration, then either draw fouls or kick out for open threes. That's the magic formula. Do at least three of those, and you beat UNC.
Prediction: I think UK is the slightly better team and certainly has the more talented players when both are fully healthy. UNC isn't fully healthy, so UK definitely has the advantage. Kentucky will win by 8-10 points.
The Obvious: We like to play fast, we are deep, and we rebound extremely well. We struggle with excellent dribble penetration, and that is compounded when the other team's guards are very good at kicking out to three point shooters, because we overhelp something fierce. Our bigs are skilled, with nice post moves and excellent jump shots in the 8-10 foot range. These typical UNC scouting report insights are true this year as well.
The Subtle (I.e. some nuggets about UNC):
1. This is probably the best half court team in the Roy Williams era, actually posting better offensive numbers in half court sets than on the fastbreak (really strange for UNC), and winning most of our games when there are low scores or fewer possessions (usually a big weakness). Unfortunately, we have been much weaker in high possession games than is usual.
2. We are extremely good at passing the ball, with some of the best assist numbers of any Roy Williams team (and some of the best in the country). This is an extremely unselfish, teammate oriented squad. That said, we played poorly against zone this year. We have improved against zone the last 5 weeks with Pinson back from his preseason injury (he is definitely our best passer). However, I would still say we have more trouble with zone than man.
3. Bigs: UNC doesn't block a ton of shots down low. Even so, our bigs are excellent at guarding other bigs in the paint and not giving up many second chance opportunities to teams who rely on offensive rebounds. We hardly ever get beat by a big man scoring in the low post, and it is why we are a top 20 defensive team this year. That said, UNC struggles with stretch fours that can drive and hit threes; Hicks can guard them somewhat, but then gets in foul trouble. However, the biggest weakness of our bigs is fouling; our guards often struggle against dribble penetration from opponents, and once the guards get beat, our bigs get in foul trouble. This scenario happens way too much.
4 UNC is a much better shooting team from deep this year; this is one of our better shooting teams from deep in the last ten years. At 6'8" and with terrific speed for cuts, Justin Jackman is virtually unguardable when his deep ball is going in. Joel Berry is also a great three point shooter, and Nate Britt shoots a better percentage than people realize. Luke Maye is our only stretch four that shoots the deep ball well, but he can really stroke it if left open. Unless he is wide open, cheer when Pinson shoots threes and long twos.
5. Dribble Penetration: this team has really struggled with guards who can break you down one on one with the dribble. Virtually every team that beat us had a guy who tore us up on dribble penetration. Berry had ankles issues for several of those losses that affected his lateral movement, and he appears to have the same issue right now he did earlier in the year; he struggles going backwards with lateral movement when his ankle isn't full strength. I expect Fox to shred him like he did the first time. Pinson has really helped on defense here as well, but he is prone to picking up fouls.
6. Physical Teams: We struggle with teams that can push our guards around. For instance, if Jackson is missing threes, and you are physical with him on his drives, he can have poor shooting nights.
7. Secondary Break: Our fast break sometimes gives us easy initial points, but the main strength of UNC's fast pace is more subtle: establishing our bigs in the low post by beating the other team's bigs down the floor. It is very important your bigs run back hard on defense and beat UNC bigs to the low post, as the initial break isn't the only key; once we have the block secured, we often get easy shots at the rim, lots of offensive rebounds, and get the other team's bigs in foul trouble. Beat our bigs down the floor, and it will help you slow down our offensive rebounding. If you don't, we will live off of the offensive glass and in the paint.
8. Joel Berry's ankle: he is the engine that makes us go, and we drop off when he is out of the game. We drop off even more when he and Jackson are both out of the game. If his ankle is bothering him, we are likely toast.
9. Defense: unless Berry gets in foul trouble, you will likely see very little zone. We only rarely double a big down low since Meeks is such an excellent individual defender and since we value snatching boards and keeping the other team off the glass by having the other big in rebounding position rather than doubling the shooter. Pinson will provide better defense than Monk faced last time with his length and athleticism, but I think Monk can get him in foul trouble as long as he drives instead of settles for long two's and threes.
Summary: (1) Get defensive rebounds, (2) stop our primary and (especially) secondary break (a big key to stopping our rebounding), (3) play physical on D, and (4) get dribble penetration, then either draw fouls or kick out for open threes. That's the magic formula. Do at least three of those, and you beat UNC.
Prediction: I think UK is the slightly better team and certainly has the more talented players when both are fully healthy. UNC isn't fully healthy, so UK definitely has the advantage. Kentucky will win by 8-10 points.
Great summary. If UK wins I'm sure it'll be less than 8-10. It's more of a tossup for me. Hopefully we can continue our great play.
A better ? is, why the hell are they being allowed to play is the first place?:uzi:[sick]
If I'm UNC, I try to get our guards in foul trouble.
35+ minutes apiece of Fox and Monk is a tall order for anyone right now.
Other than that, ride Jackson. Shoot over Briscoe, or get a switch and drive on Willis. Jackson might go for 40, and they will need it.
35+ minutes apiece of Fox and Monk is a tall order for anyone right now.
Other than that, ride Jackson. Shoot over Briscoe, or get a switch and drive on Willis. Jackson might go for 40, and they will need it.