What Does Cal Do With Hagans?

[TankedCat]

Cal made a point of emphasis on Richards improving late last year. It just took late December of this year for it to show.

Richards went 2 years without showing any major improvement, then boom, this year all American potential.

I will never give up a returning veteran that represents UK well so in that regard, we have to assume that Hagans will improve noticeably if he comes back.

If not, Cal "investment" in him will end around mid January as another 5 star steps up to lead the team.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for a PG is other than Richards, Hagans has had to work thru players making bad decisions and being generally unreliable as scorers with a roster turnover. Your assist ratio is going to be bad when a guy can't take a pass in traffic, shoots 26% from the 3 (and keeps taking them) or can't hit an uncontested layup. Then at that point you try to start doing it yourself like taking ill advised 3 pointers when you're trying to hang on to a 5 point lead.

Imagine how we would be praising Hagans as a PG if we returned 3 starters from last year to start the season that had their games developed.

Hagans is our PG. If the other guys step up, it will make his responsibilities easier.

 

[JimBR_rivals319758]

I think maxey is more than capable of running the point. He had 7 assists and 2 to’s Saturday.
Keep the starting lineup the same and move hagans off the ball on offense is the best solution. He cost us with 7 to’s in the elite 8 last year and will get us beat again this year.

Agree. Maxey appears to be capable of running the offense and scoring off the dribble.

 

[CincyUKFan]

I think that’s far too much of a black and white way of looking at it. The point is, he’s our PG and he has to protect the ball better if we want to advance in March. Can we place any of our current 5 losses on his shoulders? I don’t know. But what I do know is we don’t need him to have a 4 assist 6 turnover game in the elite eight.

Yup. Hard to put it “squarely” on him, but take a look:

Evansville
1/8, 3 points, 4 turnovers, 3 assists
He had the worst outing of anyone on the team

Ohio State
13 points and 7 assists, but also 5 TO and 2/10

Auburn
The other guards came to play, he had more turnovers (6) than points (5)

And we’ve won some games IN SPITE of similar performances.

 

[CincyUKFan]

I agree with you, at this point he pretty much looks like the same guy as last year. As to your point about his shot having improved a little, unfortunately the numbers don’t back that up. I’ve seen a couple people make this point recently and sorry to say it’s not true. His fg% is down from 46.7% to 41% and his 3 point shot is a negligible difference from 27.5% to 28.1%. You could technically say that 0.6% is an improvement it’s so minute, it’s essentially flat. So he’s the same outside shooter as he was last season, and his overall fg% has dipped a significant 5 whole % points.

Yup, that difference in his 3 point percentage has a technical term - negligible.

 

[JimmyWa11]

As I said at first, I love so many things about Hagans' game but the issue is that your starting PG can lose a game for you if he has 7 or 8 turnovers like he did in the Elite 8 last year. I just hope that Cal doesn't allow that this year if Hagans is struggling in a tourney game.

 

[26MichaelUK]

Look we're riding or dying with him. I still have faith he's gonna be fine. I really do. He can disrupt a game on defense. We all know that. He's gotta quit leaving his feet without knowing where he is going. That was SGA problem against Kansas State in 2018.

 

[zannmann]

Cal is in love with Hagans. He has already stated he wants him out there every play. Cal gets that way, plays players an extended amount of minutes that makes you scratch your head. Cal never jumps on him for making a turnover.