I thought the Harrison's were terrific today.

First time all year facing intense defensive pressure from end line to end line and after a bit of a shaky start they settled down nicely. They both played really well in the second half. Andrew played 18 minutes with only one turnover in the second half and made some keys shots and facilitated on some key baskets. Aaron did so as well. I thought Poythress was consistent and did what they needed him to do. Young was terrific in his decision making aside from lob late in game to his defense on Jones in the second half.

I was hard on Calipari up until today with some of his decision making and lack of progress on defense. I find no faults with him today and you can tell they have been working on defense with these gaps in games and more practice time.

I thought for the most part they defended fairly well. You have got to understand Cal's philosophy on defense. He doesn't mind if a guy takes it to the rack on his defense, but he wants the ball handler to be turned at least once in the drive. Funnel the driver to the shot blockers. What they havent quite grasped as a team is knowing when to help and when not to. He wants more forced shots at basket than kicks to wings and especially kicks to corners.

They did a decent job in funneling drivers but left too many open shooters at times.

I thought his plan of moving Randle out of the post and into a more faceup game took away from Pitino and one of the best things he does and that is stopping opposing front court scorers through doubles and rotations. Randle was able to catch, face up and drive. UL had no answer for it.

Once he went down, I thought it would be tough for the Cats bit they showed great poise and hit shots and got stops when needed.

I thought UL front court was disappointing and for all the kudos Pitino gets from the progress of Smith there has to be Ville fans stupefied by the lack of growth in Blackshear's game over the course of 2+ years. Too me, Behanan is not worth the headaches he creates. The Ville will be fine and battling it our in the end.

Too 10 comment you bite your tongue RP clearly UK is #1, they're just waiting for the right time to show it.....

 

:stop:

and especially kicks to corners.

 

He talked about this a lot on the post-game show. First I've ever heard of it & now I see you repeat it.

 

Could you explain this more?

I'll give it a shot but don't take it as gospel.

The 3 point shot from the corner or "Corner 3" is the shortest three point shot you can attempt and is generally considered the highest percentage shot of all 3's attempted.

In regards to what UK wants to do defensively and that is funnel drivers to shot blockers then the most likely kick from a driver is going to be to ball side corner or weak side corner. It is highly unlikely a driver going to basket will be able to make kicks to the top or elbow extended 3's so it is playing the percentages of driver kicking to ball side or weakside corners.

Teams that utilize good spacing and ball movement can get shots from the corner often times pulling bigs from paint to defend in rotations.

So, what Cal wants to see in my opinion, is less perimeter help on drives especially going at basket and forcing driver to score over bigs or at rim. Typically UK is above average shot blocking team, so refrain from help and cut off the typical kick to easiest 3 point shot. If you can defend corner 3's you will force and entry pass into congested area or non-defensive penetrating passes (balls passed back around the perimeter).

Great to see 22 busting his hump and being aggressive.

 

Finally !

^ Heck Russ could have walked to Louisville and back and a travel wouldnt have been called. Besides the first 5 min in which UK got a couple favorable calls, I thought the refereeing was a non issue. Heck Calipari almost got a technical for yelling at his own team :lol2:

 

Agreed, imo Lil' Ricky was just P'd at his team getting their butts handed back to them and was venting bc he didn't have his team prepared as well as he usually does.

About Smith, I think they called him for carrying the ball (palming/turning over) a couple of times. Hell, they could have called it practically every trip down the floor, wouldn't that have been a show ?. :popcorn: :lol2: I have noticed Smith doing that in other UL games as well-it rarely gets called.

I thought the Harrison's were terrific today.

First time all year facing intense defensive pressure from end line to end line and after a bit of a shaky start they settled down nicely. They both played really well in the second half. Andrew played 18 minutes with only one turnover in the second half and made some keys shots and facilitated on some key baskets. Aaron did so as well. I thought Poythress was consistent and did what they needed him to do. Young was terrific in his decision making aside from lob late in game to his defense on Jones in the second half.

I was hard on Calipari up until today with some of his decision making and lack of progress on defense. I find no faults with him today and you can tell they have been working on defense with these gaps in games and more practice time.

I thought for the most part they defended fairly well. You have got to understand Cal's philosophy on defense. He doesn't mind if a guy takes it to the rack on his defense, but he wants the ball handler to be turned at least once in the drive. Funnel the driver to the shot blockers. What they havent quite grasped as a team is knowing when to help and when not to. He wants more forced shots at basket than kicks to wings and especially kicks to corners.

They did a decent job in funneling drivers but left too many open shooters at times.

I thought his plan of moving Randle out of the post and into a more faceup game took away from Pitino and one of the best things he does and that is stopping opposing front court scorers through doubles and rotations. Randle was able to catch, face up and drive. UL had no answer for it.

Once he went down, I thought it would be tough for the Cats bit they showed great poise and hit shots and got stops when needed.

I thought UL front court was disappointing and for all the kudos Pitino gets from the progress of Smith there has to be Ville fans stupefied by the lack of growth in Blackshear's game over the course of 2+ years. Too me, Behanan is not worth the headaches he creates. The Ville will be fine and battling it our in the end.

 

Great post. Agree with everything.

I'll give it a shot but don't take it as gospel.

The 3 point shot from the corner or "Corner 3" is the shortest three point shot you can attempt and is generally considered the highest percentage shot of all 3's attempted.

In regards to what UK wants to do defensively and that is funnel drivers to shot blockers then the most likely kick from a driver is going to be to ball side corner or weak side corner. It is highly unlikely a driver going to basket will be able to make kicks to the top or elbow extended 3's so it is playing the percentages of driver kicking to ball side or weakside corners.

Teams that utilize good spacing and ball movement can get shots from the corner often times pulling bigs from paint to defend in rotations.

So, what Cal wants to see in my opinion, is less perimeter help on drives especially going at basket and forcing driver to score over bigs or at rim. Typically UK is above average shot blocking team, so refrain from help and cut off the typical kick to easiest 3 point shot. If you can defend corner 3's you will force and entry pass into congested area or non-defensive penetrating passes (balls passed back around the perimeter).

 

Interesting. Thanks. :thumb:

Going to need some context before we can sling the "loser" collar.

 

Go find another game with two palming calls in the last 10 years. Bet it does not exist.

Congrats to Cats on the win. The played harder today than my team.

 

As c

For Rick not having a press conference you guys should know he rarely does when he is on the road. It is all most always done outside his locker room. Not sure why everyone is so excited about that, go back and look at year past.

Go find another game with two palming calls in the last 10 years. Bet it does not exist.

 

There were some strange calls on both sides and they seemed to even out. But the game was not called well in general.

 

Randell played great in the first half. All the talk Friday night seemed to be front court vs back count but little specific discussion of Randell.

 

It was known that UL would have to hit its 3's and free throws. They did not. Smith had some good plays but he does not seem to have taken on the role of overall leader. UL looked younger than UK at times yesterday.

Agreed, imo Lil' Ricky was just P'd at his team getting their butts handed back to them and was venting bc he didn't have his team prepared as well as he usually does.

About Smith, I think they called him for carrying the ball (palming/turning over) a couple of times. Hell, they could have called it practically every trip down the floor, wouldn't that have been a show ?. :popcorn: :lol2: I have noticed Smith doing that in other UL games as well-it rarely gets called.

 

Heck in my opinion, everybody "carries" the ball. You can't do some of those B-Ball moves without doing it.

I was listening to WKYT news tonight, they had Cal saying that they don't play until Jan. 8 and he was giving the guys 24hrs. off. Cal said that they did look good, finally played as a team but still had a long way to go. Practice Sunday (6pm) and starting on Monday they will be going 3X a day until the next game (1/8), they had to get better. I Love It.

He needs to use some of that time to improve their free throw shooting percentage. When they get into the tournaments and play top teams they will have a difficult time winning if they shoot 50 to 60 percent from the line. And with their type of offense they're going to be going to the line many times.

I think part of their problem is a confidence issue, that is, not being able to make free throws in intense situations in close games. I commented to friends yesterday as we were watching the game that I wouldn't doubt the least that they actually shoot a good percentage when they practice. They just don't do it in actual games. No confidence.

Last night was a fitting end to the year of the Cardinals. Now order has been restored and we can all go about out daily lives without living under UL's shadow.

Also if UK makes 75% of their free throws they win by 15...