I like the way this team guards.

All my thoughts have pretty much been covered. Willis has turned back into Willis with other star talents around him. Hump had a bad game, but I don't believe he is as bad as he showed. I really wish Cal would give Mulder more of a chance. I know he questions his defense, but it seems to me he is destined to remain in Cal's doghouse.

 

Also, Bam has yet to develop any type of a rhythm and is struggling to adjust to the degree of physicality, or lack-there-of, allowed. He has yet to get it going. UK takes the next step when/if that occurs.

 

With Bam, I feel Cal's big guys always are the last piece to develop. I remember watching ND/Duke in 2015 and thinking Okafor was on a different level than KAT. This was late January. Then UK played UGA like a week later and KAT played well and just took off. I remember Davis and even Noel hitting stride in SEC play.

 

Not that Bam played bad, but agree with your thoughts on him and feel I've seen this before with the young Cats big men. Fingers crossed.

Love this team. Fun to watch.

Rarely watch a college game this time of year and especially the whole game. Circumstances warranted it so I watch dthe whole thing.

 

Fox is the fastest, quickest player I have seen in a long long time. He looked another level of fast. If Monk shoots like that, they won't get beat. Briscoe, to me, is missing something, not sure what. He plays hard and has skills, but... Defense was impressive.

 

The rest looked like an early season team. MSU, wow, they looked awful.

I watched the game again today on the DVR. I knew when I watched it live that Humphries didn't have a good game but it wasn't until I re-watched it that I realized just how bad it was. He had several shots blocked, fumbled the ball often, and had rebounds taken away from him. It was as if he was a second behind on every play.

He played strong with the ball last year at Texas A&M but in the MSU game it seemed like he had weak handles. I hope this game was just an anomaly. He is a big piece of the puzzle for the Cats this year.

Cal always says the last piece to come around for his teams is defense. It's usually not until the holiday break when they get extra practice time that he can really get them to function the way he wants with the help defense. I don't see that with this team as they are really pretty good on defense now and I believe this team will prove to be one of his best defensively. He will have to get more out of the bigs defensively and Bam will have to learn to play within the new physicality rules. I still think Humphries will give them good minutes and Willis is showing me something that I didn't think he had. He is blocking shots and actually looks much quicker to me, running the court for wide open dunks and I think he is actually becoming a guy that could be drafted first round next year. We know he can shoot but against the Spartans he just really never seemed to get into the flow. I never really paid much attention to who Izzo had guarding him when he was on the floor but maybe that was their plan to take his shot away thus Monk got so many good looks. This team imo can be very good and I'm sure they will have match up problems some nights but the three guards can really guard and Hawkins and Mulder give them nice depth as they can both get after it pretty good. Cal will find the right matchups with Sacha Killeya-Jones and Wenyen Gabriel. The sky is the limit for this team defensively.

Cal knows what he has in Willis. As the offensive sets are inserted Willis will become more involved in the offense. He's a pick and pop guy. Defensively Willis has improved but will never be Bill Russell.

There is zero chance Willis is a 1st round pick. By mid-season he'll have lost his starting gig to Gabriel.

For this UK team to reach it's full potential Willis has to be a part of the plan. It's possible, but I would be surprised if he is not a regular starter.

For this UK team to reach it's full potential Willis has to be a part of the plan. It's possible, but I would be surprised if he is not a regular starter.

 

See I think he would be better off the bench by midseason. If he can accept the roll it gives them a scorer who can shoot the jumpers off the guards' drives. Right now they aren't looking to pass to him (or anyone at times it seems) and when he doesn't score early he seems to sulk.

 

Bring him in as that 6th man shooter and it gives a new punch IMO. But that's only if Gabriel continues to improve his offense.

See I think he would be better off the bench by midseason. If he can accept the roll it gives them a scorer who can shoot the jumpers off the guards' drives. Right now they aren't looking to pass to him (or anyone at times it seems) and when he doesn't score early he seems to sulk.

 

Bring him in as that 6th man shooter and it gives a new punch IMO. But that's only if Gabriel continues to improve his offense.

 

I get that, I just think Willis struggles with confidence. Sitting him will only feed into his lack of self confidence. Of course if Gabriel starts playing lights out, you gotta do what you gotta do!

There is zero chance Willis is a 1st round pick. By mid-season he'll have lost his starting gig to Gabriel.

 

Mid season or tonight?