UK 87 DePaul 81

[hardball]

UK would have lost this game last year simply because of the free throw shooting. Much improved (conditioning, maybe?).

 

The defense is poor at best. The baseline looked like an interstate highway for Depaul and bad rotation in the zone (although there was improvement in this area in the 2nd half). Bradley got blown by on a couple seperate occasions.

 

I may be wrong, but it seems like UK always shoots well in Hawaii...

 

Also, is the court shorter than regulation there?

[Log Mountain Boy]

You know I cant remember a game last year, except for a couple late in the season where our offense actually played that well against a quality team. Depaul was very athletic and created matchup problems for us. Our defense has to get better, but right now Im pleased with our offense.

Bradley is still a work in progress. Hes going to make some mistakes, but hes also going to make a lot of big plays for us. He was 5-11 from the field, but he had to jack up 2 3s at the end of the shot clock that werent good shots.

[ladiesbballcoach]

I would take Bradley over Rondo for a college basketball game.

 

I believe it was Bobby Perry who played on some sort of all-star team this summer and was with a Florida player who pointed out that whenever they played UK and went m2m, they would put their center/post player on him and not bring him outside of the FT lane to guard him. He was NO THREAT and that way they had a shotblocker in the lane to clog up the middle for the other 4 UK players.

 

If Rondo couldn't go 1 on 1, than he hurt UK offensively. And last year, he did not seem to play defense as hard or as well as he did his freshmen season.

[sportsfan41]

I would take Bradley over Rondo for a college basketball game.

 

I believe it was Bobby Perry who played on some sort of all-star team this summer and was with a Florida player who pointed out that whenever they played UK and went m2m, they would put their center/post player on him and not bring him outside of the FT lane to guard him. He was NO THREAT and that way they had a shotblocker in the lane to clog up the middle for the other 4 UK players.

 

If Rondo couldn't go 1 on 1, than he hurt UK offensively. And last year, he did not seem to play defense as hard or as well as he did his freshmen season.

 

Sounds pretty reasonable to me, I think that's a pretty accurate asessment.

[threetimelover]

You are exactly right, lbbc. Rondo allowed defenses to sag because they knew he wouldn't take (or hit) the jumper. If he wasn't driving, then he was a liability in a set offense.

[UKPat02]

I would take Bradley over Rondo for a college basketball game.

 

 

I don't know about that one. I'm still not sold on Bradley as a '1'. He has skills off the dribble and can create his own shot and distributes decently well, but he's still more of a '2' in my book.

 

If Jasper would stop throwing dumb one-handed passes the whole game, I would almost rather him handle most of the PG duties.

[TigerKat]

They were beaten off the bounce far too often...

Tubby said that after the game on ESPN and he said D is their staple and it will be corrected. Rmember everyone that Christmas breaks and 2 a days is when UK gets their work in and a difference will show. I was happy with what I saw, D will come.

[MountainThunder]

Glad to see better offense. I know the defense will get better.

 

It seems that Morris is playing harder, smarter, and becoming more of a leader on this team.

 

I really like the freshmen and what they could be by the end of the season.

 

'Swat' seemed nervous, but he will be fine.

 

Bradley is shooting well. Sometimes ill advised shots, but he is shooting well.

 

Woo came to play

 

Did I mention I really like these freshmen?

 

They seem to be shooting FT's better than last season.

 

Crawford is becoming a better offensive player, but had too many lapses on defense.

 

All in all a good win for the Cats. UCLA will really give them a stern test early in the season.

[Log Mountain Boy]

One thing I really liked about Bradley was how strong he played. A couple times he went hard at someone and drew fouls. The added muscle he has put on is really going to pay dividends. I think, there will be a lot of times later in the year that we will have Bradley at the 2 and Jasper at the 1.

[Wireman]

Nice win tonight for the Cats....Morris looked very solid once again, but I'm not sold on Bradley at the point yet....He wants to shoot way too much for a PG. I'm not real sure why Jasper didn't get off the bench in the 2nd half. I think he would have been helpful.

 

Tomorrow night should be pretty tough but I think the D is going to perform a heck of a lot better than it did tonight.

 

Its because he doesn't know how to throw a fundamentally sound two-hand pass. He continues to throw that cute, weak, one-handed crap that used to be pretty in high school, but in the big leagues its just a turnover and a dunk on the other end.

[ladiesbballcoach]

I loved Bilas coach. If you are complaining about Tubby's recruits than you need to realize you have one heckuva coach who is averaging getting you 27 wins a season with recruits who can't play.

[ladiesbballcoach]

I think Bradley makes his teammates better (outside shooting opens up the lane and drives creates open shots) where Rondo couldn't in a halfcourt setting. Fullcourt, they are close to being equal.

 

Defensively Rondo was/is better.

[UnderPar]

I honestly can't believe that everyone is so impressed with the offense. They scored 87 points (I will give you that) but how many of those points came out of a half court set??? Most of thier points last night were in transition (Which they are very good at) and breaking people down off the dribble. I think we stand WAY to much on the offensive end and eventually teams are going to try and slow it down on us and make us beat them in a half court set which I am not sure we can do right now. I hope that changes soon!

[ladiesbballcoach]

I honestly can't believe that everyone is so impressed with the offense. They scored 87 points (I will give you that) but how many of those points came out of a half court set??? Most of thier points last night were in transition (Which they are very good at) and breaking people down off the dribble. I think we stand WAY to much on the offensive end and eventually teams are going to try and slow it down on us and make us beat them in a half court set which I am not sure we can do right now. I hope that changes soon!

I only got to watch the second half and I did not see a lot of points in transition as you indicated. A good number came from attacking the basket off the dribble, offensive rebounds or Woo/Morris posting inside.

[UnderPar]

Your right they did score off the dribble a lot but it was one-on-one. Crawford made a couple of shots that were TERRIBLE shots. He was just athletic enough to get them up. If we have to depend on one-on-one moves all year in the half court we are going to struggle against the SEC teams! I did like it when he ran the FLEX though. We got a lot of good shots out of that.