19 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

I think the last play where Brooks missed the three was actually a nice play. There were two problems with that play. One, Brooks being on the floor to take the three. He is 24% on three pointers on the season. Two, Brooks and TyTy stood at the 3 point line and watched the entire rebound from that missed shot from there. Neither one crashed the boards. Oscar did a great job keeping the rebound alive and those two watched it all.

On that play, if you are spreading the floor for the 3, put Mintz in. Better chance of making the 3 and Mintz will hustle his tail off for that rebound instead of watching the play from a distance. I would even rather have Toppin in on that play than Brooks, maybe even Hopkins. Give me effort and energy I can count on. I will take a mistake of effort over not enough effort every day of the week.

So it really wasn’t a nice play if the wrong guy is taking the shot and actually shouldn’t have even been in the game.

25 minutes ago, nikeman49 said:

So it really wasn’t a nice play if the wrong guy is taking the shot and actually shouldn’t have even been in the game.

Wrong. It was a good play. Wide open look at a 3. That cannot be denied. 

But, let me try to appease your Cal hatred with this. Yes, Cal let his loyalty and set ways to players again interfere in making the best decision IMO. Cal gets fixated on certain players late in the season. He gets fixated on his rotation. At times that hurts the team.

I see Cal and Bob Huggins as very much alike. They are excellent coaches but their great coaching happens between games more than it happens in games.

6 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

Wrong. It was a good play. Wide open look at a 3. That cannot be denied. 

But, let me try to appease your Cal hatred with this. Yes, Cal let his loyalty and set ways to players again interfere in making the best decision IMO. Cal gets fixated on certain players late in the season. He gets fixated on his rotation. At times that hurts the team.

I see Cal and Bob Huggins as very much alike. They are excellent coaches but their great coaching happens between games more than it happens in games.

Will agree 100%.  I think Cal is great at game prep, game planning but when comes time for in game adjustments or drawing up a play for a specific situation he has always fallen short in my opinion!

12 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

Will agree 100%.  I think Cal is great at game prep, game planning but when comes time for in game adjustments or drawing up a play for a specific situation he has always fallen short in my opinion!

I don't fully disagree, but can we not pretend like the other team isn't in a timeout scenario as well trying to guard against a team in a desperation situation? Most clutch time moments go to the defense, that's how it has always been and how it will always be. If you go look at clutch time statistics, people would be shocked how poor teams are at putting the ball in the hoop. This goes for all levels of basketball. That is why in college you often just let the kids try and make a play, which has worked well at times for Calipari.

A little late to the party, but It was encouraging to see Washington on the court, but he couldn't have been at much more than 70% healthy. Notae is really good, but Washington isn't that bad of a defender. He could not remotely slide to stay in front of him. Considering the early deficit, two starters playing that were rusty, I was pleased with the effort.

As an aside, I'm sure everyone saw the top 6 teams in the country all lost on Saturday. Duke at #7 won. Texas Tech lost, Nova was off, and Baylor won. Duke is interesting. They have only played two ranked teams this season (UK and Gonzaga), with their last game against a ranked opponent coming in their 7th game of the season on November 26th. Most likely they will not see a top 25 team in the country between November 26th and the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. 

4 minutes ago, bugatti said:

Duke is interesting. They have only played two ranked teams this season (UK and Gonzaga), with their last game against a ranked opponent coming in their 7th game of the season on November 26th. Most likely they will not see a top 25 team in the country between November 26th and the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. 

That just doesn't seem believable.

10 minutes ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

That just doesn't seem believable.

It really doesn't. It more so speaks to how poor the ACC has been, not necessarily an indictment of them. Which despite that, Duke has found themselves in a lot of "closer than it should have been battles" with just ok teams.

1 hour ago, bugatti said:

As an aside, I'm sure everyone saw the top 6 teams in the country all lost on Saturday. Duke at #7 won. Texas Tech lost, Nova was off, and Baylor won. Duke is interesting. They have only played two ranked teams this season (UK and Gonzaga), with their last game against a ranked opponent coming in their 7th game of the season on November 26th. Most likely they will not see a top 25 team in the country between November 26th and the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. 

Only two ranked opponents but they beat both of them. I may very well have Duke in the final spot in my bracket. I think they are talented and with Coach K retiring you know those kids will want to win it for him. Of course Duke has had some unexpected tournament losses over the years and with a team with so few data points this year, it could be the case once again.

1 hour ago, bugatti said:

It really doesn't. It more so speaks to how poor the ACC has been, not necessarily an indictment of them. Which despite that, Duke has found themselves in a lot of "closer than it should have been battles" with just ok teams.

The ACC struggles are incredible. Wake Forest and North Carolina are probably the only other tournament teams. Carolina has looked awful every time I've seen them. I don't know much about Wake Forest but Steve Forbes is a good coach. Seeing an NCAA Tournament without Syracuse, Louisville, Virginia, Florida State, Notre Dame, etc. is hard to imagine considering the ACC's perch as at or near the top of college basketball over the years.

4 hours ago, bugatti said:

I don't fully disagree, but can we not pretend like the other team isn't in a timeout scenario as well trying to guard against a team in a desperation situation? Most clutch time moments go to the defense, that's how it has always been and how it will always be. If you go look at clutch time statistics, people would be shocked how poor teams are at putting the ball in the hoop. This goes for all levels of basketball. That is why in college you often just let the kids try and make a play, which has worked well at times for Calipari.

Sometimes yes, I agree, I was more upset that coming out of a TO you don’t try to score with the ball OB under your own basket??!!  And you end up with a turnover!!