1 hour ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

If you only shoot well when you have stand still opportunities with your feet underneath you, you aren't a good shooter at this level of basketball.

These guys are and should be much better than that.  They also had several good looks in their two losses, they just didn't knock them down.

Wait, wait, You can be classified as a good shooter, just not a well rounded player.  I have watched Frederick enough, even in HS years to know he is pretty much a spot up shooter.

13 minutes ago, 4 Quarters said:

Wait, wait, You can be classified as a good shooter, just not a well rounded player.  I have watched Frederick enough, even in HS years to know he is pretty much a spot up shooter.

Totally.

But when someone says they can't shoot on fast breaks, or on drive and kicks, because they need to have have their feet under them, well if that's the case, they need to be playing a much lower level of basketball if that's the case.  Which it isn't, just more hyperbole.

2 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

Both of these guys shoot better with feet under them and not moving around during break opportunities and drive and kick situations.

That makes no sense whatsoever.  It is simple: they hit shots against inferior teams, but don't against stronger competition.  The numbers back it up.

Fredrick is 16-29 from the floor & 9-19 from 3 against the 3 crap teams.  
Fredrick is 2-16 from the floor & 2-12 from 3 against Sparty & Gonzaga.

Reeves is 16-34 from the floor & 13-25 from 3 against the 3 crap teams.
Reeves is 5-20 from the floor & 3-10 from 3 against Sparty & Gonzaga.

None of that is on Cal, unless you want to complain (which I do) about why Fredrick is getting 36 minutes & 32 minutes in games where he clearly isn't able to produce.

2 hours ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

If you only shoot well when you have stand still opportunities with your feet underneath you, you aren't a good shooter at this level of basketball.

These guys are and should be much better than that.  They also had several good looks in their two losses, they just didn't knock them down.

Exactly.

48 minutes ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

Totally.

But when someone says they can't shoot on fast breaks, or on drive and kicks, because they need to have have their feet under them, well if that's the case, they need to be playing a much lower level of basketball if that's the case.  Which it isn't, just more hyperbole.

I think you're correct that maybe they should be at a lower level. Think about it, they both came from a lower level, neither were recruited by UK out of HS.  Are they really UK caliber players?  On some days the media really hurts these kids.

33 minutes ago, Randy Parker said:

That makes no sense whatsoever.  It is simple: they hit shots against inferior teams, but don't against stronger competition.  The numbers back it up.

Fredrick is 16-29 from the floor & 9-19 from 3 against the 3 crap teams.  
Fredrick is 2-16 from the floor & 2-12 from 3 against Sparty & Gonzaga.

Reeves is 16-34 from the floor & 13-25 from 3 against the 3 crap teams.
Reeves is 5-20 from the floor & 3-10 from 3 against Sparty & Gonzaga.

None of that is on Cal, unless you want to complain (which I do) about why Fredrick is getting 36 minutes & 32 minutes in games where he clearly isn't able to produce.

Plain and simple, it's called defense.

15 minutes ago, 4 Quarters said:

I think you're correct that maybe they should be at a lower level. Think about it, they both came from a lower level, neither were recruited by UK out of HS.  Are they really UK caliber players?  On some days the media really hurts these kids.

For years people complain they wanted UK to get more four year type of players like they used to have and not one and done. Also wanted more players that played high school in Kentucky. Yet people now also complain when UK has those players, and say they aren’t good enough to play at UK. 
 

IMO it’s good to have a mixture of both. Which UK has this year, they simply lost two early season games. I think too many people are making to much out of early season games. Shoot in an early season game last year UK blew out UNC who ended up making the finals. UK then mid season blew out Kansas who ended up winning it all. 
 

Point being I think everyone including myself are making to quick of judgements on players right now based on two weeks worth of games. 
 

 

Few observations being there in person:

- Oscar showed why he is not viewed as a NBA prospect (as did Timme). You have to be able to play and guard in space. Also not sure it showed on tv, but the big fellla was gassed early on. Hopefully his conditioning will come along.

- Feels like Cal is trying to will into existence CJ being a knock down contributor. No way in years’ past would he give this level of latitude to a non-blue chip player. He (and others) had some solid looks, but this ain’t Iowa with no pressure. 

- For those griping that this would be a neutral site game, well it wasn’t that. It was just more of a home court advantage for the Zags. That place was rocking. 

- UK goes however far Wallace develops into the PG role. If it is Wheeler as the primary guy, then good luck. They need to share in the role.

- Loved the early season test and some of the pieces of this team. Will be fun to see how it comes together.

- UK actually made some ok adjustments on offense at halftime. Toppin was cooking from the elbow, but Gonzaga was getting what they wanted during this same stretch. The defense is more troublesome to me. 

25 minutes ago, bugatti said:

Few observations being there in person:

- Oscar showed why he is not viewed as a NBA prospect (as did Timme). You have to be able to play and guard in space. Also not sure it showed on tv, but the big fellla was gassed early on. Hopefully his conditioning will come along.

- Feels like Cal is trying to will into existence CJ being a knock down contributor. No way in years’ past would he give this level of latitude to a non-blue chip player. He (and others) had some solid looks, but this ain’t Iowa with no pressure. 

- For those griping that this would be a neutral site game, well it wasn’t that. It was just more of a home court advantage for the Zags. That place was rocking. 

- UK goes however far Wallace develops into the PG role. If it is Wheeler as the primary guy, then good luck. They need to share in the role.

- Loved the early season test and some of the pieces of this team. Will be fun to see how it comes together.

- UK actually made some ok adjustments on offense at halftime. Toppin was cooking from the elbow, but Gonzaga was getting what they wanted during this same stretch. The defense is more troublesome to me. 

What adjustments were made at halftime?

I didn't notice any adjustments on offense after the half. Same old pass the ball around until under 10 on the shot clock and then hurry something. Spacing was awful on offense and lacksidasical cuts. Defense was non-existant. 

1 hour ago, bugatti said:

Few observations being there in person:

- Oscar showed why he is not viewed as a NBA prospect (as did Timme). You have to be able to play and guard in space. Also not sure it showed on tv, but the big fellla was gassed early on. Hopefully his conditioning will come along.

- Feels like Cal is trying to will into existence CJ being a knock down contributor. No way in years’ past would he give this level of latitude to a non-blue chip player. He (and others) had some solid looks, but this ain’t Iowa with no pressure. 

- For those griping that this would be a neutral site game, well it wasn’t that. It was just more of a home court advantage for the Zags. That place was rocking. 

- UK goes however far Wallace develops into the PG role. If it is Wheeler as the primary guy, then good luck. They need to share in the role.

- Loved the early season test and some of the pieces of this team. Will be fun to see how it comes together.

- UK actually made some ok adjustments on offense at halftime. Toppin was cooking from the elbow, but Gonzaga was getting what they wanted during this same stretch. The defense is more troublesome to me. 

We were there also.  There was one point in the end fo the first half where is was very obvious Oscar was gassed.  He was calling for a sub but there weren't any breaks in the action.  It was almost to the point I was thinking Cal maybe should have used a time out to get him out of the game.  

Frederick played way too much for how little he contributes.  He kept trying to double team leaving bad mismatches and wouldn't know help side if it slapped him in the face.  

It was completely an away game although for being 2,000 miles away there were a fair amount of UK fans there.

Wallace has alot of work to do.  He is way too inconsistent.

Kentuckys field goal percentage was 39% overall and 24% from the three.  That won't win games

3 hours ago, futurecoach said:

For years people complain they wanted UK to get more four year type of players like they used to have and not one and done. Also wanted more players that played high school in Kentucky. Yet people now also complain when UK has those players, and say they aren’t good enough to play at UK. 
 

IMO it’s good to have a mixture of both. Which UK has this year, they simply lost two early season games. I think too many people are making to much out of early season games. Shoot in an early season game last year UK blew out UNC who ended up making the finals. UK then mid season blew out Kansas who ended up winning it all. 
 

Point being I think everyone including myself are making to quick of judgements on players right now based on two weeks worth of games. 
 

 

You do have a way with words, sorry , but I don't consider CJ a Kentucky kid.  Just wasn't born and bred in Kentucky. LOL

2 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

What adjustments were made at halftime?

 

1 hour ago, Breds82 said:

I didn't notice any adjustments on offense after the half. Same old pass the ball around until under 10 on the shot clock and then hurry something. Spacing was awful on offense and lacksidasical cuts. Defense was non-existant. 

Are we really going to pretend UK didn’t go from scoring 25 in the first half to 47 in the second without hardly making it to the line? They also gave up 47 in the second half, so it was all for nothing.

3 hours ago, bugatti said:

Few observations being there in person:

Forgot you were heading to the game.  I hope you enjoyed it and enjoyed the trip, even though the result wasn't what we were hoping for.

6 hours ago, Randy Parker said:

That makes no sense whatsoever.  It is simple: they hit shots against inferior teams, but don't against stronger competition.  The numbers back it up.

Fredrick is 16-29 from the floor & 9-19 from 3 against the 3 crap teams.  
Fredrick is 2-16 from the floor & 2-12 from 3 against Sparty & Gonzaga.

Reeves is 16-34 from the floor & 13-25 from 3 against the 3 crap teams.
Reeves is 5-20 from the floor & 3-10 from 3 against Sparty & Gonzaga.

None of that is on Cal, unless you want to complain (which I do) about why Fredrick is getting 36 minutes & 32 minutes in games where he clearly isn't able to produce.

 

Oh, a ton of that is on Cal.  He was severely out coached by both Izzo and Few.  Both concentrated on not giving Reeves and Frederick a chance to get set and forced them to take contested shots.  They both knew that Cal would not adjust his offense to get them clean looks.  He can talk all that he wants to about wanting this year's team to take 25 threes a game, but he doesn't run sets to do so.  When asked about the job that the Zags did against UK's outside shooters Few had this to say: 

"We just tried to stay locked in on them. We thought that was a real big key, just not letting them get going. Our guys were totally keyed in on those guards shooting the 3-ball."

That wasn't hard to do given the offense that Cal runs, and refuses to change.  UK had better guards than Gonzaga.  The Zags guards were exposed both by Tennessee in their scrimmage, and Texas in their beat down.   The blueprint was right there: 

Space the floor out and screen, screen screen. The Vols and Longhorns both did that and got great look after great look.  Texas hit 13 threes after going 7-36 in their first two games. Their starting guards went 9-17 from deep against the Zags. Why?  Because Gonzaga's guards are not that good and Beard and Barnes adjusted their gameplan to exploit it.  Cal's stubbornness to only want to play one way is hurting UK.  If he doesn't adjust, this team will beat up on inferior competition and continue to struggle in the games that matter.