52 minutes ago, sportsfan41 said:

For as much credit as Wagner gets for his defense, he let's people dribble right by him every game

Reeves and Dillingham are as bad as him or worse.

I agree with Bilas' assessment that A&M took it from the Cats more than UK lost it. Yes, the defense needs work, but one of the country's worst three point shooting teams made 12 today and killed UK on the offensive glass. The former was unexpected, but the latter is who the Aggies are. 

I'm prepared for a lot of games like this between now and season's end. The Cats can score with anyone, but can also be scored on by anyone. 

18 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

I am not putting all that on the guards. Our big men need to hedge off the top of the key screen while the guard goes over the screen to stop the 3 pointer.

 

18 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

I think our big men were fatigued the last part of the game and that let A&M's guards get going.

That's exactly why I posted in the update thread at under 8 timeout that I would have put Bradshaw back in A&M had got a little of sink and I posted it would be a good time to go to some zone we were up I think 4 or 7 at the time. I knew he would never play zone but that would have been a good time to mixt it up on them and after the media timeout both Talyor (2) and Radford (1) had drives to the basket and got a good rhythm going again.

On another note the AFC wildcard  game between Clevland and Houston is very entertaining.

Onyenso did do a good job today.  Without him challenging shots at the rim Kentucky probably gives up another 10 points in the paint easily.  

Was listening to pregame show, I think it was Mills who said that a guy (don’t remember the name) who he considers a basketball guru stated emphatically that if KY scores 90 today they’ll win by 20, I guess that guy didn’t consider how bad our defense really is, and maybe the most troubling thing to me is we’re about at the midpoint of the regular season and we’ve not gotten one bit better defensively from game 1 to now, does that fall on the teaching/demanding or the kids??  I would say more of the former. 

12 minutes ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

Reeves and Dillingham are very bad as him or worse.

That's why I said all of the guards are guilty of it.  They just don't get as much praise for their defense as Wagner does.  

I have a rules question. On the AM offensive foul on the 3pt attempt, Bilas was adamant it should’ve been on Sheppard. I thought it’s and offensive foul if the offense intentionally makes contact to try and draw a foul. If he doesn’t kick his leg out Sheppard would not have touched him. Likewise on the Sheppard foul I thought it was extremely ticky-tacky call.

6 minutes ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

Was listening to pregame show, I think it was Mills who said that a guy (don’t remember the name) who he considers a basketball guru stated emphatically that if KY scores 90 today they’ll win by 20, I guess that guy didn’t consider how bad our defense really is, and maybe the most troubling thing to me is we’re about at the midpoint of the regular season and we’ve not gotten one bit better defensively from game 1 to now, does that fall on the teaching/demanding or the kids??  I would say more of the former. 

I agree the defense has to be better. With that said going into this game UK ranked 53rd in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency according to kenpom rankings. While that is not great, considering UK plays so many freshman, that’s also not horrible. Defense is the one of the last things top high school players have coming into college. So yes a lot of room to improve still, but being as young as they are and the constant roster change with guys out at the beginning of the year with Bradshaw and Ugo, and now Theiro who is their best defender does play a role. 

Taylor for Texas A&M going off wasnt that big of a surprise and he always has that capability. He went for over 30 earlier this year against the best defensive team in the country in Houston. The one that hurt was Radford going off. Him being in his 6th year in college, simply just bullied his way to the basketball against the freshman players of UK. 
 

It sucks that they lost, but this team showed again even in this loss that they are a different team this year. On the road in a tough environment against a desperate team, they battled all game. Just unfortunately went cold in OT. 

So many of these high profile recruits have never had to defend talented players, have never had to learn to hedge and recover, close out the shooter, block out on the boards.....and other fundamentals that most HS players are drilled on daily. They will get better as the year goes on or they will have a short post season. Remember, they only plan to be here for a year.

I echo everyone's sentiment.  The Guard Defense has to get better.  And for one who mentioned Wagner, Dillingham and Reeves I would definitely add Reed Shepherd.  If he can't steal the ball, he's a huge liability on stopping the drive.  I'm still very high on the motor and balling nature of this team.  

8 minutes ago, 9068 said:

So many of these high profile recruits have never had to defend talented players, have never had to learn to hedge and recover, close out the shooter, block out on the boards.....and other fundamentals that most HS players are drilled on daily. They will get better as the year goes on or they will have a short post season. Remember, they only plan to be here for a year.

I'm not sure Bradshaw should pack his bags.  He can't handle the physicality of the NBA.  At least not at this point.  

7 minutes ago, Hatz said:

I echo everyone's sentiment.  The Guard Defense has to get better.  And for one who mentioned Wagner, Dillingham and Reeves I would definitely add Reed Shepherd.  If he can't steal the ball, he's a huge liability on stopping the drive.  I'm still very high on the motor and balling nature of this team.  

If there was ever a team that would probably benefit from zone, it might be this team but then they'll get crushed even more on the glass. We are gonna see a lot of high ball screens. 

A&M had 108 pts combined in their first 2 SEC games