Kentucky 85 Tennessee 81

[Voice of Reason]

3 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

Great win yesterday, LOVE my Cats, LOTS of good things today to like, good job by Cal, still hoping he’ll devote some practice time to EOG situations this week!

Nothing complex about the last minute melt down. Same stuff these players have seen since middle school. UK got the ball in on every possession. Reed slipped. Dillingham, only in the game because Wagner fouled out, has a turnover as he often does. Reeves with a brain cramp. None of these fixable by any coach, unless Cal is allowed to go on the floor and dry up the wet spots.

Why are you convinced UK has not practiced EOG situations?

[16thBBall Fan]

5 hours ago, Jumper_Dad said:

I heard Reed say after the game that it's on the players. He said that they know what to do, just need to execute better.

Of course he did!

[Jumper_Dad]

1 hour ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

Of course he did!

Look back a few games ago when they ran several set plays in the same situation and were lauded for it. They executed in this situation just a couple of weeks ago and nearly each possession ended with Reed shooting free throws. You think they just forgot those sets and plays or maybe, just maybe a couple of players didn't execute it the way they were supposed to?

There is zero chance that they haven't worked on this type of stuff.

[16thBBall Fan]

5 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

Nothing complex about the last minute melt down. Same stuff these players have seen since middle school. UK got the ball in on every possession. Reed slipped. Dillingham, only in the game because Wagner fouled out, has a turnover as he often does. Reeves with a brain cramp. None of these fixable by any coach, unless Cal is allowed to go on the floor and dry up the wet spots.

Why are you convinced UK has not practiced EOG situations?

 

32 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

Look back a few games ago when they ran several set plays in the same situation and were lauded for it. They executed in this situation just a couple of weeks ago and nearly each possession ended with Reed shooting free throws. You think they just forger those sets and plays or maybe, just maybe a couple of players didn't execute it the way they were supposed to?

There is zero chance that they haven't worked on this type of stuff.

Its offensive and defensive EOG for me, it looks more like something Cal draws up and/or talks about during a timeout which is not nearly good enough, I’ve heard him say we’ll worry about that when we get there, offensively the spacing is bad, they inbound the ball way too much in the corners, just look really uncomfortable to me

defensively when they switch on ballscreens they should be stepping out really high, they’ve given up way too many good looks by not doing that, they’ve waited on people at the 3 pt line and let them dribble straight into a 3 instead of picking up at 1/2 court and making them change directions to get into a 3,

these things keep happening and should be cleaned up by now

just my opinions on these situations 

[MJAlltheWay24]

8 minutes ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

 

Its offensive and defensive EOG for me, it looks more like something Cal draws up and/or talks about during a timeout which is not nearly good enough, I’ve heard him say we’ll worry about that when we get there, offensively the spacing is bad, they inbound the ball way too much in the corners, just look really uncomfortable to me

defensively when they switch on ballscreens they should be stepping out really high, they’ve given up way too many good looks by not doing that, they’ve waited on people at the 3 pt line and let them dribble straight into a 3 instead of picking up at 1/2 court and making them change directions to get into a 3,

these things keep happening and should be cleaned up by now

just my opinions on these situations 

When 2 of the guys you close out games with are freshmen, who have a tendency to have bad turnovers, dumb stuff happens.

7/8 SEC wins is huge.

[16thBBall Fan]

Cats move up to #9 in the latest AP poll.

[16thBBall Fan]

16 hours ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

When 2 of the guys you close out games with are freshmen, who have a tendency to have bad turnovers, dumb stuff happens.

7/8 SEC wins is huge.

I understand that, really do, but the things that I talked about are not a 1 game deal, they’re repetitive mistakes that should’ve been cleaned up in practice by now

[Voice of Reason]

54 minutes ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

I understand that, really do, but the things that I talked about are not a 1 game deal, they’re repetitive mistakes that should’ve been cleaned up in practice by now

This team took a loooooong time to learn things. We have all seen it. It took most of the season to learn how to defend the high pick and roll. They still mess it up. I have seen teams run the same offensive set over and over and over and this team still didn't defend it. Common basketball sense and experience should enable these players to recognize the play, but not this team. How many times have teams run inbounds plays against UK over and over and these guys still don't recognize it?

These are things I don't remember happening to Calipari teams in the past. Defense is usually a strong suit for a Calipari team. I think this team is a slow to learn defensive group. I watch Sheppard on defense and he still loses track of his man watching the ball. He is much better but still makes that basic mistake. And he isn't alone on this team. 

[futurecoach]

On 3/10/2024 at 2:22 PM, 16thBBall Fan said:

Great win yesterday, LOVE my Cats, LOTS of good things today to like, good job by Cal, still hoping he’ll devote some practice time to EOG situations this week!

I know you mentioned you been to a few practices, which is really cool btw.  With that said, unless you have been to every practice. How do you know they haven’t practiced EOG situations?

[16thBBall Fan]

39 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

I know you mentioned you been to a few practices, which is really cool btw.  With that said, unless you have been to every practice. How do you know they haven’t practiced EOG situations?

If I said never (which I think I actually did!) that was a frustrated exaggeration and I agree with VOR, this team does definitely appear to be slow learners on things but in a way that also supports my point that Cal needs to really focus on more live reps in practice instead of saying, “don’t worry about it, we’ll handle it when we get there”

[MJAlltheWay24]

For me its either:

A) Calipari hasn't worked on EOG situations at all and is a bad coach.

B) They have and the players just continue to do some things at the end of games and don't listen to the coaching, which multiple players have said throughout post-game interviews (I believe Dillingham and Reaves have both said it throughout the season).

I tend to believe Option B is more likely than Option A.

[nikeman49]

On 3/9/2024 at 9:55 PM, MJAlltheWay24 said:

He goes really well coming off the bench too. Amazing how well the Cats play overall with his spark after the first 3 mins.

Saw where Shep is now projected to be the #1 pick in the draft, not bad for a guy who can’t start for his collegiate team.

[bugatti]

2 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

Saw where Shep is now projected to be the #1 pick in the draft, not bad for a guy who can’t start for his collegiate team.

Not sure if you read Kevin O’Connor or actually saw what his mock was based on, but it was assuming San Antonio lucks into the top spot and they draft on need. It was not a prospect ranking. I would LOVE it being a Spurs and Wemby fan, but I’m not sure an NBA team would have the gumption to do it. The last PG to be drafted in the top spot was Kyrie Irving 13 years ago. Again, this is a historically bad draft so who knows what will happen. 

I did find it fitting that Sheppard (despite being tragically humiliated to come off the bench, yet playing the second most minutes of any UK player in SEC play), was put on the second team all-SEC. Nor did he make all defense despite being one of the nation’s leaders in that category.

[MJAlltheWay24]

14 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

Saw where Shep is now projected to be the #1 pick in the draft, not bad for a guy who can’t start for his collegiate team.

I, as well as I assume the Sheppard family, the Coaching Staff, plus anyone that has watched the Kentucky Wildcats without an agenda other than just hoping they win, would say that him coming off the bench has been working out phenomenal for Reed and the Kentucky Wildcats. Cal should probably get a lot of credit for continuing to bring him off the bench, instead of listening to folks like yourself throughout BBN. By bringing him off the bench, he has allowed Reed to continuing exceling to another level, with the team playing at its best that we've seen all year. All while Calipari has also been able to maintain the confidence of guys like Wagner and Edwards, who have been very important the past few weeks and who will hopefully have big games in the upcoming weeks as they make a hopeful deep run.

I've accepted that your flag is buried in concrete and that you refuse to see how beneficial its been for all parties involved, to have him not starting. A great move by a great Coach to ensure what's best for his players and his team's overall success. The above isn't even anything that can be argued against. Reed has played his absolute best and excelled, as well as the team, with him coming off the bench and how Calipari has used him.

We heard ad nauseum after the 2012 Championship that MKG and Davis took the 4th and 5th most shots and how they were drafted where they were. After this year, he has examples of two guys that didn't even start for his team and still be lottery picks (maybe even potentially top 5 picks). Going to make for even stronger recruiting pitches, as well as getting future players to "buy in". Great move for all parties and Calipari deserve a lot of credit that I know he'll never get from certain individuals.

I'm okay that you'll never see it differently. It doesn't bother me when others are just blatantly wrong about things.

[bugatti]

I am still crossing my fingers with this team. Despite having a couple of lottery picks, you ain't going to win when it matters most unless you can get stops. UK is going with the, "well, you can't stop us" approach. Seriously, would it be a total shock if UK only had two games left this season?