What about Meeks!

[futurecoach]

I would have no problem going with a small lineup and playing a fast tempo. Our bigs, other than Morris, don't necessarily matchup well with the other good bigs in the SEC...if we went small, it's possible we could dictate the tempo and force other teams to try to react to what we were doing instead of the opposite. There have been plenty of teams who have had success by playing small ball and getting up and down the court. Obviously, it's a matchup problem defensively, but that goes both ways. I'm not saying it would work for sure, but I would have no problem with trying it...in fact, I'd love to see Tubby do it. For the past few years we've had more quality depth at the guard positions, yet we always try to play the slow down, inside-out game...going small would get our most talented players on the court for a larger number of minutes. As a basketball coach, I think that's what I would try to do. And, if it didn't work, I'd go from there...but I'd at least give it a look.

 

When have we ever gone fast tempo under Tubby, even with that small lineup we still probably wouldn't use that fast pace of a tempo. I mean I would love to see a faster tempo, but we haven't done it in all the years Tubby has been here so no reason to think it will change now. As I have said IMO I think Meeks should start, Bradley at the point and Jasper coming off the bench. Jasper could still give us energy off the bench, if you all remember some of Jaspers best games this year was at the beginning of the year before Jasper actually started to start. Plus in the SEC with all these big guys, it is pretty much impossible to go small and really succeed. With Bradley at the point and Meeks in there it gives us 4 guys who can score at anytime, and still have Perry who as a 5th option might not be that bad. Plus keeping Perry in there helps out matching up, I know he is not really a true PF, but if you think about the guy Perry is guarding at the PF spot never usually does much, its always the big guys Morris is guarding that usually scores. So keeping Perry in there with Meeks and Bradley keeps our defense good and also though gives us a much better offense IMO...

[UKMustangFan]

If UK put Meeks in the starting lineup they have almost zero offense off the bench. The team would definitely not benefit from him being in the starting lineup. It's a no-brainer if you ask me....

[futurecoach]

If UK put Meeks in the starting lineup they have almost zero offense off the bench. The team would definitely not benefit from him being in the starting lineup. It's a no-brainer if you ask me....

 

That is the one agrument for why Meeks shouldn't start that I would agree with. However if he is not going to be an actual starter, I would hope he still ends up getting starter minutes like he did yesterday when he played 30 minutes...:thumb:

[UKMustangFan]

That is the one agrument for why Meeks shouldn't start that I would agree with. However if he is not going to be an actual starter, I would hope he still ends up getting starter minutes like he did yesterday when he played 30 minutes...:thumb:

 

:ylsuper:

I could definitely live with the time he got yesterday. He provided that lift off the bench that all the "good" teams can count on.

[Original Rookie]

If UK put Meeks in the starting lineup they have almost zero offense off the bench. The team would definitely not benefit from him being in the starting lineup. It's a no-brainer if you ask me....

I concur.

[TubbyCAT]

The bottom-line is that all 4 freshman will have solid careers at UK and they wanted to be Wildcats. Meeks can be a star and Jasoer will ahve a very good career. Stevenson can be a dynamite player and I think he will Porter most probably will be a role player on this team, but everyteam needs those types of players.

[5wide]

When have we ever gone fast tempo under Tubby, even with that small lineup we still probably wouldn't use that fast pace of a tempo. I mean I would love to see a faster tempo, but we haven't done it in all the years Tubby has been here so no reason to think it will change now. As I have said IMO I think Meeks should start, Bradley at the point and Jasper coming off the bench. Jasper could still give us energy off the bench, if you all remember some of Jaspers best games this year was at the beginning of the year before Jasper actually started to start. Plus in the SEC with all these big guys, it is pretty much impossible to go small and really succeed. With Bradley at the point and Meeks in there it gives us 4 guys who can score at anytime, and still have Perry who as a 5th option might not be that bad. Plus keeping Perry in there helps out matching up, I know he is not really a true PF, but if you think about the guy Perry is guarding at the PF spot never usually does much, its always the big guys Morris is guarding that usually scores. So keeping Perry in there with Meeks and Bradley keeps our defense good and also though gives us a much better offense IMO...

 

I never said I thought it would happen, or was even a possibility. I'm well aware that Tubby Smith is not going to play a fast tempo. I was just stating the obvious...the majority of his best players are guards, in which case most coaches would probably go small and play a fast tempo. This isn't the first time we've had a plethora of talented guards and stuck with the traditional slow down game, while they sit on the bench behind lesser talented players because it would create "matchup" problems for us defensively. That's all. But again, I'm quite aware of the style we'll be seeing from our UK basketball teams under Tubby Smith, now and in the future.