9 minutes ago, okie1 said:

Which gets you the "we can play 5 different defenses, but we are no good at any of them teams."

Like it or not, Cal had lots of Roster turnover and chose to stick to one philosophy and get as good at is as possible.  The fans who screamed for zone probably had not ever coached or played basketball past little league (maybe middle school) where kids can't hit open shots and zone defenses are great!

This! 

If UK can find a way to win two of the next three (this assumes they beat LSU, and takes one from Auburn or Missouri), they could get to that six seed. Of course the teams around them are thinking the same thing.

9 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

I get all that, but the UK defense is bad and Pope has played virtually zero zone defense. Where are those posters who screamed for zone every game and trashed Cal for not playing it? I want to hear from them.

I think I saw Kentucky go to a zone one time early in the second half last night and Oklahoma immediately hit a three from the corner in front of their bench. It might have just been an out-of-sync man-to-man. Either way, wasn't good!

The way OU was shooting outside, last night was not the night to go zone.

22 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

The way OU was shooting outside, last night was not the night to go zone.

I agree. I think the point that is being made is that we were continually told with the previous coach. That he should try to mix things up when the defense isn’t working. Yet the defense has legit been bad all year this year, and basically stayed in man to man 98% of this year. There has not been anywhere near the amount of nitpicking about all the things the defense does wrong and how it is Popes fault. Which is what happened with the previous coach. Why don’t they play zone? They don’t hedge screens right, they don’t play pick and roll correctly, etc. Which was point that Pope definitely is still in the honeymoon period, as even though the defense has been very bad. Some of those same people aren’t nitpicking every single thing on defense and blaming it on Pope like they may have done with the previous coach. 

I am not sure what that was last night. It looked a little like basketball but at times I thought I was watching a 5 man UFC match. The Detroit Pistons "Bad Boys" would have impressed by how physical it was. We are lucky fisticuffs didn't break out. Kudos to the Cats that they engaged in the fight and got the win.

40 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

It looked a little like basketball but at times I thought I was watching a 5 man UFC match. The Detroit Pistons "Bad Boys" would have impressed by how physical it was.

I also thought the officials let a lot of taunting go on especially from Moore for Oklahoma. 

One thing for sure......UK fans never change. Take the win and move on to the next game. Do fans really think the coach is happy with the defense? Do they think that he has watched a lot more basketball than most of us and is trying to improve?

Honest question. Does it look like Pope works on defense at practice? Rebounding at practice? To me no, but it also comes down to the individuals desire to rebound and play defense. Maybe it’s a bit of both.

While not stellar by any means, Kentucky's defense was ranked close to 120 nationally a month ago. It's now up to 61st according to current Kenpom rankings. 

11 hours ago, Breds82 said:

Honest question. Does it look like Pope works on defense at practice? Rebounding at practice? To me no, but it also comes down to the individuals desire to rebound and play defense. Maybe it’s a bit of both.

I'm sure they never even discuss defense or rebounding in practice. ? 

52 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

I'm sure they never even discuss defense or rebounding in practice. ? 

So you are saying we have an entire team of players that are that lazy, slow, and uncommitted to playing hard nose defense and rebounding? 3 defensive players of the year in their respective conferences last year on this team. So what gives? The SEC is the best it ever has been is true but we give up 70-80 points almost every game 

2 hours ago, Breds82 said:

So you are saying we have an entire team of players that are that lazy, slow, and uncommitted to playing hard nose defense and rebounding? 3 defensive players of the year in their respective conferences last year on this team. So what gives? The SEC is the best it ever has been is true but we give up 70-80 points almost every game 

If you liken it to football...fast paced teams on offense sometimes give up more points on defense...why?  More possessions! 

UVA was very good defensively a few years ago, why?  They had a clock controlled offense.  Anyone remember Tubby Ball...Tubby was thought to be a defensive guru.

The nitpicking from the fan base with Cal wasn't so much what he did...but his attitude towards them...he had a tendency to be condescending and arrogant:)

2 hours ago, Breds82 said:

So you are saying we have an entire team of players that are that lazy, slow, and uncommitted to playing hard nose defense and rebounding? 3 defensive players of the year in their respective conferences last year on this team. So what gives? The SEC is the best it ever has been is true but we give up 70-80 points almost every game 

We don't have the fastest or most physically imposing team on the floor most nights for sure.

So you are saying that you actually believe they don't work on defense or rebounding? 

Kentucky is currently ranked 6th nationally in defensive rebounding.  Even with low offensive rebound numbers due to the amount of jump shots taken, UK is still 4th in the conference in total rebounding on the season.

 

1 minute ago, Jumper_Dad said:

We don't have the fastest or most physically imposing team on the floor most nights for sure.

So you are saying that you actually believe they don't work on defense or rebounding? 

Kentucky is currently ranked 6th nationally in defensive rebounding.  Even with low offensive rebound numbers due to the amount of jump shots taken, UK is still in the upper half of the conference in total rebounding.

Maybe there are some technical improvements that could be made but from a layman's eye it seems like any defensive and rebounding issues Kentucky has all stem from a lack of athleticism.