Matney

Oscar is a special person and for me personally he is a tremendous Christian role model for my children, but as a basketball player he is flawed in so many ways.

Oscar couldn’t hard hedge and contain Nowell in a phone booth!!! The SEC teams we got on a run against did not have a PG with the playmaking ability of Nowell. Comparing apples and oranges does not help. I wouldn’t recommend playing Steph Curry the same as Russell Westbrook but that’s just me.

Hard hedge ball screens? Your plan is to put undersized Oscar hard hedging opponents big men (that are typically bigger than him anyway) making him a step behind on the roll while also asking him to re-direct the primary ball handler (let alone a guy Wallace struggled staying in front of today) and we all know how well he plays position perimeter defense. He would be ate alive and in foul trouble quickly. Not to mention he is then in the negative position for rebounding as he is behind the roll man and that is the 1 thing he does at an elite level. We got on a roll because of the matchups favored our style of play and the 6th best 3 point shooter in UK history (statistically) shot like the 6th best 3 point shooter in UK history. Tonight he didn’t and the season is over. Blaming Cal because of the way Oscar can’t play pick and roll like a girls team in the 16th region is beyond absurd.

There is ALOT of truth here.

So your answer is not having Oscar play their PG on pick and roll situations? What do you recommend he do when his player sets a pick for the PG? If he has Wallace fight over then he is on his hip. If he goes under he is in bad position for a step back (that he knocked down late). You don’t want him trapping obviously. So tell us Basketball Guru what does he do? Oscar is a poor defender. That is what it is. It’s not Cal’s fault. He has had good pick and roll defenders that were less athletic than Oscar (Harrelson was a good pick and roll defender). You say fix it but give NOTHING in response in how to fix it besides don’t do it.

Fell way short by not telling them to shoot better? What should he have done offensively different? Reeves missing shots. CJ not shot well all year. Toppin can’t buy one. Oscar is limited offensively. You say he fell way short and love to paint broad strokes but give nothing as a true response as what he should do. Sometimes as a coach you have to play the hand you are dealt. Your cards are your cards. This UK team was flawed. Is Cal to blame? I say partly yes, but some of it was beyond his control. We played well enough to win the game. We played well enough defensively to win the game. We didn’t shoot well enough to win, but I’m sure you have a special offense that would have fixed everything and that is why you make $10 million a year coaching.

I love hearing from all these basketball wizards on here. Cal is not perfect but to put this loss on him is ridiculous. College basketball is about Jimmy’s and Joe’s not X’s and O’s and this UK team is lacking overall talent. The 6th greatest 3 point shooter in UK Basketball History (statistically speaking) goes 0-9 until 45 seconds left in the game and we want to lay the blame at Cal’s feet? He can’t hit shots for them. This shooter is ahead of names like Booker, Murray, Chapman, Delk, Monk, Meeks, and Sparks yet can’t buy one. Sometimes that happens. Coaches don’t have a secret special offense for when your best shooter can’t throw it in the ocean. This loss hurts as I kept thinking we were going to hit some shots and put them away. If we get any production out of Reeves and Toppin on offense it doesn’t matter that we don’t trap the PG like it is a middle school game or that we had double the turnovers we win. We played well enough to win, we just didn’t shoot well enough to win.

Tshiebwe Is about to go from NPOY to not making the All SEC Team. Teams have figured him out. They play behind him in the post to help eliminate his offensive rebounds and easy put backs while forcing him to try and score over the top of superior athletes and he is not capable. Collins gives us something Oscar can’t and while we need Oscar’s rebounding he can’t be such a liability on defense while not a threat on offense.

If the article is to be believed (I for one trust Kyle Tucker more than most) maybe it should. He purposefully kept Cal from publicly apologizing to stoops over the “Basketball School” comment then blindsides him in the press conference with Stoops. That is petty and not the way to treat one of the faces (if not the face) of your athletic department. If he refuses to allow a basketball practice facility with Cal covering the costs from former players that is a bad look. Maybe you don’t have room. Maybe Title IX is an issue. But those things can be worked out. Not allowing Cal to hire a basketball GM is rough. If UK has smaller support staff than any other basketball school that is not a big ask. Kyle says UK staff is small comparable to other programs. Not in Mitch but I’m also curious how the assistant coaches not watching film breaks down. I would love to see the actual job descriptions of the basketball support staff.

Anyone read Kyle Tucker’s article in the Athletic? Mitch has made some less than popular moves but if this is all true he will probably have to address some of it.

You think Oscar Toppin and Reeves start in these lineups? Wall, Bledsoe, Miller, Patterson, Cousins Teague, Lamb, MKG, Jones, Davis Harrison, Harrison, Lyles, Willie, Towns I’d love to hear what three players you remove from those lineups to replace 3 players that are so talented they started their careers at WVU, Rhode Island, and Illinois St.

I would argue that this team has considerably less talent than most of Cal’s other teams. A NPOY who is dominated by an athletic big man at Bama. So much talent that the 3 primary scorers go 3/30 against Alabama. No offensive scheme on Earth can handle the 3 primary scorers shooting so poorly. You can blame Cal for a drop off in recruiting. You can disagree with his coaching style, especially late in games (I personally believe in calling timeouts to make sure my team is all on the same page). You can not like his comments or the way he doesn’t answer questions but just says what he wants. It is really hard to blame him for kids missing shots. It is really hard to blame him that Oscar can not defend pick and roll against top tier athletes (there is a reason he is around 50 in most mock drafts). I still see this team as lacking in talent and am not sure a single player could get meaningful minutes for many of Cal’s better teams.

I agree. His recruiting has slipped. I partially credit that to other teams (notably Duke) embracing the “get as much talent as possible” mold that at one time only Cal took and him not reacting as quick as he once would have. The way I see it is when Cal gets “his guys” we are in the thick of it. The last time that happened was Fox, Monk, and Bam I feel. Since then we have missed on players. I know Cunningham’s brother cost us. Penny cost us. Sharpe cost us and those things are out of Cal’s control, but that doesn’t change the fact that we missed and the fan base hurts. I want to keep Cal. No questions about it. I just hope Cal feels the same way with a fan base that I feel is out of touch and the former Co-Captain of the Middlesboro Chess Club stoking the fire like he knows anything about high level basketball.

I don’t think Cal is all to blame and I don’t think he is free of any blame. The truth lies in the middle. This roster was his design, but sometimes you have to play the hand you are dealt. Could a single player on this UK team get meaningful minutes on any of Cal’s better teams? Oscar is far and away the best player and how many bigs has Cal had that were significantly better? Cousins, Patterson, Davis, Willie, Noel, Towns, and Bam are hands down. I’d probably take Randle, Jones, Lyles, and maybe even Harrellson (he was much bigger and played bigger IMO) Nobody else on this team sniffs the floor for many of Cal’s teams in the past. When this team was being assembled Cal was expecting another elite player (Sharpe) to be the alpha. I’m frustrated but not all recruiting classes are created equal top to bottom. It is less X’s and O’s and more Jimmy’s and Joe’s. When you have Cal and you have to reload all the time these things will happen. We have a class that should fit more into Cal’s mold next year, but we will have to accept this year as what it is a down year for talent.

This is correct.

This is the worst East Carter team I have ever seen. Someone please tell me why Hager Easterling was fired again?

To me the biggest thing that jumps off the stat page is 3rd downs. If Raceland wanted to pull the upset they needed to stay on the field (to limit Pikeville’s possessions) and get Pikeville off the field. That didn’t happen. Raceland goes 2-12 on third downs and Pikeville goes 7-11. Couple that with losing the big plays and it was a nightmare on the scoreboard.

Congratulations to Pikeville. The best A team all year with the best A player finishes off the season just as most thought they would. They made big plays when they needed them. Congratulations to Raceland as well. A great season by any standards. Raceland was clearly the second best team in A I thought. There have been some years in A that I feel this Raceland team could have won the state title, but Pikeville was a bit ahead of the pack this year.

Bad play calling.

How many times in state title history can anyone remember starting game off with TD and ending half with a TD?

I couldn’t agree more. I view Holcomb in the same light as I do Steve Spurier. He changed the way people threw the football in KY. There were a lot of college coaches during that 95-02 run that could had learned about throwing the football.

Seeing both play I feel that in order for Pikeville to lose they have to help beat themselves. Raceland has enough talent to pull the upset with some help from Pikeville, but if both teams play well I think Pikeville controls the game and wins handily.

Wouldn’t Hazard and Raceland meet in second round regardless due to districts trading in playoffs? If so even as RPI 3 seed they would be home throughout and not play Pikeville till Lexington.

Sheldon Clark got them in the playoffs in 1998 and 2009 (both times Sheldon Clark won the region) but only in regular season in 2006 & 2010.