letabrotherspeak

Congrats to the Lady Bulldogs on the win. Coach Perkins has the girls playing an exciting brand of basketball and they are really young as well. They are a fun team to watch. They led Holy Cross the entire game last Saturday night, but lost it in the last minute. I think this is the first time that they have beaten Notre Dame in a long time.

It was a chilly walk to and from the car tonight, but at least it was a victory after and underwhelming first half. I thought UK looked like they had been off for over a week and it showed with poor shot selection, but they settled down and played much better in the second half. If anything, I think their conditioning looks much better than it was prior to Camp Cal. Once again, Hawkins providing a spark off the bench and it was good to see Dakari Johnson contribute to night. Sidenote, I hope some of the renderings that we have been seeing about Rupp Arena come to fruition. Rupp is a nice place to see a game but definitely needs some upgrades. I just want them to replace Big Bertha with a jumbotron.

Hopefully this attempt to parse the quote that I disagreed with appears correctly. My point may have gotten lost in the overall gist of your comments. I just beg to differ with your assessment and pretty much your allusion to doing it the "right way versus the wrong way". I say this because despite their run of success and particularly against CovCath, you want to talk about disciplined approaches. Essentially, you are saying Holmes won despite being not being disciplined. You say how much better could the be if they ran sets. Coach Henley's team makes multiple trips to the Sweet 16 Elite 8, Runner Up and then State Champions, but they were not disciplined. I would suggest to you that his formula was pretty good. Coach Booher's team runs the gauntlet of NCC, Cooper and CovCath and then takes eventual State Champs into OT in the Elite Eight. I guess if they ran some Flex, Carolina Motion , Open Post, Four Out and One in they would be a better team and had more success. If I recall correctly, Holmes has had a string of victories over CovCath until the district game last year. I guess they did something right with their approach. Then again, may be you take your personnel and find a system that fits their skill sets. CovCath was very good last night and frankly they probably are the better team this year, but for a while now CovCath has had a front row seat in how you win games and region championships.

I guess Coach Booher and Coach Henley have all of a sudden taken "dumb pills"? I mean whatever they have done in the past was successful and they have the hardware to prove it. Both did it multiple times and frankly not many can say that they have accomplished what these coaches have done. I just don't think that they just rolled the balls out there and said go get'm. You don't think they run plays? Ball screening is pretty much the go to offense at the college and pro levels. Holmes does a lot of that, but to say they do not run sets is not true. Bobby Knight is considered one of the greatest coaches of all time. What kind of sets did he run? None! He ran a perpetual motion that was dictated off player movement. I'm not quite following some of these posts but there is seemingly some thought that one team plays basketball the right way and the other team doesn't? CovCath is the better team and they played very well and won. Holmes didn't play well and part of that was due to the play of the Colonels. This was one game and the death of Coach Booher/Coach Henley's philosophy has been greatly exaggerated.

Hiring Petrino is a an upgrade in coaching compared to Strong in my opinion, but for UL to settle on Petrino is laughable if they do. All it reeks of is WIAD aka "Winning is a Drug" and Jurich is snorting a whole line of it. I would think that Jurich would be better served going after a Chad Morris or someone like that than reuniting with Petrino. UL would not be considered to have scruples if they go with Petrino. Seriously they are willing to hire Petrino again?

The margin of victory is a bit of a surprise in this game.

The Colonels are the better team, it is that simple at this stage. They have five starters that can score and they share the basketball. Having seen Ruthsatz play this year compared to last year it is very clear that he is not looking for his shot first. The VonHandorff kid had a whale of a game and made open shots. He didn't have very many that were contested but he made open looks. Just an impressive starting five for CovCath and the subs played their roles very well. I thought they got into transition and usually found the open man. Very unselfish group and will be a tough out in March. Does anyone have any idea what CovCath's shooting percentage at Holmes the last two meetings? The Bulldogs were pretty poor on defense all night particularly on rotations. Credit CovCath's passing and shooting. On offense, Holmes is in need of a 3rd person to step up and score and keep teams honest. McClendon was hurt with foul trouble early and they have to find a way to keep Hill on the court because it takes a load off of Chames in the post. Key juncture of the game which was alluded to earlier and that was Chames missing the free throws, but if I recall correctly, He missed what would have been a monster jam off the baseline and in which CovCath quickly got it up court and scored, then came the missed free throws. Bolden was OK tonight and he did get frustrated at times, but he is going to have to cut down on turnovers and maybe a few less "heat check" jump shots. Was he visibly frustrated and we have seen that a time or two but tonight he seemed to wear a little more emotion on his sleeve. Did they get into his head? Maybe to an extent but I think he was getting frustrated with the inconsistency of the hand checks or lack of calls. Case in point. Right off the bat, Bolden fires his first shot with an off the dribble three and got hit on the arm by CVH and no call. Ensuing possession the officials fall for the Ruthsatz flop and McClendon picks up his first. CVH was face guarding and was allowed to put two hands on him on cuts and dribble drives. Those are fouls. He should shoot more free throws than he does. If teams are going to be allowed to body him or steer him with hands he will struggle to an extent. Is that the reason they lost? No but could be a part of his frustration. I'm not trying to suggest that officials had a part of the outcome of the game but trying to shed light for his possible frustration. CovCath was the better team in a game they pretty much led throughout and they are an impressive team.

Franklin is who I would throw the bank at but he may be holding out for something bigger plus he is still in play for a few NFL jobs.

I got to take this game in person but luckily didn't have to pay for a ticket. The defense gave up nearly 200 yards rushing but Brown got a big chunk of that on that last TD run. The defense played well enough to win with a competent offensive attack. The Chargers had it first and goal from the 3 and Bengal D held them to a FG. They had to fight field position on two other turnovers. Overall, they slipped some late in the year and part of that was teams started picking on Dre Kirkpatrick and eventually they finally missed Atkins on the DL. The offense...shoo wee. Jay Gruden still has too much of his arena football mentality and tries to get too cute at times and throws it too much. The Bengals are at their best when they are pretty balanced run/throw. They abandoned the run far too early. They should have ran BJGE more and he had a huge game the last time they played SD and if I recall SD is not that good against the run. First or second drive, they get a 3rd and one around midfield, early second quarter maybe. You run it plain and simple, but they try a little pass play out to Gio and it was a bad throw. Why make it complicated. Run it down their throats. The middle of the field never opened up for them. Turnovers... Gio's fumble was big. A chance to go up 7 at half and then get ball to start second half. Settle for 3. Chargers don't have to alter game plan much. Driving to around midfield and Dalton fumbles without getting hit. Killer. Back foot throw across field. Pick. Horrible read and throw into tight coverage on an out. Pick. Overall, I thought the defense started to wilt late in the year and they did play well enough to win today, but the offense was simply horrid and simply had too many turnovers. What do you do going forward? Their window is open, but for how much longer? Frankly, they are stuck with Dalton considering their draft position. Do you continue to add to the OL? LB? DB? Marvin Lewis? Is Mike Brown willing to do what the Reds did with Dusty and realize the coach has only been able to take them so far? What about Gruden? His stock fell big time after today and frankly I have not been all that impressed with him. What about Marvin Lewis

Louisville is not a destination job in football. They may be able to lure a really good football coach but that coach will likely look to parlay a good run into going to a bigger job that is not necessarily confined to a metro area. If it someone who sees it as a destination job it is probably someone that is on the back nine of their coaching career. Just my opinion and not just trolling here. With all of that said, I think I'd go after James Franklin.

He can't go anywhere else because of the Show Cause.

Card fans should be thrilled if they got Rich Rodriguez from Arizona, but I don't think RR would come to UL. If Louisville has any scruples about them left, they would not hire Petrino, but I would consider that an upgrade in coaching compared to Strong. I would hazard to think UL will go the coordinator route and there are some pretty good names out there. One head coach I would look at would be Mark Hudspeth from La-Lafayette.

It sounds like Texas is lining up there second tier choices and Strong is in that mix. One fellow I heard interviewed during the Sugar Bowl said that Texas initial wish list was: Saban Jim Harbaugh David Shaw Jim Mora Art Briles is in that second tier along with Strong. I would think James Franklin would be absolutely tremendous at Texas. His personality, ability to recruit would be perfect for Texas and what that job entails. He could schmooze with the best on the banquet/booster tours, recruit and develop talent and he is a good coach. I just don't see Strong as one that fits the Texas job. Not saying he isn't a good coach, but just doesn't seem to be the right fit. It will be interesting to see how the dominos fall in the other jobs. Penn State depending on who they hire can be the first to fall. Say Al Golden bolts back closer to his roots and leaves The U, that would be an interesting position for Strong.

NCC should be above Holmes and I think they are the team to beat in the 9th Region this year. I think they have been more impressive across the board.

The 12th Region Tournament should be terrific. It appears four or five teams all have a chance to win the region this year.

I just think there are better fits for Texas than Strong. I also don't think that Texas would allow for Clint Hurtt to come along with Strong and staff. It was a little weird seeing the Ville DC throwing flowers in the direction of Mack Brown in a tweet I saw today.

I'll give it a shot but don't take it as gospel. The 3 point shot from the corner or "Corner 3" is the shortest three point shot you can attempt and is generally considered the highest percentage shot of all 3's attempted. In regards to what UK wants to do defensively and that is funnel drivers to shot blockers then the most likely kick from a driver is going to be to ball side corner or weak side corner. It is highly unlikely a driver going to basket will be able to make kicks to the top or elbow extended 3's so it is playing the percentages of driver kicking to ball side or weakside corners. Teams that utilize good spacing and ball movement can get shots from the corner often times pulling bigs from paint to defend in rotations. So, what Cal wants to see in my opinion, is less perimeter help on drives especially going at basket and forcing driver to score over bigs or at rim. Typically UK is above average shot blocking team, so refrain from help and cut off the typical kick to easiest 3 point shot. If you can defend corner 3's you will force and entry pass into congested area or non-defensive penetrating passes (balls passed back around the perimeter).

Some rumblings Urban Meyer may be looking to poach UL's defensive coordinator.

I thought the Harrison's were terrific today. First time all year facing intense defensive pressure from end line to end line and after a bit of a shaky start they settled down nicely. They both played really well in the second half. Andrew played 18 minutes with only one turnover in the second half and made some keys shots and facilitated on some key baskets. Aaron did so as well. I thought Poythress was consistent and did what they needed him to do. Young was terrific in his decision making aside from lob late in game to his defense on Jones in the second half. I was hard on Calipari up until today with some of his decision making and lack of progress on defense. I find no faults with him today and you can tell they have been working on defense with these gaps in games and more practice time. I thought for the most part they defended fairly well. You have got to understand Cal's philosophy on defense. He doesn't mind if a guy takes it to the rack on his defense, but he wants the ball handler to be turned at least once in the drive. Funnel the driver to the shot blockers. What they havent quite grasped as a team is knowing when to help and when not to. He wants more forced shots at basket than kicks to wings and especially kicks to corners. They did a decent job in funneling drivers but left too many open shooters at times. I thought his plan of moving Randle out of the post and into a more faceup game took away from Pitino and one of the best things he does and that is stopping opposing front court scorers through doubles and rotations. Randle was able to catch, face up and drive. UL had no answer for it. Once he went down, I thought it would be tough for the Cats bit they showed great poise and hit shots and got stops when needed. I thought UL front court was disappointing and for all the kudos Pitino gets from the progress of Smith there has to be Ville fans stupefied by the lack of growth in Blackshear's game over the course of 2+ years. Too me, Behanan is not worth the headaches he creates. The Ville will be fine and battling it our in the end.

I don't think that being reliant on Bolden and Chames scoring will be the key for this Holmes team. There are other factors that will make or break them. From talking to a couple of coaches in regards to the game today, the game got real physical in the second half and LIL took control. It will benefit Holmes to go outside of the state and play good competition, in the long run. Is this team better overall than last year's team? That is still to be determined. I do think this Holmes team is better overall defensively and not as good overall offensively. The flip side is that Holmes should generate more offense from their defense than they did last year through transition offense and points off turns. Bolden and Chames are their two best scorers, but keeping teams honest across the perimeter, forcing turnovers and not allowing bigger teams to run offense and rebounding will be the key to their season. In addition, Bolden is going to have to take care of the basketball and not have pointless turnovers. The knock on him coming out of summer play was his on ball defense versus equal or better talent and turnovers.

This was a pretty entertaining game and a nice crowd on hand to see it. I thought the key for Simon Kenton was Robinson and he held them in it in my opinion. Morrison got off to a hot start and other than a three pointer late in the game, I don't think he scored that much in the second half. Robinson was able to get SK in to some kind of semblance of an offense and when he was not controlling the ball, SK had real problems in the full and half court. SK didn't seem to have much depth off the bench. Kuntz is a nice player and had a nice block, but other than that, he didn't do a whole lot. Overall, I think if you are a Pioneer fan you have to be encouraged about what you have going forward. As for Holmes, they played well in spurts and didn't shoot the ball very well from the perimeter but they didn't have to. Bolden forced some shots tonight particularly in the first half, but was much more solid in the second half. There is no way that Holmes only had 6 blocks, there had to have been at least 10 for the game. Holmes had a little spurt at the end of the third quarter as they did throughout much of the first half. Holmes would jump up 8 and then SK would whittle it to 3. SK after an early 6-2 lead never tied the game or got within but two and that was at 40-38 with a few minutes left in the third quarter. The little cushion Holmes had at the end of the third quickly jumped to 19 in the 4th and it was pretty much over.

Surprised at this score considering that this is one of the worst Lloyd teams in years.

I thought that Chames and Hill's length frustrated Burns inside and Holmes was able to guard Trentman on the floor with some length. Burns resorted to a lot of flopping in the post. Not many teams are going to be able to guard Trentman on the perimeter but I thought Holmes did a nice job on Trentman and contested his shots. I agree with Clyde, Brossart is pretty right hand oriented especially Burns. As stated Holmes is able to generate a lot of ball pressure and McClendon has been the catalyst on defense for Holmes in the games I have seen them play. Tough game to officiate and it did seem to get a bit chippy early. Brossart is a rugged physical team that uses their hands to grab and hold and steer offensive players and they like to be physical with cutters and bumping in the post. Holmes is quick and likes to get into your body especially in dead ball situations and have very active hands. Bolden probably played his best game of the year and was scoring. His best move of the game was when he was on the perimeter and he gave the Brossart kid a quick ball fake left and the defender went for it and he drained a jumper. With all the accolades that will be coming his way, the most improved player for Holmes is Chames. Active on the glass and he had long arms which allows him to alter shots. Brossart will win a lot of games and Trentman is a really nice player.

It all starts on defense. Im starting to tire of all of Cal's riff-raff, heart monitors, one page Mandela reflections, etc. I want a ultra prepared team ready to get after it defensively and push tempo. Their half court defense has been subpar for a season plus. They are eerily similar to the group from last year. What is the defensive philosphy on screens? No hedge, no trap, no going under and certainly not help and recover. They chase. This team is better defensively in the half court with Hawkins because he can heat up the opposing point guards. Do they keep defensive deflection stats? I would be curious to know what they are. With the length this team has, they have an astonishing low number of steals and they fail to create easy offense. Becoming more frustrated with Cal and his methods on defense.

It is too easy to blame free throw shooting but that is a lazy excuse. Sure they were important, but this game was not lost at the foul line. We were in a decent flow in the first half on offense, swinging the ball and cutting and penetrating and getting good looks. Then we came out with a quick pace and quick feeds to Randle, but then after a quick 3 and miss by Hawkins, Baylor started climbing back. Our offense wilted to zero perimeter movement looking to feed Randle despite a collapsing defense. No cutting, no penetrating, no swinging the ball, just looking to throw it to Randle. That is on Cal. By the way, nice set out of a timeout down four at the one minute mark. But the kicker to me is what in the world is their defensive philosophy on defense particularly defending screens. That is on Cal. Quite simply Andrew Harrison can't guard smaller guards. Defending ball screens is simply incredulous. No hedging, no ball trap, nothing but getting hung up or lazy switches. That is what is irking me the most. Pick and roll defense is simply laughable. Particularly #5, who is simply horrible in rotations. The personnel screams zone, because of the liabilities in personnel. This team is nothing like the 2012 Champs. That team could switch and lose nothing because MKG could guard both front court and back court players. This team doesn't have that plus Andrew Harrison can't guard opposing point guards. We got a long way to go, but this team has got to figure it out on defensive end. Simply doing it like they've always done it, doesn't fly.