The bigs just didn't show up and help in this game. It's a sad day when a bench riding guard leads the team in rebounds. Thank goodness this is Poythress's last year, Skal i'm still not sure even why he is on this team, and poor Briscoe couldn't make a free throw if the rim was 20ft in diameter. Mulder, Ulis, and Murry kept it as close as it was, hopefully they can get some bigs that want to play this season or get someone motivated, still enough time, but not looking great this season.
I have to say I called this one!
I never expected this year to be worth a damn when your big men are Skal and Poythress and Willis getting a lot of playing time.
That said next year is the year. Next year's class would smoke our starters.
Demarcus ware Wrote:The bigs just didn't show up and help in this game. It's a sad day when a bench riding guard leads the team in rebounds. Thank goodness this is Poythress's last year, Skal i'm still not sure even why he is on this team, and poor Briscoe couldn't make a free throw if the rim was 20ft in diameter. Mulder, Ulis, and Murry kept it as close as it was, hopefully they can get some bigs that want to play this season or get someone motivated, still enough time, but not looking great this season.
We don't have Bigs! In our three losses, we have been exposed badly due to the fact that we have no interior play. Poythress is still too soft, Lee has no offensive skills, Skal has NO skills, and Humphries does not fit this offense.
Cal's philosophy dating back to UMass, "I don't work on FT shooting in practice, that is something players need to do on their own". Well, UMass lost to UK in the Final 4 because his team could not shoot FT's. Kansas was trailing by 14 with 4:00 to go in the championship game against Derrick Rose and the Memphis team. Kansas was fouling any player who touched the ball, and Memphis shot 30% down the stretch and lost the championship because of it. Every year we bitch about how poorly UK shoots FT's. BUT - Cal does not feel it is important to work on FT shooting in practice. Umm, maybe that's the problem, maybe his players do not know how to practice FT shooting correctly and it then shows up in the teams that he coaches......
Stardust Wrote:We don't have Bigs! In our three losses, we have been exposed badly due to the fact that we have no interior play. Poythress is still too soft, Lee has no offensive skills, Skal has NO skills, and Humphries does not fit this offense.
Cal's philosophy dating back to UMass, "I don't work on FT shooting in practice, that is something players need to do on their own". Well, UMass lost to UK in the Final 4 because his team could not shoot FT's. Kansas was trailing by 14 with 4:00 to go in the championship game against Derrick Rose and the Memphis team. Kansas was fouling any player who touched the ball, and Memphis shot 30% down the stretch and lost the championship because of it. Every year we bitch about how poorly UK shoots FT's. BUT - Cal does not feel it is important to work on FT shooting in practice. Umm, maybe that's the problem, maybe his players do not know how to practice FT shooting correctly and it then shows up in the teams that he coaches......
Speaking of Kansas, mark that day down on the calendar, it will be a massive blowout. I'm guessing payback for us laying the smack down on them last year. I won't even turn the tv on that day
nicker:
Anyone think Poy can play in the NBA, he's been here 4 years and I see no improvement...
UK wont make the NCAA tournament. Probably looking at 11-13 losses this year.
Folks, this team simply doesn't have the talent to win a championship. Outside of Ulis and Murray, I don't see anyone on this roster being able to play in the NBA. Skal may be the biggest bust of all time, Briscoe can't make a free throw, or a shot period, for that matter. Lee has no offensive skills other than catching a lob or scoring on a put back. Poythress hasn't improved any in four years. He continues to be inconsistent, by playing like an all American one game, while playing like a walk on in other games. As far as our bench, we have no bench. Willis is an average player at best, Mathews is a very good athlete, while still growing as a player. Mulder doesn't get enough playing time, and Humphries is too slow to play against elite players. I don't know, I hope I'm eating these words in March, but I don't see this team making any noise in the tournament. Who knows, they may not even make the tournament.
About Briscoe:
If your shooting 35% from the free throw line, why would you even try a 3 pointer? Every time he shoots a three pointer in a game, it should be recorded as a turnover in the stats.
This team has great potential, but John Calipari is not a great developer of talent. Brad Stevens would have done wonders with this team. Refusing to teach free throw shooting to his team says volumes about Calipari. He is a manager, not a teacher.
Hoot Gibson Wrote:This team has great potential, but John Calipari is not a great developer of talent. Brad Stevens would have done wonders with this team. Refusing to teach free throw shooting to his team says volumes about Calipari. He is a manager, not a teacher.
It's bad when you have three players on the team (including two guards) that have a higher field goal percentage than free throw percentage. You have Isaiah Briscoe shooting 34% from the line, Marcus Lee shooting 37%, and Charles Matthews shooting 47%.
As a team, Kentucky right now is ranked 296th in the nation and at the bottom of the SEC shooting 65% from the line. The only team under John Calipari that shot worse from there is the 2013 team that missed the NCAA tournament.
I think back to 2001 in the NBA when the Los Angeles Lakers finished the regular season at 56-26, finishing as the #2 seed in the west behind the Spurs. Phil Jackson hired a specialist to work with Shaquille O'Neal on free throws. The improvements late in the year showed both for Shaq and for the team. Of the 13 games that Shaq shot at least 70% from the line that year, 12 of them were in the last month and a half of the regular season - one of which he went 13/13 against the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers won their last 8 regular season games.
The Lakers performed really well during that stretch. Shaq continued to perform well from the line during the playoffs. The Lakers blew out many teams that year and finished with a playoff record of 15-1, the best playoff record of all time. Shaq didn't put up good numbers from the line in the playoffs because missed a lot of free throws late in games when The Lakers were leading big.
I don't think Shaq continued with the specialist as his free throw shooting continued to struggle in future years, but I think it would provide great results for UK like it did for Shaq if they had someone work with the team specifically on free throws.
Let's not get too down on the CATS right now.