Game thread - @ Kentucky, 12/14/2019

awbuzz

awbuzz

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Kentucky made 15 three throws we made 2 free throws, two for six at the line...

I thought we look pretty good in the first half. Wheels came off the bus then the first minute of the second half though.
 

lv20gt

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Overall we played pretty well, but to have any chance we needed Devoe to be the best player on the court and he just wasn't. He did a nice job passing and would have had a couple more assists if we could knock down the open shots, but he just doesn't have the star player mentality right now.

Thought Wright, Moore, Parham, and Cole overall played pretty well. Banks continues his streak of games that make me think he's checked out. Hate to lose, but after the Syracuse loss the way we played tonight should restore hope for the rest of the way once we get Jose back and add Usher.
 
awbuzz

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Devo was bottled up... He'll fallout of being a top 15 score in the NCAA now.
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lv20gt

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awbuzz said:
I thought we look pretty good in the first half. Wheels came off the bus then the first minute of the second half though.
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I wouldn't say that's true. They scored 6 quick points, but we answered right away with 6 of our own. It was a 4 point game at the 10 minute mark. They really pulled away right after that when we had several good looks and couldn't convert and Hagans took over scoring or assisting on 10 straight points by them.
 

lv20gt

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sidewalkGTfan said:
We’ve done it 4 years now. It’s who we are. We’ve got more athletes than actual sharp shooters, yet we are content waiting for the other team’s D to setup. We are better built to push tempo IMO.
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In the first couple of years it made sense because of what we did, or didn't have. This year we are better built to push tempo, but not without our starting PG, and not when we are playing with only 9 scholarship players. We were making a concerted effort earlier in the year to push things.
 

sidewalkGTfan

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lv20gt said:
In the first couple of years it made sense because of what we did, or didn't have. This year we are better built to push tempo, but not without our starting PG, and not when we are playing with only 9 scholarship players. We were making a concerted effort earlier in the year to push things.
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We have virtually the same squad as last year and we played slow last year from what I recall. I’ll be stunned if we are suddenly a faster tempo team once Jose is back. We are all in on this “Princeton” style offense.
 

lv20gt

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sidewalkGTfan said:
We have virtually the same squad as last year and we played slow last year from what I recall. I’ll be stunned if we are suddenly a faster tempo team once Jose is back. We are all in on this “Princeton” style offense.
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Same squad? We literally lost 4 players from last year's squad and have added 4 new players. We lost 5 if you include Sjolund. But more importantly we actually have something resembling back court depth, when healthy, with Bubba being an actual threat compared to Alston (even with Bubba being a bit disappointing). Furthermore our back court last year was extremely young overall and a year of experience is a big difference as well. We won't be super fast paced but we were obviously trying to go faster against NCSU when we had Jose
 

YlJacket

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sidewalkGTfan said:
We play....so.......frickin..............slow
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This is the issue and it isn't just tempo for number of possessions - though pushing the ball for easier shots would be really helpful for this offense. We run our sets (such as they are) at an ungodly slow pace which makes us a whole lot easier to guard. We don't get a lot of movement and the ball generally sticks with whoever has it. We get very few shots in rhythm or easy points off our offense. DeVoe has to put his shoulder into someone's chest or Moses is pivoting 3 different ways before he jump hooks.

We don't have the athletes who can simply break down other teams players at the ACC level (Bethune Cookman yes - UK or even SYR no). Jose would certainly help but even he wouldn't break down high level defenders. DeVoe for as good as he is - isn't the kind of player you can say "put the team on your back and create". That isn't his game. It isn't realistic to think he is going to take a high level athletic defender off the dribble in space.

Watch good teams with similar talent to us and see how fast they run their sets. VT is a good example. Watch how fast their guys come off of screens or work the weave they run around the 3 point line and then watch us run our offense. Thorobreds versus Clydesdales. The speed is what gets them open shots. Easy shots that we don't get.

I wasn't enamored with everything Bilas said today, but he was spot on when he said DeVoe ws out of rhythm and it was hurting his offensive game. We don't do anything to help him get an easy bucket or a couple of easy shots to get in rhythm. Everything is hard and he has to create 90% of his shots. Again, not his game. If we simply ran sets a lot faster and got him a bit of help with down screens and other movement to occupy help defenders, he most likely is a different player.

The defense we ran today was well coached against a high end team like KY. The zone is a perfect approach. Which is why it is so frustrating to me to see us run a slow plodding offense that doesn't do anything to help the talent we do have.
 
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