I'm not sure how you could say they cost us a championship unless having them made us a championship level team. You could team up the rest of the guards and compare them to Wall and I'd still choose him.
Best backcourt in Cal's tenure at UK?
- Thread starter BigSexyCat
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I'm not sure how you could say they cost us a championship unless having them made us a championship level team. You could team up the rest of the guards and compare them to Wall and I'd still choose him.
Teague and Lamb. Lamb was one of the more underrated players in UK history. As great as the 2012 team was, they always went to Lamb when they needed a basket; and he always delivered. Very underrated defender, and very underrated finisher at the rim.
Teague was a terrific defender. By March, he was a knockdown shooter at the top of the key, great decision maker, terrific athlete, and greater finisher.
Teague was a terrific defender. By March, he was a knockdown shooter at the top of the key, great decision maker, terrific athlete, and greater finisher.
Lamb didn't play well against Louisville, which instantly took him out of the discussion. Teague played better, but you look at the box scores and you realize a lot of people exaggerated the jump.
You can say Teague and Lamb, which I respect because they won the title. But I feel like the biggest reason they won was Davis and MKG. Lamb was a lights out shooter which was exactly what he needed to be for the team. And Teague just needed to distribute the ball well, which he did. They played their parts. They didn't have to be "the man". Wall, however, was indeed the best player on the team. He was to his position what Anthony Davis was to his. Any team can slip up in the tournament which unfortunately happened to the 2009-10 team. But I feel like if they could have won the last three games this probably wouldn't even be a discussion.
Problem is- you're looking at things on paper and not in real life. Yeah, that's a ridiculous amount of talent and they could probably win it all just based on that alone, but this is college basketball- WHO is going to make a three-pointer with that group? Your 3 perimeter players are all suspect AT BEST from deep. Hell, Jones is probably the best outside shooter of that crew.
As Rupp said, basketball isn't just throwing the 5 best talents together. It's not 5 us-vs-them matchups. It's the best 5 players whose games compliment each other.
It's almost like you guys DIDN'T watch that West Virginia game in '10. Yeah, it was a fluke we went 4-32 but it wasn't a fluke we were terrible from the outside. That was evident from Day 1.
I would gladly take a Wall/Bledsoe type of combo every season and let the chips fall where they may. Yeah, one ugly game to remember but I would still go with those two every time.
To me there are only 3 backcourts to even consider, Kinght/Lamb, Teague/Lamb, Wall/Bledsoe. From there it is going to depend on what criteria you want to put on the discussion. If the criteria is strictly the most talented, the Wall/Bledsoe is the answer. If the criteria is strictly success on the court, the answer is Teague/Lamb as they were the only ones of the group to win a championship. If the criteria is being able to carry a team on their backs, then the answer is Knight/Lamb, as they clearly did that with going to a final four with much less talent than the other two choices. I can't really argue with anyone who picks any of these 3 combos, but it is more of a discussion than some are giving it credit for. The 2010 team didn't lose because they shot a very low percentage from 3, it was because they took 32 of those shots. People will get mad about this, but that is leadership, which comes from your backcourt. Not being able to knock down 3s isn't a killer in itself, but if you can't make the shots, you can't fire 32 of them. I honestly believe this debacle is the reason Cal has been so adamant about driving the ball the last few years, especially against Wisconsin where in both match-ups they only took 11 3s combined, even when they made their first 3 attempts this year.
Teague made a clutch shot against KU, but his 47 TS% suggests he had a miserable time shooting at the Final Four.
Lamb had a great championship game, but the UL game was kind of a stinker. Davis had a bad offensive game against KU, but he was dominant on defense in both games. The guy had 11 blocks, 4 steals, and 30 total rebounds in the Final Four and Championship game.
That team was awesome. Harrelson puttin it off Sullinger's noggin in the TOSU game was priceless. The NCAA tournament road the Cats went on that year was a murderer's row too
Pretty sure it was off his chest but yes that play was awesome and harrelson was such a surprise that year and how well he played and actually got drafted. That game is in my top 5 favorite during cals years here, I miss knight he progressed so fast and then became an assassin out on the court leading us to the final 4.
I'm going a little against the grain and not going with the ring bearers nor the best NBA talents and taking the best college tandem with the most balanced skill sets and who carried their teams the most and so I select Knight and Lamb.
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