But Oscar had a midget, a guy who insisted on playing out of position and one auditioning for the NBA for teammates.
What has happened to our defense?
- Thread starter Creed Bratton
- Start date
UNCW’s players were too fast to keep them out of the lane. That caused us to provide weak-side help and left one of their players wide open on the wing or corner. Add to that the fact that they hit several, several contested threes and twos and it proved too much to overcome. Especially with our struggles from Edwards and Dilly on the offensive end. Their player WHITE almost carried them the last 10-12 minutes by himself, and Cal had no strategy to stop him.
Then stop providing weak side help. I’m not saying just concede layups… you can still challenge them. But just make it your mission to not leave 3pt shooters open. We weren’t getting stops either way, so at least hold them to 2. It was a simple adjustment to make but as usual, Cal failed to even think about making it.
We start with a deficit. For as many points as he scores Antonio Reeves gives them up near equally Hell, some games he's out of position or beaten so badly he's a distinct disadvantage in points given up vs what he scores. He's a putrid defensive player. Just go back and watch any game. He's dreadful. So now once the other team crosses half court you are virtually already out of position. With Reeves on the floor it is not a coincidence that right now over the last 2 years UK has looked the worst on defense that it has ever looked under Calipari.
Then on this team you have Tre Mitchell who isn't seemingly much better than Reeves. Only Mitchell isn't as capable of a scorer. You need to have a rim protector to erase the mistakes Mitchell and Reeves make and contribute the other players in to making.
Also, Sheppard and Dillingham and Wagner gamble to damn much. You aren't going to get a steal every time. Just keep yourself between the damn ball and the basket. They all need to learn when to pick their spots.
Then on this team you have Tre Mitchell who isn't seemingly much better than Reeves. Only Mitchell isn't as capable of a scorer. You need to have a rim protector to erase the mistakes Mitchell and Reeves make and contribute the other players in to making.
Also, Sheppard and Dillingham and Wagner gamble to damn much. You aren't going to get a steal every time. Just keep yourself between the damn ball and the basket. They all need to learn when to pick their spots.
I don’t think they were too fast at all. You do not give up the lane. You do not give up the baseline. They are dribbling a damn basketball, no way they are quicker.
Another issue was a classic one. Put the ball in the corner and the defense collapsed there. Nobody took responsibility for the weak side. Area coverage in that situation is crucial evenin man to man. Otherwise you are susceptible to skip pass over the head and wide open three.
Further, if a guy is knocking down baskets when you are up in his grill you have to keep the damn ball away.
This is hard work. It is unforgiving. You lose without it.
Dead on. I suppose people think Saint Peter’s guards were too fast as well? You and I agree on what the problem is… we just disagree on who is ultimately responsible for it.
If we don't get our defense to the top 30 in kenpom we're not winning a championship(teams that win have a offense and defense in the top 30 for the past 15 years or something like that. Maybe longer.)
Our players open their hips and let guys drive by them instead of staying in front.
Probably not disagreeing as much as you think. Coach has to park a player for committing these mistakes. Defense must be absolutely the top priority for every man on the floor. Every basket they make is a personal and team failure. You sit if you don’t embrace that.
Coaches implement that philosophy and the effectiveness of this team dramatically changes.
I don’t call out Kentucky coaches in public. Hardly ever except over cheating. If I have a problem with personnel I call someone that can deal with it. Public whining is just ineffective and makes the fanbase look petty and bitchy. Nobody in charge gives a rats ass what is said here. This is only fodder for media and opposing fans.
It’s really not surprising. The teams we are playing have coaches that actually watch game film and prepare their teams. They know going into the game what we are going to do defensively with no wrinkles as cal doesn’t believe in wrinkles. It’s why our record against top 25 competition is so abysmal the last however many years it has been. We are a very easy team to prepare for and when players execute and knock their shots down at a decent clip we get what we have witnessed, even against outmanned teams like UNCW,
And not surprisingly 2017 and 2019 were our best seasons. 2022 really a bizarre outlier. That team should have been a sweet 16 or elite 8 level team. I know, injuries, but losing to a 15 seed was bizarre.
Cal’s been here 13+ years. He’s been coaching basketball for 30+ years. Why are we still waiting for philosophies to be implemented?
If Cal knows what buttons to push, then he should have been pushing them already. And if he doesn’t know, well then, he never will.
Actually my question is different. He used to be a defensive dictator. Everyone raved about his dribble drive offense, but I wondered if they ever watched his teams. Something shifted. I wonder about the player culture.
You can't put Reed Sheppard on the quickest player on the floor and after you get your ass handed to you tell the fans quote " the greatest player in Kentucky let his man drive by him 17 times "
He can’t help himself. Totally classless comment by Cal. I wish a reporter in the postgame presser would have been like “so tell us Cal, what tweak did you make today? Explain for us small-minded bennies”
I'm really skeptical that AB is going to give us the help we need in these areas. Dude is rail thin and avoids contact; I'll be shocked if he improves us as a rebounding team. Ugo probably our best rebounder/rim protector of the 3 bigs. He's built pretty solid, and esp. in comparison to Aaron.
Exactly I mean what do you think Jeff and Lisa are thinking after calling their son out unbelievable comment what a ass
That was one of the things I was yelling during my arm-chair coaching Saturday: Deny him the ball. He's hitting every shot, regardless of how contested, do whatever's needed to keep the ball outta the dudes hands.
On a side note, it's beyond ridiculous how many players come into Rupp and have career nights. It's getting old...
It’s not Cal. That’s an easy cop out The issue is that it’s not being taught. The mind set is simply not there.
Defense has 100% been the problem over the last few years and I've been saying that here to no avail. The offense wasn't an issue, it's just easier for fans to notice a slow and clunky offense as opposed to a bad defense. Look at the adjusted rankings for offense vs. defense over the last five years and you have your answer.
Who's responsible for teaching it? The coach. So yes, it's on Cal.
News flash…. They play basketball before they come tonUK. Yes. It’s true. They do. It’s not being taught at the prep levels. These are not things you teach in a day or a month. The problem is systemic.
You can blame Cal for every problem in your life It won’t fix a damn thing
And yet somehow, 28 other coaches (counting some twice here, of course) have managed to teach their kids to play defense well enough to reach the final four over the last 7 seasons. And only a fraction of them are HOF’ers. Or perhaps they just managed to recruit kids who were good defenders to start with.
Either way, Cal has apparently done neither.
He never mentioned Reed. The Cal bigots here got their panties in a wad because he included Reed on the rest of the team instead of kissing his toes. It was pretty blatant. Cal definitely botched the honorifics. Hence forth I think Lord Reed or His Majesty are the correct references when speaking to the Bennie’s. To normal people including Cal he is still Reed a respected member of the Kentucky basketball team.
I guess if the mission is to bash the program at all costs, ok. But if you want to actually understand issue you have to take at least two steps and ask questions.
What was the average college experience of those 28 teams versus ours?
Why in the Sam hell is a college coach teaching a player to stay in front of their man? Seriously? That should be taught starting at age 11. If they haven’t bothered to learn it in the previous 6 years, it ain’t likely to just turn on in 5 games or 5 months.
Bonus question: How are these clearly unskilled players being ranked so high? It almost seems like the ranking is based on athletic talent needed in the NBA, not an assessment of the skills needed in college. The two are NOT the same.
But if the goal is just to trash KY and it’s coach, then just ignore facts and keep heaving dung at UK.
You are right that the defense has cost us more points, but there has been free money on offense that was obvious to everyone that Cal refused to pick up.
Guys arent drafted in the NBA to play defense, hence why he no longer emphasizes it.
Coach tolerates individually bad defensive effort; it is also evident that team defense has been hurt by unsound practices (pick and roll, etc) and lack of an Anthony Davis type, very athletic rim protector.
Cal has mellowed in recent years; he no longer is willing to "embarrass" kids by giving them the "hook" like his early years.
Like Stoops, his messages aren't many times getting through the heads of these kids. It could be him, or them, or some of them, but it ain't happenin.'
We never have seemed like a well-oiled juggernaut of a cohesive team. There are things that give the appearance of a group that doesn't respect program history, nor does it appear to have a truly killer attitude...some of that may be tied to the overall philosophy which lends itself to more off a selfish personal focus as opposed to a greater emphasis on team and achievement of one main goal: winning games.
The elephant in the room (not really, since it gets discussed a lot) is that we do have young teams and very high turnover. Our 2012 team was probably an aberration. Why should kids worry too much about getting down in a stance when they're projected to be a lottery pick? Meh, so we lost to UNCW, Evansville, St Peter's...I'm still getting the best training for free and I'm going to be drafted in six months. Just show up, go through the motions, and I'll be a millionaire (and outta here!) in no time flat! Do we really think Shaedon Sharpe went to ANY classes? You gotta be kiddin' me. Sheesh! What a sham that was! Is it even important at all that we win games OR championships when half the team is being talked about as NBA prospects? This whole charade takes away from any focus on winning. You can wash feet all day as a servant leader and "team" member, but at the end of the day, it's getting the next prized recruit to the NBA. Whether these messages coming from Cal are overt or covert, they are coming through loud and clear..."Players First" is a euphemism for ... Well, you complete that sentence.
Individual and team defense, to include of course rebounding shots and securing 50/50 balls, is extremely hard work at the Division I level. I saw pretty good defense for about one stretch between TV timeouts against UNCW. Four minutes out of 40, or 10%, is fairly pathetic and not anywhere near a Gold Standard of Excellence. That's more brown than gold, if you get my drift. It takes a supreme effort, commitment, and clarity of purpose to play effective, elite winning defense for 40 minutes.
Mentally (you could see this from the outset against UNCW), we weren't prepared to play defense or offense. Cal should have gone "scorched Earth" with Brendan Canada and Joey Hart if he had to find someone who would wake the hell up and play something other than sh_tty defense. The way to get kids to "Man Up" is to put their asses on the pine. Penn is another similar test; by the way, if it's not clear now, it should be--mid-majors all across the US are CLOSING THE GAP on the big boys. More population--more players--same number of schools equals a greater distribution of very accomplished athletes. Scheisse not together, this happens again and again. We better come out every damn game with a major league chip on our shoulder that we are going to obliterate the opposition.
They should have been thrown out of the Coal Lodge for this loss, and Cal's coaching (once again) manufactures another instance of an embarrassing loss that should have been an easy win. We cannot keep snatching losses from the "Jaws of Winning." Defense! Defense! Defense! Hell, you only have to play one thing--play it better than anyone else!
We've never been able to guard the high screen. Never.
Bam and AD were both really good at all ball screens and pick and roll defense. But it is hard to guard. That's why teams run it all the time at all levels.
As for our defense, it's been especially bad the last 3 seasons. This teams has the make up to be very good on defense once we get some training and some pieces back. Right now we are playing with two very bad defenders in Reeves and Mitchell.
We are playing 3 against 5 on that end. Until we guys learn to play defense and we get some help we just have to out score people. Which we have been doing until Sat. The offense wasn't clicking and the defense was still bad. With one game a week for a month and with Camp Cal and with players getting healthy the defense is going to improve drastically.
Just read the article about Cal going “old school” in practices. Now some of it was not typical stuff like covering the rims but a lot was traditional stuff and Cal and the players were going on about how hard it was. Defending is hard. Defending is effort. Being in a good defensive posture and staying in it is mentally tough and physically demanding and should be worked on but Cal is being praised for going “old school” on things that should be worked on early.
I get relaxing practice more and more once a team has it down so to save the legs for late in the year but does Cal starts out in load management right out of the gate just hoping to out athlete them on defense?
I get relaxing practice more and more once a team has it down so to save the legs for late in the year but does Cal starts out in load management right out of the gate just hoping to out athlete them on defense?
Duh, we do not play defense anymore....that is the primary reason we are so pathetic.
Cal's teams rely on athletes and shot blocking / rim protection for defense. From 2010-2015, UK averaged 6.9 blk/gm, and since then have averaged 4.9 blk/gm with not 1 single team (out of 8) averaging 6.0+/gm. And you know that 2 shot difference is more than 2 shots if you consider all of the shots just having shot blockers alter in the paint. This year we are averaging only 4.8, and that is with only 2 Power 5 schools played out of 8 games. That is why adding Bradshaw and Ivisic or Onyenso is important. The trick will be playing them (to give us rim protection, and hopefully rebounding) without hurting (too much) the offensive flow we had first 7 games.
I have said this for a long time. There are no McD all-Americans/5 stars that come to UK because of their defense. Quite the opposite, most of them didn't play very much defense in high school.
Now they come to UK, and our coach, in all of his hall of fame wisdom, demands they play man to man defense against college players for 40 minutes. That is why we usually have an early season loss or two to a big school, and now it is also becoming common place to have an early season loss to a mid major type school.
Maybe our players get better at it by tournament time, maybe they don't. But usually by tournament time we have lost so many games that we will more than likely have a difficult seeding/region/road to a final four. Probably why we haven't seen a final four in almost ten years.
When we lose games, you can almost bet that 90% of the opponents scores are directly due to not keeping players out of the lane. That initial blow by either leads to a layup, a pass to a wide open 3 point shooter, or a visit to the foul line. Teams that play us only have to run plays 2/3 times a game. The rest of the time it is an offense caused by finding the weak man to man defender and getting past him. It leads to a total breakdown and it has been happening for years and years.
You can scream the pros/cons of man to man defense or zone till you are blue in the face, but the fact that Calipari never has adopted a zone even for 4/5 minutes a game to change things up is coaching malpractice. Trying it once or twice a season does not mean he adopted it.
And also why we will never win another natty while he is here.
Now they come to UK, and our coach, in all of his hall of fame wisdom, demands they play man to man defense against college players for 40 minutes. That is why we usually have an early season loss or two to a big school, and now it is also becoming common place to have an early season loss to a mid major type school.
Maybe our players get better at it by tournament time, maybe they don't. But usually by tournament time we have lost so many games that we will more than likely have a difficult seeding/region/road to a final four. Probably why we haven't seen a final four in almost ten years.
When we lose games, you can almost bet that 90% of the opponents scores are directly due to not keeping players out of the lane. That initial blow by either leads to a layup, a pass to a wide open 3 point shooter, or a visit to the foul line. Teams that play us only have to run plays 2/3 times a game. The rest of the time it is an offense caused by finding the weak man to man defender and getting past him. It leads to a total breakdown and it has been happening for years and years.
You can scream the pros/cons of man to man defense or zone till you are blue in the face, but the fact that Calipari never has adopted a zone even for 4/5 minutes a game to change things up is coaching malpractice. Trying it once or twice a season does not mean he adopted it.
And also why we will never win another natty while he is here.
