Why are people hell bent on making it Reed vs Wagner?
- Thread starter fisherscatfan
- Start date
I honestly believe the reason people complain about this is because Cal has shown the tendency to start players who haven't shown they deserve to start. How many games this year have the Cats got off to a slow start, only to recover once Reed is in the game? Why not start him and potentially keep the Cats from falling behind to start the games and needing to fight back to take the lead? I don't think that I've seen anyone say that Wagner shouldn't play; it just doesn't seem that he's earned that starter's spot that Cal seems to promise to certain players and that bothers a lot of fans.
you can't see the forest for the trees
I've yet to say that Cal should play Shep more or DJ less, but lets be clear on another point. We might have a banner hanging for #9 already had Cal substituted for a player he knew was struggling. Cal getting a player where they need to be has been more about the green room than the trophy room.
Has Cal changed ?
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You say Wagner and Sheppard never play together and then bring up DJs highlights from the UNC game to prove it. This doesn’t prove your BS statement that they don’t play together.
First, you show DJs 6 made FGs. I saw Sheppard on 2 of them, but I don’t care if Sheppard is out there when DJ is making the correct play. It’s the 8 misses that DJ had. Let’s see if Sheppard is on the court with him on those. Everybody looks great if you just show their made FGs.
Secondly, to prove your statement wrong that they don’t play together much. The game against UNC, that you show as proof, DJ played 35 minutes. There is only 40 minutes in a game so how did they not play much together. Did Sheppard just play the 5 minutes that Wagner was out. No, Sheppard played 25 minutes. Even if 5 of those minutes were the time Wagner was out, they would still play 20 minutes together.
Third, you show all the 3s of Sheppard and claim Wagner isn’t playing with him. He wasn’t the first 2 but the next 4 they are both on the court. Wagner even assisted him on the 6th shot. It’s hard to watch the video and try to find who Wagner is on the court so I’m not going to take the time to. Of course the game Wagner missed, he isn’t going to be in the court with Sheppard. Also, it’s an no brainer that Sheppard will get to shoot more when Wagner is out cause Wagner won’t pass to him when he is in. All I know is that they do play together and Wagner has only assisted Sheppard once the last 7 games.
I didn’t say never, I said they play limited minutes together because they usually sub in for each other. I don’t think you even watch the games. You went to ESPN looked at stats and came back with this ignorant nonsense about him being jealous. Saying DJ won’t pass him the ball is complete BS. BTW, DJ he absolutely was in in on the next 4, DJ is 21, Burks is 23.
Keep making up stuff to be divisive tho. Maybe try to actually watch the games and you won’t look like such a fool.
To me, you start your best players. Reed is much better than DJ. Reed needs to shoot more and DJ shoot less. I guess it’s working, but Reed not starting at UK doesn’t even surprise me.
I said Wagner was in the game on the next 4 of the 3s that Sheppard shot. You are the one that act like he isn’t in there with Sheppard. You are the one making stuff up. You also act like Sheppard wasn’t in the game in the Wagner highlights and I saw him on 2 of them. You said they don’t play together much. I know what number Wagner is. What are you talking about? I already knew Burks was 23 also. Burks has assisted Sheppard 2 times in the last 7 games which is twice as much as Wagner, Reeves, and Edwards have combined, which is just 1. I go to ESPN to get facts to back my argument up. You are the one that looks like a dumb ass. You make up stuff like Wagner and Sheppard hardly play together and try to prove it with a game that Wagner plays 35 minutes. I know it’s hard to tell that they are on the court together since Wagner won’t pass him the ball. Dude you act like I make stuff up cause I said it was opinion that Wagner was jealous of Sheppard. I said it was my opinion. Now it is a fact and not my opinion that Wagner has only assisted Sheppard once in the last 7 games. That’s not even including the Kansas game when Wagner shot 1-12 and had 1 assist. How does the starting PG miss 11 out of 12 and only have 1 assist if he isn’t selfish?
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Yeah, I give Calipari credit for keeping Wagner limited when he was off in that game. Wish he would have against Kansas. Edwards and Reeves had their best game of the season with Sheppard running the point with them.
He had 5 assists against UNC and 7 against Penn. You’re really focused on 1 game against Kansas, yes he played horribly that game but he has improved since. And just because he’s not got an assist off a reed bucket doesn’t mean he freezes him out and doesn’t pass him the ball
Yeah it was a mistake to keep him in against Kansas as long as he did. But DJ has gotten better, I thought he played really well against Carolina. We have a good team this year and every player is important. They’ve been fun to watch
No, I’m not only focused on one game. I said the last 7. When does 7 equal 1. Yeah DJ can play and has potential. I just don’t know why he doesn’t look for the best shooter on the team. He does get some assists but not to Sheppard. Wagner has 36 assists on the season and 66 missed FGs. Sheppard has 47 assists on the season and only 34 missed FGs. One is -30 and one is +13 on assists/missed FGs ratio. Early in the season, other players were finding Sheppard and lately he is having to create for himself. I just don’t like that the best shooter on the team is 6th in FG attempts.
Assist’s don’t count unless they’re to Reed Sheppard. Any other play is considered selfish.
See there you go making things up again. Yeah they still count. When I said Wagner had 36 assists in the season, did you think I meant to Sheppard. No, he has assisted Sheppard 4 times this season. Three of those were in the first 4 games and then, in my opinion, Wagner got scared he was going to lose his starting job to Sheppard, and he has only assisted him once in the last 7 games. Sheppard is deadly as a spot up shooter. He was assisted 66% on 12 of his 18 made FGs in the first 4 games. In the last 7, Shepherd has only been assisted just 30% on 9 of his 30 FGs. Even Reeves assisted him once early on. While Wagner is getting some assists, he still has one of the lowest assist per game for a starting point guard under Calipari. Only Archie Goodwin and Mintz averaged less assists as a starting PG under Calipari and those were Calipari’s 2 worst teams. This team is very good but Wagner should have a higher assists total with the pace this team plays and the shooters that he has. Wagner is a decent player. I’m not saying he’s trash.
He could be getting assisted to less because he takes over pg duties a lot more whenever he’s in than when he started the season
