A few things that bother me heading into tournament play and a few things that have gotten better.

[wobycat]

The worry

1. Inbounding the ball. Don’t think I’ve ever been nervous as a fan watching a team throw the ball in.
2. Rebounding a ball. We watch the ball a lot on shots.
3. Transition offense. Sometimes butler brings it up, sometimes Williams, sometimes Oweh. Just go to the basket

What’s gotten better

1. Defense has really improved. We got lax at the end today but played well for the most part
2. Confidence in brea and chandler
3. Williams inside offense. I feel more comfortable when he gets it in the post

 

[K_TIME]

The worry

1. Inbounding the ball. Don’t think I’ve ever been nervous as a fan watching a team throw the ball in.
2. Rebounding a ball. We watch the ball a lot on shots.
3. Transition offense. Sometimes butler brings it up, sometimes Williams, sometimes Oweh. Just go to the basket

What’s gotten better

1. Defense has really improved. We got lax at the end today but played well for the most part
2. Confidence in brea and chandler
3. Williams inside offense. I feel more comfortable when he gets it in the post

You have to add Carr to what's gotten better list. He was nearly unplayable mid year with the back injury...he's back to non conference solid stat line night in/night out now.

 

[wildcat_nation28]

You have to add Carr to what's gotten better list. He was nearly unplayable mid year with the back injury...he's back to non conference solid stat line night in/night out now.

agree

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

I worry Williams is due for a bad FT shooting night.

 

[ImTheVillageIdiot]

I worry we are going to forget that this is supposed to be fun. The likelihood is your season is going to end in a loss well over 90% of the time. Let’s enjoy the ride because there isn’t much of it left. Cheer our hearts out until the final buzzer whether in the crowd or at home in front of our tv with family around. GBB!

 

[pauled]

I worry Williams is due for a bad FT shooting night.

He sure has gotten better at FT since the beginning of the season. I actually feel pretty good with him going to the line. He shot 80% today! We can live with that!

 

[blue cincy]

All good points but we have been better with plays called for our inbounds. Cal just said throw it to the center and typically we had a bad possession. I saw the one really bad inbound today. The rest seems to be no better or worse than anyone else out there.
Defense is much better.
Offense seems to be finding their stride again with the new line ups.
Brea getting better with 2pt game and rebounds.
Perry playing solid minutes, yes we lose defense with him and Chandler is much better on defense.
Williams still worries me game to game. You never know when he will come out and just not look engaged. He has been much better the last 8 or so games.
Oweh is one of the bigger keys, we need his steals, we need him to be much smarter on the fouls. We need him to finish strong, play through the contact. Some times he does great drive and just falls apart at the rim.

I worry about the early games against lesser competition. We get through the first weekend and we will be able to beat just about anybody. Let the fun begin. Gonna be much harder for me to get the NCAA games after the final buzzer. I tried today to watch the game live. Lasted 2 minutes. I will try again Wednesday to watch a game or two of the first round SEC. I think I will do it with no sound and see if just the visual watching helps with the spells I get. Then maybe by the next week I can try a little of sound and live action.

 

[NociHTTP]

Positive:
+ Brea starting to penetrate more and taking contact
+ Amari rebounding better, even better passing
+ Carr a beast around the basket
+ Chandler moving better off-ball
+ BG threat for lobs
+ whole team a threat from deep
+ Oweh ability to slash

Negative:
- Oweh at risk of shooting us out of game
- Butler sometimes doesn't facilitate, tends to dribble air out of ball
- team tends to not fight for loose balls
- team tends to not anticipate rebounds


Those last two negatives are a general mindset thing and if they're put to rest this team is Top Five in the country.

 

[CrazyCat74]

The only thing that really worries me at this point in the season is

-taking care of the basketball
-foul trouble

The win yesterday was the type of win that can create a lot of momentum going into this post season.

Another 5 days for this experienced "older" group to get healthy and recharged from the grind of the conference season and travel could be extremely helpful.

 

[ralphdaltonfan]

Regarding the OP's first concern with inbounding the ball, it's an issue that is growing not just in CBB but the NBA level as well. I've seen more 5 second turnovers in the NBA this year than previous years watching combined. Everyone seems to be spending practices working on sets/plays and forget you have to get the ball inbounded. So while not trying to absolve UK from some sloppy turnovers, they are far from alone in this. It seems you either get a dunk/layup from sloppy/bad defense (which we lived with watching Cal's teams for years) or you resort to some risky pass thrown near sidelines over a defender challenging the pass. Then there's the old reliable "Izzo Play" where you launch the pass 75 ft away into the backcourt and start your play from there.

 

[Wonky]

I’m just glad we have a guy back (Butler) who can get to the rim whenever he wants. We didn’t have that for 4-5 games and it killed us. It changes things for our shooters.

 

[CapnBlubs]

Positive:
+ Brea starting to penetrate more and taking contact
+ Amari rebounding better, even better passing
+ Carr a beast around the basket
+ Chandler moving better off-ball
+ BG threat for lobs
+ whole team a threat from deep
+ Oweh ability to slash

Negative:
- Oweh at risk of shooting us out of game
- Butler sometimes doesn't facilitate, tends to dribble air out of ball
- team tends to not fight for loose balls
- team tends to not anticipate rebounds


Those last two negatives are a general mindset thing and if they're put to rest this team is Top Five in the country.

Good post. Agree with you on all of it. And absolutely loved the win at Missouri and finally making a real statement for the first time since Knoxville (in my opinion we hadn't had a "wow" win since then, and that one was helped immensely by their poor shooting).

Damn shame that we won't have Robinson (for him, for Pope, for the team, and for all of us).

Oweh has been so key in so many games and literally saved us at Oklahoma but I don't want him to take the wrong message from those times and be too selfish with the ball. Yesterday's 17 shots with 1 assist situation is not ideal. Look for the shooters or they stop looking for the pass, same as with a big man who never kicks it out. I like the confident driving but gotta keep the defense guessing instead of throwing it all at the rim.

Your last two points are the main reasons I've felt so exasperated all season. I understand that Pope had very little time to get this roster together and the injuries are not his fault at all.

But the lack of effort and focus on defense / rebounding / loose balls...like what the hell. Thankfully all of those things have improved somewhat (and our numbers show it) but why wasn't it more of an emphasis from the beginning?

Even without Robinson, if this team brings the fight at ALL times they truly have FF potential. But let's see it, guys.

 

[otis-gip]

Positive:
+ Brea starting to penetrate more and taking contact
+ Amari rebounding better, even better passing
+ Carr a beast around the basket
+ Chandler moving better off-ball
+ BG threat for lobs
+ whole team a threat from deep
+ Oweh ability to slash

Negative:
- Oweh at risk of shooting us out of game
- Butler sometimes doesn't facilitate, tends to dribble air out of ball
- team tends to not fight for loose balls
- team tends to not anticipate rebounds


Those last two negatives are a general mindset thing and if they're put to rest this team is Top Five in the country.

Like most teams, we struggle to defend the ball screens. . It is a difficult aspect of defense for most SEC teams because of all the multiple screens that are being set for quality offensive players. It is really hard to help because of the good three point shooters that stretch the defense out.

 

[AJG-15]

OP points are valid observations but not a concern.

We only had two games with this line up Butler, Oweh , Brea, Carr, Amari. All this time the emphasis was on getting the right rotations and subs due to injuries and scouting the next team.

Pope is good at scheming. Remember at the beginning of season how he had few schemes that he surprised opponents with?
Well , he has been scouted too. Now he is not showing all the cards in his hand . He is saving few for the ncaa tournament.


Just think about in the last 2 minutes in the Missouri game, which is a great team at creating turnovers, and they were pressing us after each time they scored, in our backcourt, how many turnovers we had with Brea inbounding the ball? 0 turnovers. Just stay healthy and we will be fine.