Amazing stat: Per @ESPNStatsInfo, Kentucky has been the worst 2-point

[FiveStarCat]

shooting team in the country since Christmas (33.9%).


Yet they are 3-0 in that stretch, including the win at Louisville. This would scare me if I were opposing fanbases. It hasn't been pretty obviously but to go 3-0 while shooting the worst 2 PT FG % in the country says a lot about this team.

 

[thecatsareback#8]

Originally posted by FiveStarCat:
shooting team in the country since Christmas (33.9%).


Yet they are 3-0 in that stretch, including the win at Louisville. This would scare me if I were opposing fanbases. It hasn't been pretty obviously but to go 3-0 while shooting the worst 2 PT FG % in the country says a lot about this team.

hahaha it is scary, but we should by no means be the worst shooting team in the country from inside the arc; even more so because we are the tallest team in the country.

That said, Cal will get it right. Not worried at all


This post was edited on 1/12 4:39 PM by thecatsareback#8

 

[bcox13]

Shows how good our defense is and how many more possessions we get because of turnovers, blocked shots, and steals. Scary!

 

[Smashcat]

Shooting 45 percent for the year in all games.

 

[SilentsAreGolden]

And before that we were one of, if not, the worst 3 pt shooting team too. The problem is going to be if we keep shooting poorly from 2 and have games where we don't hit 3s. If those games are against good teams, they will probably be losses. That's why I am less optimistic at the moment. If we get the offense fixed, we will be fine, but until we do, games like the last two are gonna keep happening.

 

[UKnCincy]

It's because teams have pushed the bigs away from the basket on their attempts. This year, one third of our FGA have come at the rim.

Over the past three games, just 15% have come at the rim. Guys have been settling for lower quality shots.

 

[deplion]

Originally posted by UKnCincy:
It's because teams have pushed the bigs away from the basket on their attempts.

Yep.

Our guys like to bang on the defensive end, but they need to fight harder on offense.

Dakari is the only guy getting any kind of decent looks in the low post. WCS and KAT need to be down there working hard for shots as well.

 

[UKWildcats#8]

UK is shooting 45% from three the past 5 games. That is insane. 40/89, impressive stuff. Thank you Devin Booker.

 

[manu1433]

Originally posted by deplion:

Originally posted by UKnCincy:
It's because teams have pushed the bigs away from the basket on their attempts.

Yep.

Our guys like to bang on the defensive end, but they need to fight harder on offense.

Dakari is the only guy getting any kind of decent looks in the low post. WCS and KAT need to be down there working hard for shots as well.

Dakari has been fairly bad lately

dude needs to learn to pass out of a double team....it was pretty frustrating to see him try to score on triple teams against A&M

his passing was pretty good early on in the season....he's reverted back to wanting to shoot every time he touches it

 

[ThroughBlue]

When playing in th post, half the battle is won on where yo catch the ball. This includes how deep you catch it and the angle you have to work to get to the rim. When you work hard for the ball and get good post position you have a lot better whence to score or draw a foul because the defender is already under the basket.

 

[deplion]

Originally posted by manu1433:

Originally posted by deplion:

Originally posted by UKnCincy:
It's because teams have pushed the bigs away from the basket on their attempts.

Yep.

Our guys like to bang on the defensive end, but they need to fight harder on offense.

Dakari is the only guy getting any kind of decent looks in the low post. WCS and KAT need to be down there working hard for shots as well.

Dakari has been fairly bad lately

dude needs to learn to pass out of a double team....it was pretty frustrating to see him try to score on triple teams against A&M

his passing was pretty good early on in the season....he's reverted back to wanting to shoot every time he touches it

That is a good point too.

While he is pretty much our only guy getting any good shots at the rim, he is starting to become a ball stopper as well.

 

[Dream Team 13]

Wow. What was the record of the next 5 on that list? 4-13?

 

[sonnyg333]

Aaron has done everything to play into that.. to many 2 for and 3 for 12's this year. That will wreck an average quick.

 

[wcc31]

People keep bitching about our guards but the bigs are the main reason we've struggled of late. Not only are they missing bunnies, but they've also combined to turn it over 18x the last two games.

 

[Ugoff]

Worst 2 pt shooting team since Christmas? Interesting. How we doing in assists since Yom Kippur?

 

[3 fan]

Our bigs cannot create offense. It's that simple

 

[teach them linear]

Teams have to give up something but it has not mattered they still lost. The last three games they have zoned collapsed and physically tried to own the lane, in response we hit open jumpers. When they tried to play more straight up on our post players we scored at the rim. I wish our fans would quit just looking to place blame.

We need to get better at forcing our will but give other teams credit. Physical play works especially well when you get a whistle that allows it and not many post players perform well when it is allowed,

 

[SilentsAreGolden]

Originally posted by Ugoff:

Worst 2 pt shooting team since Christmas? Interesting. How we doing in assists since Yom Kippur?

Need an emoji for chuckling.

 

[NavyKat]

Bigs have been taking it 'soft' to the rim, and fading away at that. No way WCS and Dakari should have had their stuff thrown out by A&M. Willie faded baseline and got blocked. One time KAT went middle and faded when a drop step would have had him at the rim.

 

[bucsrule8872]

Teams are being physical with us. Teams are packing it in. They are daring the refs to call the hacks and bumps we get the ball inside the paint. They want to make games ugly.

No one can beat us straight up. They have to try to out bang us. Right now our guys are soft. They have to get tougher.

 

[TheBlueMax]

Sans dunks, and we haven't seen many of those lately, we were not great even to begin the year. Now that teams have taken away the oops, pct is worse. Need to finish better; guards feed post or short corners, big men should pass better inside--this game's easy baby!

 

[musrat59]

If they are going to keep packing it in, why not let Towns shoot the 15-18 foot shot.

 

[UKnCincy]

Originally posted by musrat59:

If they are going to keep packing it in, why not let Towns shoot the 15-18 foot shot.

You could, but there are a few reasons you might want to avoid that. Statistically speaking, mid-range jump shots are the worst shot to take, so it's a good idea to avoid them if possible. Players generally hit them at the same rate as a three pointer, but get less points. Plus they are less likely to result in an offensive rebound than most other shots. Pulling Towns away from the basket would exacerbate the offensive rebounding issue as well.

That's not to say those shots don't have their place. Probably the only time those shots make sense is if you have someone who's simply automatic at hitting open 2 point jump shots (I.e., Lyles). That can space the defense out more and create some gaps. Unfortunately, teams are selling out against us and packing it in so much that it really doesn't matter how many mid-range shots are made. They're going stick with eliminating the highest percentage shots and hope the law of large numbers bails them out.

UK just needs a little more time to figure out how to attack these zones. I've heard other posters bemoaning the fact that we can't attack a grade school 2-3 zone. Thing is, we aren't facing a grade school zone. I've never seen zones packed in as tight as the ones we've seen the past few games. Just like it took teams about 11-12 games to figure out how to defend us, it'll take us a few games to figure out how to attack them. That and our players need to get a little more physical. I'm pretty pleased with where we are. We've got two months to solve these ultra-packed, hacking zones before the tournament starts. Once they get that worked out, the teams we'll face in the tournament aren't going to have any options against us.

 

[3 fan]

I keep saying it, our bigs cannot create their own offense. I'd argue that's one of the reasons the Twins have to take so many shots.

 

[Joneslab]

Originally posted by 3 fan:
I keep saying it, our bigs cannot create their own offense. I'd argue that's one of the reasons the Twins have to take so many shots.

I agree with this in some ways, but Andrew has to get tougher when he goes in the lane. He's having a monumentally hard time playing through any contact at all.

As far as the bigs, we all know they need to get stronger with the ball, but also the schemes need to be better.

Cal doesn't seem to know yet what function some of these guys should have. WCS is drifting around aimlessly a lot. He can't play away from the basket just dribbling in space; he adds nothing to the offense playing that way. Dakari and Towns are easy to set up for: they come down, we work it around the perimeter for 20 seconds, we finally get it in, they start to back down. The defense is easily adjusting to that because it's predictable. Instead of exploiting gaps in those zones we're just going through the motions.

In the second OT that changed the other day and the Lyles-to-Dakari high/low game started to work. Need to see more of that.

 

[DDS62]

Willie has never been an offensive player and never a very good finisher. KAT, despite his great hook shots has surprised me with the difficulty he has been having finishing around the basket. I don't think there has actually been much difference in either player's game. Before Christmas we were getting a lot of lobs which made our inside game look good. IMO we are not getting as many lobs partly because Poy has not been on the court.

 

[catfaninsc]

Originally posted by ThroughBlue:
When playing in th post, half the battle is won on where yo catch the ball. This includes how deep you catch it and the angle you have to work to get to the rim. When you work hard for the ball and get good post position you have a lot better whence to score or draw a foul because the defender is already under the basket.

This ^^^^^^


Post play 101.

 

[uk_fan_in_tn]

Amazing stat. Our post play has been stagnant as of late, mostly due to teams packing it in and playing zone. We're settling for too many outside shots. Too much passing around the perimeter and not enough dribble penetration. Drive and look for the lob.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Originally posted by manu1433:

Originally posted by deplion:

Originally posted by UKnCincy:
It's because teams have pushed the bigs away from the basket on their attempts.

Yep.

Our guys like to bang on the defensive end, but they need to fight harder on offense.

Dakari is the only guy getting any kind of decent looks in the low post. WCS and KAT need to be down there working hard for shots as well.

Dakari has been fairly bad lately

dude needs to learn to pass out of a double team....it was pretty frustrating to see him try to score on triple teams against A&M

his passing was pretty good early on in the season....he's reverted back to wanting to shoot every time he touches it

I think part of the problem is that opposing teams are really taking away the post and are double teaming the heck out of us in the zone. So, we pass out of it and a perimeter player takes a three. I think when those threes aren't falling, like they weren't against TAMU, then guys like Dakari try to push it a little more down low. That's not the right strategy. The team needs to realize that there is more than one way to attack the zone, and attacking the middle is one of the best ways to do so. They did that Saturday against TAMU in the 2nd overtime with Lyles. If they continue to improve upon that offense then the zone will become less and less effective and the big guys will get better looks. Also... Dakari needs to go to his move faster. He needs to realize they aren't going to just let him work one on one so he needs to catch the ball, take one bounce and go. On the other side of that coin, WCS needs to slow himself down and get himself under control so that when he makes his move he can put up a good shot.

 

[Wildcats4EverandEver]

Its simple, opposing teams have taken away the lob pass, they stay anchored to low block with a body on our bigs, they are daring the drivers to finish.

 

[runt#69]

While this is something Coach Cal and the staff will address and obviously get us to improve as the season goes along, it says more to me about these two adages :

1 - Defense gives a team a good chance to win even when the offense isn't clicking

2 - For this team, when we're hitting our three point shots for volume and a good percentage, we will not be beaten.

So far, the above two points are reinforced by the above mentioned stat.

Personally, I'm not worried, our guys will correct the momentary deficiency in our 2 point shots and will get better in our offensive sets. We got plenty of time to work on it all. As long as we keep our identity as a good defensive team, staying tough defensively will get us through the rough games where the offense isn't winning it for us.

We're still number one, I say go ahead and let the media haters nit pick UK, criticize us, say we're on thin ice, point out why we need to be concerned so as to distract us, whatever. Sure, go ahead and say Duke's (and everyone else's upsets) are a blip on the radar, make your articles about "really, what is an upset?" after all those other schools lose. Continue the endless inane stream of BS, UK is still #1 also a unanimous favorite to win the title, and everyone knows it.

Go Big Blue !

 

[YouKay]

100% junk zone defenses will do that to a team with guards that like to shoot a lot. I would not expect that percentage to go up all that much. Everyone in the SEC is going to play zone because it's the only chance they have. Willie is what he is on offense. Towns can get better at finishing around the rim. What I think would help would be a little more high-low action, but even that can be tough to execute against a good zone.

I am more concerned about the turnovers by the bigs than the 2pt shooting percentage.

 

[wildcatdonf]

We do miss a lot of 1 footers and crips.