For what it's worth. (Sorry for the length, but I have a lot to say, feel free to click your back button and ignore)
Back from Indy, and have now had time to process everything.
This was a tough pill to swallow. Certainly a dose of reality.
What an ugly ugly game. Worst defensive effort I've seen since Cal has been at UK. Partly because Barrett and Zion are incredible players, partly because we looked ill-prepared, shell shocked, and gave very minimal effort. We went down early and panicked. Played tight and scared the rest of the game for the most part. Can't win like that.
Offensively I thought we were "decent". We missed some 3's and we didn't feed the post enough, an area where we should have had a big advantage. Montgomery had some nice moments, so did Keldon. Obviously Reid was effective when the opportunities were there for him. He just didn't get nearly enough touches. PJ I thought could have been a weapon, but was rattled from the foul trouble. As a sophomore, he has to play smarter than that. Kid is so talented, but he has to understand his role on this team.
Here's the thing for me, and again, take it for what it's worth. All coaches constantly offer their own version of "coach-speak". For Cal, the common phrases are "I like my team", "we have a long way to go", "this is a process", and "we'll be fine". Obviously, things are spun either negatively to damper expectations, or positively to boost fan morale, depending on the circumstances. This season, particularly after the IUP game, we have been hearing Cal say that we "have to figure out how to play".
I'll say this, what I saw last night from Section 104 wasn't JUST Duke's star freshmen. Make no mistake, they were fantastic, hats off to them. They are better than I previously thought, that's for sure. The story of the game for me is I saw a Duke team that had a very calculated, apparent, specific way they want to play basketball. Offensively, they want to space the court, set screens, create the mismatch, and drive the ball to generate opportunities to score. Defensively, they want to create turnovers for fast break opportunities. It was a simple style of play, but very calculated. And they executed perfectly. They would have beaten anybody last night.
On the other side, I saw a UK team that is, as Cal says, clueless on how to play.
They didn't know what to do on defense, they didn't rotate, they didn't execute any help defense, and they didn't even show that they understood how to apply ball pressure without risking straight-line drives.
Offensively, way too much 1v1. We have a really talented and deep frontcourt, but didn't get them nearly enough touches. Way too many contested shots, many of which were way too early in the shot clock.
Just an ugly ugly game, despite the few bright spots that I mentioned above. I think when Cal says "we have to figure out how to play", he is hitting the nail on the head. I witnessed a talented UK team that had no idea how to play cohesively as a team last night.
A lot of people are calling for Cal's head after last night. Should he get some blame? Sure. We were ill-prepared, and that's on him, to some degree. But at the end of the day, it's a long season, and this was game 1. I do not believe that Duke is 34-points more talented than us. I just can't see it. But they were certainly the better, more prepared team last night.
Personally, I look at all of our pieces and I see a lot of potential. I think the first step for us is on the defensive end, obviously. I think we can all agree that defense is our primary issue right now. I think we have the pieces to be a tremendous defensive team, but the mindset has to change. A huge part of Duke's success last night was because they did a simple screen up top and got our bigs (Reid, Montgomery, and Richards in particular) to switch on Barrett or Zion. That simply can't happen, especially with no help defense. Granted, we won't face another Zion or Barrett all year...but that is common sense at best. Of course they are going to torch us if we make it that easy.
Offensively, the most important element is that we need one of the PG's to step up. I think Quickley can be that guy, but he needs to get comfortable with himself and provide some scoring. The kid can score. For some reason, it just hasn't clicked yet. I think that will open up a lot of opportunities for our bigs. The rest is philosophical. Cal has to embrace that we are a post-dominant team. That's a little out of the norm for him, but I think he will. For us to be as good as we can be, he has no choice in my opinion.
Bottom line: It was ugly. We lost. Duke is better than us right now. I think they would have beaten any team in America last night with how perfectly they executed (and their unlikely 3pt shooting success). We are still a talented, deep team with a lot of potential. As much as it stings losing to Duke in that fashion, give them their kudos and let's move on. I still think we can be a final four team with a chance to cut down the nets, but it's going to take a lot of work and some somewhat unfamiliar territory for Cal. But I trust him. He's proven himself over and over again that his teams peak in March.
Back from Indy, and have now had time to process everything.
This was a tough pill to swallow. Certainly a dose of reality.
What an ugly ugly game. Worst defensive effort I've seen since Cal has been at UK. Partly because Barrett and Zion are incredible players, partly because we looked ill-prepared, shell shocked, and gave very minimal effort. We went down early and panicked. Played tight and scared the rest of the game for the most part. Can't win like that.
Offensively I thought we were "decent". We missed some 3's and we didn't feed the post enough, an area where we should have had a big advantage. Montgomery had some nice moments, so did Keldon. Obviously Reid was effective when the opportunities were there for him. He just didn't get nearly enough touches. PJ I thought could have been a weapon, but was rattled from the foul trouble. As a sophomore, he has to play smarter than that. Kid is so talented, but he has to understand his role on this team.
Here's the thing for me, and again, take it for what it's worth. All coaches constantly offer their own version of "coach-speak". For Cal, the common phrases are "I like my team", "we have a long way to go", "this is a process", and "we'll be fine". Obviously, things are spun either negatively to damper expectations, or positively to boost fan morale, depending on the circumstances. This season, particularly after the IUP game, we have been hearing Cal say that we "have to figure out how to play".
I'll say this, what I saw last night from Section 104 wasn't JUST Duke's star freshmen. Make no mistake, they were fantastic, hats off to them. They are better than I previously thought, that's for sure. The story of the game for me is I saw a Duke team that had a very calculated, apparent, specific way they want to play basketball. Offensively, they want to space the court, set screens, create the mismatch, and drive the ball to generate opportunities to score. Defensively, they want to create turnovers for fast break opportunities. It was a simple style of play, but very calculated. And they executed perfectly. They would have beaten anybody last night.
On the other side, I saw a UK team that is, as Cal says, clueless on how to play.
They didn't know what to do on defense, they didn't rotate, they didn't execute any help defense, and they didn't even show that they understood how to apply ball pressure without risking straight-line drives.
Offensively, way too much 1v1. We have a really talented and deep frontcourt, but didn't get them nearly enough touches. Way too many contested shots, many of which were way too early in the shot clock.
Just an ugly ugly game, despite the few bright spots that I mentioned above. I think when Cal says "we have to figure out how to play", he is hitting the nail on the head. I witnessed a talented UK team that had no idea how to play cohesively as a team last night.
A lot of people are calling for Cal's head after last night. Should he get some blame? Sure. We were ill-prepared, and that's on him, to some degree. But at the end of the day, it's a long season, and this was game 1. I do not believe that Duke is 34-points more talented than us. I just can't see it. But they were certainly the better, more prepared team last night.
Personally, I look at all of our pieces and I see a lot of potential. I think the first step for us is on the defensive end, obviously. I think we can all agree that defense is our primary issue right now. I think we have the pieces to be a tremendous defensive team, but the mindset has to change. A huge part of Duke's success last night was because they did a simple screen up top and got our bigs (Reid, Montgomery, and Richards in particular) to switch on Barrett or Zion. That simply can't happen, especially with no help defense. Granted, we won't face another Zion or Barrett all year...but that is common sense at best. Of course they are going to torch us if we make it that easy.
Offensively, the most important element is that we need one of the PG's to step up. I think Quickley can be that guy, but he needs to get comfortable with himself and provide some scoring. The kid can score. For some reason, it just hasn't clicked yet. I think that will open up a lot of opportunities for our bigs. The rest is philosophical. Cal has to embrace that we are a post-dominant team. That's a little out of the norm for him, but I think he will. For us to be as good as we can be, he has no choice in my opinion.
Bottom line: It was ugly. We lost. Duke is better than us right now. I think they would have beaten any team in America last night with how perfectly they executed (and their unlikely 3pt shooting success). We are still a talented, deep team with a lot of potential. As much as it stings losing to Duke in that fashion, give them their kudos and let's move on. I still think we can be a final four team with a chance to cut down the nets, but it's going to take a lot of work and some somewhat unfamiliar territory for Cal. But I trust him. He's proven himself over and over again that his teams peak in March.
Last edited: