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Brea still at 60.5% from three after 8 games.

We're missing threes because teams have adjusted, and we're not getting clean looks like we were.
Thats fine but Oweh and Carr had three wide open looks late and missed them all.
We need to run plays for Brea constantly.
He is shooting over 60% from 3.
 
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Yes you can, if he can’t get open and is not playing good D.
I saw no egregious defensive lapses by Brea and he got open enough to bang in a three while he was playing limited minutes.

Also, how did it work out benching him?

We needed his shot making ability in there to pull out that game.

Pope will learn.
 
I don't know why everyone is blaming Pope for not playing him more last night. Brea was awful. He was -15 on the night, bad on defense, and couldn't get himself open on offense. This was not the type of game he excels in and Clemson's physicality really took him out of the game.
 
I saw no egregious defensive lapses by Brea and he got open enough to bang in a three while he was playing limited minutes.

Also, how did it work out benching him.

Pope will learn.
The issue is that he cannot/will not cut hard. He has to help by getting open. He has to fight through the contact and to learn to exaggerate any holding the other team is doing to bring attention to it. He did not do that last night.

Whether you choose to see his poor defense is on you. I will say, I thought he had made serious progress on the defensive side during the last 2 games before last night.
 
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Brea’s biggest issue is he tries to mitigate his foot speed disadvantage by putting arms out horizontally on defense. That’s why he fouls the shooter so much. He has to get more minutes though because of the gravity. I bet you see the starting five start to take a bulk of minutes with Brea getting a lot more of the bench minutes. Kriisa still hasn’t found his shot and can’t guard. Garrison looked like a deer in headlights. Almonor is a three point specialist. The only bench guy needing heavy minutes is Brea until other guys progress.
 
I don't know why everyone is blaming Pope for not playing him more last night. Brea was awful. He was -15 on the night, bad on defense, and couldn't get himself open on offense. This was not the type of game he excels in and Clemson's physicality really took him out of the game.
Ill tell you why. Because we were off from 3, we lost by 4 and Brea was benched as the best college shooter in the world.
 
I saw no egregious defensive lapses by Brea and he got open enough to bang in a three while he was playing limited minutes.

Also, how did it work out benching him?

We needed his shot making ability in there to pull out that game.

Pope will learn.
Not only his ability to make them but the mere threat of him being able to make them. I think it could have changed the game. All we needed was a couple more makes.
 
Well, I am sure you know better than Coach Pope, even when the stats tell a different story!
60.5% on 26 of 43 in just eight games is the only stat I need to see under all the circumstances.

Pope is a great Coach but he isnt perfect. This is my 1st complaint this season.
 
Ill tell you why. Because we were off from 3, we lost by 4 and Brea was benched as the best college shooter in the world.
Let’s let Pope hold the players accountable himself. I expect Brea to get more minutes out of necessity but nowhere near the amount he could get if he really committed himself to good defensive principles. He’s not going to wake up one morning with explosiveness but he can know his assignment’s tendencies to mitigate what makes them most effective. He can be a willful and knowledgeable help defender. He can show grit and toughness to grab rebounds with his 6’7” frame. He can be disciplined to guard with his feet and hips rather than his hands. He can get into a low defensive stance and be ready for a challenge.
 
Thats fine but Oweh and Carr had three wide open looks late and missed them all.
We need to run plays for Brea constantly.
He is shooting over 60% from 3.
but he must move more with out the ball.
he drove to the basket very few times last night & had a lay up blocked.
drive to the basket & get fouleed
he has to be more than a 1 dimensional player
He also needs more screens to get open
 
but he must move more with out the ball.
he drove to the basket very few times last night & had a lay up blocked.
drive to the basket & get fouleed
he has to be more than a 1 dimensional player
He also needs more screens to get open
Exactly, so pick for him.
 
Brea played 17 mintues.
Thats unacceptable.
No offense, but you were always going to be upset. You were on here all week talking about 40-0 and not acknowledging any team weaknesses. You were left with nowhere to go but to be irrationally upset. This team’s flaws didn’t change over the last 48 hours. We just became even more aware of the issues that were already on film. If you’re someone crowing about 40-0 with an entirely portal-built roster with obvious personnel limitations maybe you should sit out the “being upset at the coach” scenario because clearly your own discernment is quite bad.
 
Butler only olayed 19 minutes:

Scored 16 pts (2 of 4 threes)
5 assists
1 steal
2 turnovers

This is why we lost. His foul trouble and twisted ankle.
As much as I love his sniping of the ball, much like a quarterback running out of bounds before getting hit, Butler has to understand his importance to our teams chance to win. Meaning, when we are in these big games, he has to be smart enough to assess how hard can I play defense without getting into foul trouble. When we are playing these really physical defenses, his value to the team goes way up. He has to back off slightly on his sniping. Just keep your guy in front of you.
 
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No offense, but you were always going to be upset. You were on here all week talking about 40-0 and not acknowledging any team weaknesses. You were left with nowhere to go but to be irrationally upset. This team’s flaws didn’t change over the last 48 hours. We just became even more aware of the issues that were already on film. If you’re someone crowing about 40-0 with an entirely portal-built roster with obvious personnel limitations maybe you should sit out the “being upset at the coach” scenario because clearly your own discernment is quite bad.
A voice of reason is refreshing. Some paint theirselves into a corner when you can’t look at a team with with reasonable expectations.
 
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He'll still be at 60.5% at the end of the season if he decides to not shoot the basketball LOL.

Everyone talks about the coach but Brea wasn't good last night and when he was in at crunch time, he passed up a shot.

We went through this with Cal and Reed. Coaches have to get players open. How about the players themselves. At what point does the responsibility get placed on them?

He's a great shooter but he's useless if he can't find a shot to get off.
 
I think there was actually a lot to like from the ugly loss. We know our rotation much more definitively today.
Sometimes it is easier to drive home the why certain things are important when you get your a$$ handed to you😊. Thus, I would think there is a better chance the issues get fixed.
 
Brea was being abused on D, yes. But goodness man, you have to have him in the game with 3 minutes to go and we are losing on the road. Two reasons:
- he’s our best shooter
- can’t cheat off of him on D, even is he’s not shooting

Open the floor, create space, and still have him with ability to get shots. He has to be on the floor there. Put him in the game with Butler, Otega, and Williams. Offset his spotty D, give him options. Mark messed that up last night. But I’m sure this was a good learning experience for all of them.
 
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We're missing threes because teams have adjusted, and we're not getting clean looks like we were.
1000% this ^^^
The quicker, more talented and aggressive teams can not only hard-guard the three, but their overall defense, versus our ball-handling, combine to make getting good looks far more difficult. It's early, but it seems we are not talented enough with the ball to attack tight, aggressive defensive pressure the way we would like to. Hopefully, adjustments can be made to alleviate this concern. GO CATS !!
 
Our by far best shooter (Brea) attempts a 3 every 4.1 minutes. Not bad, but I'd like that closer to 1 every 3 minutes.
In comparison our worst shooter (Kriisa) attempts a 3 every 3.9 minutes. Robinson (the 2nd worst) is also at 4.1 minutes.
 
The reason why Pope wants his team to take 28 3s a game is because statistically if you make them at a decent rate you will beat the team shooting long 2s.

Against Clemson we took 27 3s so that is around the average Pope is talking about . The problem is who took those 3s and how many we made, only 7 that is almost 26%. With shooting % we will not win many games.

Brea our best shooter took only 2 of them and he made 1.

Butler took 4 and made 2.

Oweh took 5 and made 1, Robinson took 7 and made 2, Carr took 3 and made 1, Almonor took 2 and made 0, and the fans favorite Kerr Kriisa took 4 for made nothing.

Sure the teams will start focusing on Brea. , can the Coach Pope create more opportunities for Brea to take more shots and are the other players just below average shooters from 3?
 
The reason why Pope wants his team to take 28 3s a game is because statistically if you make them at a decent rate you will beat the team shooting long 2s.

Against Clemson we took 27 3s so that is around the average Pope is talking about . The problem is who took those 3s and how many we made, only 7 that is almost 26%. With shooting % we will not win many games.

Brea our best shooter took only 2 of them and he made 1.

Butler took 4 and made 2.

Oweh took 5 and made 1, Robinson took 7 and made 2, Carr took 3 and made 1, Almonor took 2 and made 0, and the fans favorite Kerr Kriisa took 4 for made nothing.

Sure the teams will start focusing on Brea. , can the Coach Pope create more opportunities for Brea to take more shots and are the other players just below average shooters from 3?
I am not against taking 30 3's a game. But... it's not so simple as saying shooting 3's get you more points than shooting long 2's. Who says those 2's have to be "long 2's". Suppose you had 2 good PGs and 3 good post players, and those 2 guards would dribble and pass until got the post guys a shot from their 60% range. That would be equivalent of making 40% of your 3's.

Fact is, outside of Brea, we have a bunch of mediocre outside shooters. Almonor is probably the 2nd best (I don't count Perry yet, because right now he is too big a defensive liability).

It would be easy to say we are having the wrong guys shoot too many of our 3's. It should be Brea and Brea and Brea and Almonor (from the corner), instead of Robinson and Kriisa. But there is a reason Brea only shot 2 last night. Other teams know he is our big threat from 3, and they won't (nor should they) leave him. So Brea needs to keep moving to get open. The best at UK I've seen at doing that was Murray, he was always moving to get open. Can we get Perry adequate enough defensively that he could contribute from 3? Can the other guys find "their spots" like Almonor has?
 
I saw no egregious defensive lapses by Brea and he got open enough to bang in a three while he was playing limited minutes.

Also, how did it work out benching him?

We needed his shot making ability in there to pull out that game.

Pope will learn.
Kerr got beat constantly and he kept playing him. So it can't be defense.
 
You need to hit around 34-35% from 3 to justify shooting a lot of them. That puts you in that sweet spot of 51-53% equivalent to shooting 2s. This usually means you’ll win. Normally, we’ll shoot that, we’ve just hit a cold stretch.
 
The thing is.......I feel like the taking of 3s should be based on the game itself.

For example, we went 7-26 the game before. That's pretty similar to the 7-27 from 3 this game. However that game we went inside and was 33-41. Shot 80% from 2 point range.

I felt like those Oweh 3s at the end of the game kind signified things. We were still in 3 point mode when we probably could have found a bit more success getting inside.
 
I am not against taking 30 3's a game. But... it's not so simple as saying shooting 3's get you more points than shooting long 2's. Who says those 2's have to be "long 2's". Suppose you had 2 good PGs and 3 good post players, and those 2 guards would dribble and pass until got the post guys a shot from their 60% range. That would be equivalent of making 40% of your 3's.

Fact is, outside of Brea, we have a bunch of mediocre outside shooters. Almonor is probably the 2nd best (I don't count Perry yet, because right now he is too big a defensive liability).

It would be easy to say we are having the wrong guys shoot too many of our 3's. It should be Brea and Brea and Brea and Almonor (from the corner), instead of Robinson and Kriisa. But there is a reason Brea only shot 2 last night. Other teams know he is our big threat from 3, and they won't (nor should they) leave him. So Brea needs to keep moving to get open. The best at UK I've seen at doing that was Murray, he was always moving to get open. Can we get Perry adequate enough defensively that he could contribute from 3? Can the other guys find "their spots" like Almonor has?
As a philosophy, Pope wants to either shoot quality 3’s or layups. The issue is that our strongest inside guy is Amari and the dude banged a point blank layup off the backboard the other night like it was a hot potato. Then, the cutters are not busting their ass around the screens to scub their guys. This means that the defense doesn’t have to worry as much about the layups and can focus on the 3 point defense. This year it is going to be sketchy at times, like last night. But, once he gets his guys the next couple of years, it will be like poetry.
 
I am not against taking 30 3's a game. But... it's not so simple as saying shooting 3's get you more points than shooting long 2's. Who says those 2's have to be "long 2's". Suppose you had 2 good PGs and 3 good post players, and those 2 guards would dribble and pass until got the post guys a shot from their 60% range. That would be equivalent of making 40% of your 3's.

Fact is, outside of Brea, we have a bunch of mediocre outside shooters. Almonor is probably the 2nd best (I don't count Perry yet, because right now he is too big a defensive liability).

It would be easy to say we are having the wrong guys shoot too many of our 3's. It should be Brea and Brea and Brea and Almonor (from the corner), instead of Robinson and Kriisa. But there is a reason Brea only shot 2 last night. Other teams know he is our big threat from 3, and they won't (nor should they) leave him. So Brea needs to keep moving to get open. The best at UK I've seen at doing that was Murray, he was always moving to get open. Can we get Perry adequate enough defensively that he could contribute from 3? Can the other guys find "their spots" like Almonor has?
When you take a three and miss without rebounding, you may have given up the more probable 2 points if match-ups give you an inside or driving advantage. You never know what’s best until the game is over, of course. Scheme discipline is simply a game plan and approach. There are unknown outcomes … that is why it is called a game. GO CATS !!!
 
As much as I love his sniping of the ball, much like a quarterback running out of bounds before getting hit, Butler has to understand his importance to our teams chance to win. Meaning, when we are in these big games, he has to be smart enough to assess how hard can I play defense without getting into foul trouble. When we are playing these really physical defenses, his value to the team goes way up. He has to back off slightly on his sniping. Just keep your guy in front of you.
Yep. His 3rd foul 1minute into the 2nd half was not smart
 
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