Cal was just on and said, "our guys really defended last night".

[louisvilleblue]

I have a little bit of a problem with that statement. Those 3's Vandy hit, at least from my vantage point, were not very well guarded and that's the only thing that kept them in the game. If you look back at the tape one will probably see that Vandy did most of the guarding. Booker was hardly ever open and almost all of our shots from 15 and beyond were contested. IMHO, in our two overtime wins we guarded much better than against Vandy.

This post was edited on 1/21 7:16 PM by louisvilleblue

 

[CatOfDaVille]

With "all those threes" they hit, they still only scored 57 points. That's with a bunch of TOs by our bigs. We did play good defense last night, so I have no problem with his statement.

Why can't people realize that we can play decent and still only beat a team by 8 if they play well and come in with a great game plan. That's what Vandy did.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[wldktz8]

Originally posted by CatOfDaVille:
With "all those threes" they hit, they still only scored 57 points. That's with a bunch of TOs by our bigs. We did play good defense last night, so I have no problem with his statement.

Why can't people realize that we can play decent and still only beat a team by 8 if they play well and come in with a great game plan. That's what Vandy did.

Posted from Rivals Mobile

People can't give other teams credit for playing well. It does happen from time to time.

 

[CELTICAT]

I don't think we guarded very well against Ole Miss. We did against TAMU. We held Vandy under 60 points, and frankly it's tough to win if you're not scoring. A lot of Vandy's 3's came in transition off turnovers, and a couple they just knocked in despite being guarded. Our play wasn't optimal, but it also doesn't warrant red flags.

 

[Aike]

Most of their best looks were in transition after turnovers when we were out of position to cover them. They took advantage.

When we weren't making unforced errors, we played pretty good D.

 

[louisvilleblue]

My question is why our perimeter players don't constantly smother the other teams guards? It is always one of their guards that go off. So what if the ball goes inside. We have the best shot blocking and defensive team in the nation. We guard the three properly last night and win by 25. The only way we lose this year is by not guarding the three. Don't get me wrong here as I'm not bitching. Maybe just looking for some answers. ))))

This post was edited on 1/21 7:26 PM by louisvilleblue

 

[Aike]

For the most part we did smother them. Like a couple of us mentioned, some of their threes were in transition. There was no one available to smother anybody.

At least one I can remember was on a switch where the guy who switched didn't pressure enough. That was a mistake.

What else do you want them to do? Not like Vandy hit 14 threes...

 

[UKWildcats#8]

Originally posted by louisvilleblue:
My question is why our perimeter players don't constantly smother the other teams guards? It is always one of their guards that go off. So what if the ball goes inside. We have the best shot blocking and defensive team in the nation. We guard the three properly last night and win by 25. The only way we lose this year is by not guarding the three. Don't get me wrong here as I'm not bitching. Maybe just looking for some answers. ))))

This post was edited on 1/21 7:26 PM by louisvilleblue

At least 3/7 three's were in transition...has nothing to do with our guys not playing good lockdown D. There were mostly off stupid turnovers by us that resulted in them getting a wide open 3 in everyone's scramble to get back on D.

All 3 of the masked mans 3's game in wide open transition opportunities. Our half-court D was fine, but we struggled a bit on transition D in some of the unorthodox situations it put us in due to the dumb TO's.

TO's were/are the issues from last night's game to me. Not our D.

 

[Graves51]

I have to agree, I was not impressed with our defense, especially on the outside shooters of Vandy!

 

[Seth C]

And they did, for the most part. For 90% of the time even. It's just that other ten percent stood out a lot because it costs us a lot of points and undid a bunch of time spent playing good defense. That's how it goes. The main issues I saw were:

No one, and I mean no one, bothered to guard their shooter on a fast break. Everyone collapsed to the middle assuming someone was going to drive, leaving him wide open for a shot.

And Lyles, the poor guy, just doesn't defend well. He likes to run and jump across a shooter from one side of them to the other, and in one case then decided to run and jump back across them in the other direction, fouling him.

 

[Nubb16]

Originally posted by louisvilleblue:
My question is why our perimeter players don't constantly smother the other teams guards? It is always one of their guards that go off. So what if the ball goes inside. We have the best shot blocking and defensive team in the nation. We guard the three properly last night and win by 25. The only way we lose this year is by not guarding the three. Don't get me wrong here as I'm not bitching. Maybe just looking for some answers. ))))

This post was edited on 1/21 7:26 PM by louisvilleblue

Watch the next game more objectively. Kentucky extends its perimeter defense as much as any team in the nation (eg smothering defense) in order to force teams into contested shots in the paint. It's not like they pack it in and dare teams to shoot. Literally the first 5 possessions, the defense pressured 5 turnovers. Doesn't get more smothering than that.

Guards score more against this team because coaches would be dumb to run an offense through a post guy against UK's size. Thus, more shots for guards so more points.

 

[Blueisbest]

I don't think the defense was that bad last night. Vandy did get a few 3's that were more open than they should've been. Our problem last night was free throws and turnovers. If we had shot free throws better and cut back a little on mistakes we would've won by 15-18 points. We also missed, what seemed like 6-8 close in shots.

 

[UKWildcats#8]

Originally posted by Seth C:
And they did, for the most part. For 90% of the time even. It's just that other ten percent stood out a lot because it costs us a lot of points and undid a bunch of time spent playing good defense. That's how it goes. The main issues I saw were:

No one, and I mean no one, bothered to guard their shooter on a fast break. Everyone collapsed to the middle assuming someone was going to drive, leaving him wide open for a shot.

And Lyles, the poor guy, just doesn't defend well. He likes to run and jump across a shooter from one side of them to the other, and in one case then decided to run and jump back across them in the other direction, fouling him.

This.

 

[catlogic15]

Last night we defended when it mattered most.
Our schedule is screwy. An early game on the road Saturday. Then a 9 o'clock Tuesday game, now another noon away game.
That is mentally tough no matter who you play. No matter how good your team is. I'm giving our guys a pass on bringing it every minute of every game. Relax. We'll be 19-0.
Conference play is hard. Any conference.

 

[The_Answer1313]

The defense did exactly as expected last night.

Vandy came in leading the SEC in FG%. It's not as if they are awful on offense.

We turned them over on nearly 25% of their possessions, they only rebounded 28% of their misses and they only went to the line 12 times.

Defense is more than just holding teams to a low FG%. They shoot the ball well.

Sometimes you have to give credit to them.

Our offense was a let down.

If we didn't get to the line 32 times and knock down 21 (compared to their 6-12), we might have seen our first loss. Unfortunately we turned it over too much and didn't rebound on the offensive end like we normally do so the game was closer than normal

 

[kyjeff1]

Our defense was nowhere near the problem. We didn't even give up 60 points to a goid shooting team.
Our problem was our offense. We kept force feeding DJ and he came away empty time and time again. Townes must have stopped at mid court last night, I never saw him on the offensive end. How a 7 footer hides is beyond me.
Then we missed a TON of free throws. If we were scoring the ball like we should have we wouldn't have threads like this.
I still can't understand how their front line defense punked our bigs in the paint. That's a head scratcher.

 

[catfaninsc]

Originally posted by The_Answer1313:
The defense did exactly as expected last night.

Vandy came in leading the SEC in FG%. It's not as if they are awful on offense.

We turned them over on nearly 25% of their possessions, they only rebounded 28% of their misses and they only went to the line 12 times.

Defense is more than just holding teams to a low FG%. They shoot the ball well.

Sometimes you have to give credit to them.

Our offense was a let down.

If we didn't get to the line 32 times and knock down 21 (compared to their 6-12), we might have seen our first loss. Unfortunately we turned it over too much and didn't rebound on the offensive end like we normally do so the game was closer than normal

+1

 

[The_Answer1313]

This also illustrates a bigger point.

To win titles it's so much easier when your efficient on BOTH offense and defense.

UK can afford to have an off night offensively and still win because the D was still there. Against Ole Miss, it was the opposite. We have proven we can win either way. It's going to take an awful lot to beat this team.

Teams only good in one aspect (ie Notre Dame this season) tend to get upset come tourny time. (see Duke 12, Missouri 12 etc etc).

 

[far_away_fan]

The UK defense was VERY strong on many possessions. The big difference between this game and many previous games is that Vandy did a great job of punishing mistakes. We've made defensive mistakes in other games, but those teams often didn't execute well in that momentary breakdown. Vandy did, so they shot a higher percentage than we typically allow.

Interestingly, a quick check of the box score tells us that UK shot a higher percentage from the field, from the FT line, and from the 3pt line. UK had more offensive rebounds, more defensive rebounds, more steals, more assists, more blocks, fewer fouls, and fewer turnovers.

UK was better in LITERALLY every statistical category shown on the typical score sheet. That's pretty hard to do.

The difference in this game compared to many of our others was that UK really didn't dominate any one of these areas. We were only slightly better in every category.

The only major difference between the teams was from the line. UK went 21-32 from the line (66%) while they were only 6-12 (50%). We dominated from the line to the tune of 15 more points. (It's almost ironic considering how much complaining about FT shooting we see on this board.)

 

[UKGrad93]

Our half court defense was very good. Vandy hit some 3s in transition. Our transition D wasn't very good.
Vandy played pretty good defense and we turned the ball over leading to the run outs.
Our problem last night was offense. Our guys seemed to get bunched up some and it seemed like the passing was off.
Offense was also hampered by our bigs inability to finish at the rim.

 

[The_Answer1313]

Originally posted by far_away_fan:


The only major difference between the teams was from the line. UK went 21-32 from the line (66%) while they were only 6-12 (50%). We dominated from the line to the tune of 15 more points. (It's almost ironic considering how much complaining about FT shooting we see on this board.)

I know I'm gonna get blasted for this but this game proves what stats people have said for a long long time.

GETTING TO THE LINE >>>>> Making free throws.

Obviously u need to make your fair share but we didn't shoot a good percentage.......but we got there 32 times. I think it's something that gets overlooked. No one mentioned that after the game last night.

We won by getting to the line

 

[crawfords corner]

Last night was just a weird game. It was almost as if they just thought Vandy would wilt for the first 35 minutes of the game. Instead, Vandy matched every UK bucket just about with one of their own. The nice thing was that the Twins and WCS all stepped up when they needed to and got the team the win. Marcus Lee also deserves props. I thought he played with great energy.Probably the most consistent effort on the whole team last night.

 

[WildMoon]

let's take out the 3-4 breakdowns they had.

Other than that, it was pretty good.

But, i am surprised that coach cal would say that statement, considering his super high standards.

 

[Mike-D]

Originally posted by louisvilleblue:
My question is why our perimeter players don't constantly smother the other teams guards? It is always one of their guards that go off. So what if the ball goes inside. We have the best shot blocking and defensive team in the nation. We guard the three properly last night and win by 25. The only way we lose this year is by not guarding the three. Don't get me wrong here as I'm not bitching. Maybe just looking for some answers. ))))

This post was edited on 1/21 7:26 PM by louisvilleblue

most of those 3's came off of transition 3 point shots before we could set up our defense.

 

[caneintally]

As others have said our transitition defense was at times bad but our HALF COURT DEFENSE WAS SPECTACULAR .

This post was edited on 1/21 7:55 PM by caneintally

 

[DCFseattle]

blocked shots, created turnovers, forced shot clock violations.
Vandy hit some tough shots and ran some great transition plays... but overall, the defense was great.

 

[ColonelCat]

Originally posted by louisvilleblue:
I have a little bit of a problem with that statement. Those 3's Vandy hit, at least from my vantage point, were not very well guarded and that's the only thing that kept them in the game. If you look back at the tape one will probably see that Vandy did most of the guarding. Booker was hardly ever open and almost all of our shots from 15 and beyond were contested. IMHO, in our two overtime wins we guarded much better than against Vandy.

This post was edited on 1/21 7:16 PM by louisvilleblue

Vandy played some good defense also.

 

[dave5164]

I watched the game over and when we go up 12 in 2nd half we were starting to separate from Vandy. Then we had those 3 or 4 bad plays that Vandy in transition drills the 3 and that was 12 or 15 big points for Vandy in transition. Our bigs also missed so miss in close shots and some even blocked and if we hit those like we had vs. Mizz and Bama and didn't have that stretch where Vandy in transition drills those 3 or 4 threes then we win the game by 20-25. We also missed some FT's in 2nd half. It was just one of those games. Still thought we played well on defense.

 

[anon_013cn8yrfncx2]

As some have pointed out, a number of 3s were in transition. OTOH Kornet had 4 looks that were completely wide open not in transition but he missed them all. I think the D was actually pretty good as well other than on Kornet. Don't know if he was intentionally not guarded that closely as I don't know how good he is from the arc.

Our problems were on offense, not defense.

 

[fatguy87]

Originally posted by The_Answer1313:

If we didn't get to the line 32 times and knock down 21 (compared to their 6-12), we might have seen our first loss. Unfortunately we turned it over too much and didn't rebound on the offensive end like we normally do so the game was closer than normal

 

[LowCountryCat]

Originally posted by louisvilleblue:
My question is why our perimeter players don't constantly smother the other teams guards? It is always one of their guards that go off. So what if the ball goes inside. We have the best shot blocking and defensive team in the nation. We guard the three properly last night and win by 25. The only way we lose this year is by not guarding the three. Don't get me wrong here as I'm not bitching. Maybe just looking for some answers. ))))

This post was edited on 1/21 7:26 PM by louisvilleblue

You ever hear of a ball screen?

 

[jameslee32]

Originally posted by CELTICAT:
I don't think we guarded very well against Ole Miss. We did against TAMU. We held Vandy under 60 points, and frankly it's tough to win if you're not scoring. A lot of Vandy's 3's came in transition off turnovers, and a couple they just knocked in despite being guarded. Our play wasn't optimal, but it also doesn't warrant red flags.

True dat!