Cats last night with 3 Rs on the court
- Thread starter Aike
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Thought this was interesting, especially with Rob’s turnover issues last night. I understand that Reeves was in foul trouble.
Cal’s gotta get certain play their minutes so he can’t play the 3 r’s together for the majority of the game like every other coach would.
It’s all about the lineups. Incredibly maddening
A&M's big 3 played 36, 36, and 38 minutes. A coach whose top priority is winning puts his best players on the floor.
Can’t have one of the R’s in foul trouble. Typically it’s Rob. But Reeves fouling out in 18 minutes as a SG in a win or go home setting is truly something(he got hosed as well).
Reeves is the most important player for us moving forward as he’s the only one Cal actually “draws” up half court offense for.
Reeves is the most important player for us moving forward as he’s the only one Cal actually “draws” up half court offense for.
Rob does not try to do too much without Reeves out due to those joke fouls.
Even when they're at their worst or in foul trouble, we should still play Reed, Rob and Reeves as much as possible (including starting) because it gives us the best chance to win. But, ya know, DJ is allowed to start and shoot us out of games because reasons
If before this season you didn't believe Cal promised starting positions, how about now?
I'm just thinking if my two sons, or one of them, had the kind of talent he looks for, as soon as he walked thru my front door I could feel the BS.
Those 3 even in 31 more combined minutes had 5 less turnovers. They were in complete control.
I don’t know if promised is the right word, but for whatever reason he seems to think he will lose DJ/Justin if they come off the bench, but that Reed and Rob are tough enough to handle it.
Then he’s got this bizarre fixation with getting Tre back up to speed, even though he’s nowhere close to full speed, and we were playing fine without him.
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We didn't ever try this lineup that has been destroying teams
Reed
Dilly
Reeves
Edwards (or Theiro)
Ivisic
Why we didn't space the floor and attack with them....and on defense....you have more agility to guard those heavy ball screens.
Why Cal runs out DJ, Reeves, Edwards, Thiero and Ugo to start both halfs is just stupid crap all year long.
Reed
Dilly
Reeves
Edwards (or Theiro)
Ivisic
Why we didn't space the floor and attack with them....and on defense....you have more agility to guard those heavy ball screens.
Why Cal runs out DJ, Reeves, Edwards, Thiero and Ugo to start both halfs is just stupid crap all year long.
One of this team’s biggest flaws that I’ve been harping on all year. We don’t force enough turnovers!
Giving up 97 points, letting a team abuse you running the same stuff over and over…why not mix it up some? I don’t know, play to strengths even.
Cal can't wait 5 mins to get them in. Unless DJ is lighting it up he's gotta come out quick. These slow starts are killing this team
Last night it clearly bit us, as we gave a solid team a working margin, and with a little help from the refs they were able to maintain.
Clear recipe for going home early in a one and done tournament, when you typically face better teams the deeper you get.
They call that blind loyalty. Tre hasn't played good in 2 months now. How much longer does it have to go on? Cal still doesn't know what his best line-up is, and we're in friggin March. Malpractice.
It is. And we most likely just bounced ourselves to the 4/5 line. No telling where we get shipped off to for the first round.
I'm just trying to think of all I can and what you said makes sense. But with that paradigm how can either of those two make it in the NBA? Maybe if they don't start they will make them play better or harder. He hasn't tried that yet, although, sometimes I think he is doing certain things on purpose.
I wonder if the same type of things behind the scenes at Memphis were going on when he was making it to the tourney finals but made decisions that most high school coaches wouldn't make to lose the games.
Cal has been coaching far too long that making zero adjustments at any level of this sport will never work. The game is always going to be fluid and of course he knows that. My question is wtf isn't he?
I don’t understand anything about this version of Cal. Just another case of going down doing it his way.
He’s right about everything, we just can’t see it. Then when the season’s over, he’s above it all. He’s changing lives.
Welp, he’s sure changed my life. Thanks, Coach.
But he’s the best in the business, isn’t that right @UKBB4Ever
He has morphed into Jim Boeheim. A grouchy asshole who can’t be questioned and thinks he is the program. It’s mind numbing to see him go from the take no prisoners Cal, to this guy.
The opportunity was there to take over bball and cement his legacy with the Williams and Ks. But he seems content to be on the lower level with Boeheim and Izzo.
A lot of this is due to who DJ's dad is. Cal just will not bring him off the bench. We have zero more losses to give, and I have a feeling he's going to roll with DJ no matter what.
You either start Shep (Edwards over Dilly i'm not as worried about) and go with the best roster, giving us a chance to win.
.. or, you keep up some dumb favor to the Wagners, run the wrong lineup, risk losing, and IF you lose, it's going to cost you your legacy and likely paycheck. Not to mention, enrage fans if this loss comes at any point in the next two weekends.
All because of who DJ and Dajuan are.
I'll tell you this.. no thanks to any future recruits who Cal has personal ties to.
You either start Shep (Edwards over Dilly i'm not as worried about) and go with the best roster, giving us a chance to win.
.. or, you keep up some dumb favor to the Wagners, run the wrong lineup, risk losing, and IF you lose, it's going to cost you your legacy and likely paycheck. Not to mention, enrage fans if this loss comes at any point in the next two weekends.
All because of who DJ and Dajuan are.
I'll tell you this.. no thanks to any future recruits who Cal has personal ties to.
Dead on.
I get the foul trouble but Reeves averages less than 2 fouls a game. It was obvious the refs were trying to take him out of the game with quick early fouls. When he picked up his quick 3rd at the beginning of the 2nd half, you probably should have just played him knowing he’s smart enough to not be too aggressive defensively. Dared the refs to foul out your best player with more than 10 min left in the second half instead of giving them exactly what they wanted by benching him without making them be even more blatant about targeting him.
He only played 19 min and ended the game w 4 fouls. I would have called the bluff in the second half and lived w the result. My bet is he would have played 25+ min
I get the foul trouble but Reeves averages less than 2 fouls a game. It was obvious the refs were trying to take him out of the game with quick early fouls. When he picked up his quick 3rd at the beginning of the 2nd half, you probably should have just played him knowing he’s smart enough to not be too aggressive defensively. Dared the refs to foul out your best player with more than 10 min left in the second half instead of giving them exactly what they wanted by benching him without making them be even more blatant about targeting him.
He only played 19 min and ended the game w 4 fouls. I would have called the bluff in the second half and lived w the result. My bet is he would have played 25+ min
He won’t change the starting lineup, so that means first 4 min of each half is a bad line up. That means before game even starts we know 8 min of the total 40 will not have a good line up. 20% of the game thrown down the shitter because he will start DJ just to show us Bennies his middle finger.
My only clear memory of DaJuan in college was him missing free throws at the end of some important game.
Of course Cal has made his bones on the forcing Dajuan to go pro story, so Cal is all in on this working. Whatever working means to Cal. I’m not sure anymore.
Edit to add that I wonder how much of this ties back to WWW. That’s the Milt Wagner connect going back 40+ years.
We have to hope we just dont dig a hole.
I do think DJ and Edwards will be fine the first weekend. We aren't going to see a team with near the physicality or rebounding that TA&M offers. They are a bad matchup for this team, they know us, and they got a ton of SEC officiating help.
But come that 2nd weekend, if we get there, that DJ lineup will always be a problem.
Most importantly did you know that Wagner is now shooting 40 percent from 3?
And maybe that stupid MFWIC figures out that winning some SECT games is important. smh
That's really ALL this is lol. We fix almost everything if we JUST start Reed, and let DJ come in for him. How many games do we win if we just do this?
I agree 100%. We weren’t in position to ride without Reeves, and forcing the refs to foul him out and make that the story is a better move than benching him and tossing the whole game overboard.
It’s what I call being willfully stupid, you put on the blinders and keep telling yourself “I’m right, I’m right, I’m right “.
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That’s why you need to zone with this group especially when getting dominated with the high pick & roll
Zone does 2 things it keeps the straight line drives from happening and should lesson the amount of fouls on star players
Of course that would mean a concession to stubborn Coach way of thinking
The problem with DJ is he has plenty of confidence in his game, he just can't finish at the rim. Which has been a problem for the last few seasons with Cal's PG's. He FORCES things and that's when our offense struggles. Then you throw in his streaky 3 pt shooting and you have what happened last night. A&M was letting him shoot anytime he wanted from anywhere on the floor and he just couldn't make enough to help. That 3 he missed before the half would have been HUGE.
Then with Justin it is the opposite. He was SCARED TO DEATH last night. once he misses his first couple of shots, he's done. He even missed layups. Then it effects his defense. A&M left him open too. Their strategy worked because Cal kept letting the WRONG players shoot until it was too late.
But the real problem is both of these 2 on defense. They can't stop players that can score on all 3 levels, our rotations are HORRIBLE and I realize it's not just these 2. DJ or Justin NEVER blocks out when Our Bigs go to block a shot and we give up offensive rebounds that KILLS our opportunity to win these types of games.
I’m not a big conspiracy guy….BUT the SEC will make a lot more money with A&M in the NCAA tournament and the refs made numerous questionable calls all in favor of them. Taylor hooked Dilly’s arm right after he came in and pulled them both forward and got a foul called on Dilly. And Garcia just totally flopped standing next to Reeves to get his fourth with a call so egregious even Tom Hart made fun of it in real time on the broadcast. So even the opposing teams know who our best players are to target them and get fouls on them but our head coach won’t start them and play the best lineups enough minutes.
Cal's relationship with the Wagner family has hurt the team and program this season. There's no denying it.
Mitchell has been a DISASTER in 2024. Remember in 2023 when he was good for a couple of threes per game? WTF is wrong with him.
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