Concerned: ZERO Rim Protection

[ZaytovenCat]

I know we've been spoiled with great shot blocking for years now and Skal was said to be a good, not great, shot blocker himself but he's yet to show it.

If interior defense has got to improve. Albany is showing how to beat us. They're a small school who has made 1 three and yet they're still in the game because they have drove with success the entire game.

Makes me worry about playing teams with legit post players.

-Skal finally got a block and holy hell what a dunk off the miss by Murray!

 

[5iveStarRecruit]

Skal + Lee were late to react on a bunch of times. Both have the tools to become dynamic shot blockers, but their awareness was subpar.

- This has been a problem w/ Lee during his 2 yrs here, so thats kinda to be expected.

- Skal , maybe the CBB game speed was a bit too much. Needs a few games under his belt to get caught up and then we can judge whether he has serious awareness issues or just typical freshmen growing pains.

 

[TheDonJiggy]

Late rotations more than anything. Typical early on.

 

[BIGBLUE402]

Well good thing we have like 28 more regular season games to fix that issue

 

[bigc45157]

Skal is YOUNG, Poy is coming off a major knee rehab, and Lee is still getting used to his role.

We will be fine.

This team is going to take a while to gel.

 

[UKWildcats#8]

Albany was never in the game. This game was NEVER in doubt. Laughable point by the OP there.

Oh, and UK had 8 blocks, with Skal getting 4 of them...yet the OP acts like he "finally" got one at the end. I agree the circus shot nonsense by Albany was annoying and yes, I'm sure teams are gonna go in there until we stop it. A lot of those were garbage/lucky shots though.

 

[CELTICAT]

Skal isn't soft, but he is weak AF.

 

[Deli owl]

Good lord OP. 8 blocks aren't good enough. The rest of the country may quit playing this year.

 

[JPrickett32]

My guess is Skal will turn into a rim protector/shot blocker by the end of the season. Long way to go though. Looks very timid at times.

 

[Dallas-Wild]

Late rotations more than anything. Typical early on.

Agree very late, they will improve.

Probably thought they could cheat on this group. Didn't workout well.

 

[Wall2Boogie]

Last yr we didn't play very well against mighty buffalo but by the end of the yr we were a lot better same can be said for this team we will be fine

 

[UKBrassowTipIN]

1st game of the season....you haven't learned by now this won't be the product we see in February?

 

[ZaytovenCat]

Both Skal and Lee have all the tools to be good shot blockers but like y'all said they were late a ton. Even Alex whiffed a few block attempted.

It'll be hard to get used to what we have now compared to AD, Nerlens, WCS and Towns.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

I know we've been spoiled with great shot blocking for years now and Skal was said to be a good, not great, shot blocker himself but he's yet to show it.

If interior defense has got to improve. Albany is showing how to beat us. They're a small school who has made 1 three and yet they're still in the game because they have drove with success the entire game.

Makes me worry about playing teams with legit post players.

-Skal finally got a block and holy hell what a dunk off the miss by Murray!

I agree. We need some rim protectors like we had in 2011, and 2014 - guys like Harrelson and Dakari who started for Final Four teams and managed to block incredible amounts of shots.

We're doomed.

 

[ZaytovenCat]

Typically I'd agree but shot blocking is something you either have or you don't. It can't really be taught except for positioning. It's mostly instinct.

8 blocks? I must have had my eyes closed on about 5-6 of those because it sure didn't seem like it.

 

[BostonCat2001]

it took people until this game to see it wasnt going to be a strength of the team? smh

this isnt going to be like other teams...i hope people realize and accept that. this team is going to win by doing other things.

 

[bigbluelou]

We'll improve on the interior. Not worried. Just different than previous teams.

 

[brianpoe]

Same thing we have seen in the past...multiple bigs going for the block and frees up weak side.

We will be ok imo. 8 is a good number but we definitely could have had double digits.

We have many items to work on but the potential is very high.

 

[Hoskins91]

Rebounding is the bigger concern from what I see. Way too early to freak out about anything regardless.

 

[UKWildcats#8]

Typically I'd agree but shot blocking is something you either have or you don't. It can't really be taught except for positioning. It's mostly instinct.

8 blocks? I must have had my eyes closed on about 5-6 of those because it sure didn't seem like it.

Yes, your eyes were closed. The blocks were pretty easy to spot throughout the game.

 

[ZaytovenCat]

Harrellson was strong enough to keep players away from the rim plus Terrence was an alright shot blocker. Still, I'll give you that one.

2014 had WCS. They played ONE game without him before making the final four so that's a bad example.

 

[Blue in the Vein]

It's not rim protection that was lacking. We are trying for blocks that we have no chance of getting and then nobody is there for the rebound. These guys are going to need some fundamentals on the glass, but it's early.

 

[Tannerdad]

If we don't get big production from Skal and Poythress, we go nowhere, IMO. Very weak inside.

But they will get better and better.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Anyone know what the shot blocking was for Wisconsin and Duke last season?

Wisconsin blocked three shots per game.

Duke blocked four shots per game.

Both of them did okay last season.


By the way, UK blocked 8 shots tonight, which is one more than UK averaged last season.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

If we don't get big production from Skal and Poythress, we go nowhere, IMO. Very weak inside.

But they will get better and better.

We don't need both of them to perform on a high level, but we need at least one of them to like Jones did in 2011. The other (here's looking at you, Poythress) just needs to do what Harrelson did and rebound the hell out of the ball.

 

[KWilt43atbuzz]

If we don't get big production from Skal and Poythress, we go nowhere, IMO. Very weak inside.

But they will get better and better.

Lee will have something to say inside as well.
We will be fine.

 

[KyFaninNC]

I had rather they not try to block so many shots, and instead play solid D and get the rebound. Second chance points will kill you.

 

[deplion]

We'll improve on the interior. Not worried. Just different than previous teams.

That is my main take.

Last year's team spoiled us on the interior, but that was an All-Time great team, especially down low. This year's team won't approach that level of play, but neither will anyone else in the country.

Bottom line to me is that our interior play is not great right now, but we have all the tools to get it there before the end of the season.

 

[wildcatsboston1984]

If 7 blocks is zero rim protection, then good lord when we start having rim protection

 

[The_Answer1313]

It's not so much the blocked shots. The blocks were there.

We gave up 54% shooting on twos.

That's the real difference between this year and other years. But it's only ONE GAME and it's not as if Albany is a poor shooting team.

 

[Mojocat]

It's going to be interesting. To the extent Cal has had a blueprint at UK, a big piece of it has been a lot of interior length and shot blocking. Were I more energetic I'd find out our average rank in blocked shots per game in the 6 years he's been here. My guess is it's pretty high. Clearly there's more than one way to skin a cat. But our coach has always skinned it his way, and now we're going to try another.....