Defense ppg is #15 out of 16 in SEC

[Bluegrass79]

As the thread title says we're number 15 of 16. Giving up 71 points a game. Only Alabama's worse at 77.8.
Best is Orange lovers at 57 a game.
Some of that is pace of play but 71 is too high imo.
The good news:
#3 in 3 pt% defense in SEC. # 6 in overall fg% defense in SEC.

Number one in scoring by 2 points at 91 a game and number one in assists amongst SEC teams.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Team will go as far as it can outscore teams n March. Not much different from last season, but fortunately a better in game coach.

 

[Bluegrass79]

Team will go as far as it can outscore teams n March. Not much different from last season, but fortunately a better in game coach.

Kentucky is way better at point guard defense than last year. That's what it takes to get you through the tournament. Butler's done that before..
We just need to try to get the best seed we can and be ready.

Utilize that 131 zone some to help the defensive ppg and kenpom...etc.

 

[electricat2]

thats the trade off for averaging 90 pts a game.
almost impossible to avr 90 and give up 50 some regularly

 

[HerrosHeroes]

As the thread title says we're number 15 of 16. Giving up 71 points a game. Only Alabama's worse at 77.8.
Best is Orange lovers at 57 a game.
Some of that is pace of play but 71 is too high imo.
The good news:
#3 in 3 pt% defense in SEC. # 6 in overall fg% defense in SEC.

Number one in scoring by 2 points at 91 a game and number one in assists amongst SEC teams

The name of the game is outscoring people and we are #1 at that.

 

[B.B.H.]

As the thread title says we're number 15 of 16. Giving up 71 points a game. Only Alabama's worse at 77.8.
Best is Orange lovers at 57 a game.
Some of that is pace of play but 71 is too high imo.
The good news:
#3 in 3 pt% defense in SEC. # 6 in overall fg% defense in SEC.

Number one in scoring by 2 points at 91 a game and number one in assists amongst SEC teams

Agreed. Fast pace will account for much of that. Defensive performance wasn’t excellent against the Cards admittedly. Tanked our defensive efficiency numbers by 15 spots in KenPom.

 

[Basscat1987]

Defensive rating took a huge drop in Kenpom after yesterday’s game. All the way down to 45. That has to improve. Or we won’t win 6 straight games in March

 

[Basscat1987]

The name of the game is outscoring people and we are #1 at that.

John Calipari, is that you??

 

[DWDwildcat47]

As the thread title says we're number 15 of 16. Giving up 71 points a game. Only Alabama's worse at 77.8.
Best is Orange lovers at 57 a game.
Some of that is pace of play but 71 is too high imo.
The good news:
#3 in 3 pt% defense in SEC. # 6 in overall fg% defense in SEC.

Number one in scoring by 2 points at 91 a game and number one in assists

 

[JPFisher]

Agreed. Fast pace will account for much of that. Defensive performance wasn’t excellent against the Cards admittedly. Tanked our defensive efficiency numbers by 15 spots in KenPom.

Defense wasn't stellar, but Louisville made a bunch of bs shots that they haven't made all year.

 

[DWDwildcat47]

Don't get caught up in scoring defense more about scoring differential higher scoring offense is based on higher number of possessions therefore opponet will get more shots and more points the key number is fg pct.

 

[CrimsonCats]

Points per game isn’t always the best measure for how well a team is defending. It’s hard to hold teams in the 40s and 50s very often if you’re playing a fast tempo. We fare a little bit better in defensive efficiency stats (44th in the country, 10th in the SEC per KenPom), but that probably is still the area we could stand to see some improvement in.

 

[ganner918]

On Sports Reference, we're the #74 defense in the country in points per possession. KenPom has us the #44 defense adjusted for opponent strength. These aren't GOOD numbers but they aren't terrible either. Hopefully we can improve.

 

[Dontworryboutit23]

71 ppg in todays college basketball ain’t even that bad

 

[ORCAT]

thats the trade off for averaging 90 pts a game.
almost impossible to avr 90 and give up 50 some regularly

Excellent point. Hard to debate that at all.

 

[EliteBlue]

thats the trade off for averaging 90 pts a game.
almost impossible to avr 90 and give up 50 some regularly

This. It inst a surprise that Bama is 16th. The 3 fastest and highest scoring SEC teams are the bottom 2 in scoring defense. It’s kinda of a skewed statistic and only valuable if you take the raw data and divide by # of possessions or only compare the raw total to similar pace of play teams

 

[gharding07]

We were 29th Defensively in Kenpom before the game, we plummeted to 44th now.. not good.

 

[kywildcats8]

Defense wasn't stellar, but Louisville made a bunch of bs shots that they haven't made all year.

I thought they made a bunch of tough shots with our guys right there

 

[kywildcats8]

Only stat I really look at is the final score and we are 10-1 looking at that

 

[bluebayou01]

See where we are at the end of the year. We've played alot of games in Rupp. And, well, Rupp hates us. And every freaking team that comes in, shoots lights out. I swear I think it's a curse.

 

[The_Answer1313]

Don't look at points per game. Look at points per possession.

We aren't great defensively but we certainly are better than 15th out of 16th.

 

[blue cincy]

Part of this ranking you have to look at the teams we have played and the pace they also play. DUKE / GONZAGA / LOUISVILLE all play more possessions and such. We will see once we get into SEC play how good/bad our offense and defense actually plays. I say we are top 4 in SEC by the end of the regular season. If we have 12 teams make the tourney we will be a top 3 seed. We shall see how things work out. I for one am not looking too far in the future. Just enjoying the ride since the last 5 or 6 years the ride has not been fun at all. GO BIG BLUE!!!!!!!!

 

[JPFisher]

I thought they made a bunch of tough shots with our guys right there

Definitely.

 

[Bluegrass79]

Kentucky is the best passing offense in the league in "out of conference" play so far after 11 games.
They haven't peaked in this area yet.
Kentucky is missing seeing some good passing on slashes to the basket that they'll be seeing later in the season💯
Pope's offensive style is pretty nice.

 

[yabbadabbadoo]

I feel like this team can clamp down more if it has to. Look at second half Gonzaga and Duke. It takes much more effort and energy to play consistently tough defense. We play how we need to win. If we’re ahead and sustaining a decent lead then we can keep the flow of the game at a good level and not exhaust the team trying to get stop after stop. If we need stops we adjust and get tougher for a period of trips until we get back to a good situation. Yes, this means going zone some or whatever switches need to be made. I’m sorry but put me in the camp that’s realizing a lot of these numbers (Kenpom, SOS, etc.) are just that, numbers. Sometimes they can have a little meaning, but not like it’s made out to be. Goal: at the end of 40 minutes of play, have more points on the scoreboards. This means you win.

 

[Edgarman]

Team will go as far as it can outscore teams n March. Not much different from last season, but fortunately a better in game coach.

Defense travels much much much better than offense.

 

[yabbadabbadoo]

Kentucky is the best passing offense in the league in "out of conference" play so far after 11 games.
They haven't peaked in this area yet.
Kentucky is missing seeing some good passing on slashes to the basket that they'll be seeing later in the season💯
Pope's offensive style is pretty nice.

23 assists on 32 made baskets yeaterday
72%

Louisville was 9 assists on 31
29%

 

[UKBB4Ever]

We were 29th Defensively in Kenpom before the game, we plummeted to 44th now.. not good.

KenPom is fake numbers though. They had 10 offensive rebounds. KenPom says those aren't possessions. But they are. So add 10 possessions to get their true PPP. If it matters?

We simply give up too many offensive rebounds. and we have all season. I expect that to improve and it just has to improve.

 

[Jamal Mercer]

wait…..so we can improve? The team has things to work on?? Last night we were told that we should just be satisfied because we are 10-1. 🙄

Seriously though, if this team figures it out on D, and keeping teams off the offensive glass, they are gonna go pretty far in March.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

As the thread title says we're number 15 of 16. Giving up 71 points a game. Only Alabama's worse at 77.8.
Best is Orange lovers at 57 a game.
Some of that is pace of play but 71 is too high imo.
The good news:
#3 in 3 pt% defense in SEC. # 6 in overall fg% defense in SEC.

Number one in scoring by 2 points at 91 a game and number one in assists amongst SEC teams.

Kentucky leads the nation in scoring.

By contrast, the 1995 Kentucky Wildcats gave up 69 points per game while scoring 87 points per game.

We're on pace with that team, both defensively and offensively, and they finished as a #1 seed.

I'm not sure what the problem is, especially given how quickly this UK team takes shots.

 

[3Bluefever325]

I don’t know much but I’m super excited! We are soooo much better than I thought we’d be. And we KNOW we can score. The defense could be better but Coach Pope has shown he will switch up defense when needed if the game is in doubt. The game was never in doubt last night. So we just out scored them.

 

[fatguy87]

Some of that is due to tempo. We are one of the fastest teams in the country.

The other is that we haven't been exactly stingy on defense in our last couple of games.

 

[NociHTTP]

Defense wasn't stellar, but Louisville made a bunch of bs shots that they haven't made all year.

Those "bs shots" occured because of bad defense. Every game goes like this with fans blaming poor performance on "we're their Superbowl".

 

[NociHTTP]

Kentucky leads the nation in scoring.

By contrast, the 1995 Kentucky Wildcats gave up 69 points per game while scoring 87 points per game.

We're on pace with that team, both defensively and offensively, and they finished as a #1 seed.

I'm not sure what the problem is, especially given how quickly this UK team takes shots.

Lately they have been poorly taken quick shots. Not running the offense, not working to get open. Not passing it to the wide open player. Carr refuses to shoot, Brea throws his hands up begging for the ball rather than working to get open. I have faith that Pope will pick up on this.

 

[VAWildcat15]

In the SEC we’re tied with Texas for #8 in defensive efficiency, according to Torvik. #50 nationwide. #2 SEC in pace and #19 nationwide. The defense isn’t elite but a large amount of this is explained by our pace.