Free Throws and Three Pointers

[Coach Marrow]

That’s what March is about

 

[Smashcat]

Were fine in those departments. It's the D that concerns me.

 

[jedwar]

Were fine in those departments. It's the D that concerns me.

Just have to shoot more 3s imo. Go Sheppard, Dillingham, Reeves, Therio (for toughness and boards) and Z and bomb away. I mean like crazy.

 

[catben]

The teams we play from here on out are going to clamp down on Reed and Antonio. That means DJ and Justin are going to have to either knock down their open looks or defer by forcing the defense to collapse off of those 2. Against A&M, those 2 couldn’t make ANYTHING, even missing layups.

So, as much as I hate to say it, our fortunes may hinge on those 2 in at least one game along the way.

 

[Runnin'Ramel]

Anyone who pays attention knows that when a UK player misses that first free throw early on everyone in BBN will pucker up a bit. Heck we even saw Reeves and Sheppard do it in Nashville, falling right into that March narrative for Cal's teams ...

 

[L.O.D.]

If Edwards reverts to what he was were screwed. 3 pointers were great and fits were solid. Can't gaurd a sand bag

 

[TheDude73]

Thankfully the only risk Oakland poses is that they spend most of their sets getting two or three guards open for threes. Two of the guards shoot nearly 85% of their total shots from the perimeter, and the third is just under 50% of his shots being from 3-point range. All three are average at around mid-30% clips, but three of them darting around draining threes is what we should expect to see - volume and live/die by the three.

They are pedestrian if not poor at rebounding, and this is due to them being a small team, size-wise. Their leading rebounder Trey is only 6'9" (probably more like 6'6"-6'7" given we know teams exaggerate this measurement), and he averages around 7.8 boards per game (against much less competition than the SEC).

They also don't do much in the paint aside from Trey (who leads the team in almost every category, FYI), meaning their guards aren't going to drive the lane and break down our guards. Remember, their guards are perimeter focused, more so than any time I've ever seen sans last year's Arkansas and Alabama, who literally lived / died by the three. That the guards shoot 85%+ of their shots from the perimeter means they don't do much in the lane.

So in our case, I think even average defense will win out against Oakland because we will very likely out rebound them by a large margin, should force a few turnovers, and have a handful of blocks on their forward. They will get their threes because that's a good part of their identity (at least attempting a lot, not necessarily making a lot).

 

[Runnin'Ramel]

Thankfully the only risk Oakland poses is that they spend most of their sets getting two or three guards open for threes. Two of the guards shoot nearly 85% of their total shots from the perimeter, and the third is just under 50% of his shots being from 3-point range. All three are average at around mid-30% clips, but three of them darting around draining threes is what we should expect to see - volume and live/die by the three.

They are pedestrian if not poor at rebounding, and this is due to them being a small team, size-wise. Their leading rebounder Trey is only 6'9" (probably more like 6'6"-6'7" given we know teams exaggerate this measurement), and he averages around 7.8 boards per game (against much less competition than the SEC).

They also don't do much in the paint aside from Trey (who leads the team in almost every category, FYI), meaning their guards aren't going to drive the lane and break down our guards. Remember, their guards are perimeter focused, more so than any time I've ever seen sans last year's Arkansas and Alabama, who literally lived / died by the three. That the guards shoot 85%+ of their shots from the perimeter means they don't do much in the lane.

So in our case, I think even average defense will win out against Oakland because we will very likely out rebound them by a large margin, should force a few turnovers, and have a handful of blocks on their forward. They will get their threes because that's a good part of their identity (at least attempting a lot, not necessarily making a lot).

How tall are their guards? You would hope UK's length could bother them - but that assumes they aren't wide open, sooo .... disregard.

 

[TheDude73]

How tall are their guards? You would hope UK's length could bother them - but that assumes they aren't wide open, sooo .... disregard.

The three that start and live by the 3 are 6'3", 6'3" and 6'3". They run screens to get them open all the time - it's the core of their offense. Of course they won't have to do much screening against our team because we just let them be open without much effort.

The rest range from 5'11" to 6'7", but the 6'7" guy only averages around 5 PPG in 20 MPG and has only attempted 17 threes all year (made 4).

They don't play great defense (several rankings worse than ours at #165), so even if they hit 40% of the many threes we expect them to attempt, we should still win relatively comfortably. And they aren't anywhere as quick as our team, so runouts should be common. This is also why their three top guards only shoot threes - they aren't really penetrators and appear to be two steps slower than most Div I "quick" guards.

 

[DreadLox]

Thankfully the only risk Oakland poses is that they spend most of their sets getting two or three guards open for threes. Two of the guards shoot nearly 85% of their total shots from the perimeter, and the third is just under 50% of his shots being from 3-point range. All three are average at around mid-30% clips, but three of them darting around draining threes is what we should expect to see - volume and live/die by the three.

They are pedestrian if not poor at rebounding, and this is due to them being a small team, size-wise. Their leading rebounder Trey is only 6'9" (probably more like 6'6"-6'7" given we know teams exaggerate this measurement), and he averages around 7.8 boards per game (against much less competition than the SEC).

They also don't do much in the paint aside from Trey (who leads the team in almost every category, FYI), meaning their guards aren't going to drive the lane and break down our guards. Remember, their guards are perimeter focused, more so than any time I've ever seen sans last year's Arkansas and Alabama, who literally lived / died by the three. That the guards shoot 85%+ of their shots from the perimeter means they don't do much in the lane.

So in our case, I think even average defense will win out against Oakland because we will very likely out rebound them by a large margin, should force a few turnovers, and have a handful of blocks on their forward. They will get their threes because that's a good part of their identity (at least attempting a lot, not necessarily making a lot).

Different perspective: watch their recent tournament game. The whole thing is on Youtube. The standard narrative about the team doesn't look like the game I saw them play against Milwaukee.

 

[crawfords corner]

I do worry at times whether or not we get enough free throw attempts. Not that the guys will make them. Just do they draw enough.

 

[TheDude73]

Different perspective: watch their recent tournament game. The whole thing is on Youtube. The standard narrative about the team doesn't look like the game I saw them play against Milwaukee.

Well, their leading scorer, Trey Townsend, who averages around 17 ppg, got 14 points from free throws alone, scoring a season high 38 in that game against the "mighty" Milwaukee Panthers.

The season stats don't fib - the three guards take most of their shots from the perimeter and this game was an anomaly where they got a 38-pt outburst from one non-guard. The one guard, Jack Gohlke, that shoots predominately three pointers did so again - attempting 12 and making 5 (the entire team made 8). In act, this guy attempted zero inside the arc, dead on to the "standard narrative".

The only thing non-standard about their win over Milwaukee was that Townsend went for 38 (none of which were perimeter, and again 14 of which were FTs). He won't get 38 pts against Kentucky.