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Great win, but....

I was there , there were a lot of good looks Libscomb got off .. whether they were their preferred shooters I have no idea .. but I doubt Coach wants that many three point looks to be open
Their 2 centers took 12 of their 3's. and most of those were us backing off leaving them open on purpose , could that be some of what you saw? I mean we cant do that against Big Z but leaving opposing centers open until they hit one or 2 is a good strategy imo.
 
We still haven’t seen a game where they clicked on all levels. Somebody (hope it’s Gonzaga) will get a taste of it coming up and it will be awesome.
 
Their 2 centers took 12 of their 3's. and most of those were us backing off leaving them open on purpose , could that be some of what you saw? I mean we cant do that against Big Z but leaving opposing centers open until they hit one or 2 is a good strategy imo.
This, because if you guard those guys close, that opens up lanes for guards to slash through or you get back doored. It's a balancing act for sure. That's why if a team sucks at it, make them beat you that way.
 
I really doubt Pope was pushing them to get out on the shooters. They are a horrible shooting team. It was probably the plan to back off
Yeah, Pope even mentioned it in his postgame. Lipscomb came in making those 2 point field goals. Those were their "money shots" so to speak. Go back and listen to his postgame comments. He speaks in great depth and uses terminology that I don't always fully comprehend, but I do think I'm getting the "gist" of it. They were better at making and creating quality 2s than threes. And that's what we were focused on stopping, and it worked. The long threes were not their strength. And even most of those were forced and challenged, especially in the first half. Now, there were some wide open threes and I totally agree we must stop those, especially against teams with multiple high level shooters. Against our offense, for example, that would be deadly.
 
In the second half, they had a lot of wide open layups in the half court game. That was more concerning than the wide open 3 looks to me.
 
They actually shot solid from 3 but the last 2 games they have sucked.

Were averaging 10.25 per game and 38% from 3 the first 4 games.

Maybe Kentucky schools just play better d lol idk but they sucked against wku and UK.
 
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This.

Lipscomb is 231st ranked 3pt shooting %
Yeah, but how many times have we seen a bad shooting team come into Rupp and torch the nets?
I just don't think you want to let anyone see the ball go through the net.
I can't imagine MP was good with leaving them that wide open. I mean, they were really open.
 
I really doubt Pope was pushing them to get out on the shooters. They are a horrible shooting team. It was probably the plan to back off
You have to respect all of the great basketball minds on here who know more than coach Pope. Some have vast experience watching basketball for years and some even played in grade school and beyond 😶
 
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What you got to look at is the second half. Did they get a bunch more threes open?
And on any of these threes all game was there good enough defense that it's possible the defensive hand caused the mess?
I think at least half the threes they took had good defense on em'!
The other half belongs to Rupp's Arena 🙏!
He is notoriously a mfer for some players to shoot on. Especially when he likes his team.
Thanks buddy. R.I.P except for Ky games. Come visit anytime!
Rupp magic is alive again 💪💙🤍
 
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Yeah, but how many times have we seen a bad shooting team come into Rupp and torch the nets?
I just don't think you want to let anyone see the ball go through the net.
I can't imagine MP was good with leaving them that wide open. I mean, they were really open.
Maybe you noticed UK has a new coach, one who actually coaches, one who can make adjustments?
 
You have to respect all of the great basketball minds on here who know more than coach Pope. Some have vast experience watching basketball for years and some even played in grade school and beyond 😶
Such a cop out. Pope isn't perfect, the players don't execute his plan perfectly. And it is a completely valid criticism to speak on the wide open 3s they got last night.
 
Maybe you noticed UK has a new coach, one who actually coaches, one who can make adjustments?
Hey I'm not disagreeing, but I'm not sure it's the coach, we left them open last night just like Cal's teams did.
These teams get all jacked up to play in Rupp, especially against a highly ranked UK team. Usually they make those shots.
It's a new era at UK and CMP is making a big splash. I'm good with it. I love blowing teams out and I love a team that shoots threes.

Last point. After the Duke game, all I heard/read was how Duke has so much to learn and UK is much closer to their ceiling. Well, we might be closer to our ceiling, but there are still a lot of things we can improve on. Offensive rebounding is one, free throws is another and I think perimeter defense is a third thing. To me, this is a good thing, because all those things can be greatly improved on and we have veteran players, so this is going to be a fun ride.
 
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