I'm pretty pleased at where we are

[Dablueman]

I really am. We are having to adjust mid season to Skal not being as ready as we hoped. I think we will see him contribute more about the middle of Feb. What we are seeing now is this team learning to take what is given us. On Sat Bama decided to make our bigs beat them. Cal went to the pic and Roll with Poy and Poy had a monster game. Last night Miss St. Decided to make our guards beat them. So they packed in a zone and hoped we wouldn't catch fire from outside. That blew up in their face til the Technicals and a stretch of cold shooting. What I am seeing though is when given the opportunity in a man to man Poy and Lee can more than hold their own and I am seeing our perimeter shooting get better. Willis is at 40 percent from three Murray is getting close to 40 percent. Ulis is creeping up. Mulder is starting to get comfortable and I think will. The biggest thing tho is the last 2 games Briscoe has hit the midrange jumper pretty consistently. So if Skal improves even just a little and he will. Because what most don't realize what happened to Skal is at the first of the season teams looked at stats and thought this would be a good outside shooting team. So it opened up the inside and Skal played well. As our perimeter shooting improves so will Skals play. His confidence is shook but it might be a blessing. Anyone who doesn't realize this kid has the ability to just blow up at anytime hasn't seen him play. He just needs a big game. Basically if Briscoe keeps hitting the jumper and Murray Willis Ulis and Mulder improve from 3. We will be a tough out in march

 

[KWilt43atbuzz]

Agreed. Thats why I didnt rag Poy last night.
Play us man and we will beat you inside and off the dribble.
Play zone and we will burn the netz down from deep.

 

[Kybluedude]

Great thoughts! Liked you positive analysis. Still has a lot of ifs but good thoughts

 

[jedcat]

I thought the same thing about Poythress last night, that the zone was just not conducive to replicating the previous game.

 

[NCukcat62]

I am too. This team reminds me of knights and randles team in a way. If skal can just get 5 or 6 points a night, that will be good. Poythress needs to become a monster in order for life to transpire in March.

 

[uk78]

Well, Cal seemed none to pleased with Poythress. So, a good effort at rationalization except if you watched the game. You are blaming the technicals on losing a big lead in the second half? Remember we just played Alabama and Mississippi State. Not exactly world beaters.

It is true that there has been some positives since LSU. Poythress played well in one game, Lee was rebounding, Murray hasn't been as crazy to drive in the middle where there are 3 players. But, the guy who really has improved the past 2 games is Briscoe. He has been like a second point guard in the paint and hitting pull-up jumpers. However, having said that, the reason Miss State came back was they were able to easily drive to the basket time after time in the second half, or hit outside shots mainly against Willis. In other words, terrible defense.

Yes, there is some hope we will do well, but this is Kentucky where we like to dream about National Championships. This team ain't it. No way, unless Skal suddenly becomes someone totally different or Wynyard is some super post player that is being held back for a big surprise.

 

[UKWildcats#8]

Beating 7-8 MSU by 6 at home does not inspire confidence to me but to each their own. I like a lot about this team, but not loving anything overall.

 

[KMKAT]

I don't like how Murray haphazardly wastes possessions.
I don't like how Poythress doesn't play above the rim as we know he can.
I don't like how Lee just gets unnecessary fouls which takes away his value.
I don't like how Willis plays matador defense.

That aside, if we knew that Skal would regress from a 26 point game early in the season, we are probably where we thought we'd be with everyone saying there's no way Skal will regress. I have high hopes for his return to more minutes. Having him as the 6th man is a good place for him.

I accept our growing pains as we will be better come SEC tourney time, like every Cal team has proven.
We're heading near the halfway point at the end of the month, and our improvement will be on display as we head into February.

How many years did we watch the Joe B teams struggle mightily in January with hopes for showing their true skills in February?
It's not the same type of trend, but there are highs and lows in each season.

 

[docholiday51]

You can make a case from a W/L standpoint that we are doing ok. in a down year in college basketball where there are no great teams and everyone is subject to get beat just about any time they go on the road.

What e have seen from this team on the court and what we expected to see is another matter. We have struggled against teams that we should have been in the game with and had a chance to beat, the losses we have had were games we really weren't in with 5 to go. Things like that should not happen

If we look at individual players Murray, Ulis , Lee, Hawkins and maybe Willis have lived up to what we thought we would see. Poythress gets a category all his own because we didn't know what we would get off the injury.

Skal, Mulder, Matthews and Briscoe(to a lesser degree) have not lived up to reasonable expectations and thus the team is not where we could be. If we had just been a little closer to what the minimum for this team should be then we would be better positioned to take advantage of a down year in college basketball.

 

[UKWildcats#8]

I don't like how Murray haphazardly wastes possessions.
I don't like how Poythress doesn't play above the rim as we know he can.
I don't like how Lee just gets unnecessary fouls which takes away his value.
I don't like how Willis plays matador defense.

That aside, if we knew that Skal would regress from a 26 point game early in the season, we are probably where we thought we'd be with everyone saying there's no way Skal will regress. I have high hopes for his return to more minutes. Having him as the 6th man is a good place for him.

I accept our growing pains as we will be better come SEC tourney time, like every Cal team has proven.
We're heading near the halfway point at the end of the month, and our improvement will be on display as we head into February.

How many years did we watch the Joe B teams struggle mightily in January with hopes for showing their true skills in February?
It's not the same type of trend, but there are highs and lows in each season.

I wouldn't mind seeing Cal play Skal more against Auburn. 5points, 4rebounds, and a block in 14mins is solid for him...I was so shocked to see Cal go with Willis over Skal in the game in crunch time last night. For all the "he only plays his top recruits" posters that was an interesting sight to behold.

I still maintain he is the key to an advanced ceiling for this bunch. Lee and Poy are just too inconsistent to do it on their own.

 

[KWilt43atbuzz]

Once we are 20-4 and back in the top 5 alot of you Debbie Downers will disappear.

 

[docholiday51]

I wouldn't mind seeing Cal play Skal more against Auburn. 5points, 4rebounds, and a block in 14mins is solid for him...I was so shocked to see Cal go with Willis over Skal in the game in crunch time last night. For all the "he only plays his top recruits" posters that was an interesting sight to behold.

I still maintain he is the key to an advanced ceiling for this bunch. Lee and Poy are just too inconsistent to do it on their own.

Willis vs Skal probably came down to age, a bit more ball handling + free throw shooting. Skal is the key, how much he can give determines how far we go, best case is probably second round depending on seeding and match-up

 

[JStaff2187]

Considering Skal has been very underwhelming thus far, I am happy with where we are too.

 

[docholiday51]

Once we are 20-4 and back in the top 5 alot of you Debbie Downers will disappear.

If we get there it will depend on what we do the rest of the way. The reality of this team is that nothing(no game, no seed or anything else) is a given. We will fight and scratch for every win,the amount of fight in this team is still in question.

 

[Blue Decade]

I really am. We are having to adjust mid season to Skal not being as ready as we hoped. I think we will see him contribute more about the middle of Feb. What we are seeing now is this team learning to take what is given us. On Sat Bama decided to make our bigs beat them. Cal went to the pic and Roll with Poy and Poy had a monster game. Last night Miss St. Decided to make our guards beat them. So they packed in a zone and hoped we wouldn't catch fire from outside. That blew up in their face til the Technicals and a stretch of cold shooting. What I am seeing though is when given the opportunity in a man to man Poy and Lee can more than hold their own and I am seeing our perimeter shooting get better. Willis is at 40 percent from three Murray is getting close to 40 percent. Ulis is creeping up. Mulder is starting to get comfortable and I think will. The biggest thing tho is the last 2 games Briscoe has hit the midrange jumper pretty consistently. So if Skal improves even just a little and he will. Because what most don't realize what happened to Skal is at the first of the season teams looked at stats and thought this would be a good outside shooting team. So it opened up the inside and Skal played well. As our perimeter shooting improves so will Skals play. His confidence is shook but it might be a blessing. Anyone who doesn't realize this kid has the ability to just blow up at anytime hasn't seen him play. He just needs a big game. Basically if Briscoe keeps hitting the jumper and Murray Willis Ulis and Mulder improve from 3. We will be a tough out in march

I think you are missing a couple of things, and you may have forgotten what happened in Baton Rouge. Alabama isn't a very good basketball team. We beat Alabama by running pick and roll over and over and over. Alabama couldn't stop it, because their players are poor defenders with slow feet. The weakness of our team is our baseline, but we crushed Alabama on the boards anyway. That's Alabama, We got a much better picture about our team last night, when we barely beat a so so Mississippi State team in our own house. Against a mediocre Mississippi State baseline, Poythress, Lee, Labissiere combined gave us 13 points, 21 rebounds. Lee had 9 of those rebounds. So, I will call it like it was. This was another very subpar game for Labissiere, even if a modest improvement over recent games. The kid just can't catch and shoot on the block. Doesn't have enough physical strength. Doesn't have the endurance to play 40 games at this level of competition. Our guards are very good, but we have no baseline game. We can beat teams like Alabama, but this team will struggle against South Carolina, Texas A&M, even Vandy. This is a pretty good team, but it just isn't our year. I'm not giving up, just saying what is obvious. However, next year will be special.

 

[jameslee32]

I'm pleased with Tyler running the ship and expected at least this many losses by now, The sky's the limit from here on out as the SEC provides a good training ground.

 

[Dablueman]

Well, Cal seemed none to pleased with Poythress. So, a good effort at rationalization except if you watched the game. You are blaming the technicals on losing a big lead in the second half? Remember we just played Alabama and Mississippi State. Not exactly world beaters.

It is true that there has been some positives since LSU. Poythress played well in one game, Lee was rebounding, Murray hasn't been as crazy to drive in the middle where there are 3 players. But, the guy who really has improved the past 2 games is Briscoe. He has been like a second point guard in the paint and hitting pull-up jumpers. However, having said that, the reason Miss State came back was they were able to easily drive to the basket time after time in the second half, or hit outside shots mainly against Willis. In other words, terrible defense.

Yes, there is some hope we will do well, but this is Kentucky where we like to dream about National Championships. This team ain't it. No way, unless Skal suddenly becomes someone totally different or Wynyard is some super post player that is being held back for a big surprise.

No I really wasn't blaming the Technicals. However they just seemed to get us out of our flo. We went cold for a stretch on some decent looks and Miss St got hot. It happens I think no Tech then maybe we don't get out of sinc and we win by 15 to 20. Which is what it should have been. The performance Tuesday night was subpar. However based on watching Cals teams I like where we are. Early in the seasons teams saw a team that on paper could have possibly been one of Cals best shooting teams. Tyler Murray Mulder even Briscoe who had won a three point shooting contest preseason. Looked to be great shooters going on. Then in the preseason it looked like Poy had found his touch and Willis was hitting to. Teams prepared for us early like we were going to be a great outside shooting team and that opened up the inside for Skal. Well as we started missing the game plans against us changed. Now if our perimeter shooting improves and it is looking like it is then Skals stats will go up to. 2011 early season Jones tore it up well in order to compete teams changed their game plans Jones's numbers wend down and we took some lumps. We went to the pick n pop with Josh and teams had to guard that. So they went to the zone and then we had Lamb and knight and Miller start lighting it up. So teams had to play us honest and by the tourney Jones's numbers went back up. Big difference I think is Jones's was a physical beast where Skal isn't. I am still happy with where we are

 

[Dablueman]

I think you are missing a couple of things, and you may have forgotten what happened in Baton Rouge. Alabama isn't a very good basketball team. We beat Alabama by running pick and roll over and over and over. Alabama couldn't stop it, because their players are poor defenders with slow feet. The weakness of our team is our baseline, but we crushed Alabama on the boards anyway. That's Alabama, We got a much better picture about our team last night, when we barely beat a so so Mississippi State team in our own house. Against a mediocre Mississippi State baseline, Poythress, Lee, Labissiere combined gave us 13 points, 21 rebounds. Lee had 9 of those rebounds. So, I will call it like it was. This was another very subpar game for Labissiere, even if a modest improvement over recent games. The kid just can't catch and shoot on the block. Doesn't have enough physical strength. Doesn't have the endurance to play 40 games at this level of competition. Our guards are very good, but we have no baseline game. We can beat teams like Alabama, but this team will struggle against South Carolina, Texas A&M, even Vandy. This is a pretty good team, but it just isn't our year. I'm not giving up, just saying what is obvious. However, next year will be special.

Nope haven't missed anything I have watched almost 40 years of UK basketball and basketball in general and on the road against a talented team with SEC officiating we had a bad game it happens or was 2010 not good because of the one WVa game? Or 2015 cause ol miss bout beat us? You know what a sagging zone defense is for? Shutting down the inside and the pick and Roll. Did Lee foul to much? yes. Did Poy have a bad game? Yes. What I don't forget is how Cal coaches to peak at the right time. We look better right now then I think we did 10/11 at the same time.

 

[moe#8]

I think this is a piss poor team by Kentucky standards. I also think we are seeing some piss poor coaching this year from Cal. They don't ever look like they are ready to come out and play ball. That is on the coach, anybody can give 110% that's all I would ever ask for, and I haven't seen this team come close. mainly speaking of Poythress and Skal.

 

[BostonCat2001]

with how bad skal has been...i'm surprised with where we are at. i mean...he is giving us next to zero yet here are. the only bad loss right now is the osu game.

 

[Big Cat fan]

Young team seems to be learning. I don't think to much of us losing a 20 point lead, we turned them over shoot well and that was just with 3 guards scoring. Give Miss St some for fighting back. What I like about this team is we have 7 guys that can score double figures in any game with 3 or 4 doing so in each game. We shot better since the Ohio St loss, if we can make more free throws and cut down on our turnovers then we will be a very good top 8-10 team going forward.

 

[MegaBlue05]

Some of you are insufferable with your "expectations."

We aren't going 38-1 every year. This bunch, to me, is in a better spot than I thought they'd be considering Skal's lack of production since the end of November.

 

[musrat59]

At this point, I have no idea as to how much we will get out of Skal this year, so hopefully the other two big kids show some development going forward.

 

[BoulderCat]

In the big picture there's nothing wrong with going even 24-7, and making the NCAA tournament. It's a goal many programs aspire to. We are definitely spoiled. If this is an off-year I can deal with it. The idea of winning a title, or even a Final 4 every year is rather unrealistic even though I'm glad that's the standard we have.