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In your opinion who is the X-Factor on this team?

HerrosHeroes

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Aug 16, 2018
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-Is it CJ because he could turn up his shooting?
-Is it Wheeler based on his sudden lack of pt?
-Could it be Toppin because he has shown the ability to get hot from 15-17 feet?
-How about Wallace now that he is running the show?
-Is it Reeves because he is shooting 40% from 3 pt range on about 100 attempts?
-Is it Livingston because of his size and his ability to take it to the basket and also hit the 3?
-Finally, is it Oscar because he has the ability to go for 35 and 25 on any given night?

I’m going with CJ simply because he really hasnt shot well up to this point yet UK is 13-6 and 4-3 in the SEC and currently riding a 3 game win streak. If CJ starts shooting at say a 45-50% clip from 3 we will be extremely hard to beat from here on out.
 
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Oscar and Wallace have been the given but Reeves or Toppin having a great game seems to put us over the top
 
Toppin being consistent is the x-factor. He gives us a 4th guy capable of getting 15-20. Get him, Oscar, and 1 of Reeves/Fredrick going at the same time and this team could be playing quite far. Wheeler can get 20, but if he's doing that, UK is sorely lacking somewhere else in the LU that night.
 
It's CJ. If CJ gets closer to his Iowa 3P % (46-47%) then Kentucky has a massive ceiling. He's at 37% right now. The finger injury if affecting his shot, so once it fully heals, he's going to regress to his average.

Toppin as well could be the X-factor. He needs to help rebound and attack the basket with his athleticism. Wouldn't mind him taking 1-2 threes just to keep the defense honest either.
 
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It's CJ. If CJ gets closer to his Iowa 3P % (46-47%) then Kentucky has a massive ceiling. He's at 37% right now. The finger injury if affecting his shot, so once it fully heals, he's going to regress to his average.

Toppin as well could be the X-factor. He needs to help rebound and attack the basket with his athleticism. Wouldn't mind him taking 1-2 threes just to keep the defense honest either.

He has really solid mechanics on his shot, just doesn't take any of the good looks he gets and often turns easy shots into difficult ones. It was nice to finally see him just pull up and hit one on Saturday. Needs to take more.
 
It's CJ. If CJ gets closer to his Iowa 3P % (46-47%) then Kentucky has a massive ceiling. He's at 37% right now. The finger injury if affecting his shot, so once it fully heals, he's going to regress to his average.

Toppin as well could be the X-factor. He needs to help rebound and attack the basket with his athleticism. Wouldn't mind him taking 1-2 threes just to keep the defense honest either.

Him being healthy and on the court is pretty damn important. Once he gets that thing off his finger I think his % will go back up. Defensively he might not get a lot of steals or work the passing lanes, but hes good at positionally being ready. Nothing flashy. Just seems to make the right play. I guess you could even call him a steadying force.

So, yea, Toppin being consistent and CJ being healthy might be X-factors 1A and 1B
 
Oscar is a given, so doesn't really count.

The X-Factor is Jacob Toppin. If he is hitting shots and playing physical, as he has been of late, we are a different team.
Yep, I agree with this. Oscar is a given and Wallace has been very consistent as well. But when Toppin plays well, it changes the entire dynamic of the team. When he's playing, teams can't double and triple team Oscar, and Toppin is the guy who can make teams pay for that.

I'd say a close 2nd is the combination of Fredrick and Reeves. The team needs at least one of those guys to be making threes. We've yet to see a game when both were on at the same time. If that happened, we could beat anyone in the nation. But we need at least one of them to make threes in every game.
 
I think it’s Reeves. When he’s dialed in he gives us another dimension to get a bucket late in the shot clock, and he can string together threes.

I think whether or not his offense is cooking on a given night will be the difference between wins and losses.

CJ gives us spacing, heady play and awareness even when he’s not scoring. Toppin can bring defense and rebounding. But Reeves offense can make or break us, imo.
 
Oscar is a gimme. Toppin, reeves, and CJ are what they are. We just need them hitting their shots. I think it’s Wallace. Sure he’s had some good games and shown flashes of greatness, but he’s struggled lately. We need him to continue to grow and get better for this team to have a legitimate shot at making some noise. Livingston is second for me.
 
I’m going to go with CJ…if he gets hot and stays hot it makes us capable of beating anybody. Reeves is gonna get his points either way. Cason will get his and of course so will Oscar. CJ starts hitting half his 3’s and look out
 
We have had Oscar and Toppin for a couple of years and know what their capable of. We have two guy's in Reeves and Fredrick that have proven themselves here and at other school's that they are player's. Wallace has shown out too. So the X-Factor has to be Livingston , shoots the three pretty well, drive's well but does overdrive's sometimes, plays physical and rebounds in traffic .Just think he has alot of upside that we haven't seen yet.
 
CJ and Livingston are the X Factors. If CJ can score consistently then it will help Reeves get that much more open and keep Oscar is one on one coverage. If we can get a Livingston to play the 4 to give Toppin a breather it will be a big help. If he becomes a consistent threat then we will have all 5 guys who score finally.
 
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Livingston is the guy who has upside and can give us more. He needs minutes at the 4 instead of using Ware/Collins. He's too valuable to only be getting 15 and 13 minutes in the last two games. He may be our most naturally talented player...we need to run some offense through him.

He's also turning into an excellent defender...quick, strong and moves his feet well.
 
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It’s clearly Livingston. Cal said after last game that he can’t play the 4. That means all his minutes will come at the expense of CJ or Reeves. They need to be productive minutes.
 
If Toppin can provide 8-10 pts from inside the paint and or the free throw line we are a different team. Personally, I'd like to see him run the baseline on offense to look for lobs, put backs, and short jumpers.
I also think Reeves, Fredrick, Wallace need to shoot 15-18 3's per game.
 
-Is it CJ because he could turn up his shooting?
-Is it Wheeler based on his suddenly lack of pt?
-Could it be Toppin because he has shown the ability to get hot from 15-17 feet?
-How about Wallace now that he is running the show?
-Is it Reeves because he is shooting 40% from 3 pr range on about 100 attempts?
-Is it Livingston because of his size and his ability titake it to the basket and hit the 3?
-Finally, is it Oscar because he has the ability to go for 35 and 25 on any given night?

I going with CJ simply because he really hasnt shot well up to this point yet UK is 13-6 and 4-3 in the SEC and currently riding a 3 game win streak. If CJ starts shooting at. A 45-50% clip from 3 we will be extremely hard to beat from here on out.

-Is it CJ because he could turn up his shooting?
-Is it Wheeler based on his suddenly lack of pt?
-Could it be Toppin because he has shown the ability to get hot from 15-17 feet?
-How about Wallace now that he is running the show?
-Is it Reeves because he is shooting 40% from 3 pr range on about 100 attempts?
-Is it Livingston because of his size and his ability titake it to the basket and hit the 3?
-Finally, is it Oscar because he has the ability to go for 35 and 25 on any given night?

I going with CJ simply because he really hasnt shot well up to this point yet UK is 13-6 and 4-3 in the SEC and currently riding a 3 game win streak. If CJ starts shooting at. A 45-50% clip from 3 we will be extremely hard to beat from here on out.
I understand your probably are talking about players, but IMO it's a dual x-factor, movement and defense. If this team continues to continuously improve their offensive movement and their defensive intensity they'll be difficult to handle. Movement is the key to the rhythm needed for our shooters and for spacing. Offensive rhythm isn't talked about as much as it should be. Most all our better had great Offensive rhythm full and half court. We have much more problem in half court sets with rythm/flow no matter the year.
 
Ware. He will get some minutes against bigs. If he can stick the 3-footers, rebound and hit 70%-plus of his free-throws ... those quality minutes can make a difference.
 
Calipari is the Xfactor

Play the Basketball Benny 5 - at least 70% of the time

Afraid Cal is gonna try to soothe Wheelers feelings and it will hurt team

This ain’t Tball
 
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