Just how much did we miss Poythress (interesting stat...)

[BlueCat43]

Even if defense was not what lost the game, that does not mean that better defense would not have won the game. Holding Wisky to 58 is good. If we could have held them to say 50 or 52 we win. IF Poythress was that big of a difference and could have prevented 3-4 baskets over the course of the game then he definitely could have been the difference between winning and losing.

 

[The_Godfather]

He is a role type player coming off a major injury.

We should have won the game without him & his absence is being used by some as an excuse.
Let me pose this question. If he were going to play a significant role in a win versus Wisconsin, he would've by definition played significant minutes. So whose minutes would you have taken away in that game?

Willie. The guy was damn near invisible.

 

[The_Godfather]

LOL Golfers aren't athletes? Most golfers I know that are decent or better were succesful in almost all sports growing up. The ones that are dog shit were terrible in sports or never got off the bench.

They were great athletes that could no longer cut it in those sports, gave up strenuous exercise, picked up 20 lbs and became an avid golfer.

 

[Hoskins91]

Seems kind of a small sample size, especially when most of those games were against garbage teams.

 

[3rex]

most of em... nope. Of course the ones I know are mid 30s overweight beer guzzlers that couldn't run up and down a basketball court or do anything athletic to save their lives. The general feller you see teeing off at the country club is just there to get away from the family and drink beer. I respect athletes that run, jump, cut, get their heart rate up from more than swinging a club, I guess. I'd rather waste 3-4 hours at the gym or out on a field somewhere being competitive than riding a cart and swinging a club.

Folks/strokes.

Gosh that really hurts...

But hey we're all doing the best we can I guess...at least until we can become athletic enough to become All-American message board posters!!
Don't pull any ligaments cutting & slashing through the board today!!

funny stuff...

by the way, I'm 6'1 190...& sipping on my favorite beverage between holes...sweet tea

 

[*Bleedingblue*]

Poy was unbelievable in the NCAA last year, played very very well. I thought we had guys this year get the bright light syndrome doubt Poy who had FF experience and title game experience would flounder like WCS, Lyles and Booker did.

To say we didn't miss him is just being fool hearty as he is a gifted player but just struggles with consistency on O in his past. When focused he is ferocious and I doubt that he would of been rattled by Wisconsin or Duke.

 

[WildMoon]

Poythress is a big loss. He's the guy that consistently did the "HOLY $4!T" things that get's the whole team pumped.

It's like that dunk by WCS, but Poythress was far more consistent with it.

He makes play that isn;'t there, both defensively and offensively. That's why sometimes his stat is deceiving. It's same thing with Davis, who was even more of a freak.

He's also big so physical play has less impact on him than WCS. Even KAT at times looked bothered. Not many i saw bothered Poythress in his abusive style of play.

 

[Ron Mehico]

Lets just never ever talk about the Wisconsin game from last year ever again, what do you guys think?

 

[kybassfan]

That is an amazing defensive stat. I get really wrapped up in stats where basketball is concerned. I think that's a big mistake on my part. Kentucky has had a few players over the years that simply added up to more than their stats. Most notable in recent years simply because you could not ignore him was Anthony Davis. MVP in the final four in '12 and went 1 for 10 in the final game. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was another example of a dynamo that just seemed more valuable than his stats, impressive as they were, reflected. Those two guys made 2012 much more than it probably should have been. Chuck Hayes is yet another example as witnessed by his long career in the NBA. I really think we were about to find out last year that Alex was just such a player. He brought more to the floor than just a series of numbers. He is clearly a very intelligent young man. He is a gifted athlete with maybe the quickest two step move I've ever seen on someone his size. That said, I think he has a 'You will NOT beat them till you've beaten me!' attitude that was coming to the surface last year. I think Hayes, Gilchrist, Davis and many others have had this and you cannot measure it.

We missed Alex after he fell worse than many will be able to accept. We ultimately paid the price for this and Mr. Dekker would have had a different final four experience with Alex in the game. I sincerely hope Alex knocks off the "ring rust" quickly and shows us just how valuable he is as a leader and special player.

 

[TT Cat]

You are forgetting that the refs were told to make sure that Wisconsin wins.

 

[weatherbird]

Considering willie had 2 points and 5 rebounds, and Lyles had 9 points 1 rebound, I'd say that Poythress could have easily made a difference in the game. Wisconsin's total score wasn't the issue, but the fact that we had no one to guard Dekker was. And let's not forget the rebounding numbers, a place where Poythress would have made a difference. This team with Poythress was one of the best of all time, but without him, they were just great. And yes, there are many great teams in history who did not win a title. Hopefully he makes a full recovery, and we are able to play him at PF next year.

 

[3rex]

I'm 6'2" 195 and played basketball for 2.5 hours after work yesterday before I got home and built a fire in the fire pit and drank cheap beer.

welp...that's settles it...2.5 hours of "after work basketball...."

uda real athlete on this board... lol

 

[3rex]

that's not the kind of basketball I play, but you win.

Oh my bad...I didn't realize you didn't appreciate people making false generalizations about your sport...

 

[Federal Cat]

I hope he is healthy and has no problems with his injury, has anyone heard any recent news on how he is doing,

 

[UKCATSFREAK]

it can't really be understated, in regards to losing in the final four, how much we missed him. we were so deep that we still won near 30 in a row without him, yet we all knew it wasn't the same as the first ten games. i'd say he's the biggest reason why. the man started for a reason. can't wait to see him back on the floor this year.

Couldn't have said it better myself. We were simply a good enough team to still win in spite of losing him. Sadly, the best team that we faced since Alex's injury was also the 1 team that we needed him most and we were just not good enough without him to beat that good of a team. I truly believe that with Alex, we win that game by double digits and there isn't a person on this earth that will make me think otherwise. When he went down, I knew there would come a time when we missed him greatly. Just sucks that it came in the FF!

 

[KentuckyWildcat4Life]

Why so much hate? One poster says something then the pack of wolves comes out tearing him up for it.

 

[hotelblue]

I knew there would come a time when we missed him greatly. Just sucks that it came in the FF!

this was kind of the elephant in the room last year. if you're die hard you knew what we lost when he went down. but it's like you said, he wasn't missed every game, but you knew down the road he would have been an ace in the hole when we really needed something. emotionally speaking none of us can really wait to get back to bball season. this go, a lot of that has do with seeing a senior alex poythress back in action.

 

[Jkwo]

I mean, the honest to goodness truth is that that team with Poythress had the best OOC performance in the modern era of college basketball. A lot of you may remember the thread I put on here with all the numbers and metrics on margin relative to opponent, etc, comparing it to '91 Duke, '08 Kansas, '09 UNC, etc.

'15 UK with poythress - historically good

'15 UK without poythress - historically good when Willie decided to go super-saiyan (should be every game for a 1st AA), otherwise, merely a very very strong team with a big defensive hole to certain types of perimeter attacks.

 

[3rex]

And yet we still were leading Wisconsin down the stretch...

 

[KentuckyWildcat4Life]

And yet we still were leading Wisconsin down the stretch...

The reason we lost that game was because calipari refused to call a timeout when our offense fell apart. When we went from four up to three down he finally tried to coach. However too little too late. Kentucky should be tied with UCLA right now in championships.

 

[Jkwo]

And yet we still were leading Wisconsin down the stretch...

A testament to the strength of that team that even without their best perimeter defender, they played about even with the best Kenpom offense in the history of the metric.

 

[3rex]

A testament to the strength of that team that even without their best perimeter defender, they played about even with the best Kenpom offense in the history of the metric.

lol...the best KenPom offensive team in the history of the metric

what does that even mean? We weren't beaten by the greatest offensive team in history, which seems to be what you're trying to imply. It was Wisconsin. They were very good. We had the better team, the lead late, and didn't finish it off.

 

[Mojocat]

I don't think the team really missed Alex all that much. What we lost from Alex was more than made up for in the improved play of Trey Lyles with increased playing time.

Generally, yes, that's true. Lyles is a better player all around than Alex. But he was pretty bad the last two games. I've watched them both a few times, and I've said it before (although trying not to make a big deal of it, as I don't want to start a conversation which amounts to piling on an 18 year old). Almost all the negative comments about that game are directed at Cal and Willie. Trey isn't getting any heat - and he was bad. What is worse than disappearing (Willie)? Making bad plays. Bad plays are worse than no plays - and Trey made a bunch of bad plays against both ND and UW. Including down the stretch in the loss. Cal said he was our X factor, the difference between UK being pretty good and Oh-my-gosh good. Well, he wasn't the X factor in those two games, so we were just pretty good - and that wasn't enough against a Wisconsin team ranked as the 3rd best in the last 5 years by ESPN.

 

[Bluemamba]

Here are Luke Winn's CBB pre-preseason power rankings.

Winn is a metrics geek and bases his rankings almost entirely on that. He has UK #2 behind UNC. Anyway, in his analysis of UK he writes this:

When I charted every defensive possession of the Wildcats' first 20 games for an SImagazine project, opponents Poythress was guarding shot a team-low 12.8%. (Not a typo: 12.8%. Poythress just did not give up baskets.)

Man, it would've been nice to have that dude against Connaghton and Dekker.

Poythress is a big loss. He's the guy that consistently did the "HOLY $4!T" things that get's the whole team pumped.

It's like that dunk by WCS, but Poythress was far more consistent with it.

He makes play that isn;'t there, both defensively and offensively. That's why sometimes his stat is deceiving. It's same thing with Davis, who was even more of a freak.

He's also big so physical play has less impact on him than WCS. Even KAT at times looked bothered. Not many i saw bothered Poythress in his abusive style of play.

None...Lyle's was better . Only maybe if Cal would have stayed with two squads all the way instead of quitting on the final game........and letting Booker, Ulis and Lee have there regular minutes instead of sitting them towards the end. I think this threw the team off.....big mistake in my opinion.
.

 

[UKDUNK]

Generally, yes, that's true. Lyles is a better player all around than Alex. But he was pretty bad the last two games. I've watched them both a few times, and I've said it before (although trying not to make a big deal of it, as I don't want to start a conversation which amounts to piling on an 18 year old). Almost all the negative comments about that game are directed at Cal and Willie. Trey isn't getting any heat - and he was bad. What is worse than disappearing (Willie)? Making bad plays. Bad plays are worse than no plays - and Trey made a bunch of bad plays against both ND and UW. Including down the stretch in the loss. Cal said he was our X factor, the difference between UK being pretty good and Oh-my-gosh good. Well, he wasn't the X factor in those two games, so we were just pretty good - and that wasn't enough against a Wisconsin team ranked as the 3rd best in the last 5 years by ESPN.

I agree 100%. You could tell Trey was trying to be more aggressive and I liked the fact that he kept trying to play through his bad play, but he was bad those last two games.