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Livingston…why no second half minutes

He can make a 3pt shop
Yep, he can, but he air-balled a wide open 3 in the first minute or two of tghe game and that caused him to pass up multiple open outside shots afterwards. That was a huge part of why we got behind and never caught up. He lost his confidence after that first shot. He did have made shots in close, but wouldn't shoot from outside when he was wide open.
 
He should have gotten the Wheeler minutes down the stretch for defense if nothing else. But once KU stopped the fast breaks in the 1st half Livingston did not do much on offense. He just can't dribble in half court action.
 
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He is not a consistent shooter, seems really shaky dribbling in the half court, and has the weakest hands for someone who looks strong.

If it's a half court game, he's a liability.
 
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Somehow I'm supposed to believe that KU was more than willing to give up a 3 to Livingston who is a 37% shooter, versus Toppin who is at 22%? According to Cal, KU wasn't guarding Livingston and thus "crowding" Oscar....but apparently that doesn't apply to Toppin or Wheeler.
 
Cals vision
Wheeler is priority #1 for this team to succeed.

The REST…. Of the world…. Other coaches, media, fans ect…. UK’s best version is not with Wheeler logging so many minutes.
 
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I listened to the first half on my way home from work and Goose and Tom were really bragging on Livingston. I would have liked to heard what they said to each other on commercial breaks during the second half concerning his lack of playing time.
 
Livingston got beat weakside cut for a dunk and was yanked. There are several other guys who do as bad if not worse that don't get punished. Biggest sequence in game--UK has it down to 1 pt, everything is going well--they are playing good defense, getting late in clock and Toppin allows Oscar to switch on Wilson and gets splashed right in his face of course. That was THE SHOT in my opinion that ended the game. Know there was a lot of time, but at no point after that made shot did I think Cats had a chance to win that game.

My issues on the sequence are simple:

1. Senior who is a defensive guy switches off for 0 reason-his assignment was Wilson and he had done a nice job for the most part when defending him of making him work.

2. In today's basketball you always run shooters off the 3--better to give up the 2 pt shot attempt/make because that means you keep it a 1 possession game. UK ALWAYS seems to let the guy have space and shoot the 3.

3. Oscar is one of the worst defensive players to ever play at Kentucky for Calipari. He doesn't do anything well defending his man or switching off. His best attribute is he'll deflect or get some steals with good anticipation but he has his hands down--doesn't close hard to make a player go off the dribble and part of that is him wanting to pad reb stats--if he goes short he can get back to get a rebound.

Brutal. It won't change either. But why would it? It's not demanded from the staff obviously.
 
No freaking idea, just like the lineup in the first half made no sense, Cal just had to mess with us being on fire and let Wheeler come in and flip the game around. Never recovered after he checked in.
Really wish someone would ask cal what he was hoping to accomplish with the combo of wheeler/CJ/ware/toppin/and Livingston.

Cal will never understand that anytime wheeler comes in the game it has to be for a 2-3 minute stretch and that’s it. He always leaves him in for about a 6-8 minute stretch and the damage is done.
 
We’re just stuck with a stubborn ass for a coach. We’ll win some, although not at a high level with consistency, but we will lose games that we should win on a more regular basis. It sucks, I hate it, especially for guys like Theiro, Livingston, and Onyenso, but that’s the way it is. Guess we have to hope he eventually starts to burn in the frying pan. Don’t know anything else.
 
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Livingston got beat weakside cut for a dunk and was yanked. There are several other guys who do as bad if not worse that don't get punished. Biggest sequence in game--UK has it down to 1 pt, everything is going well--they are playing good defense, getting late in clock and Toppin allows Oscar to switch on Wilson and gets splashed right in his face of course. That was THE SHOT in my opinion that ended the game. Know there was a lot of time, but at no point after that made shot did I think Cats had a chance to win that game.

My issues on the sequence are simple:

1. Senior who is a defensive guy switches off for 0 reason-his assignment was Wilson and he had done a nice job for the most part when defending him of making him work.

2. In today's basketball you always run shooters off the 3--better to give up the 2 pt shot attempt/make because that means you keep it a 1 possession game. UK ALWAYS seems to let the guy have space and shoot the 3.

3. Oscar is one of the worst defensive players to ever play at Kentucky for Calipari. He doesn't do anything well defending his man or switching off. His best attribute is he'll deflect or get some steals with good anticipation but he has his hands down--doesn't close hard to make a player go off the dribble and part of that is him wanting to pad reb stats--if he goes short he can get back to get a rebound.

Brutal. It won't change either. But why would it? It's not demanded from the staff obviously.
The problem with Livingston is that he does nothing offensively that justifies overlooking his defensive deficiencies.
 
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Kid played his best half of basketball last night only to get buried on the bench the 2nd. CCC built this roster doesn’t use his bench which has talent on it.
He had already exceeded his average and KU had closed down the driving lanes, so Cal knew his limited offensive output was over. Livingston made it worse by turning the ball over with his continued effort to drive the ball when there was nowhere for him to go.
 
Because Cal couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag…..
………i’m sure he forgot about Livingston. AGAIN
 
Those 8 points were layups and dunks. Once they realized that Cal had no shooters on the floor, they simply sagged in on Oscar and the first half became a waste of time. Livingston can't throw a ball into the ocean with one foot in the water.
Shooting 37 percent from 3 on 11-30. 21-24 from FT line.
 
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Shooting 37 percent from 3 on 11-30. 21-24 from FT line.
The sample size is so small it means nothing which is supported by his 5.3-points per game average. If he was averaging 10 -15 points per game, I would be impressed, but not by 5.3-points per game. If those stats weren't fool's gold, he would be taking a lot more shots. I believe Wheeler was leading the team in 3-point shooting percentage at one point. So, what does that mean? It certainly doesn't mean that I want him to shoot more 3s because he isn't a good shooter.
 
Cal has always struggled to understand how to utilize small forwards. I’ve seen that exact discussion on here several times in the past. Look back at Cal’s track record with different positions; he’s had a lot of success with point guards and point guards who can play shooting guard. He’s done well with true down low centers. And he’s had some good power forwards who understand when they need to step up and take over with strength and well, power/determination. Cal just can’t seem to incorporate the free style play of small forwards into his offense.
 
The sample size is so small it means nothing which is supported by his 5.3-points per game average. If he was averaging 10 -15 points per game, I would be impressed, but not by 5.3-points per game. If those stats weren't fool's gold, he would be taking a lot more shots. I believe Wheeler was leading the team in 3-point shooting percentage at one point. So, what does that mean? It certainly doesn't mean that I want him to shoot more 3s because he isn't a good shooter.

I'm not saying he is Steph Curry but it is a total falsehood to say he can't throw it in the ocean.
 
I'm not saying he is Steph Curry but it is a total falsehood to say he can't throw it in the ocean.
Of course, it is a falsehood to say he can't throw it in the ocean and surely you didn't take that comment literally. However, it isn't a falsehood to say that the one 3 attempt was an air ball.
 
I am not talking about minutes played. I am talking about number of shots. Most of the time he is just taking up space on the court and not doing too much of anything.
Okay, whatever you say. But it's obvious we are watching a totally different game.
 
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