Oakland coach Greg Kampe on local radio

[FiveStarCat]

I listened to one of Oakland players yesterday and he said they had a great draw and totally expected to win a couple games. I remember a time when no team expected to beat UK. Thanks Cal. You have taken the perception of UK basketball to never thought of lows.........

We’re a top 12 team. If the dude isn’t afraid of us, you think he’s afraid of any other team out there?

Sounds like you just have an unrealistic expectation on opponents quivering in fear. Show me where other mid majors are doing that for any other blue blood. It ain’t happening

 

[ib4ky]

Confidence in your own team should be expected, but being an overly cocky Coach can get your team punched in the mouth, IF the opposing team gets rid of their lady-balls and sees it as disrespect!!

The matchups may be difficult both ways, just depends if Oakland starts fast and gets their beer muscles. Oakland is playing with "house-money" because they're NOT expected to win and they have nothing to lose!!

So, this tourney game could be a blowout like UK/ W.Virginia in 2015 or 2022 St. Peters debacle........But more than likely, I see it as a Princeton/ N.Kentucky battle where UK tends to let the comp stick around and then pulls it out late......

Against tougher competition:
UK scores INSIDE the 3-point line by 17% MORE than Oakland!!
UK scores from the 3-point line by MORE than 13% than Oakland!!
UK scores more from the foul line by almost 8% MORE than Oakland!!

GO BIG BLUE!!!!

 

[THE_HOOK]

A quote from Oaklands coach "Kentucky is a great offensive team… I think our zone is going to be really tested, but the good thing is they’re not known as a great defensive team,” said Kampe. “My biggest fear is that we play a team that we can’t get shots against.”

 

[ukcatz12]

I listened to one of Oakland players yesterday and he said they had a great draw and totally expected to win a couple games. I remember a time when no team expected to beat UK. Thanks Cal. You have taken the perception of UK basketball to never thought of lows.........

Dramatic much? Do you think many players in this tournament would give an interview where they say they're completely overmatched and expect to get blown out?

 

[IowaMuse]

A quote from Oaklands coach "Kentucky is a great offensive team… I think our zone is going to be really tested, but the good thing is they’re not known as a great defensive team,” said Kampe. “My biggest fear is that we play a team that we can’t get shots against.”

And therein lies the problem. Gonna be hard to win games in the tourney when even lower level teams know they can get easy shots against KY.

This notion of just outshooting everyone isn’t a recipe to hold up in March. How many 100-90 games do we see in the tourney?

 

[ib4ky]

OAKLAND:
36.4% of their eleven losses were to 2024 NCAA tourney teams.
Those losses were to teams seeded an average of 7.25.

KENTUCKY:
77.8% of their nine losses were to 2024 NCAA tourney teams.
Those losses were to teams seeded an average of 6.

 

[TOMCATS1990]

My concern is CAL’s Coaching and in game adjustments or lack of them.

 

[YardCat]

I live right down the road from Oakland.

A couple things their coach said about the matchup this morning.

“This was just about the best matchup we could hope for”

“They can’t score down low. When a mid manor goes up against someone like Kentucky that’s usually how they would win. But they don’t have the down low scoring so I really think we have a shot”

Can’t link it at the moment, but it was on 97.1 the ticket. You can go back and listen to it, 7:35 AM was the interview.

A couple other interesting quotes in there too.

Sounds like Coach Bait for Cal!

First 3 times down the court we will feed Ugo to try to establish a down low scorer. Cal will fall for it, watch and see if it happens. 😝

 

[YardCat]

The only problem with your line of thinking is Kentucky is a 3 seed and has wins against a 1, 2, two 4s, etc. so to act like Kentucky sucks is just factually incorrect. This dude is running his mouth and he’s likely going to regret it

We also have bad losses against dogs.

 

[THE_HOOK]

We’re a top 12 team. If the dude isn’t afraid of us, you think he’s afraid of any other team out there?

Sounds like you just have an unrealistic expectation on opponents quivering in fear. Show me where other mid majors are doing that for any other blue blood. It ain’t happening

No mid major truly expects to beat UConn and others, they might enjoy the opportunity to play really good teams and hope for an upset but don't really expect to win. Mid majors totally expect to beat UK via the cal effect. It is UKs reality now. In my 75 years I've never seen UK thought of so lowly. This is mainly due to this being the worst defensive team I've seen in 20+ years. My guess is that they only concentrate on putting up big offensive numbers to hell with worrying about defense.

 

[WildcatNC]

I think he is wrong that upsets happen because of post play. Upsets happen when the mid major guards get to the basket and hit a good % from 3. Now I’m nervous.

Should have been nervous all along. You've been around for the last 5 March's.

 

[THE_HOOK]

And therein lies the problem. Gonna be hard to win games in the tourney when even lower level teams know they can get easy shots against KY.

This notion of just outshooting everyone isn’t a recipe to hold up in March. How many 100-90 games do we see in the tourney?

Agreed. One average shooting night against a good team and a defensive game like the one against Tam and they are heading back to Lexington.

 

[ib4ky]

OAKLAND:
0% of their WINS were to 2024 NCAA tourney teams.
Those WINS were to teams NOT seeded.

KENTUCKY:
30.4% of their WINS were to 2024 NCAA tourney teams.
Those WINS were to teams seeded an average of 4.9.

 

[FilsonCat]

If the same squad that beat Tennessee and Auburn on the road shows up, Oakland is going to get run off the court. That version of the Cats can beat any team in the tournament by double digits. If the other version of the cats shows up, and Oakland hits shots from all over, I think we go home.

 

[THE_HOOK]

My concern is CAL’s Coaching and in game adjustments or lack of them.

Agreed. We know their lack of defense is NOT due to lack of talent and athletically ability. So it has to be lack of coaching. Right? I truly don't understand the lack of defense.

 

[bgood4UK]

Seems like a weird thing to say from a coach of a team who's biggest guy is 6'9" 221 lbs. Our "bigs" may not be the ones doing the scoring inside, but we should be able to score plenty off offensive rebounds, and driving the ball. The question will be, are we making shots? And do we show up defensively? If Oakland comes out on fire from 3 and ready to put 100 on us, then we may be in trouble. The time to show up and prove you're ready for the moment is now. Respect EVERY opponent.

 

[canebreak]

Well the obvious is missing here. Points in the paint don't always come from Bigs. We have had several games where we had more points in the paint than our opponent. This comment does not even begin address how points in the paint come about.

 

[Cats192]

Our bigs have a hard time scoring against Power 5 big men. A lot of those big men are 22-24 years old. They're more physically mature. They're also tall.

I don't think Oakland has the size to slow down Z or Mitchell inside.

I hope we run our normal offense and get into a rhythm. But it's going to be really funny when our bigs have a field day because these dudes are saying they can't score

 

[canebreak]

Look at our last 5 to 10 games. We matched every team we played with points in the paint. Who cares who they come from. In fact we had more than Auburn, Miss State, and we matched TAM. So if we can score in the paint on those teams..what gives?

 

[blue cincy]

Between the 3 7footers i say they get 12 pts, 10 reb, 6 blocks. That is not awesome stats but more than serviceable for those 3. We get that from them and the rest of our guys do their thing and we win by 20+. Also think Adou wants to show out in Pittsburgh as well as Tre. Between the 2 of those guys if they are not over geeked will be + with their time on the court.

 

[Jakerz]

It's pretty amazing when coaches from Oakland and Kansas State openly look forward to playing your program.

The fear and reverence for Kentucky basketball is gone from opponents. In Cal's pursuit to dedicate his ultimate process to the NBA development of fringe pros (Boston, Edwards, Wagner, Livingston, Bradshaw, Ty Ty, etc.), he has forsaken making Kentucky truly great.

Not really just kentuckys fault. The one and done and transfer portal has made everybody not very scary.
Now if you had to stay three years and there were no transfer portal then this would be a 143-59 win with the recruiting we can do.
The transfer portal and one and done has made for great parity and why you see so many mid majors make final four runs.

It’s not good for programs like Kentucky.

 

[Tampa_cat54]

Get ready for 25 minutes of Tre Mitchell and 30 of DJ Wagner 😫

DJ Wagner hasn't played 30 minutes in a game since January, and that was a game that Dillingham missed (@ Arkansas)

Tre Mitchell hasn't played 25 minutes in a game since January either.

 

[gharding07]

I think we win by 10 plus

 

[IH8BlueDevilsandUNcheat]

Z is really good on the pick and roll ... we just don't use it much

 

[DreadLox]

Agreed. We know their lack of defense is NOT due to lack of talent and athletically ability. So it has to be lack of coaching. Right? I truly don't understand the lack of defense.

You can't know what just ain't so. I think most of our defensive troubles come from how slender our players are.

 

[DreadLox]

Z is really good on the pick and roll ... we just don't use it much

We use it when Z's defender comes out high on him. After teams saw how effective it was, they quit coming out as high on him.

 

[BlueGene5]

I live right down the road from Oakland.

A couple things their coach said about the matchup this morning.

“This was just about the best matchup we could hope for”

“They can’t score down low. When a mid manor goes up against someone like Kentucky that’s usually how they would win. But they don’t have the down low scoring so I really think we have a shot”

Can’t link it at the moment, but it was on 97.1 the ticket. You can go back and listen to it, 7:35 AM was the interview.

A couple other interesting quotes in there too.

I believe the Oakland coach is baiting Cal to try and score a bunch down low because he doesn't want us to kill them with the three. Don't change the offense for Oakland to prove a point!

 

[BlueGene5]

I think their coach is smoking crack, to be quite honest. He runs a zone, and will be facing the best 3 point shooting team in the country.

Kampe is just baiting Cal to try scoring down low instead of shooting a lot of three's

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Oakland lost 11 games.

People keep bringing up they did some things against better defensive big 10 ten teams but UK has a way better offense than those teams.

If UK shows up they win by 15 to 20. If they goof off it may be interesting.

 

[crawfords corner]

Those dudes play worse defense than Kentucky does and they play a defense that Kentucky thrives against. They gave up 73ppg against way weaker competition. "Inside" game 🤣

 

[LXWildcat]

It’s hard to believe in this Kentucky team because they still don’t have an identity. Nobody knows who will play at any given time, the lineups are still all over the place and we don’t have a sold player at the five spot. It’ll cost us unfortunately

 

[Jeff2Reed]

No it's not "rare". Coaches talk like this all the time. You are just pulling shit out of the air knowing people won't go track down the 100s of times coaches have been excited about playing a team, pointing out where they think they're strengths might be, and just in general being confident.

GOOD LORD. Go somewhere else you rag.

rag…lol okay. Did you bounce back and forth enough today as to locate your “middle” I know you work so hard on that. Lol

No coaches do not usually say they think their opponent is the best matchup they could have landed. What planet are you living on. They might not cave (most coaches actually talk the opponent up) but they certainly do not usually say that. He’s almost saying he thinks the draw is easy lol.

Or go ahead and find coaches in the tournament that are saying that kind of directness in attitude toward the competition and I’ll grandly concede the point.

 

[Rockfly78]

It's pretty amazing when coaches from Oakland and Kansas State openly look forward to playing your program.

The fear and reverence for Kentucky basketball is gone from opponents. In Cal's pursuit to dedicate his ultimate process to the NBA development of fringe pros (Boston, Edwards, Wagner, Livingston, Bradshaw, Ty Ty, etc.), he has forsaken making Kentucky truly great.

It's pretty amazing that you've let Oakland become the boogeyman.

It's Oakland, not even the real Oakland. Don't be scared homie

 

[BasketBallJunkie-UK]

lmao at some of these posts.
Oakland
doesn't have guards that can penetrate and finish
they don't have a center
they're close to last in offensive tempo
they're close to last in defense stopping assists
they've had many games where not so good teams scored a lot of points.
they can't stop our transition game
Gulke has taken only 8 2 point shots
They can't stop lobs
they're not very good when the other team gets inside
their style of play is not good for playing catch up.
The don't force turnovers
They're not deep.
We've got so many different lineups we can throw at them, and they're not going to like any of them lol

UK at -13.5, I'll take it easily

 

[Warf2012]

Almost have to laugh at this point. Last year KSU’s coach made similar comments before the game acting cocky.

The only people that Cal strikes fear in is UK fanbase. We know he’s the weakest link with the team and will most likely be why we get put out.

What I’d give to have an actual good coach that doesn’t do the exact same thing he’s done for 15 years. UK is the easiest team in the country to gameplan for because Cal never changes anything. He’d be the football coach that has all his signs stolen by halftime and he’s knows it yet comes out in the second half not changing a thing.

 

[IL Wildcat]

I live right down the road from Oakland.

A couple things their coach said about the matchup this morning.

“This was just about the best matchup we could hope for”

“They can’t score down low. When a mid manor goes up against someone like Kentucky that’s usually how they would win. But they don’t have the down low scoring so I really think we have a shot”

Can’t link it at the moment, but it was on 97.1 the ticket. You can go back and listen to it, 7:35 AM was the interview.

A couple other interesting quotes in there too.

I love it! Play that audio to the entire team. If you think they'll miss those comments, you're crazy. The only chance Oakland has to beat UK is if our guys come out flat and with little effort. And yes, we struggle to score back to the basket but our guys may well light up their zone. If we're focused, we win.

 

[TheDude73]

lmao at some of these posts.
Oakland
doesn't have guards that can penetrate and finish
they don't have a center
they're close to last in offensive tempo
they're close to last in defense stopping assists
they've had many games where not so good teams scored a lot of points.
they can't stop our transition game
Gulke has taken only 8 2 point shots
They can't stop lobs
they're not very good when the other team gets inside
their style of play is not good for playing catch up.
The don't force turnovers
They're not deep.
We've got so many different lineups we can throw at them, and they're not going to like any of them lol

UK at -13.5, I'll take it easily

Sounds like a pretty crappy matchup, eh @Jeff2Reed??

Maybe that Oakland coach is not that good of a coach if he can’t see all his own flaws and somehow thinks they matchup well with us.

 

[uk78]

People who are misunderstanding the "Fear" comments don't know the long-term history. Playing Kentucky by a mid-major was like playing the Dream Team at one point in time. It was intimidating. It didn't mean they are cowering in their boots. It was the understanding they were going against an Elite program and unlikely to win.

That "fear" has changed under Cal. When you lose at home to UNC Wilmington, or last year to Saint Peters, and other losses we have had to low level teams has removed that awe and concern. Heck, I can recall even the intimidation of playing at Memorial or the early years of Rupp. No one came expecting to win just hoping.

 

[AzubuikeandFitch]

We don't have to score down low when we have three 40%+ 3 pt shooters and three more over 30%.

We beat this team by 15+. Would be more but Cal and Kampe are friends.

That's part of the problem nowadays, Cal seems to be friends 😉 with a lot of coaches. Trust me ain't one of his so-called buddies gonna lose sleep over handing him the L.
Turn that vitriol away from the fanbase and towards the opponent.

 

[IL Wildcat]

Sounds like a pretty crappy matchup, eh @Jeff2Reed??

Maybe that Oakland coach is not that good of a coach if he can’t see all his own flaws and somehow thinks they matchup well with us.

Based on the comments in the original post, the coach is basing the "good matchup" evaluation only on UK not having a strong back to the basket center. Anyone should know there's much more to UK than that. Kentucky is going to score on them, and likely will score 90+ on them. So, having a back to the basket center is not really very important. As I say, if we play with energy and aggressiveness, we win going away.