Splitting the difference is 3 wins and an elite eight appearance. That's about the floor as far as my expectations for this team.
Parrish doesn’t think we make elite 8
- Thread starter ukjenning44
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(May be like an electric fence...)
Robert Parrish always reminded me somewhat of Charlie Watts...guess it's the wooden indian stoicism they both exude
Uk better be glad they can score a lot of points because their defense sucks. They rank 203 in points allowed per game in the nation. Embarrassing. I agree with Parrish if they don't improve defensively it maybe a early exit in the tourney.
Agreed but offense if off the charts. If we are giving up 70-75 a game I am more than happy. We will be nearly possible to beat. Reminds me of '96.
Will see how conference season goes.
Can always worry about anything. Guys just have to play their game. This team is so freaking balanced offensively. I don't know how you defend them tbh.
Said the same about '96 squad.
Avg score in 1996: 91.4 - 69.4
Avg score in 2023: 91.08 - 73.4
Edwards struggled first half and with jumpers but he kept with it and finished with 9/4/2 steals. I’d love to see him work inside more, only shoot wide open 3’s. Definitely needs to rebound a little more. We need to as a team.
Wagner looked like an absolute stud, he just didn’t force anything. Had a smooth 14/2/3.
That kinda production is all we need from those guys. Maybe get Edwards up to around 10-12 a game/7 boards. But honestly Dilly and Sheppard got 16/7/3 and 11/5/5. Mitchell had 8/11/4. Reeves of course was a boss with 27/6/2. Even Burks had 5.
If we can get Bradshaw to his capabilities and be consistent this team is so deep and can score with anyone. Any night each one of these guys can get hot and produce what we need.
We didn’t even have Adou. He’s another 10/8 type dude every night. He’s our rebounder, our energy guy, and gives thunderous effort and dunks.
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Exactly this, balanced. We can score inside. We pass the ball, we shoot a great percentage every game from the field and the 3. This is a team who can win a shootout. We need to tighten up our defense but we finally have a team who can outscore teams and win games even not playing defense the best.
Defense and rebounding both need a lot of work. Offense looks good.
We only have one quality win against UNC. Miami isn’t good.
And we probably have the worst loss of anyone ranked in the top 10.
We should learn more over the next few weeks although I think the SEC is down this season.
We only have one quality win against UNC. Miami isn’t good.
And we probably have the worst loss of anyone ranked in the top 10.
We should learn more over the next few weeks although I think the SEC is down this season.
I'm usually in the anti Cal wagon. I've listed the reasons on here plenty. I do love this team. They're fun. It's been several years since I could say that. Regardless, Cal needs to win the SEC, SECT, and make a Final Four run. This bullshit of losing to Kansas State and St Peters etc....enough. Seeing is believing for me.
Miami hosts Clemson next week. We need The U to win. I'm not so sure they aren't good. They are 10-2 and so is Colorado. The talking heads started proclaiming Miami not to be good after they got boat raced in those two games. We'll see about Colorado too...they play Arizona next week as well.
Right, how can anyone have any confidence that our recruits will play considering Shaedon Sharpe didn’t.
It’s funny how some teams can lose and lose and be highly thought of and then some have a bad 2 game stretch and get written off.
I’m more interested in seeing how we play against teams that really lock you up defensively and slow the game down. UNC, Miami, and Kansas all play fast.
UNCW played a slower pace and we only made five 3’s in that game.
We aren’t playing good D against teams that play faster. A team like TN that makes you play D for 25 seconds of the shot clock and then stays in your face on the other end will be interesting to watch.
Only playing 4 games this month hasn’t allowed us to see enough.
We are fun to watch but need to see more against different styles of play.
We also have a huge disadvantage in Cal. When other teams change things up or slow the game down he won’t make adjustments.
Our best hope is the players can figure it out and adapt on the fly.
Cal’s coaching is why this team is most likely to fall short in March. We have the talent but don’t have the coaching.
I don’t think Miami is bad, they had a bad 2 games but they are 10-2.
Cal’s coaching has been good this year and he’s been to plenty of final fours. He absolutely can coach them to a final 4.
Cal has won over 840 games and has been to 6 Final Fours. He is capable of coaching this group deep into March, saying otherwise is just silly.
Going to have to improve defensively and on the glass of course. Much easier to improve in those areas than improving in scoring and shotmaking.
UNC-W did not slow us down and it had nothing to do with that loss. We had 77 possessions that game which is on par for season average and Top 10-15 in country where we've been all season. UNC-W played a much faster pace than they regularly do in that game.
We lost that game because we shot poorly from 3, gave up 11 three's and were close to a 1 to 1 asst to TO ratio. Pretty sure that was worst ratio of season and most turnovers. We are better than a 2 to 1 AOT on season. We were without Wagner and trying to figure out how to play with Bradshaw, albeit minimally in that game. In short, we played crappy and were without the guy who runs our offense.
I agree, will be interesting to see us against SEC defenses. But UT couldn't control UNC style of play either.
The rest of your rant about Cal is your implicit bias. Cal has been to 6 FF's....I think he can handle coaching the team.
I posted this in another thread but feel it’s more appropriate here. There is one thing that will make or break this teams season:
“Why not do both (Defense and offense). This mentality gets you beat when it matters most. Put all your eggs in one side of a two sided games basket and eventually it will bite you in the ass. Just ask the Wall/Bledsoe/Boogie group. I’d use the surprising UNCW loss as illustration. We shot poorly by this teams standards and didn’t value defense and were beat by a highly average team. I’d say we will see another head scratcher or two in sec play for the same reason. Our defense and our defense alone will be the thing that takes this team from really good to potentially damn near unbeatable.”
Parrish is just using common sense and going with the odds. The team is a lot of fun to watch offensively for sure but leaves a lot to be desired on the other side. It takes one offensive stinker in the tournament and you’re done. I’d like to see this team start narrowing in on their defensive identity soon.
“Why not do both (Defense and offense). This mentality gets you beat when it matters most. Put all your eggs in one side of a two sided games basket and eventually it will bite you in the ass. Just ask the Wall/Bledsoe/Boogie group. I’d use the surprising UNCW loss as illustration. We shot poorly by this teams standards and didn’t value defense and were beat by a highly average team. I’d say we will see another head scratcher or two in sec play for the same reason. Our defense and our defense alone will be the thing that takes this team from really good to potentially damn near unbeatable.”
Parrish is just using common sense and going with the odds. The team is a lot of fun to watch offensively for sure but leaves a lot to be desired on the other side. It takes one offensive stinker in the tournament and you’re done. I’d like to see this team start narrowing in on their defensive identity soon.
Defense needs to improve, but being ranked 203 in scoring defense is inconsequential when you’re ranked 3rd in scoring. Pick up the pace and your opponent comes along for the ride to some degree.
One of our worst traits under Cal has been allowing opponents to dictate pace far too often. I prefer what we are seeing this year.
I make it no secret that I believe Cal is the worst game coach we’ve ever had at UK. He has 25 percent of the players in the NBA and one NC to show for it.
You give any other coach the talent and brackets Cal has had and they would have 10 FF’s and at least 3 NC’s.
You think Rupp only won because of segregation and he didn’t have to coach against African American players. And he played in a tournament with less teams. Cal has had an advantage of stacking up NCAAT wins in the first two rounds against cupcakes. He hasn’t been able to do that the last 2 seasons though.
If we had almost any other coach in America these media guys would make us a FF lock. But they know we have Cal who can lose to St Peter, Tom Crean, Bruce Weber, Auburn without their best player whom we smoked a few weeks earlier, and even Puddin Tang.
Luckily this team is like Cal’s best teams. All he has to do is roll the ball out. Shawn Woods said it best last night. We don’t run sets we just let our guys beat their man one on one.
When we get in a game where the other coach has a good game plan we will be in trouble unless the players can figure it out on their own.
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That isn't true...just isn't. Again, it is Cals decision on who he recruits and how he wants to build the program, 100%. The reality is regarding the talent, yes it has been elite but it has also been very young. He takes alpha dog talent and has to get them to buy into a team concept in a season. It is high risk, high reward. These guys aren't used to this, at all. They are used to be the guy and the only guy in many instances.
My complaint about Cal is simply not having the Adou Thiero's of the world on the roster consistently. Need to have base to the pyramid and at times he has failed to do that.
Cal should have more than one title but this nonsense about any other coach is a joke.
Objectively, the greatest modern coach of all time tried Cals system and went to 2FF and won one title in 9 tries at it.
This isn't a video game...the Devin Booker who was here in 2015 isn't the one playing for the Suns right now.
Your on it fast I didn’t even get to finish my post lol
Ah, bout to take kids to the museum so had to squeeze in one more post. Enjoy the Saturday! I like bickering with you, Cal hater...lol.
I think our backcourt depth advantage is greater than any they may have over us. We would beat Kansas at this point in the season
Giving up 70+ points to 5 or more no name teams is not above average. Their defense is terrible overall. Fortunately they can score on anyone. I think they will improve defensively.
Our adjusted defensive efficiency is 54th. Since there are 362 teams, wouldn’t average be closer to 181?
Truth is, our defense is better than 80% of teams out there. We need to be better than 95% though, if we want to be an elite team, imo.
Maybe it's just me not understanding the game well enough. (I admit being a novice at basketball strategy.)
I saw the total rebounds at 40-35 yesterday going towards Illini State. On the surface to me that looks bad.
Then I look at the break down...
Off rebounds 20, Def rebounds 20 for the Illini
Off rebounds 5, Def rebounds 30 for UK...
Then I look at FG percentages:
FG% Illini 32.9
FG% UK 57.1
Illini took 79 shots
UK took 63 shots
UK had 16 less chances for Offensive rebounds than the Illini did just due to hitting there shots. (This is a rough figure.)
On the defensive rebound side UK stomped the Illini 30-20...
Am I looking at this wrong?
@Aike (I just saw you post.) Am I off base? Thanks
They rebounded 40% of their chances on offense, which would be right around worst in the country for opponents’ offensive rebounding if it were for a whole season.
We only grabbed 20% of our offensive rebound chances, which would also be close to last in the country for a whole season.
Definitely was a rough spot last night.
