Post game Pope

[billoliver40]

Pretty much what a lot have been saying. -10 rebounding first half, poor free throw shooting, said he made a disaster decision going small at one stretch. Says guys trust each other but not leaning on the system.

For me:
I really like this team. On a night where just about everything from odd officiating to bad shooting occurred they were 2 made threes from a W on a rough night.
Wouldn't surprise me to get a W at the Zags, or an L.
For all the maturity of the individual players this is an awful young team. (Odd to say but true). Several guys were come off the bench specialists that have to adjust.

I'd be a lot more concerned if this were game 16 or 17 rather than game 8.

Respond and get better.

 

[TTTblue24]

If we’re not going to make open 3s or a good number of them, then expect a lot of rock fights on the road in SEC play. We got shooters but need some makers to offset the rock fights people want to to get us in.

 

[JPFisher]

I'd be a lot more concerned if this were game 16 or 17 rather than game 8.

Respond and get better.

After Louisville, we have two games in 2-1/2 weeks.

That time period will be huge for the rest of the season. Can we have our guys shore up their knowledge and play within the system, get free throw shooting down, and work on personal deficiencies?

If Garrison can become an outside threat and Williams can learn some touch off the glass, this team jumps to another echelon entirely.

I'm of the impression that nobody in the country can beat this team if it's playing even 80% of its best ball. The rub is getting there. Consistently.

 

[BC_Wader]

We're a finesse team that has to learn to play with a chip on our shoulders and bring the pain/toughness. This was our first road game and I'm not worried one bit at the moment. I feel we needed a game like this.

 

[BlueBomb]

Amari is the weak link. He is just so raw offensively in the paint. His inability to score allows everyone to press out on the shooters and overplay on the perimeter taking away our shooting advantage. Not sure he's the answer at the five at this point.

 

[catsfan325]

Amari is the weak link. He is just so raw offensively in the paint. His inability to score allows everyone to press out on the shooters and overplay on the perimeter taking away our shooting advantage. Not sure he's the answer at the five at this point.

That's the one wrinkle I'd especially like to see Pope's teams having moving forward. Imagine if Williams was a true scoring threat and could even hit the open 3

 

[BlueBomb]

That's the one wrinkle I'd especially like to see Pope's teams having moving forward. Imagine if Williams was a true scoring threat and could even hit the open 3

Yep. Especially considering Pope's offense relies on the center to start the offense.

I don't think it's necessary to have five players on the floor that can shoot the three. But, given our offensive philosophy, the five guy must be able to score from SOMEWHERE.

The better option might be to put Carr at the five spot and go small. But we'd certainly have to crash the boards.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

He is such a breath of fresh air from Cal.
He is very articulate and you could see the disappointment on his face after the L.

We wont have many more.

 

[kennyskywalker34]

He is such a breath of fresh air from Cal.
He is very articulate and you could see the disappointment on his face after the L.

We wont have many more.

@HerrosHeroes This is a great post. I apologize to you. I'll take you're sometimes over the top posts anytime over some of these chicken Littles the sky is falling posters. Between them and the rival fans pretending to be UK fans. This place is miserable after a loss.

 

[the nail at the foul line]

Duke lost last week and went up in the polls.

 

[AJG-15]

Yes, after hearing he say that Kentucky is everyone’s Super Bowl and after the game we all watched yesterday for a minute I thought Cal was still the coach.

 

[wardlow]

Duke lost last week and went up in the polls.

They certainly did. Even had a post on my news feed with the title “Duke rises a spot despite loss to Kansas”. I laughed.

 

[MrHotDice]

@HerrosHeroes This is a great post. I apologize to you. I'll take you're sometimes over the top posts anytime over some of these chicken Littles the sky is falling posters. Between them and the rival fans pretending to be UK fans. This place is miserable after a loss.

Just consider this that for every 100 posters their might be 1 that give an honest answer. No true fan ever and I mean ever blames a player. Blame the team or blame the coach but in a 40 min game how do you blame one person for a 4 point loss. Simple minded

 

[yoshukai]

Amari is the weak link. He is just so raw offensively in the paint. His inability to score allows everyone to press out on the shooters and overplay on the perimeter taking away our shooting advantage. Not sure he's the answer at the five at this point.

If he’s the weak link why did we look so bad when he wasn’t in the game . It scares me when he’s handling the ball too much but without him we lose by 15-20 last night. He was the only big that was willing to match their physicality. Garrison and Carr were no shows .

 

[yoshukai]

They certainly did. Even had a post on my news feed with the title “Duke rises a spot despite loss to Kansas”. I laughed.

Duke lost last week and went up in the polls.

If we can beat Gonzaga then hopefully we won’t drop much if any. But that seems like a tall task ,if in fact there is some type of flu or illness working it’s way through our team as is rumored. Be difficult to bounce back from an east coast road game with a short turnaround before flying out west to take on Gonzaga when you have players getting and recovering from illness.

 

[Soupbean]

Amari is the weak link. He is just so raw offensively in the paint. His inability to score allows everyone to press out on the shooters and overplay on the perimeter taking away our shooting advantage. Not sure he's the answer at the five at this point.

I agree and made this point in the game thread, not just last night but all year you could see he really struggles one on one to score and in most cases he's trying to make a tough contested 6 foot jump hook to score and that just is not good offense. The negative outcome percentage on the times we isolate to him cant be good.

I know he's had some success against weaker teams and smaller opponents and been able to get closer to the basket and score some, but against the good teams that's not going to happent and we cant afford to keep losing possessions where he tries to score and cant. Its just a very low percentage philosophy and coach needs to police that better.

I know we run the offense through him a lot out top but Id rather see Carr in that position who has the ability to score outside or in (I know he struggles last night - not normal) and keep Amari close to the rim to get lobs and put backs.

 

[acatnamedmyra]

Yes, after hearing he say that Kentucky is everyone’s Super Bowl and after the game we all watched yesterday for a minute I thought Cal was still the coach.

Who the hell are you?

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Yep. Especially considering Pope's offense relies on the center to start the offense.

I don't think it's necessary to have five players on the floor that can shoot the three. But, given our offensive philosophy, the five guy must be able to score from SOMEWHERE.

The better option might be to put Carr at the five spot and go small. But we'd certainly have to crash the boards.

But that's the issue, you can't play Oweh at the 4. Almonor is also finesse. Do you start him at the 4? He's not a good rebounder.

 

[Edgarman]

If we can beat Gonzaga then hopefully we won’t drop much if any. But that seems like a tall task ,if in fact there is some type of flu or illness working it’s way through our team as is rumored. Be difficult to bounce back from an east coast road game with a short turnaround before flying out west to take on Gonzaga when you have players getting and recovering from illness.

It is early December. It really does not make a damn if we are ranked # 1 or not ranked. We still have the same players, same coach, and same schedule. Time will take care of rankings. Actually we are probably over ranked. Duke certainly was. Until late January the rankings is just speculation. Come late January rankings will be based on preformance. Right now we really do not know if we are good, great, or bad. Late January the answer will be obvious. Go BBN!