Second half adjustments.

[ChicagoCat1990]

I love basketball but am not crazy knowledgeable about all of the X's and O's. Will you all help me out by breaking down exactly what Pope did in the second half to flip the script for us? 13 years of watching Cal and I never had the opportunity to learn about a second half adjustment.

 

[Ron Mehico]

It feels like a fever dream I can’t believe we came back. What a damn phenomenal job. They looked completely exhausted at the end.

 

[L.O.D.]

Tesm played better defense - levels better. Duke got tired about 7 min mark and we starting making a run.

 

[Runnin'Ramel]

He put on a coaching clinic all the way down to that out of bounds play with 5.5 to go. Cal would have had it drawn up to throw it in right under Duke’s own bucket and I am not being sarcastic.

 

[Rockfly78]

We stayed the course on offense . Guarded the ball better and took away some lanes. But the biggest thing that jumped out was that Duke gassed out. Pope used his subs very well and kept fresh legs in. Flashed a brief zone that took them out of rhythm late. But I’m no Benny.

 

[Lempface]

It didn't look like we did a whole lot differently, but we played with more intensity and effort. e.g. Pope lit a fire under they asses.

 

[crxohio]

He put on a coaching clinic all the way down to that out of bounds play with 5.5 to go. Cal would have had it drawn up to throw it in right under Duke’s own bucket and I am not being sarcastic.

Heck no your not!!!! This guy just ran circles around Cal with less talent!!!!! Straight 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

 

[ArtLaibsGhost]

Moving Carr to post late made a huge difference

 

[bluebayou01]

Turned up the defense. We pressured the ball more. Wore them down physically. We attacked the basket better. And had better spacing on offense. But our defense in the 2nd half putting more pressure on the ball, made the difference. His substitution pattern was way different than Cal. He didn't kill momentum by subbing when a group was clicking.

 

[yabbadabbadoo]

Didn’t allow Duke to dribble into the lane where they killed us in the first half.
Also Duke got tired it seemed.

 

[crxohio]

It didn't look like we did a whole lot differently, but we played with more intensity and effort. e.g. Pope lit a fire under they asses.

No we did adjust. Especially the lane. And weak side rebound help. Duke was lucky in two ways! We realized we need some effective 2pt conversions and we missed several shots there. We went away from the 3pt shot more than we have in the past. Outside of Kerr hero ball lol

 

[ukypug]

I think Duke screwed up by not going back to the knipple guy. He was abusing us all first half with the pick / roll. Maybe we denied that but they definitely did not run it much in the second half. Darn nice to watch this team!

 

[mcwildcats04]

Moving Carr to post late made a huge difference

Yes, the announcers talked about this one. Had him playing the 5.

 

[CatFanInIlliniLand]

Kneuppel ran out of gas. He had 14 points but ended 5-20

 

[DraftCat]

Well for one UK wasn't being called for every touch foul that's a huge factor.

I know UK moved Carr to the 5 spot that helped. But I'll let people smarter than me comment.

 

[DraftCat]

Kneuppel ran out of gas. He had 14 points but ended 5-20

That's crazy I felt like he was making play after play. He's a really solid player kinda jealous actually.

But glad UK wore him and Flagg down.

 

[michaeluk26]

Defensively we held them to 26 points in the 2nd half after giving up 46 in the first.

 

[sosoblue]

We started driving to the basket. Carr was put in isolation to take his man. Great adhustments by Pope.

 

[podgejeff_]

It seemed like the tides started turning after Maluach got hurt as well. He was a defense/rebounding force.

We definitely tested Duke's gas tank.

 

[WildmanWilson]

We started driving to the basket. Carr was put in isolation to take his man. Great adhustments by Pope.

I think this was the game changer. They had pushed us out so far because we were only looking for a 3. When the 3 ball dried up we started struggling and looked lost a little bit. You can’t live by the 3 alone and they adjusted play and made all the difference in the world.

 

[BC_Wader]

I think this was the game changer. They had pushed us out so far because we were only looking for a 3. When the 3 ball dried up we started struggling and looked lost a little bit. You can’t live by the 3 alone and they adjusted play and made all the difference in the world.

Yeah I think the talk about what will we do when the shots aren't falling was put to bed. Didn't look that way in the first half. Pope is a hell of a coach.

 

[BlueWorldOrder74]

Carr to the 5; pulling big man out and driving, opened up the game

We starting driving hard to the basket, didn’t just settle for three

Forced them to take some longer shots and stopped their penetration, luckily they weren’t hitting three

Did not pkay Chandler. That was a good decisikn

Played BG more and Sat Williams more in second half of second half - the mobility and athleticism helped in defense big time

 

[know1]

We made some slight adjustments, but we also settled down a bit and stopped rushing everything. Also, we're clearly in better shape or at least deeper than Duke and we wore them out. A lot of that has to do with how hard teams have to work against Butler and Oweh and even Williams. I think the big adjustment was not letting them get into the lane and also we zoned a bit.

 

[kats23]

I'll let the man himself explain what he did.

 

[tf4fun]

It appeared to me we really struggled to get open looks! My question is , was that lack of athletic ability? Or being new to a offense and not running it crisp? Is this fixable? Robinson was a no show, and couldn't understand why he wasn't curling off picks, and getting midrange shots off if they pressed his 3 points shot that hard! Thoughts?

 

[Short-Dawg-69]

Carr to the 5; pulling big man out and driving, opened up the game

We starting driving hard to the basket, didn’t just settle for three

Forced them to take some longer shots and stopped their penetration, luckily they weren’t hitting three

Did not pkay Chandler. That was a good decisikn

Played BG more and Sat Williams more in second half of second half - the mobility and athleticism helped in defense big time

This

 

[LukaszObrzut]

Credit to Pope. He did a lot of good that people have already mentioned. Couple zone possessions, (sometimes man principles) lineup key switches (Pope props) , no foul trouble allowed Butler Oweh Carr finding rhythm, together , not allowing Proctor to get going by hard deny far out , and help defense on the first bounce from Flagg. Duke had 1 TO in 1st half and had 2 in the last minute.

Duke relies on their 3 freshman and a completely new team- no college film on the freshman means we were the 1st team all year to have the opportunity to find their “weaknesses” per say

Don’t underestimate 25 years of experience on the court either.

 

[BBNinSC]

This team will only get better as Pope learns more about the players strengths and how to best use them.

 

[jwphelps]

We stayed the course on offense . Guarded the ball better and took away some lanes. But the biggest thing that jumped out was that Duke gassed out. Pope used his subs very well and kept fresh legs in. Flashed a brief zone that took them out of rhythm late. But I’m no Benny.

I thought Duke got tired, yet half time and even Bilas raved about Duke's depth. Well I guess they are not as deep as UK>

 

[AGEE11]

He pushed our D out to make it a longer trip for them to get in the lane.

Tightened up PnR as someone posted in the tweet above.

Also, we drove more and didn't rely on pull up, contested 3s

Putting Carr in the lane was master class coaching

This win was everything we all wanted and never got from Cal in on

 

[FirewithFire]

We beat their ass, literally. Our physical play made Duke run out of gas around the middle of the second half. They were cramping up and couldn't hang with our ten man rotation. Once they got tiered their defense slowed down and our offense didn't.

Plus, Pope made actual adjustments. It's been so long since I have seen UK make those it shocked me a bit. Seriously though, our defense picked up and we became very aggressive and physical. Pope put Carr at the five which opened up the floor so that they couldn't pack the lane. Then we jammed it down their throat.

And out of bounds plays. Wow.

That said, we have an issue with defense and rebounding. Hopefully they can address those before the next game.

 

[Johnfarrel]

We have seen this movie before. Great young players vs good experienced mature players only this time Kentucky had the mature players. They said the youngest Kentucky player was older than the oldest Duke player. When you play men against boys, the men usually win. Kentucky did not wear down and feel the pressure at the end, and Duke did. Flagg is all they said he was, but he wore down and made two crucial mistakes down the stretch.

 

[MonsterMash79]

It feels like a fever dream I can’t believe we came back. What a damn phenomenal job. They looked completely exhausted at the end.

Thought for a second Gene Hackman was on the sideline 🤨