Skal on defense

[MdWIldcat55]

Just curious as to where posters think Skal will end up as a defensive player, compared to others in the Calipari era. The Cats have had some terrific defenders in the paint, with Davis being the best in a generation of college basketball players, Noel being an incredible shot blocker, WCS being a remarkable athlete.

Skal made a couple nice blocks from behind last night, but as Cal says, he needs to become a fighter. He's probably been with coaches all his life who focused on developing his scoring touch and treated defense as an afterthought. His defensive reaction time looked a little slow to me, not because he lacks athleticism, but he wasn't seeing things develop often.

It'll be interesting to see how far Cal and the staff can take him by late February. I can remember even Davis having some tentative games early in 2012 -- the Old Dominion game comes to mind, and of course he got in quick foul trouble against Indiana (both times, but I'm referring to the December game.)

Skal is listed at almost precisely the same weight as Davis, and an inch taller. He's about ten pounds lighter than Noel was listed. I can remember being concerned those guys would be shoved around, but both learned how to hold their ground inside and avoid that.

 

[CELTICAT]

Davis was definitely weak first half of that season. Got stripped on rebounds against KU, ODU and IU. By March he was the best player to ever don a Kentucky uniform.

My hope is that Skal gets stronger and more confident. Recent history suggests that's exactly what will happen. We may, however, lean on Alex early to be our muscle.

 

[kentucky_wildcat_#1]

I don't think he has a chance to be better than Davis or Noel. Those two guys were just freaks on D and it's just not fair to any kid to expect them to be better than those two. I'm thinking he will end up being near Towns on D. Many Kentucky fans don't get how good on D Towns was at the end of the year. The dude could block the heck out of shots in the paint. Skal will be awesome at blocking shots. I love the fact this kid can recover and block. The shot attempt when he gets beat off the dribble. Skal might need a lil more time to build some muscle to bang in the post, but near the end of the season, guards will be scared to drive the ball in his direction.

 

[bigbluelou]

I confess to not knowing a great deal about his defensive skills. Probably the best thing he has going for him besides his immense talent is that he has Cal and staff coaching him. They obviously molded AD, Nerlens, WCS, Towns, et al into great players. Not saying they weren't already outstanding, but look where they ended up.

I'm sure Cal and the coaching staff will turn Skal into the best defender his natural abilities will allow. If he can even get close to what AD, Noel and WCS became, I will be thrilled.

 

[K_TIME]

I don't see the quick reaction out of Skal that Davis had...and I think Nerlens was a tad better at shot blocking/steals than AD was. That being said, he'll still defend the rim well fine in college, but I don't think it will be the magnitude that we had for 2 years with AD/Nerlens.

 

[musrat59]

My feeling is that he will have trouble with the big physical players.

 

[sambowieshin]

Will withhold judgement until seeing him compete against real competition. Looks a little slight and lacking in the toughness department right now. I believe Cal will have him ready when it counts.

 

[Jazzycat]

He will need to develop a "killer" "take no prisoners" attitude in order to become a defensive beast. He has all the skills-quickness, athleticism, anticipation and length. It will come down to making it a priority and wanting to be the best defensive player in the country. I hope it happens.

 

[kyjeff1]

It's all about the 6" between his ears and coaching. We know for a fact that our coaches know what they're doing because they've done it every time with every talented big they've had starting with Cuz. Skal will be elite on the defensive end in my opinion. He's long, athletic and they don't need to spend much time teaching him how to score, he is already ahead of the game there.

 

[BlueWorldOrder74]

My feeling is that he will have trouble with the big physical players.

This x2. Worries me a bit. I fear he will get pushed out of position at times. Let's hope he gets a little stronger.

 

[Aike]

Needs to get a lot better on the ball. Wants to play D with his hands a little too much, from what I saw.

 

[shutzhund]

One of the last things anyone needs to worry about is Skal.

 

[ORCAT]

My feeling is that he will have trouble with the big physical players.

Humphries was banging him around in the Blue/White game the other night but I think those two will really help each other develop by constantly going against each other in practice every day.

 

[brianpoe]

Some really good observations here.

AD was simply an aberration, and it is amazing to think that Noel possibly has even better twitch and defensive reaction than him.

Very high bar these two raised.

Skal is much further along offensively than both of them were at this time, but I am not sure he ever gets to their defensive level.

 

[BlueSince92]

He's just not built to play anything like orthodox defense against SEC frontcourts. He has some good instincts, but so far I haven't seen anything like the right instincts from him to put the Davis/Noel/WCS treatment on those big beefy guys. Which again is why I said either Humphries plays a major role (realistic) or we've got some kind of ridiculous basketball fairy godmother.

 

[Poetax]

The plus side of his offense will be enough to offset him not being a beast on defense. Honestly I think the whole team will be defensively better then the last couple of years where one or two guys did it all. That alone will makeup for Skal not having to stand up to Davis and Noel being so good at defense.

 

[Cawood86]

Shot blocking is timing and instinct. He's not there yet imo.

 

[mj2k10]

The plus side of his offense will be enough to offset him not being a beast on defense. Honestly I think the whole team will be defensively better then the last couple of years where one or two guys did it all. That alone will makeup for Skal not having to stand up to Davis and Noel being so good at defense.

??

"One or two guys" were responsible for UK's record-setting D last year? UK allowed teams to shot .354 from the field last year. If this year's team is defensively better, well, hallelujah, because it will be a miracle.

 

[Poetax]

??

"One or two guys" were responsible for UK's record-setting D last year? UK allowed teams to shot .354 from the field last year. If this year's team is defensively better, well, hallelujah, because it will be a miracle.

If you read the previous posts of mine, we were discussing post defense, which I included Willie and Towns. I was saying that it looked like the other positions could be better with this team then last year's which could take pressure off of Skal. No one was knocking last year's team.

 

[IL Wildcat]

OP, I think you're right about the likely focus of what he's been taught by previous coaches- offensive output. That's not unusual. And Skal is an excellent offensive player. But I absolutely agree with Calipari that Skal needs to become much more aggressive in his approach defensively. It was good to see a couple blocks from him the other night, but he can do more.

The best news of all in this regard is that Labissiere has ALL the tools to become a great defender, and I know he's going to be challenged to become just that by Calipari and our coaching staff. Many have entered the UK program under Calipari without much defensive intensity or desire to really even play much on that end of the floor. I can't think of many who have left the same. This is something Calipari gets some credit for, though not enough- his teams play excellent defense. He's not going to let them get away with laziness on the defensive end- and he will make them learn how to guard man to man also, which will serve them well at the next level.

 

[WildMoon]

Hard to say,

He should be better blocker than Towns, but not sure he can handle the beef like Towns did.

One of the positive is that he's bigger than AD/Noel, so maybe he can learn to hold his ground.

I would say Skal has the ability to be somewhere around Towns, maybe better maybe worse.

I don't think he'll ever be near N.N or A.D.