Slept on it before making a post

[KendallCat]

Pretty frustrating game given the fact we were up 21 and in control only to give up another big lead like Auburn, Miss State, and Kansas. This team has some positives to it, but it has some pieces that are very frustrating and typical of a Cal team that misses in recruiting. Nobody could have predicted Skal would be where he is developmentally, and it is not just Cal that missed on him since every recruiting site had him pegged as a top 2-3 player including the NBA. Nothing against the kid - just not ready yet to help on defense like Davis or Nerlens or Towns with protecting the rim and getting rebounds. A few other things of note:

*Tyler has been incredible all year, and his running of the offense without turning the ball over has been huge. Can literally break the press without TO's, and gets everyone involved in the game. Not to mention his shooting has been solid, very good from the line, and hits the big shot. Only thing that has hurt us is on defense teams are shooting over him with success - just not able to stop guards 6'3 and bigger. Would love this kid for 4 years.

* Rest of the guard play has been average. Murray scores and gets streaky, but once he gets the ball the other players get stagnant knowing the ball is not coming back. Solid shooter but his defense is lacking - loses his man way too many times in key situations. Briscoe is a bull driving to the hoop, defends well,rebounds, and his midrange game has improved, but the foul shooting and lack of consistency has been frustrating. Matthews and Mulder should be able to help more and don't for some reason. Mulder has rebounded well when he plays, but was supposed to bring shooting in with him and has not. Matthews has time to develop and just needs size and confidence. Hawkins has had one good game and been a miss most of the time.

* Everyone knows the bigs have been the issue this year, and it has hurt us on offense as well as defense. Poy has had some good games down low, and early in games we have tried to establish him down low. The issue is with the fouls and not staying in games, and lack of development for a player with his size and strength. Willis has grown into a good shooter and able to slash to the basket, and has shown some rebounding and shot blocking skills but gets beat off the dribble way too much leaving our back line susceptible to fouls.

Lee and Skal are just not strong enough to rebound and protect the rim which has been the biggest issue. All of Cal's teams have had a rim protector from Boogie to Davis to Nerlens to WCS and Towns. This team does not, and in years past our size and length has covered misses on the perimeter - this one does not and is the main problem with our team.

* Final piece is coaching and many have already stated it but Cal is not doing a good job this year developing players and it caught up to him. Cannot always be about "got to get better" or "got to get tougher" or you don't play. Maybe at some point you need to do what you say and sit people who don't do what you want them to do. Also, too many games with big leads and no adjustments and we lose the lead or the game. Self uses a zone and shuts us down and we make zero adjustments. Our team constantly fouls but we don't make personnel or defensive changes like a zone to slow the other team down. Cal has been out coached by Self and Barnes in back to back games - think about that for a second. We have players every year who cannot shoot, and one thing which would be great to change is to recruit one shooter along with the OAD's to keep teams honest. If every team zones your team it might be a clue they have a plan of how to stop you.

Hopefully we can make some adjustments and finish the year strong.

 

[Big Cat fan]

I just think Cal has to get harder on them. It's just not easy to coach this young team. We lost 7 key players and one who returned Ulis has played lights out. Really our returners have played well, if you leave Lee out. Hawkins was coming on but then got hurt, Wills is %100 better then last season. The staff is developing players it's more of the first year players that haven't seem to get it yet.

 

[*CatinIL*]

Well thought out post KC.

 

[cats2010]

I just think Cal has to get harder on them. It's just not easy to coach this young team. We lost 7 key players and one who returned Ulis has played lights out. Really our returners have played well, if you leave Lee out. Hawkins was coming on but then got hurt, Wills is %100 better then last season. The staff is developing players it's more of the first year players that haven't seem to get it yet.

Harder on them? He already spends the entire game screaming and yelling and flailing his arms as if on fire. Hint: that's not coaching. He needs to reel himself in and put this team in a better situation to close games like last night out. Adjustments are key. Every coach makes them except ours. Substitutions are not adjustments. Yelling FIGHT is not an adjustment.

 

[Macy's socks]

Maybe I am misunderstanding your post but we never had a big lead at Kansas and haven't played Miss State yet. I do agree with your thoughts though, well said.

 

[ManitouDan]

Good post KC

 

[GLR5555]

I take it all in stride. My expectations for this team is that anything after the first weekend of the tournament is gravy. This team just doesn't have the fight to compete daily except Tyler. The rest are like watching fumbling Keystone Kops.

 

[CUT-NETS]

Good and fair post by the OP.

To think about Self going to a zone and stopping us in the Kansas game, and then to think about how Cal refuses to do such a thing is maddening.

 

[cats2010]

Maybe I am misunderstanding your post but we never had a big lead at Kansas and haven't played Miss State yet. I do agree with your thoughts though, well said.

Not a big lead at Kansas but still an 8 point lead in the 2nd half. We have played Miss. St. Lead by as much as 20 IIRC but had to hold them off at the end. Won by 6 but seems they had a shot to try and cut it to 1 or 2 with under a minute to go.

 

[KendallCat]

Maybe I am misunderstanding your post but we never had a big lead at Kansas and haven't played Miss State yet. I do agree with your thoughts though, well said.

I believe we were up 9 at Kansas, and pretty sure we beat MSU 80-74 a couple of weeks ago after having a huge lead. My bad if I missed something up. Now on to FB recruiting day!

 

[wkycatfan]

I just don't know about Poythress sometimes. He has to be cattle prodded to really play.

 

[qwesley]

I just don't know about Poythress sometimes. He has to be cattle prodded to really play.

Half his fouls are from daydreaming and getting out of position. Poster boy for this team

 

[BlueGene5]

Pretty frustrating game given the fact we were up 21 and in control only to give up another big lead like Auburn, Miss State, and Kansas. This team has some positives to it, but it has some pieces that are very frustrating and typical of a Cal team that misses in recruiting. Nobody could have predicted Skal would be where he is developmentally, and it is not just Cal that missed on him since every recruiting site had him pegged as a top 2-3 player including the NBA. Nothing against the kid - just not ready yet to help on defense like Davis or Nerlens or Towns with protecting the rim and getting rebounds. A few other things of note:

*Tyler has been incredible all year, and his running of the offense without turning the ball over has been huge. Can literally break the press without TO's, and gets everyone involved in the game. Not to mention his shooting has been solid, very good from the line, and hits the big shot. Only thing that has hurt us is on defense teams are shooting over him with success - just not able to stop guards 6'3 and bigger. Would love this kid for 4 years.

* Rest of the guard play has been average. Murray scores and gets streaky, but once he gets the ball the other players get stagnant knowing the ball is not coming back. Solid shooter but his defense is lacking - loses his man way too many times in key situations. Briscoe is a bull driving to the hoop, defends well,rebounds, and his midrange game has improved, but the foul shooting and lack of consistency has been frustrating. Matthews and Mulder should be able to help more and don't for some reason. Mulder has rebounded well when he plays, but was supposed to bring shooting in with him and has not. Matthews has time to develop and just needs size and confidence. Hawkins has had one good game and been a miss most of the time.

* Everyone knows the bigs have been the issue this year, and it has hurt us on offense as well as defense. Poy has had some good games down low, and early in games we have tried to establish him down low. The issue is with the fouls and not staying in games, and lack of development for a player with his size and strength. Willis has grown into a good shooter and able to slash to the basket, and has shown some rebounding and shot blocking skills but gets beat off the dribble way too much leaving our back line susceptible to fouls.

Lee and Skal are just not strong enough to rebound and protect the rim which has been the biggest issue. All of Cal's teams have had a rim protector from Boogie to Davis to Nerlens to WCS and Towns. This team does not, and in years past our size and length has covered misses on the perimeter - this one does not and is the main problem with our team.

* Final piece is coaching and many have already stated it but Cal is not doing a good job this year developing players and it caught up to him. Cannot always be about "got to get better" or "got to get tougher" or you don't play. Maybe at some point you need to do what you say and sit people who don't do what you want them to do. Also, too many games with big leads and no adjustments and we lose the lead or the game. Self uses a zone and shuts us down and we make zero adjustments. Our team constantly fouls but we don't make personnel or defensive changes like a zone to slow the other team down. Cal has been out coached by Self and Barnes in back to back games - think about that for a second. We have players every year who cannot shoot, and one thing which would be great to change is to recruit one shooter along with the OAD's to keep teams honest. If every team zones your team it might be a clue they have a plan of how to stop you.

Hopefully we can make some adjustments and finish the year strong.

Agree with everything. ESPECIALLY the final piece!

 

[DeerTurkHunter1]

Maybe I am misunderstanding your post but we never had a big lead at Kansas and haven't played Miss State yet. I do agree with your thoughts though, well said.

Well this post shows how much you watch the games. We DID have a big lead at Kansas of 9 and we DID play Miss. St. and let a much bigger lead get shrunk down before winning, lol.

 

[jboler]

I guess my biggest gripe is.......well, we have two big guys constantly sitting on the bench, never getting any PT whatsoever. Even against Kansas....instead of putting one of those guys in, we went to a four guard line up. Could they do any worse than Lee or Skal? They would at least give you some additional fouls to deal with. Why make them sit?

 

[wkycatfan]

I honestly think Dom and Mulder would get more rebounds than Skal.

 

[MWes11]

Good post, OP.

 

[specialkd24]

For $6-7 million a year Cal needs to coach the players better. I know we lost all those NBA players last year, but he should have either recruited better or done something different with this year. There are teams with a lot less talent out there doing better than us.

I go back to this again but it is true ... had we won it all last year, everyone could have accepted a down year. But we blew back-to-back Final Four opportunities (one with arguably the greatest collection of college talent ever on one team) and have nothing to show for it. For that he deserves a little criticism.

 

[GLR5555]

Maybe I am misunderstanding your post but we never had a big lead at Kansas and haven't played Miss State yet. I do agree with your thoughts though, well said.

 

[crestcat]

All of this is to say we've got one man we can depend on

 

[JasonS.]

*Tyler has been incredible all year, and his running of the offense without turning the ball over has been huge. Can literally break the press without TO's, and gets everyone involved in the game. Not to mention his shooting has been solid, very good from the line, and hits the big shot. Only thing that has hurt us is on defense teams are shooting over him with success - just not able to stop guards 6'3 and bigger. Would love this kid for 4 years.

Ulis was flat-out bad in the second half last night ... especially the last 10 minutes (except for the one nice pass to Murray for 3 with :30 left and the game basically out of reach).

Fortunately it doesn't happen very often, but we just aren't very good at all when he's not playing at a high level.

 

[nookam]

Good and fair post by the OP.

To think about Self going to a zone and stopping us in the Kansas game, and then to think about how Cal refuses to do such a thing is maddening.

Self playing with a loaded very experienced and deep team needed OT and a loose whistle to win the game at home in an insane environment. Why? Why? why were we not smoked by this genius? Why would it take OT with every advantage possible?
You think Self stutters now, he would vapor lock if he had to coach here among the tards.

 

[nookam]

I guess my biggest gripe is.......well, we have two big guys constantly sitting on the bench, never getting any PT whatsoever. Even against Kansas....instead of putting one of those guys in, we went to a four guard line up. Could they do any worse than Lee or Skal? They would at least give you some additional fouls to deal with. Why make them sit?

Because they suck?

 

[Midway Cat]

Recruiting misses and the lack of in-game adjustments aside, Cal's clock management at the end of last night's game was truly embarrassing.

Down 5 with just over a minute to play, and you're not fouling? And when Tennessee inevitably drains the shot clock, misses, and gets an offensive rebound, you're STILL not fouling? And when one of our players inevitably fouls anyway at the end of the shot clock, you react by screaming that no one should've fouled?

I'll never understand why college coaches who typically micromanage every single aspect of the game flat refuse to give themselves a shot at the end. There was no way we were catching up otherwise, yet we didn't even try.

Sure, some of our players deserve criticism, but their coach needs to put them in situations where they actually have a chance to succeed. Last night, Cal failed them across the board.

 

[Comebakatz3]

* Rest of the guard play has been average. Murray scores and gets streaky, but once he gets the ball the other players get stagnant knowing the ball is not coming back. Solid shooter but his defense is lacking - loses his man way too many times in key situations. Briscoe is a bull driving to the hoop, defends well,rebounds, and his midrange game has improved, but the foul shooting and lack of consistency has been frustrating. Matthews and Mulder should be able to help more and don't for some reason. Mulder has rebounded well when he plays, but was supposed to bring shooting in with him and has not. Matthews has time to develop and just needs size and confidence. Hawkins has had one good game and been a miss most of the time.

Pretty solid post. In regards to Murray, the other day I went back and watched some highlights of earlier games. He was so much better, IMO, than he is now. He was helping the team out in a lot of different ways. He would pass on fast breaks and ran a beautiful two man game. Now, it seems as though he is really just playing a whole lot of 1 on 1. Not sure what the change was. Not sure if he has just decided to go ahead and get his so he can get to the NBA or if he has lost some confidence in his teammates or what. Here is one clip of his from the Duke game:

 

[KendallCat]

Pretty solid post. In regards to Murray, the other day I went back and watched some highlights of earlier games. He was so much better, IMO, than he is now. He was helping the team out in a lot of different ways. He would pass on fast breaks and ran a beautiful two man game. Now, it seems as though he is really just playing a whole lot of 1 on 1. Not sure what the change was. Not sure if he has just decided to go ahead and get his so he can get to the NBA or if he has lost some confidence in his teammates or what. Here is one clip of his from the Duke game:

View embedded media

Thank you for taking the time to post this video, and after watching it I was surprised at how bad Duke was on defense and did not move on offense. On defense they did not move their feet and played standing straight up with no help. I agree with your assessment that he is looking out for himself for the draft and trying to find ways to showcase his skills. Was really proud of how we played at Kansas, and last night does not make sense to get up 21 and lose to a 10-11 team. Figured we were gassed a bit from a late Saturday road game and turn around and do a Tuesday away game - had enough energy to get up 21 so no excuses.

 

[FiveStarCat]

Harder on them? He already spends the entire game screaming and yelling and flailing his arms as if on fire. Hint: that's not coaching. He needs to reel himself in and put this team in a better situation to close games like last night out. Adjustments are key. Every coach makes them except ours. Substitutions are not adjustments. Yelling FIGHT is not an adjustment.

Does every coach make the Final Four 4 out of 5 years? Just curious.

 

[qwesley]

Does every coach make the Final Four 4 out of 5 years? Just curious.

I agree with you and hasten to fuel the anti crowd but the change in rules this year seem to have effected us more than others.

 

[yabbadabbadoo]

I love having great players, but at what point do you sit certain ones and try to win the game. Failure to make ANY adjustments in a game when the opponent is gaining on you is not good.
Stubbornness and pride has cost UK quite a few wins the past few years. Granted, we've probably won more than we would've normally, but we shouldn't have lost some of the games that we have.

 

[docholiday51]

I agree with you and hasten to fuel the anti crowd but the change in rules this year seem to have effected us more than others.

The rule change seemed to help us early in the season,I don't think it is being called the same way as it was early this year.I thought Cal was going to get a T or two late in the game last night.If we see something like this in the next game or two look for him to get tossed or do something really off the wall like pull his starters and put in everyone at the other end of the bench. When AP got thrown to the floor last night I thought Cal was going to go all Mike Davis on them for a split second.

 

[cats2010]

Does every coach make the Final Four 4 out of 5 years? Just curious.

Absolutely not but other coaches are not raking in the #1 or #2 class for even one year much less 7 consecutive years. When you recruit the absolute best of the best, high expectations are met. Perhaps you fail to understand the fans, or at least my frustration, with Cal is as good as he is, he could be that much better. Imagine, if he is willingness to adjust his style to the game or the players he had matched his recruiting prowess. This team would not be unbeatable but we wouldn't be losing to the likes of Auburn and Tennessee. Both beat us with vastly inferior talent so who's fault is that. Rarely do we get the opportunity to beat a team with vastly superior talent so again Cal is a victim of his own recruiting success. I get it he wont change and that's fine but it will not stop me from complaining about his stubbornness which has kept him from winning at least one more title than he has and most likely 2.

 

[docholiday51]

It is hard to make any sense out of what we have seen from this team so far this season.Wins over Duke,UL a great effort at KU but losses to UCLA Ohio St, Auburn and now UT.Those 4 losses are to teams that are flat out not good and we should not lose to all 4 on our worst day.One loss or maybe 2 but not all 4,If you look at this from the perspective of if UT had been a + or - 3 point game at the 10 minute mark of the first half how bad would the beating have been.Are we really that bad of a team at times,it wouldn't be that bad if we had played Floreal,David Mulder,Wynyard(who hasn't played a minute) and Humphries from that point on.

Maybe Cal has done a magical job to win as many as we have so far and we just don't know it. We get these big leads or working leads and then just fold our tent from a certain point on.If we are in a one or two possession game with 3 minutes to go we are likely going to get beat no matter if the team we are playing is 17-3 or 3-17.A strange year and an even stranger team.

 

[YouKay]

The rule change seemed to help us early in the season,I don't think it is being called the dame way as it was early this year.I thought Cal was going to get a T or two late in the game last night.If we see something like this in the next game or two look for him to get tossed or do something really off the wall like pull his starters and put in everyone at hte other end of the bench. When AP got thrown to the floor last night I thought Cal was going to go all Mike Davis on them for a split second.

It absolutely is not being called the same. Every year we hear this BS that officiating will improve, rule changes, etc. and then we get Karl Hess or Doug Shows and they see the Kentucky on the guy's chest and call the foul.

I know Cal is trying to get his guys to adjust to what is being called, but at some point he has to start working these refs a little. I mean that one call on Briscoe was just horrendous, and even the TV guys were expressing astonishment at many of the calls.

 

[docholiday51]

It absolutely is not being called the same. Every year we hear this BS that officiating will improve, rule changes, etc. and then we get Karl Hess or Doug Shows and they see the Kentucky on the guy's chest and call the foul.

I know Cal is trying to get his guys to adjust to what is being called, but at some point he has to start working these refs a little. I mean that one call on Briscoe was just horrendous, and even the TV guys were expressing astonishment at many of the calls.

I don't like to get on officiating rants(I called football for several years) but the biggest difference I see in the past couple of games is that it is not being called the same on both ends of the floor.Last night in particular a foul on one end was not a foul on the other end,maybe it was for the first 5 minutes but from that point on it was not even close to the same.

 

[screwduke]

Recruiting misses and the lack of in-game adjustments aside, Cal's clock management at the end of last night's game was truly embarrassing.

Down 5 with just over a minute to play, and you're not fouling? And when Tennessee inevitably drains the shot clock, misses, and gets an offensive rebound, you're STILL not fouling? And when one of our players inevitably fouls anyway at the end of the shot clock, you react by screaming that no one should've fouled?

I'll never understand why college coaches who typically micromanage every single aspect of the game flat refuse to give themselves a shot at the end. There was no way we were catching up otherwise, yet we didn't even try.

Sure, some of our players deserve criticism, but their coach needs to put them in situations where they actually have a chance to succeed. Last night, Cal failed them across the board.

Fouling when down 5 points is completely asinine. If Tennessee went to the free throw line and the player hit both free throws you'd be bitching that Cal had the team foul and gave up points. Realize how stupid that would've been?

 

[Hoskins91]

I love having great players, but at what point do you sit certain ones and try to win the game. Failure to make ANY adjustments in a game when the opponent is gaining on you is not good.
Stubbornness and pride has cost UK quite a few wins the past few years. Granted, we've probably won more than we would've normally, but we shouldn't have lost some of the games that we have.

He keeps playing them to give us a chance to win. You start seeing Humphries and Wynyard, that means he has given up on the season. Those two aren't difference makers this year.

 

[jboler]

Because they suck?

And Lee and Skal....don't?

 

[crestcat]

I don't like to get on officiating rants(I called football for several years) but the biggest difference I see in the past couple of games is that it is not being called the same on both ends of the floor.Last night in particular a foul on one end was not a foul on the other end,maybe it was for the first 5 minutes but from that point on it was not even close to the same.

This is the problem I have, IMO we do commit most of those fouls but if it is a no call on the other end, let it be a no call on our end

 

[michaeluk26]

Absolutely not but other coaches are not raking in the #1 or #2 class for even one year much less 7 consecutive years. When you recruit the absolute best of the best, high expectations are met. Perhaps you fail to understand the fans, or at least my frustration, with Cal is as good as he is, he could be that much better. Imagine, if he is willingness to adjust his style to the game or the players he had matched his recruiting prowess. This team would not be unbeatable but we wouldn't be losing to the likes of Auburn and Tennessee. Both beat us with vastly inferior talent so who's fault is that. Rarely do we get the opportunity to beat a team with vastly superior talent so again Cal is a victim of his own recruiting success. I get it he wont change and that's fine but it will not stop me from complaining about his stubbornness which has kept him from winning at least one more title than he has and most likely 2.

Since when did having the top ranked recruiting classes mean you have to win a title? Its asinine. All we heard was that youcant win national titles with one and dones. Yet Cal and K have both done it and now the goalposts have been shifted to we should be winning a title with all that talent. Its pure bullshit. We are rebuilding teams every year playing against teams who have a huge advantage of playing together for years while we have RAW talent. And yet incredibly, we have been contenders for a national title 5 out of 6 years. Go back and look which teams had the top ranked classes before Cal got here and see how many won titles, or even got to final fours.

 

[Midway Cat]

Fouling when down 5 points is completely asinine. If Tennessee went to the free throw line and the player hit both free throws you'd be bitching that Cal had the team foul and gave up points. Realize how stupid that would've been?

No, I wouldn't be bitching at all. And it wouldn't have been stupid in the least. We would've given ourselves the best chance to extend the game, and that's all you can ask when you're down by multiple possessions with just over a minute left.

You disagree? Fine. One thing I can assure you, though--You have absolutely no idea what my reaction would have been had our coach actually made the correct strategic choice at that stage of the game. None.