It ain’t hard to figure out. We all saw how great this team was without a center. We added one to the rotation and things haven’t looked the same since. I can only imagine how bad adding another will be.
Ugonna will play against UNC
- Thread starter mcwildcats04
- Start date
Well, we had to go to OT against St. Joe at home and lost to UNCW at home all without a center. So, I'd say things were far from perfect without a center. I'm all for giving Bradshaw major minutes. Think he significantly boosts our ceiling for March.
Oof. Can’t wait to see him playing alongside Bradshaw and Mitchell.
We will need him because Bacot will get Bradshaw in foul trouble. Hopefully we can get 10 good minutes from him.
Not the centers fault though. In fact he is the best player on the team probably and it hasn't taken long to see that.
He will have to play a few minutes. Tre Mitchell can’t keep playing as much as he is.
Not his fault for certain but the team is certainly approaching the games differently than they were beforehand. Probably more cal and how he wants things to go but while not bradshaws fault the team certainly looked and played better without him in the lineup. The team may adjust and get back to looking as they did before but so far they haven’t and that’s not really up for debate. Adding a sloth like UGO into the mix is only going to make things even worse, not better.
Oh no I can see it now. Bradshaw, Ugo and Tre playing at the same time. Get ready for a score in the 60s. 😉😆
I’m not sure how big of an impact Ugo will have in his first game back, especially against a quality opponent like UNC. However, I do think people seem to forget how good he was for us in very limited minutes last season. His per-40 averages were as follows:
15 points
15 rebounds
6 blocks
Those are Oscar type numbers, only light years better defensively. He pretty much made Hunter Dickinson his bitch on multiple occasions in that Michigan game. Dude is an ELITE shot blocker whose timing is impeccable, and has a soft touch as well. I’m excited for his continued development. If he will just be patient and stay at UK, he will be a first-rounder without a doubt.
15 points
15 rebounds
6 blocks
Those are Oscar type numbers, only light years better defensively. He pretty much made Hunter Dickinson his bitch on multiple occasions in that Michigan game. Dude is an ELITE shot blocker whose timing is impeccable, and has a soft touch as well. I’m excited for his continued development. If he will just be patient and stay at UK, he will be a first-rounder without a doubt.
True, but it was limited minutes and you could tell he wasn't up to speed. Think Cal said he'd had only 1 practice prior to the UNCW game. Looked much more in the flow against Penn and is presumably the player we get moving forward.
Cal made the comment post-Penn that he has 2 teams now, a small team and a big team. So, hopefully we still see both versions moving forward. Both will have their moments depending on the matchup and it's great to have the flexibility to play either way at any time.
First rounder????? He has zero offensive ability from 12-15 feet from the basket, let alone from 22 feet where all in today’s NBA are required to be able to knock it down from. Others, like you, have pointed out his per 40 block numbers (mostly against cupcake U part of the schedule) but fail to recall the numerous times his man scored through him with relative ease.
I think those expecting good things from him, forget great, are going to be vastly disappointed. He simply is not going to fit in with the makeup of this team or allow us to be the best version of ourselves. So far we have already seen a much better player in Bradshaw take away from that, albeit a small sample size, and hopefully that trend does not continue.
Ugonna hurt his foot during UK's exhibitions in Canada back in July. He'd been playing this past summer. Upthread there were posts that said he hadn't played for a year. Maybe UK years are different than human years. Or maybe they meant "this year" as in "this season".
I made the comment that he hasn’t played meaningful game minutes in almost a year, which he hasn’t. Exhibition action is not meaningful game minutes. His last meaningful action took place Jan. 7 at Alabama where he logged 11 minutes in our 26 point loss.
I am looking forward to Onyenso playing. Now vs UNCheat, I don't expect him to play a lot. Maybe 10min, maybe even just 5. Bacot will break (twig) Bradshaw in half. I like what I saw from Bradshaw last game, but Bacot is a bad matchup for him. Onyenso is much stronger, and practiced vs Oscar (Bacot clone) all last year. But it's his first game. But Onyenso can help on rim protection and rebounding!!! Those are 2 of our 3 biggest weaknesses (along w/ ball penetration).
Before Bradshaw returned, we were seeing approx:
Mitchell 35mpg
Theiro 27mpg
Edwards 28mpg
Burks 11mpg
3-guards 18mpg
After both Bradshaw and Onyenso are blended in, my best guess is we will see something like:
Onyenso 12mpg
Bradshaw28mpg
Mitchell 28mpg
Theiro 18mpg
Edwards 24mpg
Burks 0mpg
3-guards 10mpg
Before Bradshaw returned, we were seeing approx:
Mitchell 35mpg
Theiro 27mpg
Edwards 28mpg
Burks 11mpg
3-guards 18mpg
After both Bradshaw and Onyenso are blended in, my best guess is we will see something like:
Onyenso 12mpg
Bradshaw28mpg
Mitchell 28mpg
Theiro 18mpg
Edwards 24mpg
Burks 0mpg
3-guards 10mpg
I think where Ugo may be able to help is when/if we get in foul trouble. UNC is #16 in the nation when it comes to getting to the free throw line. They also rebound the ball very well- which isn’t a surprise.
Nope. People are venting, and for good reason. Calling fellow fans "so-called fans" IS trolling.
And the rest of the board gives thanks to the Lord for small blessings...
Possibly, but he was slow timing his jumps last year, but coming off injury he will he behind. He just needs to body up Bacot and block him out. His size alone will cause problems.
He doesn't need to as long as Bradshaw stays healthy. But he will be good to spell Bradshaw and allow Mitchell to keep playing a stretch 4 role.
If he wasn't playing well before the injury, could it have been he was having some issues that he wasn't alerting the staff to, then aggravated it to the point he made it worse?
Speaking of which, weren't you just worrying about team chemistry vis-a-vis Bradshaw a couple of weeks ago? Maybe you should make up your mind.
Ugo is not nearly as unplayable as some are saying. He just needs to be out there with 3 guards and a mobile 4 like Thiero. The biggest challenge with adding him and Z is fitting with Edwards. Teams are sagging off him and not a plus driver either.
NBA scouts said he was the best shot blocker since Anthony Davis and Nerlens Noel in HS.
And that is some elite shot-blocking company. I'm more excited about the impact his return can have than I am for Z.
When this doesn’t happen you can’t call out his lame negativity because he’s “just speculating”.
Why? You don't think we could use him against Bacot? You don't think we could use depth against their (better) bigs? You don't think we need an additional shot-blocker, especially since our only one has just played 2 games and probably doesn't have adequate fitness?
He's practicing against Bradshaw, Mitchell, and Big Z - you don't think that's decent prep?
If he's healthy and has competed well in practice, give me a 4-minute balls-to-the-wall stretch in each half. And just try to make Bacot's life miserable during those 4 mins. Simple task
Sorry man, but you're the one playing the fool. Ain't no one talking about him starting or playing 36 mins. But with a potential All-American 7-footer on the floor, you want as much depth as possible in this game. Bradshaw is a twig and will get bullied, we saw what Dickinson did to Mitchell and Adou, so why on earth wouldn't we want Ugo available for this game?
Bradshaw has NEVER played against someone like Bacot before - he can't play 30 plus mins in this game. And again, Mitchell ain't the answer. The answer is depth depth depth. And Ugo weighs about 25lbs more than Bradshaw, so he'll be tougher to bully...
Plus, if it's a track meet - depth depth depth. Can't have Bradshaw on the floor (only played 2 games) for a track meet - he'll fatigue the quickest out of everyone.
I think the troll/unhinged thing is that a bunch of the "Bradshaw is like Sharpe and will never play here" posters have now seamlessly transitioned into "Bradshaw is messing up our flow" posters.
The transition of the miserable squad was seamless and predictable.
Knowing Cal, he'll use the Small Team to play catch-up, and the Big Team to slow it down to 20 frames per second so he can contemplate what he's going to scribble on his Etch-A-Sketch next timeout.
What if all of our big men get in foul trouble? You f'n moron
We put up a ton of points, but so did our opponents. We were getting killed on rebounds and if you don’t remember what happened last time a decent big man was on the other side, watch the champions classic. What did HD go off for? We lost because we didn’t have a big man.
