UK Fitness and Duke Fatigue...

[NavyCat88]

Sorry if this has already been addressed, but I noticed CMP's 10-man rotation and pace created some vintage Pitino-esque exhaustion for Duke's 7-man rotation. I noted with great delight several missed FTs, jump-shots falling short, and slow-footed Blue Devil defenders late in the second half....all indications of a tired team.

Listening to "Duke Basketball Review (DBR)" online, their commentators were stating their team was gassed in crunch time and that this situation needs to be addressed with either better fitness or development of a larger rotation by the Devils' HC.

Personally, I think the Duke HC was out of timeouts in the final minute of the game because he HAD to take timeouts throughout the last 8 minutes as his team was dragging a$$.

Many Dookies are taking solace saying "We almost won even though we didn't shoot well." I say the "The Big Blue wore out the Blue Devil's and won despite a key Wildcat starter registering only a single point."

Both teams were only in their third game, and both will improve throughout the season. Happy for the Cats to take the early season win with mature players and sharp coaching.

A fine season is before us--we might see Duke again.

Keep Charging Cats!

GBB!

 

[Mike-McD]

Platoon baby

 

[electricat2]

listening to dukies whine.........priceless

 

[TucsonCat]

They looked tired. But I would blame their defense more than our pace. They were in our jersey all night. If we played again, I bet they would back off a little, but we'd just score more from three.

 

[cats#1again]

Refs controlled the first half. Foul trouble and caused UK to play passive. 2nd half we were allowed to play more physical and evened things out. Duke played 8 guys 13 mins. We played 9 at least 10
Pretty similar really.

Duke is good I just don't think their guards are good enough to win against good teams

 

[Bkocats]

Refs controlled the first half. Foul trouble and caused UK to play passive. 2nd half we were allowed to play more physical and evened things out. Duke played 8 guys 13 mins. We played 9 at least 10
Pretty similar really.

Duke is good I just don't think their guards are good enough to win against good teams

Some Duke fans blame the coach for not using the bench. One of their supposed advantages was how deep they are and Schuyer didn’t take advantage because he was focused on Flagg and Kneuppel

 

[cat tat2]

Some Duke fans blame the coach for not using the bench. One of their supposed advantages was how deep they are and Schuyer didn’t take advantage because he was focused on Flagg and Kneuppel.

Scheyer highlights players at the risk of losing? Hmmm, sounds a lot like someone we know.

 

[UKSanders]

Some Duke fans blame the coach for not using the bench. One of their supposed advantages was how deep they are and Schuyer didn’t take advantage because he was focused on Flagg and Kneuppel

Their bench also got shorter when they had James go down with the shoulder injury as well as Maluach with his knee/cramps/whatever was going on.

 

[BlueWorldOrder74]

Their bench also got shorter when they had James go down with the shoulder injury as well as Maluach with his knee/cramps/whatever was going on.

This cramps were a symptom of William’s being so physical with him through the time he was in.

 

[bbncal02]

Refs controlled the first half. Foul trouble and caused UK to play passive. 2nd half we were allowed to play more physical and evened things out. Duke played 8 guys 13 mins. We played 9 at least 10
Pretty similar really.

Duke is good I just don't think their guards are good enough to win against good teams

It's early for them. Flagg an Kenupple will be very dangerous come March. I'll be honest, I don't want to see them again. Mal gave us fits all damn night. And if he stays in? Not sure we pull that out.

 

[bbncal02]

This cramps were a symptom of William’s being so physical with him through the time he was in.

He tweaked that knee as well. It went a bit sideways on him, and I don't care how good a shape you're in. When you feel your knee do that? You are wary of it for a while. I did that jumping out of my bunk at college. I land a bit funny and my left knee went left without going forward. Didn't hurt, but it felt so weird and funny. I babied it for a week just being cautious of it.

 

[Smashcat]

Duck Fuke.

 

[UKBlueBlood]

They looked tired. But I would blame their defense more than our pace. They were in our jersey all night. If we played again, I bet they would back off a little, but we'd just score more from three.

Spot on. My impression from the game was Duke is quite talented, and they deployed a pretty effective strategy of playing highly aggressive man to man/no help defense and dared us to try to beat them with penetration and scoring in the paint... which doesn't appear to be a huge strength of this team at this juncture of the season. But the problem with that strategy is we ran them ragged chasing us on defense throughout the game, and we hung around and had just enough in the tank to slip past them at the end of the game.

Duke MIGHT have benefited by dropping back to a lazy zone on some possessions throughout the game to save their legs, but that could easily be the kiss of death with our plethora of shooters. Nail a few threes against that strategy and suddenly our 5 point margin of victory ends up being 14 at the end.

 

[CRZ4UK]

It's early for them. Flagg an Kenupple will be very dangerous come March. I'll be honest, I don't want to see them again. Mal gave us fits all damn night. And if he stays in? Not sure we pull that out.

IDK, he was tired and Pope isolated Carr on him to go one on one. Carr scored each time with an and one.

 

[bbncal02]

IDK, he was tired and Pope isolated Carr on him to go one on one. Carr scored each time with an and one.

I'm not saying we couldn't beat them. But they will be a much more conditioned and experienced team in March. They will be a tough out for folks.

 

[kywildcat41086]

I'm not saying we couldn't beat them. But they will be a much more conditioned and experienced team in March. They will be a tough out for folks.

We will be a much more well oiled machine too…. Nobodies gonna want to see Pope’s Cats in their bracket!

 

[CRZ4UK]

I'm not saying we couldn't beat them. But they will be a much more conditioned and experienced team in March. They will be a tough out for folks.

I completely agree.

 

[jwphelps]

Sorry if this has already been addressed, but I noticed CMP's 10-man rotation and pace created some vintage Pitino-esque exhaustion for Duke's 7-man rotation. I noted with great delight several missed FTs, jump-shots falling short, and slow-footed Blue Devil defenders late in the second half....all indications of a tired team.

Listening to "Duke Basketball Review (DBR)" online, their commentators were stating their team was gassed in crunch time and that this situation needs to be addressed with either better fitness or development of a larger rotation by the Devils' HC.

Personally, I think the Duke HC was out of timeouts in the final minute of the game because he HAD to take timeouts throughout the last 8 minutes as his team was dragging a$$.

Many Dookies are taking solace saying "We almost won even though we didn't shoot well." I say the "The Big Blue wore out the Blue Devil's and won despite a key Wildcat starter registering only a single point."

Both teams were only in their third game, and both will improve throughout the season. Happy for the Cats to take the early season win with mature players and sharp coaching.

A fine season is before us--we might see Duke again.

Keep Charging Cats!

GBB!

Yet, Jay Bilas and the ESPN talking heads claimed Duke's bench was one of the deepest, obviously the coach did not think so since he limited his rotation to mostly 7 guys, while UK played 10 with success. Face Duke got out coached down the stretch.

 

[Blueisbest]

Pope saw Duke getting tired and he tried to speed up the game on both ends. It proved to be Dukes downfall.

 

[JimBR]

Yet, Jay Bilas and the ESPN talking heads claimed Duke's bench was one of the deepest, obviously the coach did not think so since he limited his rotation to mostly 7 guys, while UK played 10 with success. Face Duke got out coached down the stretch.

In my opinion it was a high intensity game and Scheyer possibly thought the guys who didn't play weren't ready for the moment. The guys who did play wore themselves out. Could be a coaching mistake/miscalculation of his guy's fitness.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I've said this about our freshman and Cal: it's not easy to get these guys up to the proper speed and conditioning from their HS days. I can't really say I'm surprised that a 17 year old is having a tough time keeping up with 21 and 22 year olds, who have been playing 35 game seasons for several years now.

This is always going to be a problem with incoming freshman. Not only conditioning, but playing the game the right way, breaking bad habits, fundamentals, etc.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

So true OP and it was never more evident than when wonder boy turned it over 3 times late and Oweh out hustling him for the game clinching rebound.

“Flagg Fatigue”is what I term it.

Just make it a new term and put it in Websters and anytime someone in any walk of like gets tired people can just say: “Whats wrong honey, do you have Flagg Fatigue?”

Maybe you guys at ESPN can sell a damn product that will prevent Flagg Fatigue.

 

[jwphelps]

In my opinion it was a high intensity game and Scheyer possibly thought the guys who didn't play weren't ready for the moment. The guys who did play wore themselves out. Could be a coaching mistake/miscalculation of his guy's fitness.

Or his bench is not as deep as Bilas and those other talking heads said.

 

[tf4fun]

I'm not saying we couldn't beat them. But they will be a much more conditioned and experienced team in March. They will be a tough out for folks.

IMO that big guy changes everything! He makes it very difficult to score at the rim! Am hoping Brea/Robinson develop a little floater like Reeves had last year!

 

[TM2013]

I'm not saying we couldn't beat them. But they will be a much more conditioned and experienced team in March. They will be a tough out for folks.

And everyone else will be much more conditioned and experienced by then also. And they will still be freshman playing against grown men. We've witnessed it too many times.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

IMO that big guy changes everything! He makes it very difficult to score at the rim! Am hoping Brea/Robinson develop a little floater like Reeves had last year!

Prob is so will we and we have 9 upperclassmen.
New Coach, new system, new players “all” new to each other and we beatin #6 Duke on a neutral floor the 3rd game of the yr?

My point is its not like these guys have been playing together for 4 yrs under the same Coach and schemes.
Id say everybody better be watchin out for us!

Its quite remarkable actually.

 

[truebluewildcat]

Said in the game thread that it was very surprising to see how gassed Duke was. It was visible and popping off the screen.

I was not expecting that.

If there was ever a case to be made for 9–10-man rotation it would be that right there.

Even if guys 8,9,10 only get a couple of minutes I think that really factors in later in the game. Legs to make a few free throws, a hustle play, a jump shot, defensive stop, etc... any number of things in the last 7-10 minutes is the difference in the game.

 

[ccukuk]

Sorry if this has already been addressed, but I noticed CMP's 10-man rotation and pace created some vintage Pitino-esque exhaustion for Duke's 7-man rotation. I noted with great delight several missed FTs, jump-shots falling short, and slow-footed Blue Devil defenders late in the second half....all indications of a tired team.

Listening to "Duke Basketball Review (DBR)" online, their commentators were stating their team was gassed in crunch time and that this situation needs to be addressed with either better fitness or development of a larger rotation by the Devils' HC.

Personally, I think the Duke HC was out of timeouts in the final minute of the game because he HAD to take timeouts throughout the last 8 minutes as his team was dragging a$$.

Many Dookies are taking solace saying "We almost won even though we didn't shoot well." I say the "The Big Blue wore out the Blue Devil's and won despite a key Wildcat starter registering only a single point."

Both teams were only in their third game, and both will improve throughout the season. Happy for the Cats to take the early season win with mature players and sharp coaching.

A fine season is before us--we might see Duke again.

Keep Charging Cats!

GBB!

Well, you’re wrong on your take because scheyer(sp?) talked with the training staff after similar issues during the last game. There’s no way it’s scheyer’s fault in terms of conditioning, timeout calling, player substitutions, etc. Also, it’s inconceivable that UKs depth, substitution patterns, pressure, etc are to blame for dook’s issues. Simpleton.

 

[Bluesnky]

I'm not saying we couldn't beat them. But they will be a much more conditioned and experienced team in March. They will be a tough out for folks.

Between now and March, they will never have as much time for conditioning as they had between June and November. They will be a tough out, but they are a tough out right now.

 

[Cawood86]

Coach Pope came up under Pitino's insane program of being in great condition. He knows how much it impacted games.

 

[ccukuk]

Some Duke fans blame the coach for not using the bench. One of their supposed advantages was how deep they are and Schuyer didn’t take advantage because he was focused on Flagg and Kneuppel

What do you mean? By being focused on flagg and nipple, how did it prevent scheyer from

Between now and March, they will never have as much time for conditioning as they had between June and November. They will be a tough out, but they are a tough out right now.

Entirely logical with expectations from a rational person. However, wouldn’t you have expected improvement and major focus, game planning for the opponent, analysis of opponents’ play, an offensive strategy(or as some would say strategery), for our teams in end of year tournaments? They should improve. We should have improved.

 

[Fox2monk]

Sorry if this has already been addressed, but I noticed CMP's 10-man rotation and pace created some vintage Pitino-esque exhaustion for Duke's 7-man rotation. I noted with great delight several missed FTs, jump-shots falling short, and slow-footed Blue Devil defenders late in the second half....all indications of a tired team.

Listening to "Duke Basketball Review (DBR)" online, their commentators were stating their team was gassed in crunch time and that this situation needs to be addressed with either better fitness or development of a larger rotation by the Devils' HC.

Personally, I think the Duke HC was out of timeouts in the final minute of the game because he HAD to take timeouts throughout the last 8 minutes as his team was dragging a$$.

Many Dookies are taking solace saying "We almost won even though we didn't shoot well." I say the "The Big Blue wore out the Blue Devil's and won despite a key Wildcat starter registering only a single point."

Both teams were only in their third game, and both will improve throughout the season. Happy for the Cats to take the early season win with mature players and sharp coaching.

A fine season is before us--we might see Duke again.

Keep Charging Cats!

GBB!

I’m the ha,e thread everyone was saying just get a stop and a basket and we win this. Keep attacking because they are worn out. Sweat was pouring off Flagg and guys were huffing air.

 

[Fox2monk]

listening to dukies whine.........priceless

I haven’t had enough of that in my life. I love it and could get used to it.

 

[AJG-15]

My two cents : I would think that given that both Duke and Kentucky players probably have access to state of the art facilities and trainers , the difference was made of :

1) in high school players play quarters / though some / most AAU have halves but in general less minutes for a high school game vs a college game. This is not the first time when Duke freshman did cramp up .
2). Kentucky used besides for few minutes Chandler, exclusively players that played few years in college and were used to the minutes and physicalities of the college game. Duke on the other hand relied more on freshman and thought all the signs were there Duke coaches refused to use the bench were experienced players were sitting…

 

[IL Wildcat]

Spot on. My impression from the game was Duke is quite talented, and they deployed a pretty effective strategy of playing highly aggressive man to man/no help defense and dared us to try to beat them with penetration and scoring in the paint... which doesn't appear to be a huge strength of this team at this juncture of the season. But the problem with that strategy is we ran them ragged chasing us on defense throughout the game, and we hung around and had just enough in the tank to slip past them at the end of the game.

Duke MIGHT have benefited by dropping back to a lazy zone on some possessions throughout the game to save their legs, but that could easily be the kiss of death with our plethora of shooters. Nail a few threes against that strategy and suddenly our 5 point margin of victory ends up being 14 at the end.

Good analysis. As will be the issue for everyone UK plays this season, it's choose your poison. They played solid man to man, pushed out to the three and used a lot of energy running us off the 3pt line. But we still made 10 threes and had 17 assists. But if they don't play so tight, we may have made 20 threes.

I think ultimately our improved defense, especially on their pick and rolls, along with our refusal to give up, is what made the difference in the game. Our experience showed down the stretch in a huge way. Their inexperience showed as well, although that same inexperience earlier in the game is the only reason they were in position to potentially win.

It was a great college game. Duke is very talented. I wouldn't be surprised if they make a run at the end of this season. Our guys are still learning each other but I love the experience and the shooting on this team. The defense is also very solid. Those are the reasons I think this UK team could be very good this season.

 

[zoid1]

Duke can use whatever reason they think they can use to make them feel better. The eye test says this tho...
1. We had mostly 22-23 year old players or grown ass men. They had mostly 18-19 year old players. Big difference.
2. We executed better down the stretch because of the experience of most of our players had from having played so many college games. They did not.
3. Our coach adjusted to them in the 2nd half like our previous coach would NOT have done and that probably shocked the Duke staff. They just assumed they would out athlete us to a win.
4. Say what you want about them getting better but it's going to be the same for us playing as a team together except it will still be 22-23 year old grown ass men on our team. No way anyone wants to see us in March on a one day prep after we've played 32-34 games together.