Wasn’t worried about Oakland until this tweet
- Thread starter Jamal Mercer
- Start date
This is a game made for Ugo. He's done pretty well against smaller and non physical front courts. If that's all Oakland has, we could see another solid performance from him and some decent rebounding.
I wish I could live in the 5 years ago past too.
If Cal loses this game, he might want to avoid coming back to Lexington for a few months.
I've heard Cal has people reading these boards. My guess is this clown is one of themUKBB4Ever is Erin Calipari...whether or not she's a he is up for debate...
How does Oakland play defense on the fast break and bringing the ball up? That's more my worry. Will their defense throw DJ off and cause turnovers? Not so much worried about the half court offense.. but I'm VERY worried about a bad outing from DJ.
I can also see Z having a field day with lobs at the basket from Sheppard and Dillingham, especially if Oakland plays zone defense.
Here's my thought after looking at Oakland. They aren't a bad team, not gonna beat themselves with stupid play. They have a couple decent shooters who can get hot. They had 1 good win, a 2pt win over a Xavier team that finished 16-17 this season. They also got whipped by Purdue Fort Wayne by 21 and got dominated by a Mich St team that lost 14 games this season. These guys are not great drivers and finish guys. They look to shoot from the perimeter quite a bit. They have a pretty good post player who leads them in pretty much every category, but he's only 6-6 at power forward. They play a lot of zone on defense. They don't turn people over or block shots much. They stay in front pretty well and try to force tough 2s but their defense isn't great if you can make shots. They're gonna give up threes quite a bit and they're likely to struggle with quick guards and dribble penetration.
My thought is that we shouldn't have to worry about losing this one. I realize this UK team could lose to almost anyone if they come out flat and don't defend and the other team is shooting lights out. But if we have to worry about this one, it's gonna be a short Dance.
My thought is that we shouldn't have to worry about losing this one. I realize this UK team could lose to almost anyone if they come out flat and don't defend and the other team is shooting lights out. But if we have to worry about this one, it's gonna be a short Dance.
ESPN and some other places list him at 6’6” so he may not even be that big. Interestingly he leads the team in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. He’s a nice player. Good handles, good around the basket, good midrange. Too quick and crafty for our bigs. Too big for our guards. 38, 11, and 5 last game. Thiero and Edwards will need to bring it on D.
Yeah. Best 3 pt shooting team in the nation. Zone us. Just start our best 3 guards and get this one out of reach early.
Yeah, he's not 6-9. Their own roster has him listed at 6-6. So do ESPN and KenPom. I think Adou Thiero and Trey Mitchell could both defend him pretty well. Edwards might be able to defend him, also. He's a good offensive player but we should be able to give him trouble.
Oakland’s coach, Greg Kampe, is a good friend of Cal’s. This article is worth a read: https://www.aseaofblue.com/2024/3/1...ohn-calipari-greg-kampe-coaching-relationship
Anyone know what UK’s tournament record is vs. a team coached by one of Cal’s good friends?
Anyone know what UK’s tournament record is vs. a team coached by one of Cal’s good friends?
"I've heard"
If I had the royalties on that expression, I'd be rich beyond the bounds of greed.
Mid 30% translates to about 55% against us. aTm was 27% on the season before they torched us.
I am no longer worried about it because I’m not watching unless we make the Final four . Will be the first games I have missed in over seventy years but I can’t take this fool any longer . He truly has taken something I very much enjoyed and destroyed it .
6 Quad 3 losses and 1 Quad 1 win and a worse NET ranking then UNCW I'll take my chances. Cal won't be allowed back in the state with a loss so win/win either way.
They also only scored 53 against Illinois.
But they did beat 16-17 Xavier.👀
They lost to #120 or greater 6 times.
They are not good, no excuses they are not good. Did I mention they are not good? They beat 1 win Detriot by 5 at home.
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It’s a dang shame you struck out in the common sense department too. “I’d be rich beyond the bounds of greed”?!!! Hahahahaha
Are you talking about Townsend? He's 6'6, not sure that's worthy of a "big", but he's a solid player. I'm not sure he's their best player though. They've got a couple snipers that can light us up from 3. They run most of their actions for their shooters, but if nothing is open, possessions will end with Townsend iso 1 on 1. I'm thinking Adou will be on Townsend, which SHOULD be a good matchup for UK
I'm going back and watching both of them. But from the first half of the Ohio St game (just watched), they've got a couple snipers from 3 - run A LOT of action for them. I'm worried about Rob and Reed falling asleep or ball-watching and now we've got shooters open. They will make us chase, chase, chase shooters off multiple screens. They also do a good job of using their shooters as screener's early in the possession - always turns into a "screen the screener" action, again looking for open 3
I'm hoping we see UK switch all screens positions 1-4. I just don't see how we limit open shots if we don't. They run A LOT of sets, which I think we'll struggle to guard if we don't switch 1-4
He’s “bigger” than our bigs and he plays down low. I’ll still call him a “big”. He’s just a mid major big. And he averages 16 and 8. Their one good shooter worries me a tad too.
I don't think 6'6 is bigger than our bigs, but I digress. They also start a 6'9 guy, biggest starter.
Townsend comparison: Trey Lyles, Darius Miller - at least when those 2 would play in the mid-post. He'll post up, but he's more of a turn-around finisher than he is a Julius Randle bully. Doens't shoot the 3 though
Sorry, by bigger I meant thicker. And he’s pretty physical.
Doesn’t matter. Just win.
That st Peters team went to the elite 8. It's not like they just upset us, they kept it up way longer than anyone expected
The reality of that situation is UK and Cal were gifted with the easiest bracket since he has been at UK.
It was so easy, a 15 seed could advance to the elite 8.
Think about how far the 2 seed SHOULD HAVE ADVANCED with that lightweight field.
St Peter's was under seeded, and then went on to beat #7 seeded Murray State and #3 seeded Purdue.
Not an excuse for losing, but just saying Oakland is much worse than that St Peter's team.
Oh I'm not saying we didn't spit the bit, just that I don't see the Oakland team pulling that off regardless of our game
Ranked 165th in defense.
They are slow compared to most teams from the SEC, so they will likely have trouble keeping up with us on runouts.
They have one kid that exclusively shoots only perimeter shots in high volume, hitting around 37%.
Their biggest starter is listed at 6'9" but is more around 6'6" per reports.
They love zone (2-3 and 1-3-1) and stick to this except against good perimeter shooting teams. They will mix it up if we are driving too easily on M2M or hitting threes against their zone. They will do this all game based on situations and our successes.
They are not great rebounders mainly because of their small size and the fact that they love a zone defense.
They run nearly all of their offense around their 6'6" forward (his game is midrange) and kick outs or picks for open 3s. The majority of their shots in fact are from the perimeter (historically), They went away from this in the Horizon League championship game against Milwaukee because their forward had a feast on the smaller forwards from Milwaukee. He tallied a season high 38 points, of which 14 were free throws (his most attempts all year).
Have to watch out for their guard, Jack G., who has been known to have some Steph Curry-like nights (or more recently Hubbard-like games). Thankfully this should be an easy team to prepare for as they are so heavy on kick outs for threes, we should be able to cheat passing lanes and get a few steals and runouts. But this requires a coach that prepares for their next opponents...something we don't have.
Not always, and not necessarily in a one-and-done tournament.
If they start to launch out of desperation, or to play catch up, I'd say they'll fall right around that 30% area. It's the volume that makes 30% seem like much more. We need to drive them all off the line and let the one guard Jack do his thing (because he doesn't need much space and is ready to launch at every ball touch).
Ky better not take this team lightly I remember last years first round and we just got beat in the first round in the SEC tourney.
Yesterday I read their coach said they wanted to play us because we can’t score in the post. Let’s them double team elsewhere because they don’t have to worry about guarding a big. Hope our idiot coach puts Mitchell at center as he is our only big with any skills down low. Z can help as well. But it remains to be seen what will happen.
