Sorry guys, I still do not buy into every player on a team has to shoot the 3 at 40% or better. A glue guy does not always have to score, but he gets a stop when you need it, he gets a 50/50 ball, grabs a board, steals a pass, blocks a shot, maybe gets 5 or 8 points a game or more when needed but is not needed to score. I did not see him clog up the game last night. I seen him play outside in lie the rest of our guys. I saw mitchell post up more than anyone and not all that much from him till 2nd half (game adjustments by coaching staff).
What areas do we need to improve to take the next step? I'll start: Thiero starts making threes...
- Thread starter Son_Of_Saul
- Start date
Somebody on our team can make a corner 3. Let Joey a minute or 2. I bet he can nail it.
DEFENSE!!! And more guys willing to hunt their shot besides Wagner and Dillingham.
I think you're missing the actual argument.
He doesn't have to shoot at 40% or better. He's currently at 25%. There's a big range between 25 and 40%.
HE doesn't clog up the lane. His defender does. Kansas put their PF on Tre and Dickinson was "guarding" Thiero. Dickinson just sat in the paint the whole time. Teams don't respect Thiero's shot. And he isn't burning them.
I think it's pretty obvious that Thiero shooting better helps the team. I don't see why anyone would argue that. I don't need him to be an elite shooter. I need him to make enough of them when he's open. Right now he's not doing that.
The biggest improvement has to be defense. Rotations are subpar right now. Teams are getting way too many wide open 3’s. If it can be fixed Calipari can do it.
Offensively, it’s hard to say too much right now. They’re coming along nicely.
Offensively, it’s hard to say too much right now. They’re coming along nicely.
I feel the same way! He could play 2, 3 or 4 as well and we could roll with a few different lineups.
Agree, defense has to get much better. If our defense can improve and if our other forward/guard Edwards can pick up his game, learn how to battle (like Adou) then we do not have issues. Edwards does stretch out the floor (people have to guard his 3 point shot). He just does not like to battle, he does not like contact, he is extremely soft. If he can come along then UK will be fine. UNC game Adou played 17 and Edwards played 14 minutes. We really need that to switch. Adou gets the most out of his 17 minutes (7 points, 4 blocked shots) aggressive. If Edwards could become that person (MKG) type of guy, UK would and will take the next step. If Edwards cannot then we need to learn to play with Adou or hopefully Big Z or go 2 bigs and 3 smaller guards.
Defensively- quit helping so much that it’s leaving wide open threes. I’m hoping with the bigs back this won’t be needed as much. Quit leaving your feet at every shot fake ( but it happens every year). Maybe a defensive adjustment when guys are getting beaten off the dribble over and over.
Offensively-Less hero ball. I hate it when our offense consists of a possession where one of our guards stands there pounding the ball with no movement from the other four players. Almost like everyone knows it’s predetermined this guy is going to drive with no other option. At least have some motion on offense.
Edwards has to get better. He hit a couple key shots last night. But seriously can he jump over a phone book? He was rejected by the rim again yesterday. I would love to see him breakout.
Offensively-Less hero ball. I hate it when our offense consists of a possession where one of our guards stands there pounding the ball with no movement from the other four players. Almost like everyone knows it’s predetermined this guy is going to drive with no other option. At least have some motion on offense.
Edwards has to get better. He hit a couple key shots last night. But seriously can he jump over a phone book? He was rejected by the rim again yesterday. I would love to see him breakout.
For some strange reason, Cal's teams have always allowed a bunch of 3's. Our close outs are not good and we go for A LOT of pump fakes that allow guys to rise or side step for the shot.
I'm not sure what you're saying. 2/8 is indeed 25%. The match checks out.
I'm not going to consider him a better shooter because of the low sample size. He was 3/9 last year. He's 5/17 since he got to UK. That's 29%.
Is there anyway him shooting 35 or 36% makes us worse? I certainly don't see it.
I was going off the fact you said he was a liability yet he's only taken 8 all season. I wouldn't call that a liability though it would definitely be nice if he shot them and hit them more.
It's not that he misses the shots. It's that the defense doesn't respect him to make it. His man can sag off of him and clog the paint. That's exactly what Kansas did to us.
If he can make the 3 enough to keep the defense honest--then his man isn't clogging up the paint. Guys can get into the paint.
He'd certainly hurts us more if he was shooting several 3's per game at that clip. But him only shooting 8 doesn't change the effect it's having on the defense.
Ryan was the only dude hitting shots for them until Davis took over for the final 10 mins, but Kentucky just continued to let him get open looks
He needs to get shooting because I think when I looked at the team stats the other day he was at 18% or something. Edit: currently at 25%. He hasn’t shot many though. You’re absolutely right he needs to though.
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I agree, we also had a chance to go from up 10-11 to 14-15 multiple times and made mistakes to make it a 6-8 point game instead. We could go from completely demoralizing a team and taking control to a couple possession game quickly
Thiero is already starting to hit his threes. If he hits just 33% it will be HUGE. And Dilly will be fine, as Cal said, he's a take the good with the bad kind of player as he's maturing. He'll be solid by the end of the season. Even Dilly is acknowledging that he makes bad plays and is trying to work on it. I think with Shep being the coach on the floor Dilly will get there quicker.
Spot on. If I am the opposition, I do exactly what UNC did for a good portion of the last 10 min of the game...put Mitchell in a high ball screen and let your guard have its way.
If Tre is going to be out there in crucial moments, he has to defend better. RJ Davis got whatever he wanted, basically unguarded, toward the end of the game, b/c Tre is beyond slow. This has to get better (unfortunately I don't think it will).
I thought Edwards was supposed to be a lockdown defender too but he just hasn't been. That is something we have lacked for several seasons now. We just haven't had a wing defender that when a guy like RJ Davis is going off that will be like MKG and say "Let me take him Coach" and then go out and shut him down. Some of them seem to be too worried about their offense to waste energy on defense. They lag off their man off the ball and then don't recover in time. They won't fight through screens and take the easy route under a screen leaving a shooter wide open. It's just effort in most cases.I think the big one is Edwards needs to get his defense sorted out. He was never supposed to be a prolific scorer and this team does not need him to be one, but he was supposed to be a stat stuffer and a lock down defender. I think he's got the rebounding down now. He just needs to defend to stay on the floor and help the team. I think he will. Time will tell.
Getting Edwards going is the key, IMHO.
Edwards has the potential to be a superstar.
Hopefully it starts to click for him soon.
Edwards has the potential to be a superstar.
Hopefully it starts to click for him soon.
And very few teams play with 5 guys who make 3's (more than 1/gm)!
Who in the top 10?
Purdue (3) - but a 4th off the bench
Kansas (3) - but barely, as Dickinson and Harris average 1.0 exactly
Houston (3) - barely, with Shead exactly 1.0
Arizona (4) - barely, with Johnson & Larsson exactly 1.0
UConn (3) - but a 4th off the bench
Marq (3) - but a 4th off the bench
UT (4) - but a 5th off the bench
Okl (2) - but 4 others are close (0.7-0.9)
UK (3) - but 2 others off the bench
Baylor (5) - the ONLY top 10 team
So, from the top 10, only 1 plays 5 3pt shooters, and only 3 teams play 4+ 3pt shooters.
Who in the top 10?
Purdue (3) - but a 4th off the bench
Kansas (3) - but barely, as Dickinson and Harris average 1.0 exactly
Houston (3) - barely, with Shead exactly 1.0
Arizona (4) - barely, with Johnson & Larsson exactly 1.0
UConn (3) - but a 4th off the bench
Marq (3) - but a 4th off the bench
UT (4) - but a 5th off the bench
Okl (2) - but 4 others are close (0.7-0.9)
UK (3) - but 2 others off the bench
Baylor (5) - the ONLY top 10 team
So, from the top 10, only 1 plays 5 3pt shooters, and only 3 teams play 4+ 3pt shooters.
Doable. We are at 38.1 now. 13 more and we'd be at 40. So about 1.3 more per game.
Over the last 3 games, we are taking about 30% of our shots from 3. Less threes is a developing trend.
Agreed.
As far as this team goes, my hope (based on hype) was that Edwards would be a left handed version of the guy in your avatar. His defense is not close to that guy. That's a definite need for us. Otherwise, just play Thiero 30 mpg. He's giving us more than Edwards.
