Which Player or Players Will Be The Biggest Surprise This Year
- Thread starter Cobb4uk
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I will be surprised if Bradshaw and Oyenso play this year. For some unknown reason our guys have injuries that heal in weeks if they were at other schools but at UK they miss a whole year and then enter the draft. What kind of medical staff do we have? Is Dr Spock our lead doctor?
In general, I'm not a believer in freshmen being good enough players their first year to match up with the best upperclassmen. Still, I have to say that to me the freshmen look good. Their talent will probably make up for quite a bit of the lack of experience and development - not all I expect, but quite a bit.
But the biggest surprise to me is the fact that I think I like Shepherd as the best option at PG. And I'm saying that even though I'm really impressed with Wagner too. Again, I don't love multiple freshmen as starters; but I feel ok about Shepherd and Wagner sharing the PG spot.
But the biggest surprise to me is the fact that I think I like Shepherd as the best option at PG. And I'm saying that even though I'm really impressed with Wagner too. Again, I don't love multiple freshmen as starters; but I feel ok about Shepherd and Wagner sharing the PG spot.
this will be Wagner’s team by January. He and Edwards are potential superstars.
Wagner will start at point and barring foul trouble he will play most of game. If Sheppard wants time it will have to be at the 2. Anybody that thinks Cal will play Sheppard and Wagner equally at the point hasnt been paying attention to how Cal operates
Edwards will surprise because he won’t be as good as everybody expected and Sheppard will be a lot better than people expected
Z will be a surprise once he is allowed to be out on the floor. He has a ton to catch up on right now.
Shep to me is not a surprise as I think he is one of the best 5 guys on the team. But to a bunch he will be a surprise.
I will be surprised if Bradshaw or UGO plays in 2023. Just do not like the way months ago the time line was Bradshaw will be ready by start of practice and UGO would be soon behind him. There is a reason why Cal went to find Big Z.
Adiou Thiero will be a major contributor (maybe not in points) but in glue guy / hustle plays / all out effort. He will win us some games with just his effort level and how he brings that much needed tough guy to the floor.
Shep to me is not a surprise as I think he is one of the best 5 guys on the team. But to a bunch he will be a surprise.
I will be surprised if Bradshaw or UGO plays in 2023. Just do not like the way months ago the time line was Bradshaw will be ready by start of practice and UGO would be soon behind him. There is a reason why Cal went to find Big Z.
Adiou Thiero will be a major contributor (maybe not in points) but in glue guy / hustle plays / all out effort. He will win us some games with just his effort level and how he brings that much needed tough guy to the floor.
Biggest surprise? How about we run a Pro Style offense and learn some inbounds plays. Then Cal will be the biggest surprise!
We have always run a pro offense under Cal and always run in bounds and other situational plays when we had the personnel to run them.
We ran a lot of plays with Frederick last season when he could stay on the floor. You're not running plays with Wheeler in bounding. You couldn't run pin down with no one to screen for Oscar. You couldn't use Oscar to set the screens and risk foul trouble and then have no rebounding.
That's certainly on Cal to not have the players. But to say we don't do it is just wrong.
What offense have we run since Cal has been here. Every NBA coach knows UK players will get better in the NBA when they learn NBA offenses. And this year we will see the Cal’s weave with 6-7 minters and we have a lead like normal. That is why he bought Welch in to teach him some plays.
Shep, but my biggest surprise will be if Bradshaw does anything besides suit up to shoot around at practice.
Burks won't see the floor enough. He may have a pleasant game or two during the cream puff portion of the November-December schedule, but Cal isn't going to sit Edwards, Mitchell, Bradshaw, Ivisic, or even Thiero to give minutes to Burks when it really counts in January-February.
OTOH, Sheppard is one of the three or four best players on this team. Cal has a talent logjam in the backcourt, and it will be interesting to see how often he uses three guards (counting Reeves as a guard) to address it. Sheppard should be among the top 5 in minutes, but IDK how much Cal will be willing to give Sheppard the consideration he will give Wagner, and I'm not sure yet how much deference Cal will give to Dillingham.
I like what I have seen in Wagner. So far Hart and Burks have risen up. Nobody expected that. I like the way Mitchell plays. And Sheppard is so fundamentally sound I think he does well. It doesn't really matter if Cal still uses the star system that can cost us some games and a lower seed in the tournament.
I'm gonna say Mitchell becoming our biggest three point threat will surprise. Play number one will be DJ driving, kicking out to Mitchell for the three.
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