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"Zero answers"

Just went back and looked at the play by play. Starting when we went up 57-51 with 12:30 to play, Gonzaga scored on 16 of their next 19 possessions. And we STILL managed to have a shot to win when we got a turnover down 2 with 13 seconds left. We could be so damn good if we had even a mediocre defense, just get a few more stops a game and we can outscore most anybody. But we can't stop anybody.

Gonzaga possessions in last 12:30
Layup +1
2 FTs
2 FTs
blocked layup
dunk
2 misses, 2 OREBs, 2 FTs
dunk
3pt
layup
turnover
2pt
blocked shot, OREB, 2 FTs
2pt
blocked shot
layup +1
2 FTs
Layup
2 misses, 2 OREBs, layup
layup
turnover (13 seconds left, gonzaga up 2)
1 of 2 FTs
2 FTs
That is absolutely sickening.
 
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Watching that just confirms what I saw yesterday that Bradshaw is the WORST Post defender Call has EVER had!!! He's worse than Skal!!!

Adou and Z were just out of position a couple of times and looked bad, but Bradshaw could do NOTHING to even slow down there mediocre Bigs. Our defensive rotations look like a Grade School team!!! It's a big reason why we give up enough offensive rebounds to lose close games!!!

Cal is getting ABUSED by mid-level players while trying to convince UK fans that his kids are future NBA players.

Cal also does NOTHING to prepare our kids to become better at defending!!! We are just as bad or worse now than we were to start the year. He makes NO adjustments and we get beat by the SAME plays EVERY Game!!!

Lastly, our strength and conditioning coaches need FIRED!!!! Several of our kids are out of shape and NEVER get stronger(except for Adou)!!! And we ALWAYS have at least 1 or 2 kids unable to play!!!
COW - “maybe we should have doubled down low.“
A typical refrain from our “coach” after many games this year. I should have done this. player A should have played more. We should have run more. It never ends because he never learns! Seems to watch the games as a fan instead of a coach.
As TheDude said -Cal is always coaching AFTERWARDS. Exactly, after the game is over he comes up with a list that should have been done during the game . Too late CCC!!!

No deviations/adjustments once the game starts. If we win, give me the credit for an excellent game plan.
If we lose, blames youth, “why did he do that“, we were just x number of plays from winning that game blah, blah, blah
Not in the same conversation with some of our previous coaches; Joe B, Eddie, Rick, and Tubby. These coaches made adjustments during a game. Not always successful but trying anything to win.

Our offense is potent enough to win most games with just an average defense and rebounding team
 
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Watching that just confirms what I saw yesterday that Bradshaw is the WORST Post defender Call has EVER had!!! He's worse than Skal!!!

Adou and Z were just out of position a couple of times and looked bad, but Bradshaw could do NOTHING to even slow down there mediocre Bigs. Our defensive rotations look like a Grade School team!!! It's a big reason why we give up enough offensive rebounds to lose close games!!!

Cal is getting ABUSED by mid-level players while trying to convince UK fans that his kids are future NBA players.

Cal also does NOTHING to prepare our kids to become better at defending!!! We are just as bad or worse now than we were to start the year. He makes NO adjustments and we get beat by the SAME plays EVERY Game!!!

Lastly, our strength and conditioning coaches need FIRED!!!! Several of our kids are out of shape and NEVER get stronger(except for Adou)!!! And we ALWAYS have at least 1 or 2 kids unable to play!!!
Graham Ike is much better than a mid level player. He had a pretty darn good season last year.
 
Of all people, TOM freakin' CREAM knows more than our coach.

I'm not saying I'd ever want CREAM at UK, but....hell, I'd take a ham sammich right now over this sh*t....come on over CREAM, at least you'd be fired up and electric (albeit a freaking weirdo, but maybe UK could cure him).

(please don't take me seriously, I'm just saying I'm ready for a change, this year, and am making a point that a coach as weird and average as Crean still appears to know more than this supposed "Hall of Famer" we're stuck with).
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Graham Ike is much better than a mid level player. He had a pretty darn good season last year.
Those other 2 White dudes are!!!

Ike is decent, but we made him look like an All-American because our defense is HORRIBLE!!!

Those White dudes not only scored in the paint but also got too many putbacks and made FT's but they also kept our Bigs from scoring.
 
The reason teams continually abuse us on these high ball screens is because he doesn’t teach the bigs how to hedge out hard on the guards. Instead we float with off the screen which ours out bigs in n mans land and leaves their guards space and vision to make the roll pass.

Go back and watch A&M or South Carolina against us and see how their bigs close out hard on the switch and smother the guard to where they can’t make that pass.

It’s not the way we are playing it, it’s how we are taught or NOT taught to play it.
 
The reason teams continually abuse us on these high ball screens is because he doesn’t teach the bigs how to hedge out hard on the guards. Instead we float with off the screen which ours out bigs in n mans land and leaves their guards space and vision to make the roll pass.

Go back and watch A&M or South Carolina against us and see how their bigs close out hard on the switch and smother the guard to where they can’t make that pass.

It’s not the way we are playing it, it’s how we are taught or NOT taught to play it.
I thought South Carolina did a better job of hedging hard and recovering than any team I have seen in quite awhile. At least against us .
 
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Sorry - the refs didn't beat us yesterday. A better coached team did. Don't give Cal any excuses. They ran the same set over and over again and we did NOTHING to stop it. That's on Cal, not the officials.
While I agree, they did screw the Cats on the key play at the end of the game late. When Zags had 1 second to shoot and threw it, up they shoved Theiro right off the end of the court for the rebound znd put back. That had to be called.

CBS even ran the replay but the never question the refs tv crew made no comment.
 
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The officials ignored 2 illegal ball screens by Ike on the first 3 plays. If those are called maybe Gonzaga gets a little weary. I don't think they would but you never know.


Also, Ive been saying for I dont know how long that teams should be running this play every time against UK until UK proves they can stop it. There was little doubt a coach as tremendous as Few was going to see this and run it to death.

non stop man to man will eventually stop it. - Cal
 
Did anyone approach Jay Wright with a napkin contract before he left the building? Bueller?
 
That last one , where Bradshaw has his back to the man with the ball.... it looks like comedy . But the whole clip shows how badly Aaron got pushed around , this should be a reminder to all. Just because you are 7 foot tall doesnt make you a good basketball player . Aaron could learn to be one , but its gonna take a while
If you can't stop them facing them, maybe turning your back to them will work.
 
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That last one , where Bradshaw has his back to the man with the ball.... it looks like comedy . But the whole clip shows how badly Aaron got pushed around , this should be a reminder to all. Just because you are 7 foot tall doesnt make you a good basketball player . Aaron could learn to be one , but its gonna take a while
You're so right about Bradshaw having his back to the guy he was guarding made me burst out laughing at the futility of our defense. Also I've NEVER seen a seven footer having rebounds being ripped out of his hands constantly. He's also awful at catching lob passes, a staple of our offense every year.
 
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The reason teams continually abuse us on these high ball screens is because he doesn’t teach the bigs how to hedge out hard on the guards. Instead we float with off the screen which ours out bigs in n mans land and leaves their guards space and vision to make the roll pass.

Go back and watch A&M or South Carolina against us and see how their bigs close out hard on the switch and smother the guard to where they can’t make that pass.

It’s not the way we are playing it, it’s how we are taught or NOT taught to play it.
Exactly, same reason we struggled under Oscar’s team and all the teams before him.
 
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COW - “maybe we should have doubled down low.“
A typical refrain from our “coach” after many games this year. I should have done this. player A should have played more. We should have run more. It never ends because he never learns! Seems to watch the games as a fan instead of a coach.
As TheDude said -Cal is always coaching AFTERWARDS. Exactly, after the game is over he comes up with a list that should have been done during the game . Too late CCC!!!

No deviations/adjustments once the game starts. If we win, give me the credit for an excellent game plan.
If we lose, blames youth, “why did he do that“, we were just x number of plays from winning that game blah, blah, blah
Not in the same conversation with some of our previous coaches; Joe B, Eddie, Rick, and Tubby. These coaches made adjustments during a game. Not always successful but trying anything to win.

Our offense is potent enough to win most games with just an average defense and rebounding team
He tries to play up the opponent in losses, acting like his coaching decisions were really tough ones and he just had bad luck. If he were playing pickup SOLO, he'd still get blown out.
 
You're so right about Bradshaw having his back to the guy he was guarding made me burst out laughing at the futility of our defense. Also I've NEVER seen a seven footer having rebounds being ripped out of his hands constantly. He's also awful at catching lob passes, a staple of our offense every year.
He has no desire to fight for rebounds and get into physical play. He's had one foot out the door the whole time
 
Same every year Ky has no post up game with 3 seven footers and no D inside or out it all come back to the coach.
 
For the past several years, UK hasn't even tried a hard hedge against the PNR but maybe a handful of times. That's called (a) coaching, and (b) effort - you have to work your ass off to get back and defend.

It's one of the many, many reasons why a different coach would improve UK's on-court play.
 
Maybe a switch to a simple ZONE would have stopped the same play from beating us over and over and over and over and over. But our thick headed mentally challenged coach refuses to consider it!! Thats what is soo frustrating. Put big Z in the middle of it and make them beat you from outside at least, instead of shooting layups and 3 footers the whole game!! Or maybe try fronting them in the post and having them try to lop over the top? Its like that clown has zero answers and makes zero adjustments!! Its definitely coaching malpractice at its finest!!
 
While I agree, they did screw the Cats on the key play at the end of the game late. When Zags had 1 second to shoot and threw it, up they shoved Theiro right off the end of the court for the rebound znd put back. That had to be called.

CBS even ran the replay but the never question the refs tv crew made no comment.

This play right here. Clearly shoves Thiero

 
My loudest screams at the TV were for Cal to get bradshaw out of there. He kept him in and they were having easy layups like ten times in a row.
 
I just wish we would have a clear identity in ball-screen situations.

For example: we will NOT give up a bucket in the paint. Our big will stay home and guard the roll, or we'll "tag" hard so they can't hit the post and have to throw a perimeter skip instead, or we use our guard to go under the ball-screen so we have both defenders protecting paint.

Sure, that means we'll give up some more perimeter looks, but at least we'd be taking away the higher percentage shot in the paint. But currently, we don't take away anything, really.

I just wish it was more evident what our guys are supposed to be focusing on stopping in these situations.
 
Sit 2 or 3 of those guys for a game or two, regardless of what star they are, and play the guys that give the most effort. The way it should have been the last ten years. We are tired of losing because of playing the guys that deserve it the most and coaching that can't play a zone when needed and can't demand in your face defense.
 
Teams that have beaten us have good coaches unlike Cal he will not try any zones or postup hard to understand with all these coaches sitting on the bench can not make adjustments in games seems Cal does not care if we lose.
 
The
I thought South Carolina did a better job of hedging hard and recovering than any team I have seen in quite awhile. At least against us .
They really did, to the point it went from us trying to attack offensively with screens to us being the ones under pressure. We almost ended up in a trap every time we tried to come around a screen with no options to pass or shoot an lucky to even not turn it over. The Pros do the same thing.

Against teams like that its better to scrap the high ball screen and just space the floor and use the dribble because otherwise you're just clogging things up for our guards to operate and drive and kick.
 
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