Rewatching the UK game
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This is essentially me live posting.
I’m just watching Harris & Remy this game. And I’m sure I’m biased on this - so take that fwiw.
Minute markers will be from the ESPN replay https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/77715a93-d5aa-4135-b363-fff17c8ec200
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7:34 - Harris has ball up top. We play a 2-man PnR with Dave. Oscar doesn’t hedge out to help fully. Harris should either drive and take the shot or he should pass it back out to a WIDE open Jalen at the top of the key for 3. Instead tries to force it to Dave with a mini lob that gets tipped and a TO.
Doesn’t lead to points though. Lucky break.
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9:15 - Harris stops the drive, textbook D. But such a poor offensive possession before that Jalen had to sprint down the floor and cover Oscar until Dave got back. Ends up having to play recovery D on Toppin. Leads to an easy free throw line jumper.
Have to wonder why Self didn’t play KJ a single minute in the 1st half after seeing this. Dave cannot keep up with Oscar up and down the court even if he’s giving it his all.
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9:30 - This is what @BeddieKU23 was talking about in the other thread. Wheeler is not even guarding Harris at the 3pt line. Helps off on a driving Braun to stop him from getting downhill. This should turn into a layup or a kickout 3 to the corner usually. Instead, Braun is forced to give it to Harris. Luckily, UK does some ball watching and Wheeler does the thing where he runs into a screen as hard as he can (I’ve literally never seen a guy just so purposefully run into so many screens). Leaves Jalen wide open for 3, and then one more pass gets CB open. Drain the 3. Good ball movement, but not really “offense.”
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9:45 we have the Harris block/charge call. I thought it was a block live. Still do… But idk. Not bad D.
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Harris set up the first two baskets with assists.
Wheeler gets a bucket on a switch off from Harris which was bad decision as och let’s him go left with o lay pressure.
Bad turnover for Harris going baseline minute later.
Tschiebwe should have been called for technical foul for elbow to daves face as he scores 2 points. Dave doesn’t sell it and it’s not even reviewed. Officiating is not ever consistent
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10:20 - Remy in. First possession lets Wheeler take a 21 footer going under a screen. Not great D, certainly wasn’t pretty, but the results were fine.
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Bilas credits him for going under but its bad defense if a shooter has that shot.
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13:10 - Remy brings the ball up and uses a screen to move the D. Get a nice skip pass to Wilson. Ball moves to Ochai, Mitch comes up to set a screen and for God knows what reason Ochai has the opportunity to take the ball to the hoop but stops his dribble and almost turns it over. Ball ends up with Wilson who drives in for a layup he should make.
The big emphasis here should be that Remy pulled his defender away to the 3pt line and gave Wilson a look he wouldn’t have had with Harris imo.
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That sequence was a mess. Och then Wilson missing a gimmie layup badly.
Remy next possession on d has chance to steal but small and no length. Thankful Oscar does a bulldozer of och in the lane
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10:40 - Oscar has the ball - Mitch does a great job walling up. And - importantly - Remy denies the pass OUT of the post and forces the ball out to about 26 feet. Oscar comes up on a PnR. Gets the ball on a nice bounce pass, but the pick had to be set so far out that Och can rotate over. Charge.
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Remy forces wheeler foul due to pressure on the ball. Not much there but its called.
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Five minutes and 10 seconds of game clock and Ocha has 2 shots he usually cans AND that stupid possession he should have gone in for a layup or floater or something…
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Bad offense again leads to och missing floater where mitch thinks it may be a lob. Och doesn’t fight hard enough for rebound. On other end Remy gets switched on Toppin and results in foul for free throws
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Remy makes one of those oh no don’t shoot it but yes it goes in contested 3
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Just a note I’ve seen thus far - Wheeler seemed to be pressuring Harris more than Remy. My guess is that he’s scared Remy will go by him and actually try to score… But just a guess. He was harassing him some, but then Remy drew the foul. Made him back off a bit.
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Remy takes another 3 this time short and the result is Grady making a 3 on Remy seconds later
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@BeddieKU23 Wheeler helped off on this as well btw. Similar to what they did with Harris earlier.
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16:39 - Just noting that Remy’s D on this was meh. A player with better scoring acumen than Wheeler probably has a bucket here with Remy chasing under the screens.
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Remy with a good decision once he gets in lane as mitch makes an easy 6 footer. Ware on the other end makes contested basket somehow with both mitch Remy there. Kentucky just making everything. Wheeler makes a step back deep 2 like he does that on the reg
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Remy gets Oscar switched on him and drives and goes with the high arching shot that misses. Dave has a chance for the board and bats the ball out of bounds like he’s playing volleyball. Can’t make this stuff up
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17:23 - This is the possession SUCKS. Remy takes a 3 he probably shouldn’t. But we had two baskets we didn’t take.
First Remy drives and kicks it back to Mitch. Wilson makes an AWESOME cut, but doesn’t get the ball.
Then, CB is the one who sort of puts us in a bad spot with 4 guys all standing next to each other. He has the corner and is driving the lane. But instead of forcing help from the big man (scared?) and either going up strong or dishing it to Mitch for a dunk he passes it out to Remy who takes a bad shot with 14 seconds left.
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After the timeout Harris back in. Tschiebwe attempts another jumper that’s short but Brooks is being semi boxed out by Harris but like 8 inches and athleticism on him and gets the board with very little effort and scores 2 on him
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17:33 - Remy blows this. Switches late on Grady and gives up an easy top of the key 3 to their best shooter. Type of thing Harris doesn’t do (often at least).
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17:45 - Och brings the ball up so Remy is in the corner. Och passes opposite so motion offense dictates he rotates to the top. But he gets too far in the lane here. The opposite side has a ball screen for CB who has the corner turned, but Wheeler is basically able to guard both Remy and CB. This is a total free lancing thing.
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As a follow up to the bucket Brooks gets that forces a timeout. Och is there with no man to guard if the ball is passed out. Let’s Brooks take a dribble to right hand to get in position for easy layup. Not even an attempt to help Harris there who’s got no chance to stop that play giving up all that height. Och having about as bad of a start to a game as you will see
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18:30 - Remy does a nice mini-backdoor cut. Slips the double team and Mitch makes a nice little shot. Good O.
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18:36 - Remy gets crossed and mixed up on the screen (going under this should never happen). Forced Mitch to help and Wilson just is not athletic enough to stop Ware from scoring on the roll. I’m not sure this happens with Harris in.
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10:16 mark Harris on designed play to get och a 3. Executed perfectly and they get a 3
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18:56 - Again Remy is like 2 feet inside the arc which is the worst place to be on a basketball court. This doesn’t affect the play, but should be noted.
Och drives and makes a nice pass to Mitch who misses a layup. But the actual best pass was to CB who’s man helped off and left him wide open at the top of the key. Still should have been a bucket though.
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So far I think I’ve counted at least 8 points that we probably make 95% of the time. Should probably be up by 2 at this point, but at least tied.
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19:30 - This is absolutely where the game was lost. Not this play, but coming to the realization that our guys made poor decisions on ball screens. To chase our shooters, UK went over screens. But they helped off from the TOP OF THE KEY to stop us from getting downhill. I’m startin at a wide open CB again right now. That is twice, and Wilson once. Ball gets tipped out of bounds when Och gets stuck.
On the ensuing inbound play, Ochai has an open 3 in the corner but isn’t looking to score. Ends the possession with us feeding Dave late in the clock who actually has a really good look if he is any other big. But he takes a full second to collect himself so it ends up missing what should have been 2 points.
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22:30 - Remy plays good (not bad) D. We force UK into a long two by Oscar. Who buries it… Bad luck
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23:10 - Remy really has to make that shot.
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23:49 - Harris gets matched up against Brooks and we get out-athleted for a rebound. Not sure it would have mattered who was guarding him on this play. Ball bounced right to him. BUT nobody helped Jaun here in the paint. Everyone scrambled to the perimeter and so we essentially conceded 2 points.
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Again just something I am noticing - more pressure on Harris bringing up the ball than Remy. Mintz even pressuring Harris pretty hard.
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26:16 - CB drives the lane weak AF without running any offense. Either drive it like a man or run the offense.
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26:28 - We switch and Harris ends up on Brooks AGAIN. UK immediately sees it. Dave has to help. JCL late on the rotation. Oscar and 1. I really do not understand the coaching logic to switching the way we switch. Harris and Remy are liabilities here. We switch EVERYTHING and so you only have to run one action to get this matchup. Our best defensive half all season was the KSU game where Harris stayed with Pack the entire game.
Would love to find out why we play defense this way. It seems like a flaw unless you have a 6’5 PG like we did last season.
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27:37 - First look at running 2 guards. Harris and Remy both on the floor. We sort of toil around for a bit. End up with Remy flaring to the corner who immediately finds a cutting Dave who Dave’s it up. Competent big man this is a basket. Mitch might even score this tbh.
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29:05 - Remy uses a Dave screen and does a fantastic job to get an easy layup.
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29:18 - Remy does a decent job forcing a tough shot from Wheeler. But Dave does the half-help thing, meaning he doesn’t affect the shot but also is out of position to block out and rebound. Ends up with UK getting the ball back for a layup.
Just my observations thus far - but Dave has been dogshit. I’m not even trying to watch him, but he’s so eye-poppingly awful. Not even because we are going up against Oscar, but because he sucks.
Of course the following possession after I type all of that he makes a nice power move for a layup. But I still think what I said above
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29:58 - Dave bites on an Oscar pump fake from 15 feet (DARE HIM TO SHOOT THAT). Ends up with Oscar blowing by him for a layup.
I swear - Dave single-handedly has been the reason this game isn’t around a 4 point deficit. 10 atm.
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30:09 - Och blows by his guy for a layup that he has made all season long. But misses. Sigh.
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Ouch. Next possession is another Grady trail 3 caused by the runout on the Och miss. Goes from 10 to 15 in what feels like an instant. Mostly on two plays that should be made. One defensive and one offensive that led to that runout. Bill calls another TO.
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31:48 - Remy with a nice pass to Wilson who misses a layup he should make.
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31:55 - Wilson sags too far off of TyTy. Then gets taken off of the dribble. Forces help from Mitch and an easy dunk.
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32:23 - Harris finds Wilson nicely. Foul not called that should have been an easy call. Textbook hands coming down over the shooters arms… Sigh.
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33:12 - We go Triangle & 2 (hereby referred to as T2). Remy takes what I think and thought was a charge live. It was definitely “sold” so I get why the refs didn’t call it. If Remy stays upright, it doesn’t lead to an easy dunk. This is one of those plays where it looks like the “smart vet” taking a charge or like Remy is “weak” depending on your mindset. I’m of the mindset you shouldn’t try to draw fouls like that for this exact reason.
When I go back and tally this up, I’ll make sure to put Remy for -2 on this play.
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35:40 - Harris makes a very nice play on a little floater. Would love to see him master that. I think it changes everything if he can hit that at a 60% clip.
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36:05 - the Harris dunk. Count this as a play Harris can make that Remy can’t.
