HEM Analysis, please!!!



  • Just a November learning experience loss? (We didn’t run our stuff)

    Or do we need to throw away the playbook and start from scratch?



  • @VailHawk Don’t take a scientist guy-we got our ass handed to us plain & simple. But our team is getting to be like a revolving door almost every season now, so at this point it is what it is. About 1st or 2nd week of Feb, we should pretty much know what we have developed. Now, not very much as a team.



  • @globaljaybird said:

    our team is getting to be like a revolving door almost every season now

    I’ve heard this refrain a bit lately as an explanation for our performance: “We’re young… we’re inexperienced… not enough time to develop identity or to establish chemistry…”

    The problem with those explanations (IMHO) is that Kentucky is just as young, as inexperienced, etc. They have the same revolving door— perhaps even moreso. They should have the ego issues… the lack of playing time concerns… the questions about whether players are getting enough time on the floor to develop… etc. etc.

    And yet the record speaks for itself. Somehow, Calipari has formulated (call it stripped-down or dumbed-down) an offense and defense that his players can grasp and execute in time for the pre-season games.

    I don’t see why we can’t do the same.



  • KY is, is, is a better team than KU, because they have 4+ returnees with Final4/Champgame experience. They have 5 guys over 6’10, 5 guys with over 7ft wingspans, and ALL their bigs are crazy-athletic. There is literally no other team like them.

    I will NOT throw darts at Calipari- doesnt he actually deserve credit for getting all those guys to come to KY? And to cleverly say “there are no subs”, and to coin the “rotating starters platoons” phrase, is just telling us exactly how he got those kids to buy in.

    You can gameplan against a key opposing bigman or guard. But its hard to execute any gameplan against 5 “starting” quality super-athletic bigs, along with 4-6 guards all taller than 6’6.

    Think of all the statistical categories Self always talks about: Rbnds, 50/50 balls, turnovers, FG%, FG%defense…and see how this was an absolute beatdown. Sucks that it was our team, but all we can ask is they listen to Self and learn from this.

    RCJH.


  • Banned

    @ralster it isn’t coach Cal getting those kids to come UK. Cal wasn’t getting those recruits when he was at Memphis, and UK was getting those recruits before Cal showed up at UK.

    About 10 to 15 years from now we’ll get and Espn special on how Coach Cal and UK cheated the game. However not right now business is good.



  • @ralster

    Actually KU had more offensive rebound 20-15 and the overall rebounds UK 47-42 were not that different. The big difference is that UK scored a lot of points off those offensive rebounds where KU got their shots blocked. I was so frustrated watching KU players drive to the middle and attempt a shot while surrounded by 3 unibrow-like players only to have their shots blocked.

    It is not like UK had a particularly good offensive game, 72 points is really not a big offensive show; the problems is that KU’s offense could not score.

    I have mentioned before that if you look at Svi’s stats, while not a slouch, he is really not know for his 3 point shot either. I don’t understand why some people (not you) continue to expect him to suddenly become an ace from 3 point land. Having said that, the kid has some serious upside to him; he does not get rattled and stays composed all the time. Once his shot starts falling, he will be a special player.



  • I don’t think there is much to analyze. We got stomped. We drove into the heart of their defense, and got swatted away 80 times. How many shots did Frank get blocked? It was brutal, but not fatal. We live to fight again.



  • @KUSTEVE So succinct. Not much else to say.



  • Not trying to make any excuses, but did anyone see this?? Travel much???



  • @MoonwalkMafia

    Ouch, ankle breaker.



  • @bskeet I think ralster said it much better than I could. KY has recruited soooooo much more talent & size plus returning talent & there may be no one else like them this year in CBB. Doesn’t take away improvement expectations from our Jayhawks-only intensifies them. Clearly we have a way to go to compete at their level & I fully expect them to in March. We will be challenged for the BIG 12 title without a rim protector & large wingspan in the paint, but that’s why HCBS has 10 straight. Cal runs a motion offense & has the ball handlers in the twins to do it. With the lack of size Self has, he can only run a hi lo so much. I really think we’ll miss AW 111 and CF draining bombs, cause that is the great equalizer v a team full of trees. That said, I fully expect Svi & Oubre to man up to the task. We may end up being really streaky this year but that’s OK if we peak late & stay get hot in March.



  • @globaljaybird I love your very last point. All that anyone on this board really cares about is how the season ends…in March…or preferably April. UCONN and UK from last year are prime examples of this. Do you think either programs fan base last year went into March Madness thinking “what a year”? Absolutely not. But both teams got hot at the right time and made runs to the title game. I don’t really care if we lose 10 games during the season if we go to the Final 4. It is irrelevant. I know it is quite a bit easier to get to the Final 4 if we have a great year but again, last year is an example that it is not 100% necessary. Let’s be honest. After watching the first two games of the regular season it is pretty easy to tell that this KU team is not going to just have a couple of losses. They are going to have 5-10 and they are going to have to pull a UCONN and peak in March.



  • @MoonwalkMafia Not impressed. If I shuffle my feet like Barry Sanders, I can blow by anyone too.



  • @DanR That’s what I’m saying! He looked like a running back! That was worse than a travel. It was a Walter Payton juke move!!!



  • @DanR said:

    If I shuffle my feet like Barry Sanders, I can blow by anyone too.

    I think that was @MoonwalkMafia 's point. (That was an egregious travel, not an elite, athletic move).

    The officiating also allowed for a tremendously physical game. Mason was body-slammed on his way to the basket repeatedly without fouls being called.

    Now, I don’t want to suggest that if it had been called tightly, we would have been fine… Because we wouldn’t have been. It would have simply exposed another weakness: Free-throw shooting.

    And that leads us to a team in search of an identity: Right now, we can’t win the physical, pounding, grind it out game… and won’t win a precise, tightly-called game.



  • @globaljaybird You’re right. But at the same time, if last night was a little preview of what the NBA is going to be like for our guys, they might want to consider another year or two.


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