After ten games its clear we are not a very good 3 point shooting team. Pope tried to start a three point shooting team and we would have lost if he kept those starters on the floor. The team that won this game in second half was Lowe, Oweh, Kam, Mo and Garrison. Pope should start those guys, give them major minutes and coach a fast, defensive, downhill, rebounding with a passion team going forward. If he goes back to clueless searching for some kind of answer, the season will be lost.
3 for 15 3pt shooting
- Thread starter WallMash
- Start date
Season is already looking pretty lost to me. This team is gonna lose 12 plus games for 2nd season n a row but not have the dominant sec to get them a better seed n March. We are most likely going to be 8 and 6 and 0 and 1 in the sec after at bama.
I agree we need to stop pretending we can shoot 3s but u aren't winning anything that matters without 3 point shooting.
I agree we need to stop pretending we can shoot 3s but u aren't winning anything that matters without 3 point shooting.
Truly sad when the highlight of our season is beating an unranked team at home.
Our three-point shooting this season isn’t really a bad shooter problem. There are enough capable shooters on the roster that the percentages should be better than they sometimes look. The issue is more about how those shots are being created than who is taking them.
A lot of our threes come in poor rhythm. They may be technically open, but they’re often the result of late clock possessions, broken actions, or quick pull ups where the defense hasn’t actually been forced to rotate. Those shots tend to miss because the shooter isn’t stepping into them naturally. On top of that, we don't always apply consistent paint pressure, so defenses can stay attached longer on the perimeter, which leads to hesitation. Hesitation is poison for shooting. This is why I think getting JQ back could materially impact our team shooting (and defense).
Very good post and one that some don’t comprehend. A higher percentage of shots will fall if the right guys are taking them and in rhythm of the offense. The first half last night however had zero rhythm to anything we were doing on offense and that’s a pope problem. 2nd half was much better in that regards. This has to be a high energy team specifically on the defensive side. Need to be able to knock down 6-8 threes a game on at least a 35% clip to have a chance to be in games for the better opponents we play.
Last edited:
Those were the best 5 last night, next game, it will probably be a different combination of guys.
Fact is, we do have guys that can hit threes at a high rate, they just aren't.
Plus we don't shoot the three when they should, jacking up a contested 3 on the first pass is not a good shot at all. Our 3 pt shot selection has a lot to do with how bad they are shooting the 3 and why they have those slow starts.
I mean, we literally have dudes starting threads trying to get "Pope haters" to eat crow. Is this the new standard now? We beat an unranked IU team in Rupp with the crowd willing the team… .again.
Also, nobody hates Pope, but that doesn't mean it's okay to pour $22m into a roster and lose the 2ay this team has.
I'm ecstatic with the win, but this doesn't change my mind.
Not just the 3 for 15 from 3 tho but the 19 of 43 from 2.
Effective FG% of 40%. Minor miracle we won that game. I can't imagine you shoot that poorly against a power conference team and win many of them. But we didn't turn it over, did a good job on the offensive boards and got to the line often.
Effective FG% of 40%. Minor miracle we won that game. I can't imagine you shoot that poorly against a power conference team and win many of them. But we didn't turn it over, did a good job on the offensive boards and got to the line often.
lots of different ways to win games. you dont need modern offense. but a great defensive and rebounding team, dont foul, and dont turn it over and you will win a lot of games.
Agree. I also noticed (more in the first half) when guys would get lane penetration they would look to shoot only. Chandler and Aberdeen primarily. Noah had two assists, both happened when he was in the lane and kicked it to shooters who were open enough to get set and hit the shot. Shot selection must improve for the team to be successful.
Some of you guys must be young and have no clue that’s a rival team or something. Reading these reactions to that game are disappointing. All I can tell you all is if youre ever in the state of Indiana and wear UK gear you’ll figure it out quick.
We literally have guys starting threats to belittle the win last night. I think that's equally pathetic. You've been pretty levelheaded most of your posts, but you must've seen the level of trolling and toxicity that has been occurring more than just frustration and concern. This coach of these players should be given a chance to play this season and turning around, but some people are just constantly saying the same nasty crap over and over.
Yeah, it's bad both ways, lots of frustration. Winning will fix that.
I really hope Pope gets this team going, because I don’t want to see him fail and I especially don't want to see him fired.
Right on point, and so many don't understand this. Usually the fans 30 and under. Pope's philosophy on offense is lots of threes, but you can win other ways. Play to your talent
Garrison is much better off the bench and Malachi is better as the starter. No reason to change that. We're a much better 3 point shooting team than we've shown against the quad-1 opponents. We've been so freaking tight against the good teams we're barely hitting the rim on lots of our 3's. Maybe breaking through with a big win will allow us to relax enough to shoot 35%+ from 3 cause there's no way we're this bad of shooters. That said, we need to get in the paint as much as possible and then kick out for the open 3 if we can't get to the hoop and shoot them in transition. Got to have Lowe to maximize that.
Nobody wants to lose 10-12 games a year but if Pope makes a good run in the tournament I’ll back off and wait till next year to complain some more. We need a recruiter on staff tho for sure.
We are going to have to win in other ways, I’ve never seen so many air balls from players who are supposed to be decent shooters. One thing is clear this team doesn’t need to shoot 35 threes a game and expect to win going forward. We also force a lot of twos, Lowe being back should help that.
Very true, example of taking a bad three early, Aberdeen passed to Chandler right after crossing half court, Chandler was not squared and about 24' out, he bobbled the pass then had to square up with the defense closing and he jacked up a bad three with plenty of time on the clock. He is not the only one to jack up bad 3's on the first pass with nobody from UK being under the basket, in the second half they eliminated a large chunk of those bad 3's and took it inside more, which sparked that run.
We still have no top 50 recruits coming in for next year. We’ll likely be looking at fighting for transfer players and probably losing out on the better guys because our coach refuses to go into a bidding war because of delusions of the program’s prestige somehow being good enough. That doesn’t even include the JMI bullcrap.
Until we win a couple games against ranked teams, we’re still likely going to miss the tournament. A win against Indiana isn’t enough. Indiana is probably the equivalent of a bottom tier SEC team. And even against the bad SEC competition we won’t always get the benefit of playing at home in conference play.
I’m all for Indiana being a turning point. I hope it is. But it’s just as likely to be fool’s gold and St. Johns and especially Alabama will send us back to reality. We were still down by 9 points against a bad Indiana team. It could’ve easily turned into a blowout in Indiana’s favor. One good half of basketball doesn’t absolve the coaching staff for other 10 and a half games.
8-6 is mighty optimistic. Hard to see this as tournament team at all. Hope I’m wrong