Anybody that watched the game what are your thoughts on big Nick? I only watch the highlights. Seem like he might’ve been a little more confident this year than last. Also seem like he was still kind of weak in the paint. Thoughts?
Big Nick
- Thread starter TheWyldKat_rivals45219
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Only watching the highlights probably didn’t show you bobbling passes. He looked like the exact same guy to me.
Weak in the paint? Nick Richard's had 20 points and 11 rebounds. He ran the court, passed the ball, and gave 100 percent effort. Based on his performance last night, he had an outstanding game.
It was also an intrasquad as game and everyone played 40 minutes. No reason to overblow a stat line. He bobbled passes that were thrown to him and had balls knocked out of his hands pretty easily. I was watching to see one thing — has he improved his hands. And based on last night the answer is no.
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Couldn’t agree more. He will have to play more this year, all we need from him is some kind of consistency. Still not convinced we can count on that from him.
That’s also what I took away from the highlights. Having the ball stripped from his hands, getting blocked etc. hopefully he just needs some court time to improve.
To me, he looked exactly the same as he did in last years Blue/White game. Nick has a habit of showing out when the opponent is sisters of the poor and his own teammates, with whom he's familiar with.
You have to look deeper than just the numbers. He did do some things well, but he still has hands of stone, he still brings the ball down, he still gets stripped easily, he still can't simply catch a pass, he still gets caught standing flat footed and out of position, he still allows smaller players to get layups 3' from him and in some cases, right in his face and he still gets lost on defense.
I did see improvement with his rebounding when he's engaged, that's nice, but that's about it.
Lastly, his go to move in the paint is an over the shoulder hook, well, those looked like cinder blocks coming off the rim last night.
I hate to be hard on the guy, I do think he will play a major role this year and he'll have some eye popping games, but for a guy with his length, frame and athleticism, he still isn’t getting it.
I really have high hopes for him this year, I want him to be great and hey, maybe I'm way off, but I have a very strong feeling that I am correct with my critiques of him.
Is it just a matter of the game not coming naturally? Being behind in experience? Not putting on the time in the off-season?
If Richards or EJ start to post up........ I'm cussing because its basically a turnover one way or another unless they finally pass.
i don’t think either looked that great (not concerned yet though)
What exactly did you see in EJ last night (examples) that makes you believe he was pretty good? He looked the exact same to me (mediocre/ below average)
I went back and watched the game again using my DVR to key just on Nick. He had one turnover. He did not bobble any passes. I believe that he hit 4 of 5 free throws. I'm amazed that so many of you are critical of his game last night.
You asked simply about the scrimmage so I will say he played well for the most part.
Nothing about his play, however, answered any questions I have about his improvement from last year to now.
I’m not sure you can be taught to have good hands. It’s the strangest thing with Nick, because he has a beautiful stroke for a big man. He shoots a soft ft and jumper. In my experience, most guys with brick hands didn’t have a great touch either.
I hope he can stay out of foul trouble. If he can do that, even with the occasional TO due to poor hands, he can still bring valuable minutes. Really pulling for him
Nothing about his play, however, answered any questions I have about his improvement from last year to now.
I’m not sure you can be taught to have good hands. It’s the strangest thing with Nick, because he has a beautiful stroke for a big man. He shoots a soft ft and jumper. In my experience, most guys with brick hands didn’t have a great touch either.
I hope he can stay out of foul trouble. If he can do that, even with the occasional TO due to poor hands, he can still bring valuable minutes. Really pulling for him
I think some of you guys are a little too hard on Nick. I did see him bobble some passes. I did see him get stripped a few times. But I also saw some improvements. He was more aggressive going after rebounds. He was more aggressive finishing on offensive rebounds. He looks stronger. I see some positives. I certainly wouldn't say he's just the same player.
I would agree with another poster above. We don't need Nick to be a double double guy every game. (Though he did finish with 20 and 11 last night) We need him to defend the paint, to rebound the basketball, and to score around the rim a little bit on put backs and back to the basket moves. He appears to be ready to do this. The team needs him and I think he will do fine when given his opportunity.
I would agree with another poster above. We don't need Nick to be a double double guy every game. (Though he did finish with 20 and 11 last night) We need him to defend the paint, to rebound the basketball, and to score around the rim a little bit on put backs and back to the basket moves. He appears to be ready to do this. The team needs him and I think he will do fine when given his opportunity.
That 40 minutes was with the clock running, so it was like 20-25 minutes.
Nonetheless, my point stands. He played the whole time and it was against his teammates. The numbers are really meaningless. We’ve seen Nick put up big numbers against Popcorn U. I was looking for improvements in his deficiencies, unfortunately I didn’t see them.
I’m not trying to be hard on him, I’m just trying to be honest. We’ve seen the Nick we saw last night in the Bahamas. We’ve seen him against Popcorn U. The change we need to see in him is against real competition. Bobbled passes and being weak with the ball is what has plagued him. To be a real contributor in games that matter he HAS to fix that.
Nick looked like the same Nick of the past two years.he has always ran the floor well and gets points off of wide open put backs and run outs. His low post game is still below avg which is surprising because Payne is probably the best low post coach in the country.
Nick doesn't have one post move that he can go to and you just know it's going to work. He tries that over the off shoulder book alot and it too inconsistent.
Nicks best bet is to be an elite rim protector and strong rebounder. I just don't see him developing into a reliable low post player. Specially when you have bigs like e.j. and setsuna who provide more floor spacing on offense due to their skill sets.
He was aggressive last year too early. Then he started to lose playing time and he regressed.
Nick doesn't have one post move that he can go to and you just know it's going to work. He tries that over the off shoulder book alot and it too inconsistent.
Nicks best bet is to be an elite rim protector and strong rebounder. I just don't see him developing into a reliable low post player. Specially when you have bigs like e.j. and setsuna who provide more floor spacing on offense due to their skill sets.
He was aggressive last year too early. Then he started to lose playing time and he regressed.
if you didn’t see Nick bobble any passes, then you didn’t watch the whole game.
hitting free throws has never been a problem for him
I can't recall Nick getting double doubles last season on a regular basis. If he gives them 20 & 11 I would accept a few bobbled passes
A regular basis? No you don’t recall it because he’s never gotten them on a regular basis. He has however gotten them against weak competition.
hard to wrap my head around people actually gleaning something from him getting 20 and 11 in the BW game
You're right. His hands are a problem. At this point, I'm wondering if that can be fixed. He needs to concentrate and focus more on securing the ball before he tries to do anything else.
I will say, in his defense, he doesn't get a good whistle. The slaps and hacks he takes down low would be called on smaller guys, but he's usually the biggest guy on the floor. He just doesn't get the benefit of any doubt.
If 20 and 11 in the BW game can translate to 9 and 7, with 2-3 blocks consistently in real games, I think we'll all be happy. Nick is still going to have some of the same issues, like bobbling and not the best hands, obviously. But when he starts off scoring the first 6 points for his team when everyone was fresh... Two of those buckets coming from offensive rebounds... There is still improvement. He might have some similar issues and head scratchers, but if we can get less of those, improvement is still there. His overall energy was good too. The camera caught him telling his teammates to "pick it up!" Nick was never going to be a brand new player, but he is going to give us more than he has in the past two years for sure.
On that same token though if he actually caught the ball and kept it up high and didn’t end up bringing the hall below his chest (cardinal sin for a big man), opposing players wouldn’t have the opportunity to slap at the ball that they get. He does it to himself.
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Also playing against 5 STAR players. Hard to remember but for the Cats to be "playing themselves" is tough.
This is true, too. This was one of the most talented opposing teams these guys will face all season.
I’m just going to come across as being overly critical now but what the hell. I’m not doubling down on criticism but I will be realistic. We are loaded at the guard and wing positions. Our weakest area is where? You guess it, Nick’s position. That’s why we need him to be better than he’s been. Throwing out this generic “he’s going up against other 5 star players” is meaningless when you understand that at his position, no he was really not. We are a good team but not loaded at that position. Who was he going up against again?
Almost feels he focuses TOO much instead of letting it come naturally. When you already have poor hands AND you’re nervous all the time, it’s a bad combo.
It seems that when he plays against lesser talent (not referring to the BW game), he has the confidence and lets it come naturally. When it’s a big game or there’s an opponent of equal or greater talent, he plays nervous.
His progression, at almost any other school, that he had 4 years to develop and available minutes to fight through his mistakes, would be pretty normal at this point. Now, most of those other schools would still expect to see big improvement between soph and junior seasons.
I’m hopeful we see that with Nick this season
He did not look weak to me. Richards has an elite basketball body. He is from Jamaica, so he got a late start. He has been playing the game for 5 years now. Cal took Richards out of the St. Patrick School at the recommendation of Chris Chavvenes, who also sent Kidd-Gilchrist to Kentucky. Richards did not have a long basketball background, so he was not OAD. When Cal accepted Reid Travis as a grad transfer, it ate into Richards' floor time and slowed his development. Lots of Kentucky fans gave up on him and bashed him. But this is the year when Richards will get the last laugh. KP is an excellent teacher.
And if that happens this will end up an incredible season. We all want that for Nick!
Nobody wants Richards to fail. We’re all Kentucky fans here.
Yes, he has an elite basketball body. He looks great getting off the bus. He looks great in a combine. But if you don’t see that he’s extremely weak with the ball, you’re watching a different guy than the rest of us. He bobbles almost every pass that’s thrown at him with any type of velocity, and he is constantly getting stripped of the basketball. It’s mind-boggling really, because his hands are enormous. They sure don’t look weak. But for some reason, when the ball is in his hands, they are.
Last laugh? As if ANYONE here doesn’t want him to be great?
Nick spun and turned it over once, bobbled another pass for a split second and allowed the defense to adjust in time to stop his dunk attempt. I also noted at least one other bobbled pass.
BUT...
He also rebounded well on the offensive side of the glass, and he seemed much more responsive when it came to finishing off plays when he had the chance. There wasn't much hesitation when he gathered a rebound. In most cases, he went right up with the ball and tried to dunk on people. That's not the Nick of old, and I'm surprised some of you missed out on that component.
The improvement is there. I think the staff wants something like 7 to 8 points, 7 to 8 rebounds, and creating 5 to 6 legitimate shot alterations during the game with maybe 1.5 to 2 blocks/game.
If he does that, we should consider ourselves blessed. It's all we need from him.
BUT...
He also rebounded well on the offensive side of the glass, and he seemed much more responsive when it came to finishing off plays when he had the chance. There wasn't much hesitation when he gathered a rebound. In most cases, he went right up with the ball and tried to dunk on people. That's not the Nick of old, and I'm surprised some of you missed out on that component.
The improvement is there. I think the staff wants something like 7 to 8 points, 7 to 8 rebounds, and creating 5 to 6 legitimate shot alterations during the game with maybe 1.5 to 2 blocks/game.
If he does that, we should consider ourselves blessed. It's all we need from him.
Well hell yeah, if Nick averages 8 and 8 for us this year I’ll consider it a win.
Don't forget, getting the ball stripped in the paint multiple times and getting his weak jump hook blocked twice
And I saw nothing last night that would make me think that Nick won't get to that level.
All we need from him is some poor man's Willie Cauley-Stein. With more minutes, it will be there for him. He'll still have two to four possessions a game that make us die a slow death on the inside, but his rebounding skills are there and he's improving on that level.
Some bad habits won't die while a kid is with us at UK. Remember Poythress getting blocked a few times each game, even when he was in his fourth year at UK?
I can live with the bobbled pass three times a game if Nick just rebounds the hell out of the ball. I fear our fans are expecting someone to step up and play like PJ with their back to the rim, but this team won't have that.
The good news for us is that neither Villanova title team, nor last year's UVA title team, had that either.