Aggressive perimeter pressure on our shooters. We got out of sorts in the 1st half. Need to be able to drive to relieve the pressure. We did better in the 2nd half.
Duke had a good game plan
- Thread starter St.PatterSoN-54-
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They were on Robinson and Brea at the catch . I think the energy they expended on defense was a factor late in the game. Honestly, we were beginning to pull away at the end .
Honestly I'm impressed we were able to score 77 because Duke's defense looked really, really good.
Duke isn't going away this year, unfortunately.
Duke isn't going away this year, unfortunately.
IMO, the best thing Duke did was make getting into the paint the priority. For 3/4 of the game, they weren't having much trouble getting in there through Buter and Oweh. Which is a bit concerning. Flagg had some really nice plays and was scoring, but Knueppel was really driving their Off. He kinda seemed to run outta gas, as our Def got serious in those last 8ish min.
Duke is a half court matchup nightmare. That center is a load. I hope we don't get them again this year unless Robinson has the game of his life.
Strong perimeter defense. Chest-to-chest all night.
We aren't going away either. Kentucky's second half defense held Duke to about 30% shooting. So, I am not sure I understand your reason for acting like Kentucky got a lucky win. We didn't play anywhere near as good as we can.
We hit some threes early and they decided to put a stop to it. It worked and threw us off for sure. Their D was legit on the perimeter. With their big load of a center inside it gave them ability to go all out without much fear of anything inside. But it came at a cost. Dudes were wiped out in second half of second half. Big man cramping helped a lot. But don’t overlook the adjustment made by Coach to put Carr at the 5 and pull the center out and let him cook. And telling Butler to drive it in, good decision. And the changes on ball screens were huge. In the end, we wore their asses out and Mark out coached Sheyer. Good game. I think we would have kept pulling away if there were another 5 minutes cause those kids were grabbing shorts every stoppage. Even with two extra time outs, they were gassed big time.
I don’t see how he’s acting like we got a lucky win. I was also impressed that we were able to score. I don’t think it had much to do with luck.
I didn't see a single complementary word in his post. Maybe you should reread the post so that you can point out what I missed. Basically, saying that he was shocked that we managed to score 77 points isn't a compliment. The only compliment I saw was how good Duke's defense is. Just remember, Jay Williams at half time stated that this was the best Duke team he has seen since the 90s if I recall correctly. Taking him at his word makes the near 30% second half shooting Kentucky's defense generated is even more remarkable.
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Wow you're in my head like GOOGLE!!!! Exactly my thoughts and comments all night long. We opened up running our perimeter motion and got some looks and knocked some shots down then Duke adjusted and did a fantastic job of extending their defense outside the line and it took us completely out of what we do best.
And you're right, the only fix to that is to make them pay for the extended defense by driving by them to create rotation and open looks off their help defense. But we were struggling to get by them, several guys tried but had no luck and we were left trying to score from to the post.
But thats what was so impressive. They took away what we were good at and made us really grind and we fought through all that.
We do have to find a way going foward thought to break down pressure and extende man to man defense. Think they will work on it a lot and we'll see improvement. The only pick I had on coach Pope was I thought he should have left Chandler in a little more when others were struggling because he is our only real slasher and he may have helped. But whose complaining right!!!
You’re reading all that into his words. “Impressed” is complimentary in English. The rest is all your imagination.
They were good; we were better. But better doesn’t mean anything until you anchor it in what we were better than.
@podgejeff_ is one of our better posters and not the Duke slurper you’re straining to paint him as.
I am not painting him as anything; his words did. You can attempt to paint it however you choose, but his words don't change no matter how you attempt to spin it.
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His words did no such thing. And when I happened by and saw how you jumped on him I didn’t like it. So I called you out. Because I don’t like bullying. End of story. Deal with it.
For some reason you seem to think I give a rat's butt about what you like or don't like. I don't! If anyone is attempting to be a bully, it is you, but I don't need anyone coming to my rescue.
That looked to be our possible achilles heel. Interior defense will be the thing we will need to improve on the most throughout the season. I loved what I saw though, they played well and we were a bit off for 3/4 of the game yet still found a way to win. That’s what great teams can do, and to be able to do that in November against a top 10 team is impressive. Don’t want to get too excited but a lot to like from what I saw.
Allow me to clarify for you: I don't think we "got lucky", I think we were consistently underestimated by everyone going into that game and I believe Mark Pope has already made a contender well ahead of schedule.
I didn't say a single thing about "being shocked", I said I was impressed we managed to score 77 against a very good Duke defense.
A compliment for a good Duke team isn't some insult against Kentucky, if anything it compliments our performance even more. I will remind you that this thread title is "Duke had a good game plan". It's a thread about Duke.
Their offense also generated open looks most of the game, but they shot like crap. 4/23 from three. Where they failed was in crunch time. Anyone in the world could guess you are giving it to Flagg the last two possessions and he dribbled into trouble both times. They failed to run the offense that was giving them open looks.
Coach Pope had a better plan. And it’s been what has worked against us the last bunch of years. Bang on the freshman superstars and get in their legs. Wear them down and get them on their heels and break them down. Loved being on the other end of it for once.
Yep when CF had the ball in the tie (where he turned it over vs Williams in the corner) I was praying that he missed the shot because I knew we had them in OT but I'll take the ending we got obviously.
. They were done. We would've won easily in the add on 5 minutes.
