muddawgs33 said:
I know Tubby left him with less talent that what UK is normally used to having,
I think this is an understatement... They seem to only have 1 guy who's comfortable enough to shoot beyond the free throw line... They had a pg who was open from the 3 all night and he went 1-5. That's terrible for having wide open looks. They have 3 people other than meeks that have shot 30 or more 3's and they are shooting 19%, 21% and 27%. That's freaking terrible. I think Gillespie just doesn't have much to work with.
Meeks was really the only underclassman Gillispie inherited that was SEC caliber - maybe Stephenson. The rest didn't belong on Auburn's roster, much less UK's. It took awhile, but he finally got Bradley and Crawford to perform up to their potential last year. I still think if Patterson doesn't get hurt last year, they had a great chance to win the SEC and win a couple of games in the NCAA's.
The last two years Tubby was at UK, they were 5-3 at this point in the conference schedule. In 105 years of basketball, UK has lost 10 games 16 times. Tubby owns 5 of those - 6 if you count the mess of a team he left Gillispie last season. And if you are preparing a game plan for UK, you don't have to worry about a package to attack the zone. In Stansbury's case, his 4 gaurd drive and kick approach gives a team like UK fits. That's really the only gameplanning he needed to do on offense.
I think Gillispie is a solid coach. He's stubborn, as are most coaches. For instance, he will not play a zone defense. Ever. I think that hurts this team offensively. He has some guys - like Harrelson - who can score it, but he doesn't play them because they can't gaurd in the man-to-man. He could hide a guy like that in a zone and get another scoring option out there on offense. But he refuses to go that route.
He'll find out stubborn is OK at UK if you are going to the Final Four every few years. But if stubborn brings you too many 3 game losing streaks in a bad league, it will earn you a serverence package.
