If we continue to get 14 assist a game and a sack full of turnovers, there will be a lot more L's coming our way.
This stat is not good period.
- Thread starter Cbbcrazy2
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Huh? We had 14 assists, and average 20.7 per game. I agree 14 is too low but where did 6 come from?
The bigger issue last night was 14 TOs to go with those 14 assists while UL had 20 assists & 6 TOs
The most concerning part of last night is we have a ton of experience and players with deep runs in the tournament but we played like a team full of freshmen. The coaching was horrific but our guys shouldn't be playing scared and out of sorts on the road.
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IMO, lazy passes and not understanding the offensive scheme — seemingly at all — are hurting us big time. It really seems like players are hesitating or thinking through moves instead of playing on instinct. It leads to us making poor passes because of miscommunication and projecting passes. Just like a DB watching a QB's eyes, defenses can cheat passing lanes.
Pope needs to seriously focus on offense between now and December. Crack down on it. Defense can come along with the talent and athleticism we have, but we can't score or put our shooters in the best position possible if they don't know reads or passes or spacing.
We're basically a brand new team. Garrison is what he is at this point, so it's unknown if we can really play him; Noah didn't play; Oweh is either in his head or still nursing the toe injury (or both); and Chandler got in foul trouble (which, his third foul was complete BS, but I digress).
Everyone else besides the freshmen has college/pro experience, yes, but it's not here and it's not with Pope. I have absolutely zero doubt that this team will gel and become an absolute monster as the season progresses, but it hasn't clicked yet.
Doesn't Louisville also have a whole new team?
Another stat was the whistle by the refs, UofL made it to the free throw line nearly double the amount that UK did.
UK was 12-34 and UL was 13-40. Please explain your comment.
Not sure it was so much luck as it was poor defense on our part.
Not at all, actually.
They returned Rooths, Pryor, Khalifa, and Hadley. Two starters. Four of their 7-8 man rotation were in the program last year. So, around 50% of the team is returners and 25% are returning starters.
We returned one starter and a total of four of our players in what's going to end up being an 11-12 man rotation. That's 33% returners and 8% starters.
If you feel like those numbers are comparable, then sure. Louisville had a brand new team. They didn't, but I'm not assessing the numbers the way you are.
Yet the guy who really won them the game is a stud frosh. Interesting...
That was one game. You pick any loss by any team, and you can easily find at least 1 stat in that game that would allow you to make the same statement that you just made.
Yes, TO's is a big reason why we lost last night. It's way too early to believe we will be a high TO team, especially considering it was our 3rd game, and both PGs missed some action the past 2 weeks, and another key player missed a month of action.
The offense had its issues but the defense was atrocious. Ineffective/inappropriate double downs where the defender didn’t get there and couldn’t recover. Constant going under screens. Bigs with their backs to the ball handler so zero ability to alter shots. So much was just subpar ignoring the inability to contain Brown (who is pretty elite).
If defense is what Pope has had them focus on as he has said, he’s not very good at it. This isn’t a bunch of inexperienced players. It’s very early but it is disturbingly familiar to last year.
UK just simply doesn't force turnovers under Pope and UL was turning the ball over much more against the scrubs they played the 1st two games. Pope needs to focus on improving the defense and quickly.
If defense is what Pope has had them focus on as he has said, he’s not very good at it. This isn’t a bunch of inexperienced players. It’s very early but it is disturbingly familiar to last year.
UK just simply doesn't force turnovers under Pope and UL was turning the ball over much more against the scrubs they played the 1st two games. Pope needs to focus on improving the defense and quickly.
Honestly, a bit of both. We caught Louisville on a night when they couldn't miss in the first half. Set the tone for the rest of the game. We had a hand in their face for several of their early threes.
What? Cmon ul fan. Don’t lie to try and prove a point
UK 12-16
Ul 21-31
That’s free throws, genius.
They did have a big advantage there, but a bunch of them were at the end of the game on intentional fouls. Remember - they missed 7 straight?
The turnovers and more importantly, the points off of turnovers, was the biggest factor in the Cards winning.
If you have guys that can shoot the ball and there’s no one on them I don’t think I’d call that luck.
The problem is we only forced 6 TOs.....on top of the awful defensive play. THe offense is solid and will improve as the year unfolds.....but Pope had a team that didn't play hard on defense a good bit last year...and last night we saw it happen again.
With yet again UKs inability to force turnovers.
This is worrisome that it will be a trend. Similar issues to last year but it was supposed to be the lack of SEC caliber athletes last year. Last night looked like lack of SEC caliber game plan to the defensive approach.
Wow....that is putting your head into the sand mentality.
UK D was pitiful.
1. Open three after open three.
2. Breakdowns on open rim drives and three point line was not defended well.
3, Only 6 TOs for UL in a very open court/many possessions game.
I'll add..Pope had a pretty lazy team defensively last year (Ohio St, Arkansas, Vandy, etc...)......we chalked it up to athletes was the problem. We add Aberdeen (for Brea), Lowe (for Butler), Diabate (for Carr), Jelavic (for Almonsor), Kam WIlliams to pair with Oweh and Chandler comign back....and yet we still have crap defensive identity.
Sounds like a coaching problem
Then we will lose many more. Defense. That got us killed. We scored plenty to win. No defense, I don’t care what we do on offense, we will drop many games.
I know everybody gets all giggly with the pass and jack threes. That is getting us beat. Until we roll up the sleeves and get in the mud playing defense, this is what you get. Giggly and lot of L’s.
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You have to look at the timing. Early in the game their percentage was much higher than ours. Pass and jack put us in a deep pit. The percentage evened out as we climbed back out but it wasn’t enough.
Their offense is built around shooting volume 3s. That's why Kelsey recruited a bunch of shooters. If anything ,with all the wide open looks, we were lucky they only hit 13 threes.
Agreed....
It's so head scratching to see fans lamenting on a stretch 4, more offense, etc...
We have up 96 pts (and UL missed all kinds of FT late and went cold last 5 minutes).....to argue anything but crap defense is like you must be imagining this as NBA and not college basektball.
Pope‘s comment a couple weeks ago that the team had been working on defense and very little offense looks pretty stupid now.
What was the final points off turnovers for both teams? I have been looking and can’t find it.
Louisville scored 19 points off of turnovers. We scored 10 points of of turnovers.
I agree. It is becoming concerning as last year was supposed to be he didn’t have time to get SEC caliber athletes. Not the case this year. The smart-*** in me says Pope’s defensive philosophy is the opposite of a shooters mentality where a shooter thinks they can’t miss them all. UK at times seems to play D as though let them shoot—they can’t make them all.
I don’t get it. Too much play station is all I can figure. We can’t stay between the ball and basket. We can’t rotate. We can’t get out on the three. We go into spasms trying to defend the pick and roll. There are far less athletic teams playing much superior defense. At this point if it were me, 90% of practice on defense. 10% on free throws Anybody that shoots a three that doesn’t come out of the paint sits. Anybody that makes a pass less than 12 feet sits.
Maybe? But we turned the ball over what, 14 times? If we know what we're doing, Louisville doesn't get nearly as many points off turnovers (19). That's points left off the board and points gifted to Louisville.
We need to install offense so we quit making stupid mistakes.