bronkonagurski
Member
Tom Crean and his hockey line substitutions, gtfo!
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NCAA 2014-15 Men's Basketball |OT| It's Cal's World, We're Just Living In It
- Thread starter Grover Cleveland
- Start date
bucknuticus
Member
UM is now losing EMU...
Elfforkusu
Member
I think we'll be ok. I was hoping for 4-5 seed level team, I think we're at a 7-8 right now.
Rice, Hill, Nunn, Egwu is a solid core. Cosby and Starks have been really awful the last two games, and I think it's safe to say they are not good players. So the question is how Groce manages them into accepting lesser roles, and who he finds to fill that 5th spot in crunch time. Tate is still not ready, Morgan, Colbert, and Black are still figuring out how to play at the college level, and... I think that's everybody.
The other killer issue right now is that we have no identity in the half court. I think we'll find one (even if it's "give ball to Malcolm and GTFO of the way"), but right now we get into crucial situations where we need to score and it ends with our PG dribbling around for 20 seconds and then doing something desperate and/or stupid. That's... bad
I do think we'll be a really solid team in March. I'm a little worried about the journey there, though. Might be a few bumpy months!
That was a killer.
Good news is Louisville can't guard IU if IU doesn't turn it over.
bronkonagurski
Member
All things considered, down 5 at the half isn't too bad.
perfectchaos007
Member
Michigan will still have one last chance to tie the game with 2 seconds to go.
bucknuticus
Member
Shameful Michigan, fucking shameful.
First in football now this shit, were demoting you ass to the MAC
Christ, theyre going to hurt NJIT RPI and SOS now
First in football now this shit, were demoting you ass to the MAC
Christ, theyre going to hurt NJIT RPI and SOS now
Grover Cleveland
Member
First New Jersey Institute of Technology, now Eastern Michigan University
I don't think Michigan is very good guys
I don't think Michigan is very good guys
I was pulling for you guys. I'd like to see Illinois be more competitive in bball again.
Just saw this:
http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2014/12/10/mark-emmert-ncaa-nba-d-league-players
Is the NCAA finally going to start coming around to some reasonable decisions that actually benefit the players? Granted they are being forced that direction pretty hard, but it'd be good to see them start fixing some of these issues, even if they are doing it grudgingly.
Of course first things first I think what is needed is for them to reverse the policy that prohibits players who put their name in the NBA draft from coming back to school. Shitty coaches getting paid millions of dollars were so worried about their players bolting to the NBA that they basically made it illegal for them to even take a job interview. It's petty bullshit and there is absolutely no justification for it.
http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2014/12/10/mark-emmert-ncaa-nba-d-league-players
Is the NCAA finally going to start coming around to some reasonable decisions that actually benefit the players? Granted they are being forced that direction pretty hard, but it'd be good to see them start fixing some of these issues, even if they are doing it grudgingly.
Of course first things first I think what is needed is for them to reverse the policy that prohibits players who put their name in the NBA draft from coming back to school. Shitty coaches getting paid millions of dollars were so worried about their players bolting to the NBA that they basically made it illegal for them to even take a job interview. It's petty bullshit and there is absolutely no justification for it.
Yeah, that's meaningless and a terrible idea. It will never happen. He is throwing shit out there to seem like a good guy knowing full well it would never work. Meanwhile he is changing rules that make it HARDER for kids to get a feel for where they might be drafted by moving up the date that the NCAA requires for them to announce whether they will enter the draft or not. I'm calling bullshit.
This is how we are going to lose this year, coming out of the gate with poor defensive effort vs a good shooting team.
Should be able to out talent them and wear them out over 40 minutes, but vs a better team that kind of start will certainly get us beat.
Grover Cleveland
Member
So...uh...time to put UK on upset alert.
The twins absolutely CANNOT be on the floor together. Neither of them are great shooters, but when they are on the court together they just pass the ball back and forth between each other until one of them drives the lane, puts his head down, and prays for a foul. It's miserable. It always has been. The last two games without Ullis, the VASTLY better guard, it's brcome even more painful.
We need Ulis AND Booker, and those are the two guys that had to go down.
Almost any other player would be easier to replace than what those two guys give us.
Yup. And Columbia is playing a type of game I hate, but it's what they have to do to win. They are wasting literally 30 minutes of every possession. They are making this a 20 minute game instead of a 40 minute one and short of continuing to put pressure on them in defense, nothing we can do to change that honestly.
And the only guy we have who can put the kind of pressure on that speeds teams up is Ulis.
Sure our other guys can 'press', but its the more general 'make it hard to run offense' press. Ulis is the only guy who gets right up into you and makes you do things or he takes the ball from you.
Columbia is going for the record for most shot clock violations in one game.
The fix is Ullis has to play half the game (preferably more) and the Harrison boys can't play together under any circumstance.
Y U NO PASS AARON?
Well that doesn't hurt either, but unfortunately not an option tonight.
Well that doesn't hurt either, but unfortunately not an option tonight.
Grover Cleveland
Member
OK time to take UK off upset alert.
They're about to win this game by 15-20
They're about to win this game by 15-20
Randolph Freelander
Member
Here's a Duke nugget on the recruitment of Tyus Jones, since the Blue Devils are still on break, read from bottom up, as is Twitter norm:
Pollux
Member
Don't jynx it
Still stressing, but the effort has picked up substantially, and the athletic difference is showing up more as they get fatigued.
Pollux
Member
Their foul trouble isn't hurting either :jnc
Yeah, Dakari hasn't had a great game, but he has done one thing, which is to be a foul magnet as usual.
Pollux
Member
What's wrong with booker?
All I've heard is 'minor injury'. Apparently he warmed up and practiced with the team, but he's out as a precautionary measure.
Just hope he and Ulis are ready to go for UNC.
Pollux
Member
Yes and Yes.
Twins chucking on 2 straight possessions, right when we are about to break it open. /facepalm
Pollux
Member
As a standing rule they should never be on the floor together at the same time. We're so much better when they're not passing back and forth to each other.
Grover Cleveland
Member
OK, I jinxed it. UK only won by 10
They have, other than the twins. This is what happens when we have to play those two an entire game. It always has been. It always will be. We are going to be stuck with them for another season so hopefully they will grow up next season.
It *should* get better. I mean, we were without our best two shooters tonight and were down one of them last game, so you know...it won't ever be GOOD but it might be mediocre.
I was at the game tonight. Those blocks on the last second shots were pretty nice.
perfectchaos007
Member
Incarnate Word just upset Nebrasketball. that ending was a comedy of errors for Nebraska.
Good point. I forget sometimes that Ulis has shot it well so far this year.
What the what. How? When??
edit: fuck, just read it on Kentucky Sports Radio.
Holy shit. That's terrible news. Not just for the team as a whole, but especially for a guy like Poythress. Great kid by all accounts. Goddamn. Feel awful for him.
Yup. Tore his ACL in practice. Really, really sucks for the team and especially for him. He's had his ups and downs on the court, but by all accounts is just a really nice guy who tries really hard on and off the court. He should be eligible for a redshirt so he could play two more seasons if that's something he wanted to do. I think he was already scheduled to graduate a year early so he could finish a graduate degree by then.
My guess is the platoons are effectively toast. With Lyles on the first team Derek Willis would have to get 20 minutes on the second squad. It would lead to a significant drop in skill on the second team and at that point the benefit isn't worth it.
My best guess is that the 1, 4, and 5 spots continue to function as basically a platoon with 2 guys getting about 20 minutes at each position, and the 2 and 3 positions become a rotation of Harrison/Booker/Lyles. It's frustrating because despite the depth on this team, we don't really have much of anyone to play in a 2G/swing forward. Everyone who plays those positions either can't shoot (other than Booker) or can't create their own shot, and now we are down the one who was an undersized PF but at least provided defense and rebounding.
In all honesty what will probably happen is that the twins will now absorb those minutes with Andrew getting 20 minutes at PG and 10 at SG and Aaron 20 at 2G and 10 at the SF. That, unfortunately, is one of the worst possible options in my opinion. Andrew will still try to be the PG when he's in with Ullis, completely crippling the benefit Ullis brings by shifting the tempo and the way the team attack on offense when he's in charge. Instead of 20 minutes of Andrew running the team and 20 minutes of Ullis running the team we will get 20 minutes of Andrew at PG, 10 minutes of Ullis at PG, and then a bonus 10 minutes of Andrew at PG1, Ullis at PG2, and Aaron at SF. Basically, 10 minutes of every game where nothing will happen on offense at all. A total disaster.
The last three games the twins have already been going back to the old game of passing back and forth between each other before driving to the lane and praying for a foul. They aren't engaging the other three players on the team when they are in. The last thing we needed was to rely more heavily on them. We will lose 6 or 7 games, then a Harrison will throw up a few prayers and get us to the Final Four and everyone will sing his praises while forgetting it was more or less his fault we lost all those game before.
This team can't shoot at all. They rely on defense and the ability of the two squads to just wear down the opponent. Without that they are a very, very average team with a bunch of great post men and two guards who have no clue how to involve the post players in the offence. I'm not excited.
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