Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
While most of you are understandably here to read about the goings on in Kentucky football and basketball (and notice which I put first after the weekend we just had), that does not mean that there are not other major sporting events going on worldwide. Specifically, today marks the beginning of the Australian Open tennis tournament, the first and often least noticed tennis major. Now you probably still care very little (if at all) about the Australian Open, and for that I completely understand. However for me and Drew Franklin, watching the Aussie Open is now officially on the agenda. As you may know, we are going to be covering the last three tennis majors for the Tennis Channel, and thus we have to begin keeping up with the tennis scene this week. While the Tennis Channel did hire us to basically bring our goofy blogging style to a different sport and in two cases, a different country, it is also probably important that we know more about tennis than most casual sports fans, who generally know only Roger Federer, the Williams Sisters and that Spanish guy with the big muscles (his name is Rafael Nadal). Thus our research begins. Since the retirement of Andy Roddick and the injury to John Isner (he is the big tall guy who played at Georgia and had that 500 game match with Nicolas Mahut), this is the first major in the modern era (since 1968) in which an American is not seeded in the top 16. Thus learning about these foreign superstars is now the job of the KSR crew. So join us if you wish, turn on the Australian Open, find the Tennis Channel (chances are you might have it) and get ready for a return to your childhood love of tennis. We will all need it when we take off for Paris in May.
To the weekend in UK sports, which for some reason reminds me of this picture:
BASKETBALL
You don’t need me to tell you that the game in Lexington was a terrible loss for Kentucky. While the performance of Elston Turner was one that will go in the history books, watching it take place against the Cats in a loss, is not something that any of us wanted to see. It officially puts Kentucky on the bubble and makes it imperative that UK slip up no more in against the weaker half of the already horrendous SEC. But while many of us have been trying to figure out what Kentucky will need to do to get a good seed, or even get in, the tournament, more fundamental questions also exists. Mainly, is Kentucky really even any good? I think the answer to that question is yes…I do believe the Cats aren’t as bad as a couple of performances and their record suggest. But the reality is that the Cats have five key deficiencies that either need to be fixed, or will make it very difficult to succeed.
1. A Perimeter Shutdown Defender
If I were to point to the biggest difference between this team and teams of the past three years, the inability to defend against perimeter scorers would be my selection. If one looks at the games Kentucky has lost at home (Baylor and Texas A&M), they were in large part due to the inability to stop a quick, outside scorer for exerting his will (Turner and Pierre Jackson). Similarly, in games where Kentucky played good teams close, the runs that did Kentucky in were often instigated by perimeter players scoring in spurts (Smith/Siva for Louisville and Curry/Solouman for Duke). The past three teams have had guys that you could put on a player that was getting hot and ensure he was taken out of the action for at least a few minutes. In Calipari’s first year, Deandre Liggins and Ramon Harris shared this role. In his second, Liggins was as good as any perimeter defender in American. And on the national championship team, when MKG decided to shut a player down, they were shut down. This team has no such player. Archie Goodwin gave a good attempt at it in the first 10 minutes of the second half on Saturday, but the problem for Kentucky is that when he takes that role, the most effective one-on-one scorer on the team sees his offense suffer…and Kentucky goes on scoring droughts. I am not sure this problem can be fixed…a person on the team with the length of Liggins/MKG just doesn’t exist. But Goodwin must get better and his teammates must score more to allow him to give the best effort he can.
2. Outside Shooting
This wasn’t supposed to be an issue. With Kyle Wiltjer being a knockdown shooter, supposedly one of the 5-7 best in America, three point shooting was expected to be a team strength. It hasn’t been. The two best shooters on the team, Kyle Wiltjer and Julius Mays, have been in long droughts, and without their outside shot, teams are clogging the paint, doubling on the post men and cutting off penetration lanes. Interestingly, some of the secondary shooters (Ryan Harrow and Alex Poythress) have been better than expected, but up to this point they have not received help from the two main outside threats. Mays hit a couple of big shots Saturday and shot very well early in the season. But Wiltjer has been a disappointment. In his first two SEC games, he has only scored two points, and in the last game he only took two shots. That has to change, and with the ability he and Mays both have, one would expect it still can.
3. Offside Rebounding
It is becoming difficult to watch as game after game, Kentucky is crushed on the offensive glass. Vanderbilt is one of the worst rebounding teams in America, yet they beat Kentucky to enough offensive rebounds to make a game in Nashville. Texas A&M got huge second chances are crucial possessions and converted those into buckets every time Kentucky threatened to take over the game. Most of the problems are occurring when UK’s shot blockers (specifically Noel) are extending to contest jumpers and the offside rebounder (usually Poythress, Wiltjer or Goodwin) do not rotate over and protect the off side. This leads to put back layups and momentum killers. If you watch Calipari on the sideline, it is usually these plays and these three players that cause him the most frustration. He knows that 30 seconds worth of great defense is lost in an instance when the Cats don’t stop easy putbacks with simple box outs. If this doesn’t change, the team’s biggest strength, strong half court defense, is totally negated.
4. Alex Poythress
It has been said by everyone and thus there is no need for me to pile on any more, but the biggest reason this team isn’t where it should be is Alex Poythress. He should be one of the five best scorers in America. His combination of strength, athleticism and surprising shooting touch should make him an unstoppable offensive force. Throw in his body and his leaping ability and he should pull 5-7 offensive rebounds a game. Instead, Poythress seems to spend most of his games with half-energy and marginal desire. He shows flashes of brilliance and there are moments where he cannot be stopped. But they are becoming fewer and farther between. If Poythress was where he should be, the Cats would be a top 10 team. But he isn’t…and as each game goes by, it becomes harder to see him reaching that stage.
5. A Big Possession One-on-One Scorer
We have taken for granted at Kentucky having an elite scorer who can get his own shot and make big points in big moments. Part of the reason is because we have had multiple such options on every team. John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson and Eric Bledsoe could all, with the right matchup, score one-on-one in big moments. The same was true of Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones, Darius Miller, MKG, Anthony Davis, Marquis Teague and others. When the game is in a key moment or the team needs a bucket to stop a run, there has to be some scorer who can do it and shut down a crowd or an opposing bench. How many times did we see Darius Miller clear out last year at a big moment, and hit a mid-range jumper to ensure the Cats were in a good position? It is not clear that player exists on this team. Nerlens Noel and Willie Cauley-Stein dont have the ball handling ability, Kyle Wiltjer and Julius Mays the athleticism, Alex Poythress the desire or Archie Goodwin the patience to make the right decision and the big play. Recently the person who has taken that role has been Ryan Harrow and he has done it relatively well. But, thus far it has not been good enough to stop the massive scoring runs that have done UK in the last few games. Archie Goodwin and Alex Poythress were supposed to be those guys. They haven’t been. Until that changes, UK will struggle against every good team on its schedule.
So that is where we are on basketball. Kind of depressing isn’t it? But football had a much better weekend:
FOOTBALL
On the football side of things, the biggest recruiting weekend in UK history produced some very positive results. UK received three commitments along the way, all of whom picked the Cats over offers from a variety of high BCS programs. A quick run down:
LOVELL PETERSON: Peterson is a 3 star Defensive Tackle from Ohio who was one of Mark Stoops’ first targets upon arriving in Lexington. He picked Kentucky over offers from Illinois and West Virginia. Some recruiting folks tell me that he will take a bit of time to fully develop but that he has massive potential and a chance to clog up space on the line.
KYLE MEADOWS: I often judge a recruit by how mad opposing fan bases were to lose him. In the case of Kyle Meadows, the answer was VERY mad. Meadows is a high 3 star Offensive Lineman from Ohio who had offers from Florida State, West Virginia and Louisville. Bloggers from all three schools expressed disappointment at losing Meadows who could see time early for the Cats.
JAVESS BLUE: Blue may be the recruit who does the most the earliest, as the JUCO Wide Receiver could end up starting this next season. He had offers from a number of schools, including Texas A&M, Arizona State, West Virginia and Mississippi State. He is a big body and is already celebrating becoming a Cat on Twitter.
In addition to these players, a number of other big recruits made the trip and the early reports are that all had a good time. We will find out in the coming weeks how successful each of their recruitments truly was, but the one to watch is QB Asiantii Woulard. I am told that a number of the guys that came on campus are looking to see what this #1 rated dual-threat QB in America does to see if Kentucky is going to be able to reel in a big time player to anchor the recruiting class. If he picks Kentucky (he is visiting Clemson next weekend), watch out. Either way, Mark Stoops has brought a high level of energy to this program and is doing things in recruiting that I didn’t believe were possible. If he finishes like he has started with this class, it will be an amazing accomplishment and further proof that Kentucky got the right guy.
We will have more all day, including recaps from players on their recruiting visits. Until then, kudos to the UK student section for welcoming the Football and basketball recruits with signs and chants. The basketball team will get better folks and we will talk about it all week here and on the radio. Until then, get your tennis on. France awaits…
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January 13th, 2013 at 10:52 pm
There’s a TENNIS channel??? Is it right next to the Checkers Channel?
January 13th, 2013 at 10:55 pm
“..Wiltjer has been a disappointment”. Understatement of the year
As for Poythress he will go pro in a horrible class. NO WAY he transfers and has to sit a year. Duh
January 13th, 2013 at 11:00 pm
Okay a football question. I’ll preface by admiting i know nothing about fb recruiting. Reading about our “biggest recruiting weekend in all of history” i am perplexed that this is 4 or 5, three star recruits. Can someone explain what is earth shattering here? Were we recruiting special olympics before?
January 13th, 2013 at 11:01 pm
Nice write up would like to see what your thoughts are with the team not playing as good as we have all thought they would, do you still see all the freshmen leaving for the nba?
January 13th, 2013 at 11:03 pm
Matt where the hell are you getting that Woulard is taking a visit to Clemson? Neither he nor his father have said so? Leave the football recruiting updates to J.Rowland he actually knows what he is talking about and the posts you do put on your site are directly copied and pasted from the ” house of blue” forum.
January 13th, 2013 at 11:05 pm
If your coach doesn’t win a championship THIS year, he will be considered a complete bust at Louisville. A Final Four doesn’t cut it. The Pressure is on.
January 13th, 2013 at 11:08 pm
5.) Here is where he got it . Jackass
https://twitter.com/Asiantii_2/status/290627738757390336
January 13th, 2013 at 11:12 pm
3) Football works a lot differently than basketball when it comes to the STAR ratings. With so many players (think of how many players come into college in football compared to basketball) its A)Hard to get an accurate rating of ALL the players in the US and B) There just isn’t that many 5 and 4 stars per position. You have different scouts that evaluate different regions and areas, and really ratings are hard to gauge when it comes to comparing and contrasting them. A more telling sign is look at their offer sheet. When school like A&M, Florida, Alabama, Texas and West Virginia are the teams recruiting them, that generally means there is high talent there. When you are competing with the Illinois, Temples and Rutgers, there might not be as much talent.
January 13th, 2013 at 11:23 pm
3 the big thing is that although these are 3 star guys they are noodle 4. Rivals gives a player a rating on a scale in which 5.8 is a four star. Of stoops commits, they are all 5.7. That is a t ton higher than it has ever been. Plus we have 4 to 5 guys that are solid 4 star prospects that are extremely high on UK. Lovell Peterson is one of the top 3 players in Ohio. The only reason he isn’t going to Michigan or Ohio state is because the academia level of those schools. Kyle Meadows is a big time prospect. Jojo Kemp is a f four star stuff as well as Samples, Woulard and most recent commit Javess Blue. UK’s avg star rating per player was 2.4…. Stoops has raised that to 3.1 … We have jumped 20 ranking spots in team rankings and still could land 3-5 four star guys, one being a top 30 player. While these guys are only 3 stars they are closer to being 4 than they are 2. With Joker it was just the opposite. These 4 star guys are not only visiting but also are very interested in coming. Joker had no shot at those guys. Joker recruited 1 four star player in 3 years. We could end up with 3-5 in this class that our staff has had barely one month time to put this together.
January 13th, 2013 at 11:31 pm
Wow congrats on the tennis news! I’ll definitely have to check that out.
January 13th, 2013 at 11:34 pm
DeAndre Liggins gettin some serious run for the Thunder tonight in a close one. Almost a double double. Good for him.
January 13th, 2013 at 11:39 pm
dont look now but marquez white (4* db and current florida state commit) now saying he will be flying to lex for a visit this coming weekend. we are not going to miss on all of these kids and if we get half of them we could have a very very solid class by anyone’s standards.
January 13th, 2013 at 11:39 pm
8,9: Thanks guys that was very helpful. You know your stuff.
January 14th, 2013 at 12:10 am
13- to give you an idea of our progress….
according to Rivals we’re currently 47th with 1200 rankings points. Just looking at guys that we appear to be in good shape for:
-Adding just Timmons would move us to 1290 points = T-47th.
-Adding Timmons and one of the two RB’s (Kemp or Turner) would move us to 1380 points = 37th
-Adding Timmons and Woulard would move us to 1439 points = 35th.
-Adding Timmons, Woulard and one of Kemp or Turner would move us to 1529 points = 27th
-Adding Timmons, Woulard and both Kemp and Turner would move us up to 1619 points = 20th
In the unlikely event we added Woulard, Senator, Kemp and the Alexander twins we would then have 1784 points putting us at 13th in team rankings.
Now some of the teams we can pass will be adding recruits too, but many of them already have 20+ recruits and only the 20 highest rated count for Rivals. Top 35, maybe top 30, could be very realistic if things continue to go well.
January 14th, 2013 at 12:18 am
There’s been a Ramon Harris sighting.
January 14th, 2013 at 12:18 am
Who cares about basketball. We’re a football school,#SEC
January 14th, 2013 at 12:34 am
Witljer will likely NOT take open shots because when he takes an OPEN shot and misses, he gets sat on the bench. It’s stupid. You bench him for taking BAD shots, not missing shots. If he MISSES 60% of his open shots, he’s doing great. Cal thinks his shooting percentage should 100%. Plus, that means he’s tense as hell when he DOES shoot making it less likely to go down. it’s a negative feedback loop, and it stems from Cal’s increasing number of rage fests which are unprofessional and unproductive.
January 14th, 2013 at 12:39 am
#11 WTF !?!?!? He gets sent to the developmental league then gets THIRTY NINE minutes tonight !??! unreal. Damian Lilliard went 3 for 14. Care to guess why that might have been ? Way to go Liggins !
January 14th, 2013 at 12:47 am
James Young is recruiting Andrew Wiggins to Kentucky. If you can read this.
https://twitter.com/mcdonald_billy/status/290633302174486528/photo/1
January 14th, 2013 at 1:07 am
I hope all the negative opinions out there don’t make Poythress even worse. He reminds me of Terrence Jones his freshman year. He obviously has the ability; but he can’t seem to pull it together.
January 14th, 2013 at 1:16 am
While he is visiting Clemson next week, they haven’t offered. Per Rowland :
@RowlandRIVALS: Spoke with Asiantii Woulard’s father. #Clemson has not offered. Dad wants to turn page on Florida. Does not like how Joker’s operating.
January 14th, 2013 at 1:18 am
There are 18 schools ahead of UK ranked from #20-#47 with 19 or more commits. Assuming you pass all of those (you won’t) you are at #29. Way to early to start talking Top 20 finish in recruiting. Not to mention that you will most assuredly have at least one flip that you think is secure…everyone does.
January 14th, 2013 at 1:25 am
11. But naw daw he shoulda stayed doe he went in da second round doe cal pushed him out too early doe he wasn’t ready for da league doe he got sent to da D-league so he made a mistake doe he woulda went lottery if he stayed fo his senya year doe
January 14th, 2013 at 2:03 am
that James Young is wearing in the link #19 posted
January 14th, 2013 at 5:38 am
#1 Haha ,.. “King me.” and the crowd goes wild!!!!
#24 lol
January 14th, 2013 at 6:21 am
I am going to asume we are NIT bound this year. This team is not that good. We will dominate people again next season.
January 14th, 2013 at 6:30 am
9) there are plenty of players in Ohio to get, but Patterson is nowhere near #3 player in the state.
January 14th, 2013 at 7:30 am
Are the UK bigs too slow. No, I think the opponents find effective boxing-out techniques. Three or four off-colored shirts surround them each offensive board. If Coach Cal and his staff can stop that they may stop the bleeding.
How? I dunno. I’m not a coach, but I believe Cal’s staff is the best in basketball!
January 14th, 2013 at 7:41 am
I’m starting to think the blue-hairs are a big problem in Rupp. Most all other arenas have students surrounding the court. We have a bunch of blue hairs. How can A&M and Baylor strut onto Rupp and beat us by double digits? The blue hairs make it the most un-intimidating environment.
January 14th, 2013 at 7:41 am
You know the Cats are struggling in basketball when half the comments are about football recruiting.
Yes, things look pretty shaky for the basketball team right now, but I’m not about to give up on them at this point. I think this team simply needs to get sick of losing and decide to develop the resolve to win, and the quickest way to make that happen is to turn up the intensity on defense. I think some relatively minor adjustments on defense and offense can go a long way to making this team more effective. #1, simply turn up the on-ball pressure – get up in their grills, cut off the passing lanes, and generally do whatever you can to disrupt their defense. A big problem Saturday was that we didn’t pressure them that much, which allowed A&M to get comfortable in their offensive sets. #2, as mentioned in the article, better help side rebounding when Nerlens and Willie commit to the block. #3, set more/better screens for our outside shooters. Kyle didn’t shoot Saturday because every time he got the ball, he had a man up in his face. They scouted him. If we set a few effective screens on the perimeter that would allow him (and Mays) to step back for an open 3, that might be all it takes to get them back on track. #4, maybe it’s time for Cal to take a different approach with Alex – less raging in his face and more encouragement when he hustles and makes a play. Some kids simply do not respond well to criticism and negative reinforcement – it lets all the air out of their balloon. I’m not talking about kid glove treatment, but Alex looks like he is down on himself and having a crisis of confidence. The kids overall just look tight. Sometimes a team has to hit bottom and take the pressure off of themselves before they bounce back and make a run. Hopefully we are close to that bottom! I hate to compare us to that team down the road, but last year they had some very bad defeats (Providence?) and many of their fans were calling for RP’s head. Then the light clicked on for that team and they went on a pretty good little run right at the end of the season. Their SOS was high enough that they weren’t really that much of a threat to go NIT, but that run through the BE tourney was what got them rolling. They had a lot of lucky draws to help them get there, but maybe the Cats will have lady luck shine on them too. Like I said, this season has been more down than up so far this year, but I haven’t given up on them just yet.
January 14th, 2013 at 7:45 am
#31, I was there at the game Saturday in section 23 (lower arena end zone), and when UK would make a run or a big play, the WHOLE ARENA was standing up and making noise. I don’t think anyone was complaining about the crowd Saturday. If anything, the crowd was trying their best to give this team an energy boost to get them over the hump. I hate to say it, but the Cats seemed to quit a little bit around the 3 minute mark when A&M hit those back to back 3′s. I thought Cal should have brought the press out about that time instead of waiting for the 1 minute mark when the game was decided.
January 14th, 2013 at 7:54 am
#33 just saying, it’s not intimidating when you look over and see nothing but blue hairs for 10 rows. And how loud can they actually get? Can they even stand up to cheer without an assistive device? Not trying to make fun of them, God bless them, but maybe we should have a specific section for bluehairs and let us students do the cheering.
January 14th, 2013 at 7:57 am
tennis? who CARES!
January 14th, 2013 at 7:59 am
@31 just the same way the “blue-hairs” didn’t stop us from winning 50 games in a row at Rupp Arena coming into this season: the product on the court. It’s time to understand this team isn’t the last three teams. We’re not very good this year.
January 14th, 2013 at 7:59 am
It’s kinda surprising that no mention has been made about DeAndre Liggins’ big game last night for OKC… first career start, played 40 minutes: 11 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists. http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20130113_OKC@POR ” Sefolosha, held back with a sore neck, had also started in all of the Thunder’s games this season, averaging 7.5 points and four rebounds. He was replaced by DeAndre Liggins, who made his first career start.
Liggins ended up playing 40 minutes, with 11 points and nine rebounds.”
January 14th, 2013 at 8:01 am
Yup, it’s happening. There’s officially someone blaming the bluehairs.
January 14th, 2013 at 8:05 am
A specific section for bluehairs LOL
January 14th, 2013 at 8:06 am
34- just stop. if you were actually at the game you would know that the crowd was very loud and got up a lot.
its more or less the same crowd from last year & the year before and etc.
and most arenas dont hold more than 12-15k ppl anyway.
January 14th, 2013 at 8:09 am
34, I have been one of the ones on here calling for a “mosh pit” of standing room only students surrounding the court, combined with an elevated court, so the usual fans in the lower arena don’t have their view obstructed. And I was one of the ones calling out the “blue hairs” in the past, but I was lucky enough to get to attend some games this year in the lower arena, and I thought the crowd was pretty loud Saturday. That being said, having more students right down there at courtside going nuts would DEFINTELY help the image projected on TV, and maybe give things an energy boost overall. But as others said, the bluehairs in the lower arena are FAR from being the big problem with this team.
January 14th, 2013 at 8:41 am
3 – The biggest recruiting weekend in football history had NOTHING to do with the players that committed. It was the volume of high profile recruits that were on campus. MULTIPLE 4-stars took visits to UK over the weekend. The 3-stars that did commit were also high end 3-star recruits with impressive offer lists. WVU wanted all 3 kids that committed to us. UL, FSU, Texas A&M, Arizona State, Illinois, and others also offered some of the guys who picked UK.
January 14th, 2013 at 8:45 am
Good article on A Sea of Blue on expectations for Poythress. Link:
http://www.aseaofblue.com/2013/1/13/3873508/hope-and-disappointment-and-alex-poythres
January 14th, 2013 at 8:45 am
Also, with Peterson, Meadows, and Hytche committed, those are 3 high end players from the state of Ohio, which is a very talented state that UK wants to recruit well in. Both Stoops and our new TE coach Vince Marrow both have tons of connections in Ohio. I would expect UK to continue to go after kids from Ohio and do well in that state over the next several years.
January 14th, 2013 at 8:46 am
Sorry, left out an s. Link for Poythress:
http://www.aseaofblue.com/2013/1/13/3873508/hope-and-disappointment-and-alex-poythress
January 14th, 2013 at 8:54 am
Sure hope we get Marquez White to go along with Javess Blue. Get it….Blue/White.
January 14th, 2013 at 8:55 am
People please stop with the bashing of bluehairs. I’m actually offended at that term. We do nothing but cheer faithfully and pay thousands to the university. Do not disrespect us on this site.
January 14th, 2013 at 8:59 am
Noel plays like he wants to be great. Poythress plays like he expects it to be easy. That about sums it up.
Aside from Noel’s shot blocking this team plays extremely small. The reason for our rebounding woes- EVEN WITH TWO 7-FOOTERS ON THE FLOOR- is that they’re just too dang inexperienced to know how to rebound. Noel & WCS get lost going for every friggin’ blocked shot, no matter the situation. They fall for too many pump fakes. Poythress or Wiltjer don’t/can’t box out their man. And I’ve never seen this many long rebounds off bad shots bounce to the other team. It’s been uncanny.
I vividly recall the Original Twin Towers and they played together seemlessly. We also had guys like Sky Walker or Charles Hurt at the 4 helping clean up the glass. They were disciplined and always in the right spot. And Bowie & Turpin were extremely athletic at UK (not a couple of plodding stiffs).
Cal needs to break out some tape of the Twin Towers + Sky and show it to Noel/WCS/Poythress.
January 14th, 2013 at 9:14 am
Poythress is throwing this season down the drain and Calipari ain’t helping too much
January 14th, 2013 at 9:18 am
Is Poythress still considered a NBA lottery pick? If so, how?
January 14th, 2013 at 9:20 am
Ha, nice! Excited to hear KSR’s take on the sport.
January 14th, 2013 at 9:34 am
14- Did I say we would def have top 20 recruiting class? No, read my last paragraph again, it says “realistically a top 30-35 recruiting class”. It doesnt necessarily matter if other teams add players because rivals only takes the top 20 when it comes to class rankings. So the only way those schools make significant jumps is if they land a 5-star guy. Adding a 4 star just bumps another 4-star/3-star out, and the points going from 3 to 4 are not many.
28- I phrased that wrong- I meant Peterson is the 2nd to 3rd best player at his position.
January 14th, 2013 at 9:39 am
Bloobloodcat – this program costs a lot of money to run and those “Blue Hairs” as you call them help pay for your program that you love to watch. They are faithful fans who have earned the right to sit in those seats and they pay for them. You, on the other hand, as a student, have a long way to go before you are near their level of contribution to this program (not just in money but time and support as well) and deserved respect.
January 14th, 2013 at 9:50 am
So…it appears that we have no player who can “take over the game”. It also appears that none of these freshmen except of course Nelens is about to become a lottery pick. Right now if I am an NBA owner, I would be reluctant to place my money on the ‘potential’ of Alex or Archie given the level of inconsistency shown by both. UK may be more loaded next year than any of us could have imagined since at least two of these four should be back…unless we see a dramatic change. Wiggins is the player who could take over a game and for my money the player with the most clout coming in so far for next year is the kid from California. Doubles in about everything!
January 14th, 2013 at 11:48 am
Alex Poythress is not a problem. Wiltjer is a problem. In our losses and the Vandy game, Wiltjer is averaging 5 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1.2 turnovers and is shooting 27% from the floor and 24% from 3pt in 23 minutes per game. Terrible. In those same games, Poythress is averaging 10.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, .7 assist, 2.7 turnovers and is shooting 63% from the floor and 50% from 3pt in 25.5 minutes per game. The turnovers are high, but people are stupid to think that he is a problem. He hasn’t met the expectations because the expectations were to high. Wiltjer’s expectations were not, and he hasn’t come close to meeting those. He doesn’t need to see the floor.
January 14th, 2013 at 12:08 pm
Wiltjer doesn’t come out of games for missing shots. Well, not just for missing shots. He comes out because he couldn’t guard a fire hydrant. If the rest of his game would compensate, he could stay in. Problem is he doesn’t rebound well, doesn’t have competitive fire (diving for loose balls, etc.) and can’t get a shot off by himself. When he’s 0 for 2 like Saturday, no need to keep him in the game because he’s gonna cost you 16 points by himself on the defensive end.
January 14th, 2013 at 12:14 pm
deficiences:
1. Someone that can penetrate a zone that hasn’t already made their mind up what they are going to do with the ball.(Outside shots will be open with “good” penetration.
2. Someone that anticipates what a ball is going to do on a rebound not just watching and reacting.
3. The attitude that “I better get it done” not that “one of these other stars will make something happen”.
4. Toughness. Noel is the only scrapper.
January 14th, 2013 at 12:16 pm
#14 your post is a bit deceiving. I’ve never liked the Rivals team rankings. They rank based on total points. So, for example, a team that lost 25 Seniors and has to sign 25 recruits will end up with a higher ranking than a team signing only 15 recruits even if the team replacing 15 players signs 4 star recruits vs. the team signing 25 players consisting of 2/3 star recruits. A good example on the Rivals list is USC. They rank #7 even though they only have 14 commits so far. BUT they have a whopping 6 five * recruits. LSU is right above them with no 5 star recruits. Why? Because they have 25 commits. The average star ranking for USC is 4.43 while LSU’s is 3.68. USC has quality, LSU has quantity. Yes UK needs quantity and definitely Stoops has improved the quality. I’m just saying don’t get so caught up in the ranking by total points awarded. You have to look at the numbers of players signed w/ higher rankings, not total # of players signed.
January 14th, 2013 at 12:19 pm
Greatest video ever!
Did you see the girl next to the steet???
January 14th, 2013 at 12:20 pm
closest to the ‘street’
January 14th, 2013 at 1:11 pm
57, are you talking about the car crash? The girl closest to the street almost got “eaten” by that rear hatch door flapping open and shut by the car that got hit. I lay 50:1 odds that the driver of that car was texting on his phone while making that turn.
January 14th, 2013 at 7:00 pm
crazy vid-how did no one die is crazy and why did the girl just stand there haha