Shoot 28% and win

[justford]

Last stat I saw had us shooting 28% and we win the game. AMAZING

[Matt Dillon]

That is pretty amazing. It also won't get the job done against better competition.

[Lighthouse]

And the sad thing about that percentage is, a lot of the missed shots were by the Bigs and in close.

[jpay]

Some positives... Trey Lyle's in the clutch, Dakari,clutch, same for Towns and Ullis... 18 field goal had 13 assists on them... Fight through the loss of Three starters and still win in a very hostile gym... The home cookin was heavy IMHO.. Heart of champions!!!

[TrueblueCATfan]

Never thought you could win a game shooting 28%....these CATS just find a way

[VirginiaBlue]

The twins shot 6-30 = 20%

[kynut]

Well, most of that 28% is because neither Harrison could throw it in the ocean from the beach.

As far as the bigs missing in close, not much has changed there since game one, so I don't know why anyone is surprised. The simple fact is that our bigs don't have much of a post up game, especially Willie and Marcus. Early in the year the shooting percentage of the bigs was vastly inflated by the number of lobs they were converting. Now, the screen-for-a-lob game has totally disappeared and they are attempting conventional entry to the post to players who simply do not have a reliable low post scoring move. To me that is just plain stupid. Teams are smothering Dakari and Karl when they get the ball down low because they rarely kick the ball back out to shooters (some of whom probably can't hit the outside shot anyway). They have no need to smother Willie or Marcus because they don't have any semblance of a post up game.

The Cat's half court offense has become totally dysfunctional. I believe that can be corrected by going back to the inside-screening-for-a-lob game we ran earlier in the year and have now, for no good reason, abandoned. If we screen properly I don't believe there's a team that can prevent us from scoring on lobs. Once our guards drive the lane and successfully execute a few lobs the rest of the offense will open up and maybe we will again become unbeatable. Just MHO

kynut

[Joneslab]

You wouldn't give the ball to Lee or WCS anyway in the halfcourt unless it was a kind of last option. The surprise is only that Dakari and Towns have become so ineffective.

It does have a lot to do with smothering. But when teams smother the post like that, you just have to hit shots. Basketball's a game of shot-making at its core. The only concern I see is that we played pretty good offense against Ole Miss and shot the ball great. We shot the ball terribly against TAMU but played decent defense in the second half. Both games could have been L's.

[kynut]

^

Ah, but WCS was scoring at a good clip when we were running a lob-based offense in spite of the fact that he has no post-up game and even Lee was getting a couple per game. I haven't gone back and counted but it seems to me we were getting 6-12 lob baskets a game when we were running screens for lobs. Now we are averaging maybe one lob a game at best and we got none against A&M. It would be enlightening to know how many lob baskets we got per game in the first 10-12 games and how many we are getting now. Knowing you, I'd say you have a good source for that information.

kynut

[Joneslab]

I can't remember many lobs the last three games. Seems like there was one to Dakari in the second half against Ole Miss. That's about it.

These SEC teams are really just playing the old "four guys in the paint and one cheating out on Devin Booker" defense. Tough to get lobs like that.

What is available is the floater and the mid-range game. Andrew for some reason has no floater in his toolbox. The mid-range shots weren't falling yesterday, but we did take a few. Probably not enough. But more than anything, we just have to get better at scoring through contact. The bigs, guards, all of them.

It's probably time for Cal to break out the football pads.

[kynut]

I believe you are right - the only lob I can remember in the last few games was the one to Dakari on the left side of the basket against Ole Miss (which he barely got over the rim).

I just hate to see the lob disappear from our offense because we were so good at it. We absolutely destroyed some doggone good teams with it earlier. Kansas and UCLA haven't forgotten it yet. I'm stubbornly clinging to the belief that we can effectively set double back screens even against the zones we are seeing now if we set our minds to it. Lots of teams have been very successful setting screens and running man offense against zones. I think I'll jump in my car and drive up to Lexington and quiz Cal about this today. Maybe he'll hire me.

kynut

[UKBoo]

I think teams have also taken away much of the mid game as well with the exception of giving Lyles some high post looks. Four guys have a foot on the lane these days. The only drive option now is to get it to the rim in traffic. Why pull up in traffic if you can get to the rim. The post up is there; guys can get the ball pretty close on the block. The threes are there. Booker was on fire for a while, Ulis isn't hitting like he started the season and the twins missed some really good looks.

This team has struggled offensively all year. I don't think the difference is much on offense. The defense has lost a great deal of energy. Guys are now two steps behind offensive guys making moves without the ball instead of the one step earlier this year. UK got very lucky in the Louisville game. Some say they took bad shots but those were the shots Rick wanted. They just missed them. Jones in particular started making those shots after that game. Jones was lights out on those same shots when I watched the Wake Forest game. So I feel strongly that the biggest difference between the double digit wins and the single digit wins is mostly on the defensive end. I will say that I thought the defense picked it up some in the second half of the A&M game.

[Pobilly]

And the sad thing about that percentage is, a lot of the missed shots were by the Bigs and in close.

The Twins missed 24 of the total 64 shots. To me that is just not the best offensive plan to have the twins take 30 shots in a game.
The bigs took 18 total shots 6 which is only 33% but to only have 18 shots between WCS KAT TL LEE DJ. Seems like the guards wanted to shoot a little too much in this game. Might be because the Bigs did not work hard to get open. Or when they got the ball, they went up weak. Not sure.

[Joneslab]

The Twins missed 24 of the total 64 shots. To me that is just not the best offensive plan to have the twins take 30 shots in a game.

I agree but then again, they carried us against Ole Miss. Aaron especially. When you're hot like that and you're getting wide open shots the next game, then I can see why they--again, especially Aaron--continued to shoot the ball.

The bigs haven't produced in awhile now offensively. In hindsight we can say they should have gotten the ball in there to them, but those guys aren't putting the ball in the hoop. The twins didn't either yesterday, but they did on Tuesday.

I agree with UKBoo that this team hasn't been a well-oiled machine all year on offense, but yesterday was a little different. We've been fairly efficient all year. We don't turn the ball over. We've started to shoot it better. Played one of our better games on offense just Tuesday night. Yesterday was really a step backward.

[UKBoo]

It didn't help the bigs that they were allowing so much contact, and any attempt to block shots that was above the elbows was considered a block and not a foul. It was the same both ways so I am not knocking the refs. It's just how the game was called. A&M was also ready for the bigs when they looked to pass out. As a coach I would have a hard time going to a low post offense based on how the game was called and how the bigs were performing. I liked the production out of the high post offense with Lyles. I think there is some serious potential there against these zones. He can hit the 19 footer, pass to the wings or maybe make a diaganal pass to a big, depending on where the pressure comes from.

I also agree with a post about these guys not really playing like a team as much since Camp Cal. I have said the same thing and I think they need to get back to team basics. More help, more talking on defense.