Will our new Freshman Class be a contender?

[Dwight Schrute]

You’re describing me. To have even a slight chance of gaining weight, I have to eat somewhere around 3200 calories or so a day, plus hit numbers in carbs, fats, and protein. That calorie number is probably low, to be honest.

Even at my age I’d still kind of like to gain ten or fifteen*, but it’s really hard, and at some point eating becomes a serious chore.

*No, I shouldn’t be careful what I wish for. One look at my family tells me I’m in no danger of ballooning with age.

You and me are done professionally.

[justford]

This sort of goes with upperclassmen too. Just because they return doesn't make them leaders.

I saw some things with Quade that I liked as far as his ability to get guys motivated, but you never really know who the leader is.

More than leadership I think what Kentucky needs are guys who can be stable presences as the freshmen adjust. This is what helps you dodge those early-season losses you shouldn't take, and gets the team into a more cohesive state by the time league play rolls around.

Kentucky's sketchier teams have taken too many losses early on and on the road, and they've had to sort of play catch-up as the year has gone on. Statistics show that if you want to win a title then you want to be one of those teams that's at least in play for a 1 or 2 seed by Selection Sunday.

That's very hard to do for all-freshmen teams, because freshmen who are just thrown into the fire take weird losses. They can drive the bus at some point in the season but they need some stability until they learn how to play the game as fast as it is at this level. Even guys like De'Aaron and Julius Randle and Karl Towns needed that.

I know it was a terrible three point shot at the end if the K State game but I liked his willingness to take it.

[wildcatdon]

Will did you watch any games this year. Richards and SKJ were constantly setting high ball screens above the top of the circle. Maybe it wasn't 30 feet away but it was far out. And we got very few baskets out of a pick and roll by doing this too. So many schools do this but it is also what you do after the screen that makes the offense go. Our offense is easy to guard.

Lighthouse I am not talking about how many fouls were called basically, just that if a game is physical this group had troubles all year long. Probably worded it a bit screwy.

[Joneslab]

Will did you watch any games this year. Richards and SKJ were constantly setting high ball screens above the top of the circle. Maybe it wasn't 30 feet away but it was far out. And we got very few baskets out of a pick and roll by doing this too. So many schools do this but it is also what you do after the screen that makes the offense go. Our offense is easy to guard.

Eh. We did it with Richards trying to get him to dive and catch lobs, but when it was clear he couldn't catch the ball it wasn't a huge part of our offense. Maybe a handful of times a game.

Were I a coach I would ball screen everything. I don't think Cal ball screens enough, maybe because he doesn't want these lightning fast point guard to be interfered with as they set their man up for the drive.

Our offense is easy to guard when we have certain kinds of players. Put better players in the offense and it looks better. We didn't have many guys on this past team who could take the game over; worse, we didn't have hardly anyone who could consistently keep the defense honest from outside. Nor did we have anybody who could play consistently in the paint.

When that's the case it doesn't matter what sets you run, you're going to be inconsistent.