Monmouth @ UK game thread

[J.Jennings]

Good news is Cal is starting to hold players accountable, if you dont play with energy you sit. Still like our team just need to pick up the pace defensively....

[JFCats22]

Top 5 players destinations since 2015:

Duke - 7
Kansas - 2
UK - 1 (Skal)
UCLA - 1
Washington - 1
Mizzou - 1
Texas - 1
Arizona - 1
Alabama - 1
Oregon - 1
UNC - 1
LSU - 1
Cal - 1

[Joneslab]

Neither here nor there but Michigan has maybe the best freshmen in the nation outside the Duke guys. Iznas Brazdeikis. He prepped but Scout ranked him 40th in last year's class.

You can win big with the talent Kentucky has right now. This is a Final Four capable roster. But this team is simply not coached well and they are not together. They don't do so many of the non-talent-related things basketball teams absolutely have to do to fight against other elite teams.

[Blue Heaven]

That Michigan dude was a shot blocking machine in the few minutes that I caught the UNC game. Is John Belein (sp?) a heck of a coach or what. It's nice seeing Matthews coming on. He had a good season last year. He looks confident and is their glue guy.

[Joneslab]

Is John Belein (sp?) a heck of a coach or what.

Arguably the best coach in the land.

[justford]

Neither here nor there but Michigan has maybe the best freshmen in the nation outside the Duke guys. Iznas Brazdeikis. He prepped but Scout ranked him 40th in last year's class.

You can win big with the talent Kentucky has right now. This is a Final Four capable roster. But this team is simply not coached well and they are not together. They don't do so many of the non-talent-related things basketball teams absolutely have to do to fight against other elite teams.

I know Cal will get the blame but why aren't they coached well? Are the assistant coaches not helping or are the players just not receptive to what they're being told or???

[Joneslab]

I know Cal will get the blame but why aren't they coached well? Are the assistant coaches not helping or are the players just not receptive to what they're being told or???

It's probably a combination of things. Lighthouse mentioned the fact that Kentucky was probably too carried about by the Bahamas games, including the coaching staff, and they thought the team was more with it than they have been.

I've also wondered if the mix of players isn't good. There was a time in the 2013 season when I thought that team didn't care for each other, and I get a little bit of that vibe from this bunch. They seem fractured. I mentioned this but I heard Ashton Hagans give a postgame talk last week, and strangely he mentioned the upperclassmen a lot. He didn't seem that impressed with their play. There was also that article over the summer that briefly mentioned how the players were worried about playing time.

I think there might be some things going on. The good news is, Cal usually figures that stuff out.