Jayson Tatum

[Joneslab]

I don't have any merchandise with last year's team but I think it's okay to celebrate what they (and the Wall team) did even though they lost. No parades should be thrown or anything, but I don't think we'll see another UK team that good again unless the rule is changed to two years.

They weren't good on that particular night, and they were in the field with at least three other very good teams, but that team was seriously dominant.

Odd thing about basketball though is that you can almost replicate the dominance of a team if you have one or two dominant players. If you take Anthony Davis off of 2012 and replace him with Willie Cauley-Stein, as great as WCS was and as solid as the 2012 team was, would that team have won the title? Not sure. If you put Davis on this past team, it's obviously a lock.

We might not see another Davis again, but there have been players in college in the last few years who've been transcendent. Wisconsin in the second half of our game basically ran 100% of their stuff through two players, Dekker and Frank the Tank. That's all they needed. Tyus Jones was merely a good player on the whole but was one of the best I've ever seen in the last few minutes of games. Very few people saw that coming.

[Lighthouse]

My bottom line. My memory of last year and the loss to Wisconsin will not center around Cal's good or bad decisions. He's our Coach and I'm really glad he is. But, I will remember how the Harrisons lost that game because they became our coach and decided to do things their way instead of Cal's way. There's no doubt in my mind that we would have #9 if they had put the ball where they were told. In no way should that loss be a part of a decision on who is the best coach in the country. I realize Cal's shoulders have to bear the loss, but what those 2 hurried shots by the Harrisions happened so fast, I'm not sure any coach could have reacted quick enough. I will also remember John Higgins, and how he was the lead Official on the baseline when the Wisc. player jumped back inbounds andtouched the ball before he hit the floor. No excuse for that miss.

[Joneslab]

My bottom line. My memory of last year and the loss to Wisconsin will not center around Cal's good or bad decisions. He's our Coach and I'm really glad he is. But, I will remember how the Harrisons lost that game because they became our coach and decided to do things their way instead of Cal's way. There's no doubt in my mind that we would have #9 if they had put the ball where they were told. In no way should that loss be a part of a decision on who is the best coach in the country. I realize Cal's shoulders have to bear the loss, but what those 2 hurried shots by the Harrisions happened so fast, I'm not sure any coach could have reacted quick enough. I will also remember John Higgins, and how he was the lead Official on the baseline when the Wisc. player jumped back inbounds andtouched the ball before he hit the floor. No excuse for that miss.

I definitely think Ulis should have played more. I believe if he would've we might have won.

But I think the Harrison twins were getting instructions from the bench. I can't know this but I think Cal wanted to slow it way down when we got the lead; I say this because he's done it before.

Then he wanted to go late and pound the ball to Towns. On those five, six possessions, they tried to do just that, but what happened was that the shot clock had drained way down and Wisconsin jumped our sets. They jumped them because they knew what we'd done late in the game against Notre Dame--pound the ball to Towns--and they were ready for it.

There could've been some "hero ball" going on, but I think we just stalled our way into bad shots.

[Lighthouse]

I definitely think Ulis should have played more. I believe if he would've we might have won.

But I think the Harrison twins were getting instructions from the bench. I can't know this but I think Cal wanted to slow it way down when we got the lead; I say this because he's done it before.

Then he wanted to go late and pound the ball to Towns. On those five, six possessions, they tried to do just that, but what happened was that the shot clock had drained way down and Wisconsin jumped our sets. They jumped them because they knew what we'd done late in the game against Notre Dame--pound the ball to Towns--and they were ready for it.

There could've been some "hero ball" going on, but I think we just stalled our way into bad shots.

I agree about Ulis. But Andrew said after the game that he thought his play would work better than what Cal called. Wisc. did make an adjustment on defense, but IF Andrew had tried, the ball could have been in Towns hands. Once there, nobody was going to stop him.

[Joneslab]

I agree about Ulis. But Andrew said after the game that he thought his play would work better than what Cal called. Wisc. did make an adjustment on defense, but IF Andrew had tried, the ball could have been in Towns hands. Once there, nobody was going to stop him.

I haven't rewatched the game--and will never--but I think it was only a handful of possessions. And that in itself was a problem: Duke at the end of the game played fast and played through its guards and beat Wisconsin.

But in our game I think there were only three or four trips that did us in. On one of those trips the ball did go in to Towns, but he was working against the shot clock and had the ball raked away. By the time Lyles got it and tried to shoot, the shot clock had expired.

On the trips where Aaron shot the wild airball three and Andrew missed a jumper, I think they just waited too long to go. That could have been the twins' decision, but having seen Calipari pull that sort of thing before I think he was over on the sideline instructing them to milk it. They have an offense that's designed to kill time and I think they were in it. He got that 4-point lead and I really think he felt that it would be enough.

[KevinHall]

With the talent UK had they should have been playing fast for 40 minutes and not slow it down at all. When you have the athletes UK had they had a huge advantage over just about everyone they played. You could see Cal gearing them down from the sidelines when it got to the five or six minute point. When they didn't execute the first two times they had the ball with a six point lead I started getting worried because I knew they were letting a great opportunity to put the game away slip by. I will always put that loss on Cal because he could have kept them sped up the entire way but he went conservative like he usually does. Most times it didn't cost him but it did this game in a big way.

[teamchemistry15]

With the talent UK had they should have been playing fast for 40 minutes and not slow it down at all. When you have the athletes UK had they had a huge advantage over just about everyone they played. You could see Cal gearing them down from the sidelines when it got to the five or six minute point. When they didn't execute the first two times they had the ball with a six point lead I started getting worried because I knew they were letting a great opportunity to put the game away slip by. I will always put that loss on Cal because he could have kept them sped up the entire way but he went conservative like he usually does. Most times it didn't cost him but it did this game in a big way.

You would think he would have learned by now not to do that. It cost him a title at Memphis and let Kansas back in the game in 2012. Hopefully this loss makes him avoid that from now on.

[Joneslab]

Cal seems to coach tight at the ends of games. Of course sometimes there are teams who become really good in the halfcourt and the methodical pace helps. The Brandon Knight team and the 2014 team both come to mind. I actually think those teams were better in more controlled games.

But generally college basketball seems to be about making big plays with under 2:30 to go. There seems to be a tipping point in college where a team can kind of grab a game and squeeze it. A lot of times (most times, maybe) this is done with the three-point shot.

Cal's teams generally don't have that great shooter but are more inside- and defense-oriented. So it would make sense that he would play the odds and count on his defense. But I think it's one reason that Coach K has had so much success in this era: his teams are built behind perimeter scoring. It could also be one of the reasons he's had those early NCAA losses: when you shoot that many threes, it's high risk/high reward.

It's really no surprise that Cal's title team at UK had Doron Lamb in there having a tremendous title game against Kansas. But even in that game Cal really tried to take the air out and let Kansas back in.

[justford]

Don't forget the basket that came after the shot clock expired.

[teamchemistry15]

Cal seems to coach tight at the ends of games. Of course sometimes there are teams who become really good in the halfcourt and the methodical pace helps. The Brandon Knight team and the 2014 team both come to mind. I actually think those teams were better in more controlled games.

But generally college basketball seems to be about making big plays with under 2:30 to go. There seems to be a tipping point in college where a team can kind of grab a game and squeeze it. A lot of times (most times, maybe) this is done with the three-point shot.

Cal's teams generally don't have that great shooter but are more inside- and defense-oriented. So it would make sense that he would play the odds and count on his defense. But I think it's one reason that Coach K has had so much success in this era: his teams are built behind perimeter scoring. It could also be one of the reasons he's had those early NCAA losses: when you shoot that many threes, it's high risk/high reward.

It' no surprise that Cal's title team at UK had Doron Lamb in there having a tremendous title game against Kansas. But even in that game Cal really tried to take the air out and let Kansas back in.

Your reasoning here is why I am so excited for this coming season. We will have one of the deepest and best backcourt rotations there is. When you look at the recent trend of championship winning teams, you see an efficient and consistent backcourt with one game changing big. Duke this year, us in 12, uofl in 13, etc. UCONN in 14 could be looked at as a team without a dominant big or game changer down low, but their guys were solid enough to allow Shabazz and Boatright to do what they wanted. We have that recipe this year with our backcourt and Skal. I think the main question for us will be if Poythress or Lee can turn into a stat stuffer like Jones did in 12.