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Posted by ukcatfannfl (Member # 1425) on 03-26-2023, 06:10 PM:

If I have heard it once I have heard it a 1000 times "Oscar is a liability on defense"!

Will if that is the case then what "has" the coaching staff done about it?

The answer is "nothing". We have a 2 time all American on our team who leads the nation in rebounding and leads our team in scoring!

Benching him is not an option = which leads to how do we make defense better?

Coach has used the zone a hand full of times this year but he refuses to basically play anything but man/man!

ALL coaches know how to beat ky by exploiting Oscar and a cpl of other guys to basically get any shot they want.

One defense that could help Ky a lot would be a "triangle and 2" Basically the 3 interior guys would play zone whereas 2 start each defensive position on the blocks (Oscar/Toppin or Livingston} with the 3rd person at the free throw line. The other 2 guards play the opposing teams guards man/man with face guarding them. As the ball comes across the 3 low guards shift to strong side defense meaning they would be able to dbl whoever gets the ball inside. And the long arms of say toppin at the top of the triangle would be available to drop or shift strong side or go weak side if the other bigs have the strong side guarded.

Wallace is a good defender and could fight thru screens at the top and if the offensive big floats inside then he will have 2 guys meeting him and toppin at top if they try the screen and pop.

Just me ranting but to do nothing over and over again is just frustrating and thought some h s strategy might work better than what a hall of frame coach did!

We {h s team} played this not all the time but we could shut down a teams leading scorer fairly well and certainly helped rebounding and kept our weakest defensive players covered. You do need decent guards and we always had that as does KY most years.

What do u guys/girls think?

[ 03-26-2023, 06:13 PM: Message edited by: ukcatfannfl ]

Posted by Tiptree (Member # 844) on 03-26-2023, 07:30 PM:

Sure. Call it a triangle-and-two or a matchup zone, either would have helped. Go with the Tshiebwe/Toppin/Livingston trio in the interior, and Wallace and Reeves/Frederick on the matchup.

I guess the 'safe' place for Oscar would be at the tip of the triangle, leaving the much more mobile Toppin and Livingston on the baseline. Our guards would have to be aware that Toppin might get ball screened even in that situation, but help would be built-in as either Livingston or Toppin could rotate to help and one of the guards rotate into the vacated baseline.

We need Handy to call Cal ASAP.

Posted by Bama Cat (Member # 153) on 03-26-2023, 07:31 PM:

Sounds pretty good to me. Maybe Oscar would come back another year if he thought that might improve his defensive showing. Even though they say he is not a high draft choice, maybe by playing another year andplaying a better defense would help his status. But the one thing another year is not going to help is his jumping ability. He just doesn't jump very high off the floor.

Posted by ukcatfannfl (Member # 1425) on 03-26-2023, 09:11 PM:

Tip I like Oscar on the block cause I believe we need someone more agile at the top of the zone . Toppin {or someone like him next yr and if Oscar were to come back} has those long arms. Plus the defensive rebounding would be great with this zone imo

Posted by ukcatfannfl (Member # 1425) on 03-27-2023, 03:56 PM:

edwards on one block and Oscar on the other one, would {if he comes back} be devastating for our opponents.