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Posted by ukman (Member # 3032) on 12-03-2016, 02:50 PM:

The switching defense. I know some will not like this and say I am hating on Cal, but there is no way you could watch this game and not realize that the switching defense by our Cats was a huge contributing factor to this loss. I know we didn't shoot good from the field or the line, but the main factor in this loss was the Bruins offense. And the main factor in their success was the advantages they got on switches. It wasn't always a clear cut shot from that mismatch, but it was a lot of points where mismatches led to an easy shot for someone because we had to help, or an offensive put back because we had to help, or because it was a guard trying to block out a post inside, or an open three because the big had to help inside and leave a three point shot open. There were also several shots by leaf, and welsh, that were made over smaller guards after a switch. I have always hated us switching on everything. I get switching guard on guard, and when it is absolutely necessary, but no need to switch just because they are handing it off or screening. Good teams are going to take advantage of that, just like Wisconsin in the final four.

Posted by SCWC (Member # 2464) on 12-03-2016, 03:04 PM:

You and I watched the same game today UKman, you echo my sentiments exactly. I even wrote about the same thing when I posted the box score I think. UCLA are an outstanding team but we are not supposed to lose in Rupp. Today showed a lot of weaknesses in our team. Our guards are the show, do not look to get the front line players involved and until we develop consistent inside rebounding and scoring, we will lose to better balanced teams. The mismatches caused by switching at all positions really cost us in today's game.

Posted by boomdaddy (Member # 2644) on 12-03-2016, 04:02 PM:

I don't like to see them lose. I still say they will win it all in March. Not a bad thing for them to take a loss, as long as they don't lose that many. I think the max that they will lose is 2 more. Kudos to the Bruins for outplaying the Cats. If UK gets to play them again, I would bet on the Cats.

I wold have preferred the undefeated team to have at least one L going into the tourney, by the way.

Posted by Bama Cat (Member # 153) on 12-03-2016, 05:53 PM:

This team is starting to remind me of one just a few years ago that couldn't make their inside shots. I agree about the switching being a problem but if we had made half the inside shots we missed we would have still won. As our good friend Redbone used to say, we got a leaky rowboat today. Fox played a miserable game in the second half. Everything he did went wrong. Bam is not the inside presence we wanted yet. Where was Mulder? Did Cal get so busy he forgot him? I don't recall seeing Jones either. It sure looked like things were going great in the first half until the final 4 minutes. I'm hoping they get their shooting eye back before the next game.

Posted by PaulCat (Member # 513) on 12-03-2016, 06:32 PM:

I think the biggest problem today was rebounding. We got maybe 4 second-chance points. UCLA probably had 20. They're a good shooting team, and you can't give that kind of team so many second chances.

Also, with 6 minutes to go in the game we had only attempted four 3-point shots. I think Fox and Briscoe did a poor job of getting others involved today. UCLA clogged up the lane and we just kept driving into them. We needed more outside shooting to open up the lane.

Posted by handycat (Member # 2323) on 12-03-2016, 10:27 PM:

You guys can say what you want but IMO the main cause of this loss was they scored more points than we did. When this happens we're going to lose most of the time.

Posted by boomdaddy (Member # 2644) on 12-03-2016, 10:59 PM:

That is funny

Posted by ukman (Member # 3032) on 12-04-2016, 11:42 AM:

And solid defense helps keep the other team from scoring more points.

Posted by Bama Cat (Member # 153) on 12-04-2016, 05:37 PM:

You can say it both ways. If we play solid defense they won't score and we win. If we play great offense we still outscore them. So I'm guessing it's a little of both that makes a great team. Even though we scored 92 points yesterday we still lost the game. The biggest problem was we missed a whole lot of gimmes, thus we didn't break 100 and therefore we lost. Does that make any sense? It makes perfect sense to me. [Big Grin]

Posted by blue hoot (Member # 398) on 12-05-2016, 06:17 PM:

My take is 90% of the time experience out weighs talent. Almost always we struggle with teams that have veterans. Freshmen can only do so much. UCLA started 2 seniors, 1 Junior and 2 freshman. I know we had Willis off the bench but IMO that's simply not enough. Briscoe our main veteran stepped on the baseline 3 times and obviously that didn't help.

[ 12-05-2016, 06:26 PM: Message edited by: blue hoot ]

Posted by PaulCat (Member # 513) on 12-05-2016, 06:43 PM:

It's tough when you start four freshman this early. I'm hoping our team is better than UCLA when March rolls around.

I can live with the play of the freshman against UCLA - they will learn from this. However, I'm a little disappointed with Briscoe's performance. He should've made better decisions than jacking up 14 shots. I know Cal wants him to shoot outside shots, but if I was coach I wouldn't let him shoot the ball unless he was in the paint. That's his specialty.

Posted by boomdaddy (Member # 2644) on 12-05-2016, 09:24 PM:

Briscoe's baseline play and his missing shots combined with Willis passing up wide open threes makes me want to pull my hair out.

Those two guys have to be rock solid. They need to be the leaders of the team. The weren't the leaders they were supposed to be. They were let downs against UCLA.