TheCatsDomain.Com Message Boards: Why UK is not higher in the brackets

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Posted by Bama Cat (Member # 153) on 02-27-2020, 11:25 AM:

Here is why Lunardi rates UK lower in the brackets than they are ranked in the polls. WE all know why. It's because they can't put teams away when they get up by double digits. It's Cal's way of playing the last 10 minutes of most games that is hurting us. From that point we start milking the clock on every play and most of the time we take a shot with 1-3 seconds left on the shot clock. We miss on more than we make allowing the other team to outscore us. I would bet that we have scored less points in the last 10 minutes than the opponent in 3/4 of our games.

"""The SEC is weaker this year by nearly every measure, yet Kentucky has had more issues putting teams away. Only four of Kentucky's 14 SEC games have been separated by 10 or more points, costing the Wildcats chances to pile up efficiency numbers and thus look better in the metrics that currently have Kentucky well below the polls. Unless Kentucky can start blasting inferior opponents the way legitimate top 10 teams typically do, there's going to continue to be a gap between the polls and where Kentucky projects in the NCAA Tournament."""

Posted by rlt4uk (Member # 3194) on 02-27-2020, 11:56 AM:

I wish we could put teams away like duke does.

Posted by Bama Cat (Member # 153) on 02-27-2020, 04:06 PM:

We very seldom come up with a team that can destroy the weaker teams like we should.

Posted by ukman (Member # 3032) on 02-27-2020, 09:02 PM:

Bama is right on. The biggest reason is the way Cal has the team play once they have a decent lead, and sometimes that may even be just a 6-8 point lead. I seem to see that he has them start milking the clock around the 6-7 minute mark. If it's a bigger lead he may have them start doing it at the 10 minute mark. It may be because he just doesn't trust them to make good decisions, which I get, but at the same time having them slow down and make rushed shots at the end of the clock is not helping with the decision making. It would be interesting to see how many points the Cats have scored on average int he last 7-8 minutes of a game. It's hard to watch because we play slow down and generally end up with a guy just trying to get his own shot with about 3 seconds left on the shot clock.

Posted by ALA_KAT2 (Member # 1559) on 02-28-2020, 12:58 AM:

It irks me to no end the way we finish games with a lead. You can count on it. We can be up 10 points with 8 -9 minutes to go, and we just start slowing down and end up with a lousy shot with just 1-2 seconds left on the shot clock. The 3 guards will stay way out front in the circle and pass drill, accomplishing nothing, until someone has to go one on one and take a closely guarded shot.
We need to keep pushing the ball up the floor instead of walking it up. In fact, one game Hagans got a 10-second call for not getting it over the half court line in time without even being guarded.
Surely they don’t practice that way.

[ 02-28-2020, 12:59 AM: Message edited by: ALA_KAT2 ]

Posted by Trey Ball (Member # 332) on 02-28-2020, 01:57 AM:

See my post about the Big 10.

Simple fact of the matter is the Big 10 conference is no better than the SEC. The SEC gets drug down because they have laid some stinkers against some poor teams, UK included, but the conferences body of work as a whole stacks up against any Power 5 conference.

[ 02-28-2020, 07:55 AM: Message edited by: Trey Ball ]