Another “dawg moment”. When Igor came in and drilled the corner three in front of the UGa bench he let them know running back. Dude has some swag. Even shouted out a very perfect american style “Yesserrrrrr!” from the bench
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Igor is my dawg merch coming now! Haha
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Shooters shoot. Franklin has a good mid range game. Personally, I’d rather them continue to take open shots.
Kyle Guy was in a horrid slump during the natty run…. What did you think Tony said?
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“More of that” in my original post meant “more of a starting lineup with only one guy who can shoot.”
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Offense is going to be tough with Beekman out there. The defense pretty much can have his defender play zone and it’s 5 vs 4 for the opponent. Defenders are packing the lane making it tough for Gardner and forcing a lot of turnovers from Kadin.
He’s got to be able to hit a shot. Everything else is kind of irrelevant until that happens. He has a 79 offensive rating.
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I think you could hear on the broadcast someone on Georgia’s bench yelling “Hell no” when Igor was shooting, which I think is why he had a little something to say to them when he drilled it.
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What did UK do when Rondo was there… they’re very similar players.
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That was my guess. something like that. Great to see
Rondo could shoot a little. But mostly ball screens and probing off those ball screens (not always conducive to sides ball movement but sometimes he has the opportunity to take those floaters) and attacking in transition
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He was elite at getting to the rim and finishing. And obviously had much better talent at every position around him
And of course they also went fast
Alright, despite agreeing about a number of the diagnosed issues, I do still think there were positives to take away from last night, even if we did struggle against a pretty bad Georgia team:
- We dramatically cut down on turnovers, with only 4 on the whole night. So while we missed a lot of shots, at least we were putting up shots and not handing the ball over. Big improvement.
- Franklin is starting to look more and more like a guy who can get us a bucket when we need it, and he is willing to hunt his shot. That’s important. I also struggle to believe that a guy with his jump shooting form and touch from the free throw line won’t see his three point percentage drift upwards as we go along. Will he be 40%? Maybe not, but I think he can certainly be 35% and that will help a lot.
- When we started feeding Gardner in ways that give him a quick move to the basket instead of having to drive baseline against two guys, he instantly produced again (credit McCorkle and Jabri’s defense). We need to get him a lot more of those looks.
- The team’s general interactions seemed a little more positive tonight, which is entirely a subjective evaluation on my part, but it did feel like they were fighting and lifting each other up a little more rather than getting down on themselves when things went bad.
- Kadin fought hard at the end, despite having a rough night. When looking at his stats, it’s important to remember he was sitting most of the game. He’s going to have nights like that - as did Mamadi, Huff, and Salt before him - but he is still flashing major potential.
- Igor hit another three! The scouting report is out on him now, so Georgia just put a defender in his pocket on the three point line and dared him to try and dribble, but that will create better spacing even if it takes him a bit to figure out what to do in response to that. Needs to tighten up that handle a little, but he’ll get there.
- McCorkle responded about as well as you can to being benched for a massive stretch and gave us an immediate lift when he came in. That is hard to do, and showed some additional mental toughness.
Look, overall the offense was still rough on the eyes, and the three point shooting is a major concern. But there are at least some positives to take away. If we could pull off a win against Providence tonight (which I’m not expecting, but still), that’d be a very nice point for the tourney resume. We’ll see.
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We’re also seeing the lack of spacing impact Kadin as well. Last year he was very effective back to the basket in his limited minutes. Now if you watch him he’s not getting fed enough, for one, but he also never has room to operate 1x1. It’s crazy how much our lack of spacing impacts what we can do offensively
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You can feel his swag coming through the screen. I’m gonna have fun watching him come into his own.
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Definitely. He’s constantly getting swarmed by two, and sometimes three guys. It really doesn’t help that Reece’s defender spent all of last night sitting below the free throw line and going under every screen while Reece was on the perimeter. Left so little room to operate down low.
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I agree with you. I just have to comment on the Kyle Guy “shooting slump”. It’s so funny how the mind works in which I don’t remember this slump, I only remember Kyle averaging 4 made 3’s a game or something similar. I imagine during Kyle’s slumps we always seemed to win so the defense was engaged, Ty, Dre, Braxton, Mamadi or someone else would always support the overall effort so Kyle’s slump *never stood out in my mind.
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Maybe we need to twist some guy’s ankles. Kyle was something like 9-44 overall and 3-29 on 3’s before he twisted his ankle right before half against Purdue.
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Just as a jump shooter must be ready with proper footwork and hands to receive a pass and shoot in continuous motion, Shedrick and Caffaro have a responsibility too to be ready to make a move as soon as the entry pass is made. Way too often they receive the ball and just stand there as though they are going through a mental progression, and then the defense collapses. When Kadin brings the ball down, he can’t get it back up above the fray. At the very least, the post player can fake passes out to perimeter players to keep defenders from collapsing while he decides on his post move. But the array of moves should be quick and compact.
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Think horrendous is hyperbole. Our floor game was better than it has been. Usually what I try to watch as the actual makes and misses tend to be more random. And shooting can hide offensive improvement or stagnation as a season goes along.
Definitely wasn’t good last night. But better. Cutting down on turnovers was nice to see. Progress has to start somewhere.
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Two points on Kadin. Tony mentioned in the presser after the game that Kadin is hesitating with the ball down low instead of going into a quick move or shot, but felt that he will get better in that area. It’s hard to tell on TV how tight the spacing is when a close interior pass is made, but Kadin (and Gardner as well) has also fumbled or lost the ball several times either because he wasn’t ready for the pass or there were just too many arms and hands reaching for the ball. I’m going to be optimistic and assume that Gardner and Kadin (and our guards) are going to get better in that area too.
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