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Is Cauley-Stein "tough enough?"
First off, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and a great time with family and friends, I know I did. How about that Morehead State game? Not only is Sean Woods now the center of controversy, but also Julius Mays gave Archie Goodwin a piggyback ride about 20 feet in front of me, bizarre. It was a blast to go to the game and thanks to Darrell for doing my “things to watch for.” I will be on the road all day today so this will be posted earlier than normal, that means I am looking for more comments from you all to keep me entertained on my drive.
There were a lot of bright spots for the Cats against Morehead, with Poythress and Goodwin showing they can take over a game and Noel showing he can still block shots with 6 rejections. But there seemed to be a reversion to the Maryland game where the Cats were just scared to death of contact and refused to keep playing through a bump. With that, lets take a look at some things to watch for in the LIU-Brooklyn game:
*Toughness
This team has some great talent and they are starting to come together, but they have to learn to be tough. I can’t remember the last time a UK team was as soft as this team. By “soft” I mean a team that once they get bumped, they quit playing and get as far away from the contact as possible. The UK teams under Calipari have got mad when there was contact in the past, but this team seems to go into a shell as soon as they are hit. I sat behind the UK bench and can tell you Calipari was constantly on the guys, especially Cauley-Stein and Wiltjer about playing tough, but watching in person it was clear there isn’t a guy on the team who plays through much contact other than Goodwin and occasionally Poythress. I hope this is something that starts to improve dramatically.
*Open Jump shots
The game against Morehead left me wondering what kind of shots this team was wanting to get through the offense. This team likes to drive but when those lanes are filled they seem to have no idea where to go with the ball. There were several times where swing passes were open on the other side for a jumper but the player tried to drive then pass when there wasn’t a lane open. This team is a pretty good shooting team but it won’t be if there are not some open jump shots mixed in with all of those drives.
*Feeding the big men
I am expecting the team to feed the post more often against LIU-Brooklyn, not only because they are smaller than Morehead, but also because Calipari couldn’t have screamed “feed Nerlens” or “feed Wiltjer” any more than he did during the game. They did a good job in the second half getting the ball to Poythress down low when he had a mismatch, but for most of the first half they ignored the post. In order for the big guys to develop into low post threats, they have to be fed the ball and given the opportunity to get some confidence. When the ball went inside it usually ended up with an open shot for someone, that needs to be done almost every time down the court.
*Effort
I almost included this under the “toughness” category but I felt like it needed its own spot. If everyone played like Nerlens played the entire game and Poythress played in the second half then this wouldn’t be an issue. The entire team picked it up in the second half but for the first half the team seemed to want to be “cool” instead of doing what it takes to get the win. Last year the team didn’t have that issue other than Teague at the beginning of the year, but this team seems to have it pretty bad. This is something I am sure Calipari will fix as the season wears on but you will see major strides once this team gets what I call the “AAU coolness” mentality out of their system.
I am looking forward to seeing if any or all of these are fixed during the game tomorrow. I didn’t include rebounding because to be honest, after watching the game in person I firmly believe that can’t get corrected until the “toughness” issue is fixed. The players are showing good fundamentals on boxing out but it doesn’t matter when you just get pushed out of the way and let it happen. Even though I seem negative this team is really good, and have a chance to be special if they get Harrow back and just give consistent effort.
Let me know what you are watching for or if you have any comments on my list below. Go Big Blue.
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