Men Vs UK

[chizhead 618]

23 minutes ago, BigSammyK said:

Before this one even tipped the refs made the decision that Cooper is too short to draw a foul in the lane. 

Not one free throw and he got fouled several times, but thats officiating at Rupp and it didn't start today. BUT, Coop got several shots blocked cleanly,also

[steeleagle 2,945]

35 minutes ago, chizhead said:

Not one free throw and he got fouled several times, but thats officiating at Rupp and it didn't start today. BUT, Coop got several shots blocked cleanly,also

Pearl mentioned in PS, that Sharife forced his game too much. As many times as he tried to shoot near the basket they know to bring to guys to him and block his shot. 

Pearl said he needs to learn to drive and then kick it back out more. Although many of his blocked shots looked legit, Pearl did mention Cooper averages over 9 FTs a game, and didn't shoot 1 today? 

Pearl was more upset with our still lack of learning from past mistakes. He said we still make some of the same mistakes we were making early in the season. And our D in 2nd half is what got us beat. To give up 50 in 2nd half is not acceptable.

[tgrogan21 6,198]

Just got finished watching the game after a prior engagement. Cooper shooting 6-23 and still trying to be the "go-to" guy at the end of the game was FRUSTRATING. Thor should have been the one taking every shot at the end when we were down. I know next to nothing about the NBA and how they decide on who to draft but if I look at Cooper, there's no way I could draft him in the lottery. His shot just doesn't fall. I still think he's the best player on the team but it's become a bad trend to watch him jack up 3's and them not fall.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

Pearl's team couldn't even beat a Kentucky team that had won only 5 games all year. Going into today's game, UK was 5-13. Now their 6-13. Auburn is 11-11 and is just flat out pitiful.

[chizhead 618]

40 minutes ago, steeleagle said:

And our D in 2nd half is what got us beat. To give up 50 in 2nd half is not acceptable.

And we do some dumb stuff, unforced 7th grade stuff, like stepping over the end line, lazy passes, trying to force passes,etc. What I was happy with was Flanagan coming out of his funk and Thor cracking his shell and emerging. We do have a strength issue but a year in the weight room should help that

[TigerOne 1,138]

22 minutes ago, auburn4ever said:

Pearl's team couldn't even beat a Kentucky team that had won only 5 games all year. Going into today's game, UK was 5-13. Now their 6-13. Auburn is 11-11 and is just flat out pitiful.

Definitely a game Auburn should have won. There have been 3-4 games like this one.

Cal is probably surprised they did but Kentucky came out second half determined. Auburn did not.

[autan 737]

Thor was a man among boys today. Based on this game he is our only player that should be drafted, but he is also the youngest player on the team. Sure hope he comes back for another year. JT was the best basketball player on the floor today. We had far too many TOs to win at Rupp. Wildcats gave Cooper an open lane and dared him to penetrate for a rejection. I do think SC's form on 3 shot has improved a little. Shots are still not falling, but he's not throwing up as many bricks. He's just not the guy to shoot a 3 at crunch time. Penetrate and kick it out.

[AUGoo 2,659]

17 Turnovers and 10 blocked shots.  I'm betting Coop had all those blocks in the paint.

Ugly stretch in the second half,  but to tie it up with less than a minute to go I thought was amazing for a bunch of underclassmen in Rupp  UK walked away thinking God help the Cats and the rest of the SEC next year.

Coop getting better on D was refreshing.  Been bitching about him playing D for a better look at the NBA.  Now realized that no one plays D in the NBA.

Flan with less head slapping moments made me feel like they are growing.

My how our FT shooting has improved.  Remember when we were shooting 60% as  a team?

[boisnumber1 2,817]

26 minutes ago, AUGoo said:

17 Turnovers and 10 blocked shots.  I'm betting Coop had all those blocks in the paint.

Ugly stretch in the second half,  but to tie it up with less than a minute to go I thought was amazing for a bunch of underclassmen in Rupp  UK walked away thinking God help the Cats and the rest of the SEC next year.

Coop getting better on D was refreshing.  Been bitching about him playing D for a better look at the NBA.  Now realized that no one plays D in the NBA.

Flan with less head slapping moments made me feel like they are growing.

My how our FT shooting has improved.  Remember when we were shooting 60% as  a team?

I would say regressing and not growing. This team is gaining experience, but I do not see any evidence of improvement at all. They simply are not a good team. Not even an average team, and one could argue that they are getting worse, not better. I know they are young, but by game 22, I would hope to see some solid evidence that this team has a very bright future. I still don't see it. It is all based on potential and hearsay, not results. I guarantee you CBP is very disappointed in the progress of this team though he would never say it. There still seems to be very little team chemistry too, do dysfunctional at times. I didn't expect much for the season, but they are honestly even worse than I expected. It is very obvious why CBP volunteered a post-season ban lol We are a bad basketball team right now.

[Randman5000 4,223]

We've got to involve Thor more. 

[AUGoo 2,659]

18 minutes ago, boisnumber1 said:

I would say regressing and not growing. This team is gaining experience, but I do not see any evidence of improvement at all. They simply are not a good team. Not even an average team, and one could argue that they are getting worse, not better. I know they are young, but by game 22, I would hope to see some solid evidence that this team has a very bright future. I still don't see it. It is all based on potential and hearsay, not results. I guarantee you CBP is very disappointed in the progress of this team though he would never say it. There still seems to be very little team chemistry too, do dysfunctional at times. I didn't expect much for the season, but they are honestly even worse than I expected. It is very obvious why CBP volunteered a post-season ban lol We are a bad basketball team right now.

I disagree.  

Game number 11(?) for Coop.  Seeing teams for the second time and not sneaking up on them.  

I see improvement.  The future is bright>

[cole256 17,039]

Game threads are starting to become a little toxic. I know you all had high hopes but maybe the bar that was set wasn't realistic

[Tigger1985 805]

So just out of curiosity when did it become ok to grab your opponent’s jersey and hold on to it? I noticed one player had his arms around Cooper like hugging him but no call. I have noticed that the refs seem to let Cooper get beat up during a game a lot lately. Seems like I would have to give an inadvertent knee to the groin if I was being held like this. 

[ArmchairAthlete7 21]

3 hours ago, AUGoo said:

I disagree.  

Game number 11(?) for Coop.  Seeing teams for the second time and not sneaking up on them.  

I see improvement.  The future is bright>

This is a very good point IMO. Teams have just now had a chance to get adequate film on Cooper and study how he responds to different things. Usually players and coaches have a lot more time to adjust, but with Cooper’s condensed season it feels like things are just spiraling being so late in the season.

I’m still in optimistic, wait and see mode.

[Mikey 16,546]

3 hours ago, boisnumber1 said:

I would say regressing and not growing. This team is gaining experience, but I do not see any evidence of improvement at all.

Thor is improving and learning. One out of 12 ain't bad. Or is it?

[JBiGGiE 2,488]

I think the announcers for CBS raised a good point that Auburn is returning 13% of last year's offense compared to Kentucky's 60% (or so).

If we were to flip the script the story would be how Coach Cal just reloads year in, year out. I hate it, but if ever there was a year to have a self-imposed post season ban, this would be it. 

[ArmchairAthlete7 21]

4 hours ago, boisnumber1 said:

I would say regressing and not growing. This team is gaining experience, but I do not see any evidence of improvement at all. They simply are not a good team. Not even an average team, and one could argue that they are getting worse, not better. I know they are young, but by game 22, I would hope to see some solid evidence that this team has a very bright future. I still don't see it. It is all based on potential and hearsay, not results. I guarantee you CBP is very disappointed in the progress of this team though he would never say it. There still seems to be very little team chemistry too, do dysfunctional at times. I didn't expect much for the season, but they are honestly even worse than I expected. It is very obvious why CBP volunteered a post-season ban lol We are a bad basketball team right now.

I agree we aren’t where we should be or where BP wants us to be. There were people I’d hope to see step up more that have fallen off (especially Flanigan).

They do look like they are still figuring out chemistry, which I’m willing to give them to benefit of the doubt on this one and attribute most of it to never playing a game with a full roster and your lone PG missing two and a half months worth of practice with the team.

I’m not surprised we aren’t good on defense, but I did expect them to take steps and they still seem lost.

Offensively I think we are really close to be elite. Our guards just need to step up and this team becomes a nightmare to guard. Our best outside shooters right now are our 4 and 5. Love that those guys can knock them down consistently, but the gap between them and 1-3 is substantial.

This year is likely going to be more of what we’ve seen for the remainder. But I’m hopefully this motivates them to put in the extra work for next year. I keep going back to the 16-17 team. They were similar to this one. They showed flashes of brilliance but also had plenty of ugly moments. They finished the season losing 6 of the last 8 games.

I might also just be feeling optimistic/have too much faith in BP to get things corrected.

[fredst 9,064]

I think Thor is our best player and it would be more obvious if he were more assertive; he has his moments. Reminds me of Chuma as a freshman- when he decided to show it he was clearly our best option. We have a lot of flaws right now that I think are mostly attributable to youth (exacerbated by the weirdness and limitations of the COVID year) but I still think we are one (or two) good outside shooters from being dangerous as hell. As it is, I think you can double SC to get the ball out of his hands at mid court then just sink back into alternating zones (2-3,1-3-1) and take a chance watching us miss a bunch of shots and turn the ball over a bunch

[cole256 17,039]

4 minutes ago, fredst said:

I think Thor is our best player and it would be more obvious if he were more assertive; he has his moments. Reminds me of Chuma as a freshman- when he decided to show it he was clearly our best option. We have a lot of flaws right now that I think are mostly attributable to youth (exacerbated by the weirdness and limitations of the COVID year) but I still think we are one (or two) good outside shooters from being dangerous as hell. As it is, I think you can double SC to get the ball out of his hands at mid court then just sink back into alternating zones (2-3,1-3-1) and take a chance watching us miss a bunch of shots and turn the ball over a bunch

Your last paragraph is exactly what I said would happen and that's why I said because of personnel you really won't be able to evaluate a few of our guys, mainly the nba potential guys, because it's much bigger in evaluating them than oh he didn't dominate this team so he can't play in the NBA!

[cole256 17,039]

I feel like I wish we were better on the defensive end but I understand the trouble a little. The frustrations on offense on here is more many having unrealistic expectations and now frustrations from that. And coop having that awesome debut actually didn't help there's no need for alarm really. All of this should have been expected

[steeleagle 2,945]

9 minutes ago, cole256 said:

I feel like I wish we were better on the defensive end but I understand the trouble a little. The frustrations on offense on here is more many having unrealistic expectations and now frustrations from that. And coop having that awesome debut actually didn't help there's no need for alarm really. All of this should have been expected

I think if Powell were still playing, we have a steadier ball handling team which would have cut down on TOs, consistent more D, and more shooters to choose from down the stretch, as well as better FT shooters.

Without Powell, it put more burden on FLanigan who is not a good ball handler which resulted in more TOs and kept Flanigan from playing more around the basket and wings where he plays better. 

The result would be a few more wins. 

But we still don't play consistent enough D, and as we saw against strong inside teams, we can't go toe to toe on securing rebounds. Not enough strength inside to over come that weakness.

And last, no experienced go to guy in the crunch, until Sharife becomes more comfortable in where to distribute the ball, instead of 90% of the time dribble driving with a 50/50 chance of scoring.

[AUGoo 2,659]

27 minutes ago, fredst said:

I think Thor is our best player and it would be more obvious if he were more assertive; he has his moments. Reminds me of Chuma as a freshman- when he decided to show it he was clearly our best option. We have a lot of flaws right now that I think are mostly attributable to youth (exacerbated by the weirdness and limitations of the COVID year) but I still think we are one (or two) good outside shooters from being dangerous as hell. As it is, I think you can double SC to get the ball out of his hands at mid court then just sink back into alternating zones (2-3,1-3-1) and take a chance watching us miss a bunch of shots and turn the ball over a bunch

First the NCAA screwed us.

Then our main outside shooter option went down and looking like he won't make it back.

Finally, it's floor full of underclassmen.

I've been impressed with the improvement throughout the season.  

The future is bright.

[chizhead 618]

My main disappointment is the lack of fundamentals, such as boxing out,etc.....Hopefully, they can get healthy,everybody gets to practice together with no major injuries, hit the weight room, and then next year just hit the ground running

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

21 hours ago, tgrogan21 said:

Just got finished watching the game after a prior engagement. Cooper shooting 6-23 and still trying to be the "go-to" guy at the end of the game was FRUSTRATING. Thor should have been the one taking every shot at the end when we were down. I know next to nothing about the NBA and how they decide on who to draft but if I look at Cooper, there's no way I could draft him in the lottery. His shot just doesn't fall. I still think he's the best player on the team but it's become a bad trend to watch him jack up 3's and them not fall.

We had time out before that. It looked like a set play called by Pearl since Coop took the ball and went straight to the basket.

[boisnumber1 2,817]

18 hours ago, AUGoo said:

I disagree.  

Game number 11(?) for Coop.  Seeing teams for the second time and not sneaking up on them.  

I see improvement.  The future is bright>

Yep and Coop's best games were his earliest ones. Teams have adjusted, and we are meandering right back to where we were without him. I'm just calling it like I see it. Very little progress throughout this season. Hopefully, the progress comes in the off-season. I hope the future is bright, but that hope is based on what I've been told about the players we have, not so much what I've seen from them on the court.