The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

[PhantomPain]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

I've watched every single UK post season game and probably 15-18 of their games this year. I'm not going to be surprised.

I didn't think anyone outside of UK fans and the media watched UK basketball. Obviously you are a fan of college basketball as a whole....or closet UK fan

[ehh]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

UK is polarizing, they're a must-watch for one reason or another especially in the rather bland landscape of college basketball these days. Same with Duke most years. Especially of late with UK it's because of the freshman. You want to see who's a legit prospect, who was overhyped and get an idea of their games and how they'll fair in the NBA some day.

They were also easy to root for in the 90's with the Pitino turn around. Scott Padgett was one of my favorite college players of the 90's.

I'm sure that outside of UConn games I've watched more UK & Duke games than any other programs over the years. Kansas and UNC usually get a lot of love too, if you're going to watch college hoops you might as well watch the bluebloods.

[Omar_Coming]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

Go UCONN, beat them badly.

[BleacherBum2310]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

my only concern is can UCONN shoot as well as Wisconsin or Michigan? That's the key to the game imo. I don't think the rebounding edge will be a factor that much. Also Julius Randle if he gets called for an offensive foul it will probably be the 1st all tourney. He likes to use those elbows.

Just hoping for a good game honestly to cap off an incredible tournament!

[ehh]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

my only concern is can UCONN shoot as well as Wisconsin or Michigan? That's the key to the game imo. I don't think the rebounding edge will be a factor that much. Also Julius Randle if he gets called for an offensive foul it will probably be the 1st all tourney. He likes to use those elbows.

Just hoping for a good game honestly to cap off an incredible tournament!

It will be big. Giffey picked a bad time to go ice cold, he hasn't made a thing in the last three games after shooting 52% from deep in the regular season. I'm not counting on him snapping out of his funk in that canyon of a stadium.

Florida did a great job of extending the D on Bazz and limiting his jump shot looks. MSU did a good job for one half. Nova and ISU did a terrible job.

That's why I feel so good about our backcourt match up. The Harrisons aren't quick enough, if they extend out their D then Bazz and Boat will get by them and into the lane pretty easily. If they sag off then Bazz will shoot threes until his hand falls off.

I'm also interested to see if and how early Ollie goes back to the extreme smallball lineup that roasted Florida. It'd be a bigger risk against UK but if our offense is struggling I'm sure we'll go to it. Having Johnson on Daniels and putting him in the pick-n-roll frequently should yield some positive things. I don't know if it'll be a net positive defensively/rebounding-wise though. It will be interesting to see if Cal counters and plays Poythress at 5 against that lineup.

[DamnYanks2]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

I've watched every single UK post season game and probably 15-18 of their games this year. I'm not going to be surprised.

Well the reason I said that ehh, was because UK did destroy Wisconsin and Michigan with points in the paint. But both teams stayed in it by hitting a staggering amount of threes, and to Wisconsin's credit, they hit almost all of their free throws.

But Kentucky has been murdering teams of late in the paint and on the boards.

[PhantomPain]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

It will be big. Giffey picked a bad time to go ice cold, he hasn't made a thing in the last three games after shooting 52% from deep in the regular season. I'm not counting on him snapping out of his funk in that canyon of a stadium.

Florida did a great job of extending the D on Bazz and limiting his jump shot looks. MSU did a good job for one half. Nova and ISU did a terrible job.

That's why I feel so good about our backcourt match up. The Harrisons aren't quick enough, if they extend out their D then Bazz and Boat will get by them and into the lane pretty easily. If they sag off then Bazz will shoot threes until his hand falls off.

I'm also interested to see if and how early Ollie goes back to the extreme smallball lineup that roasted Florida. It'd be a bigger risk against UK but if our offense is struggling I'm sure we'll go to it. Having Johnson on Daniels and putting him in the pick-n-roll frequently should yield some positive things. I don't know if it'll be a net positive defensively/rebounding-wise though. It will be interesting to see if Cal counters and plays Poythress at 5 against that lineup.

If Cal feels he needs to go "small" he will have Randle at the 5 and Poythress at the 4.

[ehh]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

@ DamnYanks

Yeah I may have been unclear - I didn't mean that UK wasn't having their way in the paint, I meant that it wasn't leading to comfortable wins.

As soon as the UK/UConn game was set the first thing every member of the media said was "UK's front court will be too much for UConn" and everyone is picking UK with the exception of Kenny Smith as usual lol. We heard the same thing against Michigan State and the same thing against Florida. I guess it gets frustrating, what else do we have to prove to people that we aren't a pushover against teams with size? We just beat two of the three teams picked as favorites in this tournament (and naturally you guys beat the other in UL).

Obviously you'll out-rebound us tonight, especially on the offensive glass. PIP though, we'll see. You'll probably still outscore us in PIP because that's your #1 objective offensively while we shoot more threes but I don't think we'll lag very far behind. We had a stretch against Florida where we had nine consecutive FGs and they were all in the paint and I think all but one came in the halfcourt.

[DamnYanks2]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

@ DamnYanks

Yeah I may have been unclear - I didn't mean that UK wasn't having their way in the paint, I meant that it wasn't leading to comfortable wins.

As soon as the UK/UConn game was set the first thing every member of the media said was "UK's front court will be too much for UConn" and everyone is picking UK with the exception of Kenny Smith as usual lol. We heard the same thing against Michigan State and the same thing against Florida. I guess it gets frustrating, what else do we have to prove to people that we aren't a pushover against teams with size? We just beat two of the three teams picked as favorites in this tournament (and naturally you guys beat the other in UL).

Obviously you'll out-rebound us tonight, especially on the offensive glass. PIP though, we'll see. You'll probably still outscore us in PIP because that's your #1 objective offensively while we shoot more threes but I don't think we'll lag very far behind. We had a stretch against Florida where we had nine consecutive FGs and they were all in the paint and I think all but one came in the halfcourt.

Well that's much more clear, I just wasn't sure you were aware of how Kentucky was playing as of late, because it really is as I said staggering. I've never seen a so called "tweak" like this. Because if you look at UK's regular season record, and if you watched them up until the sec tournament game you just wouldn't think it was the same team. Florida had their way with us, it's true.

But I will argue that Florida team never saw this team. They saw a lighter version of this team in the SEC tourney, and a jumbled mess of something trying to mesh early in the season. Still I believe that Florida team was the best team in the nation.

But UCONN got them, so it's gonna be interesting because it seems your team handled the one team we couldn't twice. I think you have to respect UCONN, they pretty much got the gauntlet of teams that Kentucky got. Even St Joes was a rough team to start against.

Two storied programs going at it, and that's the way it should be.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

Well the reason I said that ehh, was because UK did destroy Wisconsin and Michigan with points in the paint. But both teams stayed in it by hitting a staggering amount of threes, and to Wisconsin's credit, they hit almost all of their free throws.

But Kentucky has been murdering teams of late in the paint and on the boards.

Michigan didn't stay in that game because of 3-point shooting. In fact, that was a poor 3-point shooting day by their standards. They only made 7. Which is the same number as Kentucky made.

[DamnYanks2]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

Michigan didn't stay in that game because of 3-point shooting. In fact, that was a poor 3-point shooting day by their standards. They only made 7. Which is the same number as Kentucky made.

You misunderstood me, I'm not saying Michigan stayed in it only because they hit some threes. I'm well aware of Michigan's 3 point shooting, being one of their major strength's. I'm saying both Wisconsin and Michigan hit key threes to keep them afloat. Wisconsin more then Michigan, considering they shot somewhere around 17 I believe, made 8 of em. And Kentucky shot about 5. I think for the whole game.

My only point was that Kentucky has been slaughtering teams in the paint as of late. But both teams used hot three point shooting to stay with them.

UCONN has to be hot from deep I think to win, and of course key contributions from Napier.

[redsrule]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

I disagree DamnYanks. Sure it would help them a lot of they can hit from 3, but without Cauley-Stein in the middle they can win by going inside and exposing their lack of a rim protector. Napier & Boatright are plenty quick to get by the Harrison's and in the paint and DeAndre Daniels can get inside and score as well, even though he's more of a face-up 4.
I think UK needs to utilize Dakari Johnson inside when he's in the game because that is an advantage for UK and it should be even bigger if Daniels is playing the 5.

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[DamnYanks2]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

I disagree DamnYanks. Sure it would help them a lot of they can hit from 3, but without Cauley-Stein in the middle they can win by going inside and exposing their lack of a rim protector. Napier & Boatright are plenty quick to get by the Harrison's and in the paint and DeAndre Daniels can get inside and score as well, even though he's more of a face-up 4.
I think UK needs to utilize Dakari Johnson inside when he's in the game because that is an advantage for UK and it should be even bigger if Daniels is playing the 5.

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You have to have a good three point shooting night or a key performance from Shabazz to beat Kentucky, sure their are other things UCONN can do, and Shabazz is gonna burn Andrew a few times, but I believe their will be a big enough difference in the paint for UK, that the only way UCONN defeats them is if those two scenarios play out.

But of course we have to keep Shabazz and Boatright in check and force them to shoot jumpshots, along with Giffey too. I think Daniels is kept in check or gets in foul trouble, and we only worry about the guard play and UConn's nasty three point attack.

Brimah could be an x factor for UCONN too, they'll need him on defense, to protect the paint.

[ehh]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

The crazy thing re: Brimah, if you told me three weeks ago that we'd be playing for the title I'd have guessed that was because Brimah had his coming out party yet he's been close to a non-factor all tourney outside of his season-saving And-1 vs St. Joe's.

I don't think he'll be able to guard Johnson at all, I'd imagine he'll pick up his usual quick two fouls and be on the bench for most of the first half.

[ehh]

Re: The Official 2014 "Running Commentary of Every Single Game" Thread

Good luck to all the UK fans, win or lose I won't be back on OS until tomorrow.