Missed in Maui; Arizona ADV

[kso_FAN]

2nd half defense continues to let down and the Cats simply are going to struggle defending much longer/taller teams. Assistketball didn't happen. Westicles and Gip each had moments, but it wasn't enough; someone else has to step up to offset Foster. Arizona simply had too much defense on everyone else.

[EMAWzified]

A lot of coffee tonight? Quick conformation the 2nd half PPP was as bad as it seemed.

[Cartierfor3]

I thought Jevon looked ok

[Mixed-Nutz]

2nd half defense continues to let down and the Cats simply are going to struggle defending much longer/taller teams. Assistketball didn't happen. Westicles and Gip each had moments, but it wasn't enough; someone else has to step up to offset Foster. Arizona simply had too much defense on everyone else.

Their length did bother us as much as dribble penetration, we also have a lot to clean up on the defensive end. It isn't very shocking oscar is a slow coach when it comes to installing. Zona is really good defensively.

[Powercat Posse]

I don't think our defense was good or even decent after the break ( our transition D in particular), but give Az credit, they seem to knockdown most of their jumpers in the 2nd half. 

Az made 12 of their 19 shots in the 2nd half and made 20 of their last 23 FTs, and they couldn't shake us.  Niño had a little bad luck shooting on his last 2 shots. 

eFG of 52%, TO% of 17, and FTR of 49% all pretty good numbers against a team that is one of best in the nation on defense.  Poor 2pt shooting in 1st half was the obvious disappointment

[catzacker]

are we, like, more athletic than we actually play?  it seems that way.  I look at our team and it looks like they should be athletic, but they don't play that way.  on either side of the ball.

[kso_FAN]

Edwards has been extremely disappointing. And Gip had to find a way to avoid quick first half fouls.

[TheProdigiousTalent]

Arizona has some great shooters, guys.  Especially the bigs - wow.  They killed us with their range.  Mr. Set Shot was pretty devastating too - just painful to be subjected to effective long-distance set shooting by a short guy.  I felt like AZ just shot really well despite decent 2nd-half katz D.

[EMAWzified]

They were effective running their offense in the 2nd half. Passes and cuts were crisp and good movement (I mean 1.31 PPP). We didn't disrupt it much. 

[chum1]

Top stats words in this thread:

1. Crisp
2. Athletic
3. Range

[Bill Clarahan]

Edwards has been extremely disappointing. And Gip had to find a way to avoid quick first half fouls.

Edwards isn't what the oscar propaganda machine promised but he's what should have been expected.

[kso_FAN]

Edwards has been extremely disappointing. And Gip had to find a way to avoid quick first half fouls.

Edwards isn't what the oscar propaganda machine promised but he's what should have been expected.

I think you mean the Marcus Foster propaganda machine. Honestly, I wasn't expecting him to live up to that hype, but I thought he could contribute and still think he might. Even if he was playing just decent, K-State probably wins at LBSU and maybe tonight.

[pissclams]

the thing about Edwards that everyone needs to remember is that he has a 45" vertical

[gatoveintisiet]

This team stands around waiting for Marcus to do something.  nino, wes, justin, drive to the hoop.  Shooters- spot the eff up for a kick out 3.  oscar, get the defense together.  Ready-break!

[MakeItRain]

are we, like, more athletic than we actually play?  it seems that way.  I look at our team and it looks like they should be athletic, but they don't play that way.  on either side of the ball.

I can't speak for LBSU, that's a throw away but the length of the last two teams we played have made the athleticism look pedestrian. On offense against Purdue we looked very athletic against their zone, we penetrated gaps and went over the top of the zone. When they went to man, they packed it in a little bit and forced us to shoot, that obviously worked well for us. Arizona is way bigger than us and just as athletic or even more so. I think Arizona and Wisconsin are the only teams that physically have a shot of matching up with Kentucky although Kentucky is way better. We don't have functional size, luckily the good teams in the conference, other than UT, don't either. Our athleticism will show well against most of our opponents including tomorrow night.

[420seriouscat69]

This team stands around waiting for Marcus to do something.  nino, wes, justin, drive to the hoop.  Shooters- spot the eff up for a kick out 3.  oscar, get the defense together.  Ready-break!

This was oscar's best defensive scheme this year, dork. We lost on O boards down the stretch with that tall bastard they had.

[Skipper44]

I been disappointed with our problems keeping guards óf the lane, even mid major McConnell was getting by people in the first half and we don't have the lenght to not get hurt after helping.  I hope that gets better as the season goes, it generally does after all the xmas break practices but Jevon, Marcus and Nigel could be better.

[Mixed-Nutz]

I been disappointed with our problems keeping guards óf the lane, even mid major McConnell was getting by people in the first half and we don't have the lenght to not get hurt after helping.  I hope that gets better as the season goes, it generally does after all the xmas break practices but Jevon, Marcus and Nigel could be better.

Defensive rotations are more mental, imo.

[gatoveintisiet]

This team stands around waiting for Marcus to do something.  nino, wes, justin, drive to the hoop.  Shooters- spot the eff up for a kick out 3.  oscar, get the defense together.  Ready-break!

This was oscar's best defensive scheme this year, dork. We lost on O boards down the stretch with that tall bastard they had.

C'mon Wacky, we can do better than give up 1.14 per. That dork thing was hurtful too pal.

[MakeItRain]

I been disappointed with our problems keeping guards óf the lane, even mid major McConnell was getting by people in the first half and we don't have the lenght to not get hurt after helping.  I hope that gets better as the season goes, it generally does after all the xmas break practices but Jevon, Marcus and Nigel could be better.

Defensive rotations are more mental, imo.

yeah, in middle school where the ball doesn't move 4x faster than your feet

[illBisonYourdele]

I been disappointed with our problems keeping guards óf the lane, even mid major McConnell was getting by people in the first half and we don't have the lenght to not get hurt after helping.  I hope that gets better as the season goes, it generally does after all the xmas break practices but Jevon, Marcus and Nigel could be better.

Defensive rotations are more mental, imo.

yeah, in middle school where the ball doesn't move 4x faster than your feet

 

[Kat Kid]

Problem: we struggle to run plays and/or create in half court sets in end of half or end of game situations.  We had 3 straight chances to tie or take the lead down 2 and could not do it.

We also continue to have the most inexplicable problems with inbounding the basketball.  Our inbounds plays are terrible and on the one play we did get a lay up off of the play it should've been a 5 count.  On the inbounds play that Nino scored on it was probably the worst shot of the game and completely LOL worthy.

These always seem like nitpicky stupid things to complain about until you are in a close game and need to run a  play or have someone create an opportunity off dribble penetration or you need to inbound the ball under pressure at the end of a game.

It drives me crazy because at least the inbounds play seems to be easily correctable.  The last play stuff is more difficult to correct, but when Marcus foster doesn't see the ball and Nino throws up a contested jumper with the game on the line it makes me furious.

[michigancat]

KK, we had two very good possessions in the last minute even though we didn't score. nino had a very nice look and Foster got the ball into the paint before traveling. still nice possessions.

[michigancat]

I think a 2 for 1 would have been nice, too, but whatever.

[Stevesie60]

I lol'd pretty hard (well, I would have if I wasn't so stressed about the game at the time) when the announcers went on about how great our inbounds play was from the corner because that's a rare spot to have to inbound the ball and we "knew exactly which play we wanted to run".