Wrangor
Go Deacs
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2011
- Messages
- 12,413
- Reaction score
- 1,376
1. Best game I have ever seen Devin play. I get frustrated with him sometimes, but he stayed within himself (outside of his fade away heat check from the free throw line), he defended decently, he rebounded his tail off, and most importantly for this team, he kept his composure and delivered when he was asked to deliver. Just really an all around great game for the young man. Proud of him. We need more of that.
2. I am so glad that we signed Wilbekin. It is clear he is already our most reliable guard. He has no glaring weaknesses, and that is what you need from your backcourt. You need players who can handle it, shoot it, and pass it. He is sufficient in all three, and will only get better. Really excited about his future. He has Taron Downey like career ahead of him, and that is really high praise.
3. CMM is still our biggest threat in the backcourt, and he did a great job attacking the basket.
4. The difference defensively in the first half and second half was incredible. Our rotations were much faster. It was almost as if the principles that Manning had been teaching finally clicked. I think the guys finally learned that it was ok to leave their man to rotate. Hopefully this is a trend and not an anomaly. The best way to improve quickly is to become better defensively.
5. The difference in ball handling in the first half and second half was possibly even more incredible. Once we stopped giving them the ball, we found ways to score, and ways to stop them. #4/#5 are linked together in our success, but one of the main differences in the 2nd half was we started putting the ball almost exclusively in CMM and Wilbekin's hands when it was time to dribble it up. In addition we did a much better job at hitting the middle cutter almost no matter who he was (Devin was there several times) and letting that person take 4-5 dribbles to the middle of the court. This at least brought the ball out from our basket and removed the possibility of a steal and immediate score. When Rountree returns I expect him to spend a lot of time in the middle of the press break when he is in the game as I Think that is a good role for him.
6. Madison played about as well as he can play, but he is just so limited. I really had high hopes for him with a new coach, but he is pretty much who he is at this point. He can help this team by limiting his turnovers and being a terror on the defensive end.
7. We outrebounded Louisville. This would have never happened in [Redacted]'s tenure.
8. I thought Manning outcoached Pitino on a number of areas last night. Our halftime adjustments were almost perfect. Outside of the brain fart when he played Washington at the end of the half (I'll get to that next), I think Manning coached an incredible game. It is rare to see a perfect game from a coach, but last night was pretty close.
9. The Washington sub at the end of the half was really costly. 5 points at the end of the end right there is just deadly. Was really surprised to see us come out and take control after that. I figured that the game was going to get out of hand quick with a short run by Louisville to start the half.
10. One of the most enjoyable games I have watched us play in a long time. I am sold on Manning as a solid coach. He is good, and has the upside to be great. It will be interesting to see what he can do when he can design a play to score outside of 5 feet.
11. Love the design of our 5 out offense. It takes advantage of our strengths and minimizes our weaknesses. I am not sure if that is an offense he brought over from Tulsa, or if it is newly adapted, but I Think it is the best we can do with what we have. It opens up the lane for CMM, allows Devin to use his speed and quicknesses, and forces the other bigs to guard our stretch bigs. Louisville could not figure out how to guard it last night. We shot 53% from the field, and that is because we were taking shots in the lane all night long. We had 44 points in the paint against Louisville. For comparison, Kentucky had 24 points in the paint against Louisville. That is astounding.
2. I am so glad that we signed Wilbekin. It is clear he is already our most reliable guard. He has no glaring weaknesses, and that is what you need from your backcourt. You need players who can handle it, shoot it, and pass it. He is sufficient in all three, and will only get better. Really excited about his future. He has Taron Downey like career ahead of him, and that is really high praise.
3. CMM is still our biggest threat in the backcourt, and he did a great job attacking the basket.
4. The difference defensively in the first half and second half was incredible. Our rotations were much faster. It was almost as if the principles that Manning had been teaching finally clicked. I think the guys finally learned that it was ok to leave their man to rotate. Hopefully this is a trend and not an anomaly. The best way to improve quickly is to become better defensively.
5. The difference in ball handling in the first half and second half was possibly even more incredible. Once we stopped giving them the ball, we found ways to score, and ways to stop them. #4/#5 are linked together in our success, but one of the main differences in the 2nd half was we started putting the ball almost exclusively in CMM and Wilbekin's hands when it was time to dribble it up. In addition we did a much better job at hitting the middle cutter almost no matter who he was (Devin was there several times) and letting that person take 4-5 dribbles to the middle of the court. This at least brought the ball out from our basket and removed the possibility of a steal and immediate score. When Rountree returns I expect him to spend a lot of time in the middle of the press break when he is in the game as I Think that is a good role for him.
6. Madison played about as well as he can play, but he is just so limited. I really had high hopes for him with a new coach, but he is pretty much who he is at this point. He can help this team by limiting his turnovers and being a terror on the defensive end.
7. We outrebounded Louisville. This would have never happened in [Redacted]'s tenure.
8. I thought Manning outcoached Pitino on a number of areas last night. Our halftime adjustments were almost perfect. Outside of the brain fart when he played Washington at the end of the half (I'll get to that next), I think Manning coached an incredible game. It is rare to see a perfect game from a coach, but last night was pretty close.
9. The Washington sub at the end of the half was really costly. 5 points at the end of the end right there is just deadly. Was really surprised to see us come out and take control after that. I figured that the game was going to get out of hand quick with a short run by Louisville to start the half.
10. One of the most enjoyable games I have watched us play in a long time. I am sold on Manning as a solid coach. He is good, and has the upside to be great. It will be interesting to see what he can do when he can design a play to score outside of 5 feet.
11. Love the design of our 5 out offense. It takes advantage of our strengths and minimizes our weaknesses. I am not sure if that is an offense he brought over from Tulsa, or if it is newly adapted, but I Think it is the best we can do with what we have. It opens up the lane for CMM, allows Devin to use his speed and quicknesses, and forces the other bigs to guard our stretch bigs. Louisville could not figure out how to guard it last night. We shot 53% from the field, and that is because we were taking shots in the lane all night long. We had 44 points in the paint against Louisville. For comparison, Kentucky had 24 points in the paint against Louisville. That is astounding.
