Kentucky Basketball: Is Kentucky Tiring Down the Stretch?

just like a touring heavy metal band that gets tighter as the tour goes on; Teams get better as the season goes on. Because almost every team improves, all the numbers are relative, except one.Defensive efficiency. That is one number that does not lie, as it constantly improves even as teams are better and more repeatably drilled on offense.

since I’ve been one to question the number of minutes the starters log. If there were a little more point spread during the games, I think we would have seen the starters rested more. Cal said as much, concerned about not getting Wall a breather now and then. But he didn’t have the point differential to do this. Maybe the last 4 games will provide an opportunity to do so. Go Cats!

we aint perfect, but we are pretty dang good…….
I can live with that…….The guys seem to be settling in comfortably to their roles. And Cal may just be keeping a few things close to the vest. Good poker players never reveal their entire hand until the last card is played by their opponent. Should we be concerned, not really, and it looks like Ken’s numbers bear that out……EVERY team this year has shown weaknesses….some have shown theirs much more often than others, but have not yet run into an opponent who can capitalize on them…….as someone said on an earlier post….it’s skull cracking time……grind them, squeeze them, pound them, crush them, do whatever you have to do, but put them away……1 game at a time….eliminate them from competition. Now is when we show them why they dont ever want to see us this good again……Resistence is Futile……We Are Blue……..

in the analysis of team performance over the course of the season. Our offensive production has decreased and it is probably the result of a combination of factors. I think the clue to the biggest factor lies in increased defensive performance. Good teams get better with practice and game experience. As we face opponents our coaches and players have more information at this time of year on what the opponent does on both ends of the court and we prepare to slow them down offensively and find a way to exploit them when they are on defense. They are doing the same thing to us. All of this adds up to playing more efficiently or being more creative on the spot in order to keep winning. Tired legs are just one factor that can contribute to decreased performance efficiency. Playing your best performers longer but not to the point of tiring them out is the art of coaching. Just how hard to work them in practice is another factor. I am certainly not of the mindset that hard practices on gameday are a good thing. Looking at the stats you have provided us shows that we are really close to Kansas and I think these numbers reflect bench performance quality very well. These are young men, conditioned athletes, and I think they are far more likely to wear down mentally than physically barring nagging injuries. Remember, we are not playing in a vacuum. I see too many comments that assume UK has the total control and power to win by larger margins then they are and I am afraid a lot of this is just wishful thinking.

He’s actually treating his rotation much like a pro team. I don’t know how many people watch as much NBA as I do, but most good teams will start with experimenting with rotation and tighten up as the season progresses. By the time the playoffs roll around, they are mainly working with a 7-8 man rotation.

Cal is doing sort of the same thing. Except he’s still trying to decide on minutes for his 3 small forwards and rotation Miller, Dodson and Liggins accordingly. Once he figures out his rotation, likely he will stick with it and ride them as long as they can last.

He also mentioned several times, that the kids are basically supposed to tell him when they get tired so he can sub… competitive players don’t like to come out.

the talk Cal had with Wooden. As I recall, some of the main pointers Wooden gave Cal dealt with playing “too many” players and needing to tighten up the player rotation. From what I can tell, it seems that Cal is just taking some credible advice from a living legend and Hall of Famer! I think he would give our starters more rest if they needed it. Let’s trust in the coach AND John Wooden.

I would like to break these stats down further though and discuss a sub-set of the starters. How much of the 30% bench play is the rotation at the 3 spot between Dodson, Miller and Liggins? How much is Orton spelling Cousins when foul trouble arises?

I hear what is being said about the NBA rotation but the NBA 7 to 8 man rotation is spread fairly evenly with the possible exception of a few star players like Kobe, Lebron or Wade. It does appear to me that Wall, Bledsoe and Patterson (and Cousins if not in foul trouble) see significant minutes in close games specifically down the stretch. Now I like that Coach Cal does seem to be trying to account for that of late and work Orton in with Cousins and subing for Bledsoe early so he can come back in to play point and spell Wall. Also having Miller who seems to be the 3rd best ball handler come off the bench and be in when Wall or Bledsoe is sitting makes sense. I also like trying to steal a couple of minutes in the first half with Perry in the post.

Also, sometimes I have to think -with Freshman- that extra minutes from the starters might be a good thing .

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/teams/stats?teamId=96&sort=avgMinutes
It doesn’t show trends
Very clear that John, Eric and Patrick have seen the most amount of time.

Hack-a-Boogie?
Found an interesting stat on kenpom.com. DeMarcus is the second most fouled player in the country. Maybe everyone else knew this — I didn’t.
http://kenpom.com/leaders.php?c=FDper40

Who’s calling the game tonight for ESPN2?