Auwe! Bruins Wear Down Against Kansas; Fall 72-56

or lack thereof. He’ll always say in the press conference so and so needs more PT, gives them some more PT next game and then by the second or third game they are relegated back to the bench. I don’t see why Kentucky can always start freshmen but Howland never has ANY faith in any freshman except unless you are a top 5 player (Holiday and Love). If we start 1-4 (technically 0-4 since we beat a D2 team), at what point do we start thinking that Howland needs to be let go?

Must play every game. At least 15 mins a game. Pls mix up defenses!!!! Play Stover with Smith for some weak side help.

Lane def. needs more minutes, but Stover (who i love for effort) has paddles for hands

This is the problem when you only have ONE new recruit and don’t reload from the two players who are noe stuck in a lockout making zero $$.

I said it before, recruiting and reloading is the name of the game in college basketball. You can’t win games without Replenishing ur talent.
Recruiting is 50% of coaching today.

Honestly, KU is not that good of a team this year. They got the snot kicked out of them by KY. Why? KU didn’t reload either after losing a few players. But they still have talent. Enough to beat a team that really didn’t reload (us).

the regular members of BN have it right. Ben should watch the replay of this game and listen to the ESPN commentary. And yes, we need more time for Lane, Stover and Powell. Yes, Powell jacked up a bad shot attempt late (“wide left”), but he needs playing time. Stover mishandled a great pass and traveled, but he is rusty. Lane always performs well when he gets a chance. What the heck does Ben see in the Wears? During last week’s plaudits for Coach K, Bilas mentioned that he is loyal but not stubborn. Ben seems to be loyal and stubborn to a fault. This team needs Reeves, Jerime, Stover, Lamb with Smith, Jones, Lane Powell in support and Wears/Parker as they prove themselves.

This is the first time I have seen the team play this year, and from what I have read about the start of the season and looking at the box score, it seems there are some improvements along with the concerns.

Improvements:
The percentage of shots the Wears are taking actually decreased. During the first two games, the two of them took about a third of the teams field goals. Last night, it was a little less than a quarter.

The defense, for a stretch, actually looked like Ben Ball. The best defensive rotation in the game seemed to be Anderson, Lamb, Wear, Wear, and Nelson during the second half. I actually like this rotation because it was the best looking defensive rotation last night. I will get hammered for saying that because both Wears are in, but this was the rotation that had the best defensive sequences throughout the game.

Jerime and Tyler found their shot. If I were Dan Guerrero, I would seriously look at transferring the team to Maui and playing our home games there.

Concerns
The defensive rotations are still a little slow. The double team in the post was nice to see in the second half, but we miss the quick guards that can close the passing lanes to the weak side for the easy steals.

Josh Smith played only sixteen minutes. I didn’t see the very beginning of the game, but during the second half, the few minutes he played, he had trouble boxing out for rebounds and passing out of the double/triple team.

The team still forces things. Even Zeke does well when he doesn’t force things. One of my favorite plays in the game was when he tried to drive, saw it wasn’t there, kicked it out to Jerime, then rolled to the bucket for the layup. Tyler Lamb putting up an ill-advised three pointer early in the shot clock killed the UCLA run in the second half.

My biggest concern with this team is that they don’t play through the momentum killers. They hang their heads when things don’t go well. That doesn’t bode well for a team with so many momentum killers-after a tough defensive possesion, D Wear gets a rebound to have Lamb turn it over. After another, D Wear gets a rebound, then travels. An excellent 30 seconds of team defense ends with an offensive rebound for the other team. UCLA this year does not play well through those events.

Misc observations:
Before, it was said that the post should be taking the majority of the shots. After the game last night, I think that I’m okay with the wings taking most of the shots with the caveat that the ball needs to go into the post for the majority of possessions if not every time down the floor.

The team feeds off of Reeve’s energy. He needs to touch the ball, whether he shoots or not. The guards need to play within the flow of the game. The Wears just need to play defense and rebound.

I forgot to mention the fatigue. The team does need to go deeper into the bench because they don’t have the conditioning to only go six deep. Powell, Stover, Lane, and Smith all need more minutes than they had last night. The lay-ups, three-pointers, and box-outs during the last five minutes of the game were all off. I think some of the offense was forced, but some of it was fatigue.

I don’t know that he is physically cut out for it. Defense is a large part effort, but Lamb doesn’t really seem to have that much lateral quickness, which would make things a lot easier. Lamb reminds me a lot of Josh Shipp.

Norman Powell would make a lot more sense in that role, granted he stops getting caught out of position. I’m optimistic that he will make the adjustments if he gets the minutes