Kentucky's Five of Wallace/Fredrick/Reeves/Toppin/Tshiebwe

[Will Lavender]

...is the most efficient five in college basketball for the past three seasons over the past two games.

(I will say that this is skewed a little by Oscar's unreal performance last game.)

[GOCAT15]

I for one was actually happy with Cal sticking with this group last game and yanking Wheeler when he made mistakes. I really thought that he was going to give him a lot of minutes no matter what. I just hope he sticks with it, and I personally would like to see Thiero the first off the bench, just think he has a lot of upside and if he progresses could be an important piece not only this year, but next.

[Will Lavender]

If he shrinks the rotation the way it looks like he's going to then we might be a team like 2011, which basically played six people all year and made it to the Final Four.

Not saying this team is a Final Four caliber team or anything. Just based on the tight rotation of players there are similarities. Also think Cason Wallace is a Brandon Knight sort of player.

Not sure Fredrick or Reeves can be a Doron Lamb type even when Lamb was a freshman but Reeves has shown me a lot the last two games.

[KentuckyWild2020]

Without bashing on Wheeler, glad Calipari finally made the change. Preseason i was hoping that with the returning college player of the year and a veteran UK team we would just roll through college basketball but that didn't happen. I still think this season can be salvaged and we have the pieces to make a deep run or win it all, still believe in this team especially now that the point guard situation is handled.

As for the point guard position itself, it's not that we need Cason to set it up and feed everyone else, he can still play off the ball, main thing is Wheeler is out of the lineup, that's been the problem late last season and this year in my opinion.

[Spiritof96]

I am very happy with this development.

[KCKUKFan]

Lol... Cal is such a moron.

[40bill]

This particular group shows better promise, that's really apparent.
now to see if they meld together.

[KentuckyWild2020]

Players wearing shirts (Don't switch up) and Calipari telling fans jump on the back of the wagon and hold the rails, why stir the pot with the fanbase? Yes you beat Tennessee on the road and Georgia at home but also had some bad losses, fans had every right to question this Coach and hold him to a higher standard. Just put your head down go work and forget about all that extra stuff, it's Kentucky, what did Cal and these players expect?

Anyways, glad Wheeler is out of the starting lineup but that's not on the fans, that was Cal's decision, seem like it took a mob of UK fans to see obviously what he wasn't seeing..

[Matt Dillon]

They better not get too cocky. They'll lose some more games, perhaps a lot of them.

[justford]

[QUOTE=KentuckyWild2020;n306248]Players wearing shirts (Don't switch uo) and Calipari telling fans jump on the back of the wagon and hold the rails, why stir the pot with the fanbase? Yes you beat Tennessee on the road and Georgia at home but also had some bad losses, fans had every right to question this Coach and hold him to a higher standard. Just put your head down go work and forget about all that extra stuff, it's Kentucky, what did Cal and these players expect?

Anyways, glad Wheeler is out of the starting lineup but that's not on the fans, that was Cal's decision, seem like it took a mob of UK fans to see obviously what he wasn't seeing..[/Q


Wheeler being injured helped to open Cal’s eyes. Never want to see anyone injured.

[KentuckyWild2020]

[QUOTE=justford;n306255]

Players wearing shirts (Don't switch uo) and Calipari telling fans jump on the back of the wagon and hold the rails, why stir the pot with the fanbase? Yes you beat Tennessee on the road and Georgia at home but also had some bad losses, fans had every right to question this Coach and hold him to a higher standard. Just put your head down go work and forget about all that extra stuff, it's Kentucky, what did Cal and these players expect?

Anyways, glad Wheeler is out of the starting lineup but that's not on the fans, that was Cal's decision, seem like it took a mob of UK fans to see obviously what he wasn't seeing..[/Q


Wheeler being injured helped to open Cal’s eyes. Never want to see anyone injured.

Neither do i.

Good friend of mine just had dinner last night with Cal, Oscar and Toppin in Lexington. First thing i asked him was "did you tell him to keep Wheeler on the bench?" lol..

[SBCatMan]

There is nothing particularly magical about this group of five guys. The only characteristic that they have that other groupings lack is that they are the only five guys — along with Fredrick — who can actually shoot the ball. It puts a LOT more pressure on the defense when they have to defend all five positions. If you guard the shooters — like Georgia did — Oscar goes wild. If you sag on Oscar — like A&M did — you get open shots all over the place. We just have to make more of them than we did today.

[Will Lavender]

There is nothing particularly magical about this group of five guys. The only characteristic that they have that other groupings lack is that they are the only five guys — along with Fredrick — who can actually shoot the ball. It puts a LOT more pressure on the defense when they have to defend all five positions. If you guard the shooters — like Georgia did — Oscar goes wild. If you sag on Oscar — like A&M did — you get open shots all over the place. We just have to make more of them than we did today.

It's more than just shooting. These guys space the court and create gaps for plays to be made.

But more than that they play defense. Kentucky's defense was slipping into almost historic badness, and now you've got a group of guys who are ball-stoppers.

They also play with a winner's mentality. Four of the five are vets. They've been around. They know how to jump reads and play through screens, and more importantly they know what kind of toughness it takes to win. The youngest guy of the five is one of the toughest players we've had in some time.

So shooting is definitely a part of it but not all.

[Will Lavender]

^ Going on with the spacing thing...

I think floor spacing is a main reason we've seen this change outside of just "buying in" on the defensive end.

The spacing has allowed Jacob Toppin in particular to be more of a play facilitator. When Wheeler is in there the floor is clogged; Toppin can't even catch that pass at the top of the key to try and make plays. Everything is too collapsed because Wheeler's man is basically standing in that spot.

Now the guards and wings all have to be guarded and the floor opens up. Toppin has taken major advantage of this and he's become almost like an Erik Daniels sort for this team.