What Are Your Thoughts On Tonights Game

I might of missed it but is Andrew Harrison gonna be back for the game on Monday?

UK 76  Transy 42

potential, potential, potential. i don't know if this team has a ceiling, so saying the sky is the limit, isn't going to fit this team. they can be as good as they want to be. first thing i notice with these young teams Cal has at the start of every year is for them, they have to learn just how hard you have to go on every play and right from the tip off. freshmen get smacked with that at the beginning of the season. teams are going to come at you and you have to step it up to match or exceed that intensity. that first squad with wall and cousins and all their close calls early are an example. but coach has a bench to work with this year, so if you don't bring the fire, you will be sitting by him. but yeah, i believe this group can be as good as anything we have seen. my blue goggle wearing .02 here!

Let me start by saying that I expect that team should be be a dominating force in 2014.  I liked a lot of what I saw but this team is going to be tested early by talent far deeper than Transylvania who I though came out with a good game plan and excellent execution, especially early.

This game developed slower than I would have liked but that is not too unexpected.  I am happy that the 3's were falling early for us or this would have had a much different half-time flavor.

The one thing I wanted to see that I didn't see was a dominating force inside which I really don't understand.  We had size all over Transy but we seemed content to avoid the contact and kick it outside.  That worked fine with Transylvania but this team is much too big to not bang inside.  

Overall i think we showed flashes of brilliance amidst some expected early season miscues.  Did we look like 5 freshman that have never play together?  No, we looked much better than that.  Did we look like the nations #1 team dominating a division 3 opponent, no not really.

The feature I have most enjoyed with Cal's teams since he came here is watching these young kids develop from a group of talented, "rough around the edges", individuals, into a well oiled team of blue-and-white tinted assassins by season's end! I think everybody should every year record the 1st 4 or 5 games, and the last 4 or 5 games of the year, just in order to be dazzled by the amazing transition Cal pulls off (almost) every year (last year was an aberration, but forces me to use the term "almost"). Even if we are struggling, if fans will just look for the improvement from game to game, both as a team and individually, it is a very entertaining and satisfying trip through the season. As fans, the key to enjoying these seasons with these young superstars, is to have patience!!!!!

Things I enjoyed (criticism/praise just a snap shot of our current state):

1. Shooting: Probably one of the better shooting UK teams I've seen in a little while. Possibly the first time I've felt totally comfortable with almost anyone taking the outside shot.

2. Depth: Anytime you can regularly rotate 5 in and 5 out without much of a drop off, it's going to be a positive. While they really played well with the new rules/emphasis in officiating, you can pretty well bet somewhere on the road when we're getting a good ol' fashioned home cookin' screw job it'll be incredibly beneficial.

3. Ball-Handling: We have multiple big men that can handle the ball with ease. Randle may be better with the ball then some guards I've seen.

4. Attitude/Chemistry: Not too much swag, but not the lackadaisical attitude we saw last season. They were quiet in the 1st half but I think it was more nerves than anything and really kicked it up in the 2nd.

The Mehs

1. Defense: All things considered I think we all know this will improve with instruction. But this team is pretty raw defensively. Once some guys learn how to play "big" and adjust to the new officiating then I think we'll be fine. That may have been part of the timidness that we saw tonight on that side of the ball.

2. Free Throw Shooting: 50% isn't good when you consider just how much of an edge we'll be able to get with the new officiating.

3. Slow Start: Something else I think will remedy itself but it'll probably need to happen fairly quick with MSU just on the horizon. Hopefully it was just the jitters.