Future of CKK

[j. spilotro]

Part of me hopes Boise fell into this trap with their new Football coach...

It happened with Bayno with the 98 WACT run. We won, extension.

But if I’m not mistaken, he might have had one year left, maybe two. Back then, extensions were critical for recruitment, actually for negative recruitment - UNLVs coach is going to be fired, he only has one year left and no extension upcoming and they struggled; why would you play for a school when the coach will be gone when you’re a sophomore and then you have to sit out an entire season?

That aspect isn’t a big deal anymore with the portal. No penalty, transfer without sitting a year.

 

[dcut03]

This past season we were bringing in bench guys, we brought in starters from the Big 12, 2 of them making All conference teams. They were established players that have done respectable things at higher levels.
Keylan, Whaley, and DJ (to some extent because of his age) were probably bigger question marks coming into the season.
I don't think it is not enough talent, it is getting the pieces to play well together.
Kevin hasn't been trying to slow build, we have nearly a new team every year. I think we would be better if we had more players that carryover and more of an established season. We change how we play every year too.

Style of play doesn't matter, it is all about wins. Also winning with a more exciting style is really tough to do at any level, and nearly impossible at the mid major level.

It is always easier to slow someone down then to speed them up. No matter how hard you push it, you will only get so many transition buckets. Last season (2022-2023) was built to try to create turnovers and get transition buckets. It worked against the lesser teams, went nowhere against the better teams and within conference.
Tennessee couldn't speed up Purdue, with a big lumbering center to boot.
Defense will always trump offense. Not many teams advance with mediocre defenses. They all have really good to elite defenses, some have better offenses than others. True, amazing offense can beat elite defense. But rarely does that happen more than 50% of the time.
That being said, I think we need better offense. I don't think we fully maximized what we could have done with the players that we had, but I think we did a better job this past season, than previous seasons. It took a while to get there though.

 

[j. spilotro]

This past season we were bringing in bench guys, we brought in starters from the Big 12, 2 of them making All conference teams. They were established players that have done respectable things at higher levels.
Keylan, Whaley, and DJ (to some extent because of his age) were probably bigger question marks coming into the season.
I don't think it is not enough talent, it is getting the pieces to play well together.
Kevin hasn't been trying to slow build, we have nearly a new team every year. I think we would be better if we had more players that carryover and more of an established season. We change how we play every year too.

Style of play doesn't matter, it is all about wins. Also winning with a more exciting style is really tough to do at any level, and nearly impossible at the mid major level.

It is always easier to slow someone down then to speed them up. No matter how hard you push it, you will only get so many transition buckets. Last season (2022-2023) was built to try to create turnovers and get transition buckets. It worked against the lesser teams, went nowhere against the better teams and within conference.
Tennessee couldn't speed up Purdue, with a big lumbering center to boot.
Defense will always trump offense. Not many teams advance with mediocre defenses. They all have really good to elite defenses, some have better offenses than others. True, amazing offense can beat elite defense. But rarely does that happen more than 50% of the time.
That being said, I think we need better offense. I don't think we fully maximized what we could have done with the players that we had, but I think we did a better job this past season, than previous seasons. It took a while to get there though.

Better job this year because less “hero ball” to some extent; no real go to (ended up being Dedan, not ideal, imo) to some extent.

 

[cducker68]

Tbh, I can’t really recall the former places of everyone on the past several rosters, esp JC. And decent, yes, but pretty one dimensional, no glaring strength. Not going to put you over the top.

I will tell you I haven't counted chickens before they hatch since beas hamga took the floor ....

 

[vegas50]

I remember Beas "Hands of Stone" but barely....

 

[ricovegas]

Is UNLV Basketball a stock you buy right now? I say Yes. I love returning starting freshman DTJ at the point. I like the incoming guys. I believe we'll get some transfers at least 1 proven stud. I'm hoping staff and team stays together. I think KK season 4 is ripe with growth potential. Seeds take root and we start back to national relevance. High Risk been burnt plenty of times. Got to pay off sooner or later see Barry Odom and UNLV Football.

 

[bcvegaspt]

Is UNLV Basketball a stock you buy right now? I say Yes. I love returning starting freshman DTJ at the point. I like the incoming guys. I believe we'll get some transfers at least 1 proven stud. I'm hoping staff and team stays together. I think KK season 4 is ripe with growth potential. Seeds take root and we start back to national relevance. High Risk been burnt plenty of times. Got to pay off sooner or later see Barry Odom and UNLV Football.

I gained confidence in CKK by some of the changes he made:
Stopped with the full switching defense and played some man and even zones.
Fed the post and ran the offense through them.

So, while he still isn't great, he's showing that he does have more in the arsenal than what he went with in years 1 & 2.

 

[dcut03]

Better job this year because less “hero ball” to some extent; no real go to (ended up being Dedan, not ideal, imo) to some extent.

Having low post scoring threats was a big part of that. The past 2 seasons, maybe more, all the offense had to come from guards and wings, mostly playing hero ball. Honestly I can't remember the last post player we could dump it off and let them work.
We had Kalib that demanded a double team, from practically everyone. Kalkbrenner couldn't hold him one on one, SDSU did a little. We couldn't take advantage. Personally I think it was mostly Kalib who couldn't see the doubles coming, held on to the ball too much, and forced shots against multiple defenders too much. To his credit he could convert many of those shots, but he also turned it over way to much or had poor possessions.
But from a spacing standpoint, every time Kalib got the ball, Whaley, or the 4 at the time would run down to the weakside post, essentially making it easy to congest the key and double. We never spread out 4 corners to make it tougher to double in those situations without leaving someone wide open. I feel that was a missed opportunity.
Whaley would also get doubled near the end of the season. We still had the same congestion problem, but at least he was a more willing passer and he made his move quicker. He also would make some poor passes.
I like the idea of having a scoring post. It can really open things up. If Whaley sticks around we will have at least one guy that do that. Cherry maybe. Not sure about JJ if he comes. I just hope we can take better advantage of having that aspect to our offense moving forward.

 

[unlove]

JJ is a nice bench piece. He grew over this season and can provide high energy off the bench. His defense has improved and he can give a couple buckets off the bench along with some ball-handling (if necessary). Plus he’ll bring experience which is always helpful particularly coming off the bench.