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Posted by Tiptree (Member # 844) on 01-15-2020, 09:27 PM:

That game was won by the Gamecocks more than lost by UK.

We sure helped them by going nearly 4 minutes without a bucket near the end, but from my seat, South Carolina just started exploiting our traditional weakness and drove the ball into the teeth of our defense. They hit tough shots, they drew fouls, they grabbed offensive rebounds like I grab chips from the snack tray. They just whipped us.

Some observations:

(1) The second half was not Ashton's best half by a long shot. He started playing too fast, and got out of control a few times. Fouls, uncharacteristic turnovers, and poor decisions marred his stat line.

(2) EJ needs to watch Nick play defense. Nick has learned not to leave his feet until the defender does... EJ gets head-faked every time.

(3) The refs destroyed the game. It was a rare possession that did not end up at the foul line. Ridiculous fouls (and equally ridiculous no-calls).

(4) Whitney, Brooks and Juzang are not much help out there. Sestina hasn't been much of a contributor lately either. We are pretty much down to our starting five as far as players who can contribute.

(5) Cal's strategy to shut down the opponents best player worked up until tonight. Shutting down their best player allowed a new star to be born for USC, and he put them on his broad shoulders and carried them to the win.

(6) Curiously, Rupp took the opposite approach. When faced with Pistol Pete Maravich, he told his team to "let him score, but shut down the other four players". Not sure which is the best strategy. Of course, USC had nobody of the caliber of Pistol Pete!

(7) Richards has improved 100% this year. He runs like a gazelle, has great hops, and protects the rim. And he finally figured out how NOT to foul!

(8) I like Maxey's fire and Quickley's ice. They make a dynamic duo in the backcourt. Add in the speed and vision of Ashton, and I still say this is the best backcourt in the country.

(9) One thing this team lacks is mass. Our players are long and lean, but not muscular or "thick". This game it hurt us.

(10) This loss will send us spiraling down the rankings, having just sniffed the top 10 once again. But the team still looks to be on track to be a good one. Almost there!

Posted by EnterpriseCat (Member # 2881) on 01-15-2020, 10:06 PM:

Guard play will be solid come tournament time, but we have to get something from Brooks, Whitney, or Sestina to make it to the final four.

Posted by Bama Cat (Member # 153) on 01-15-2020, 11:06 PM:

Tip I agree with most of your comments but not on a couple of them. They stopped us from penetrating the lane for the most part the last 10 minutes. That was the main reason we were leading until then. Again, we had a decent amount of 3's for us. We mainly lost this game at the free throw lane. I'm sure we missed at least 6 of them because Richards missed 3 and I think Hagens missed 2. I have to disagree about what will happen in March. If we win 2 games we will be lucky. Very disappointed in this team how they fall apart so easily when everything is going their way.

Posted by Tiptree (Member # 844) on 01-15-2020, 11:24 PM:

Bama,

I agree. They adjusted their defense perfectly, and we had no consistent answer. Maxey hit a couple of threes, but most trips down the floor we didn't execute well. Defensively, the opposite happened. They started penetrating into the paint with ease. Now, they hit a lot of tough, contested shots, but those are the shots they wanted.

We can agree to disagree, and time will prove one of us wrong. We are not there yet, but we are on track to get there. The key will be the development of the bench.

Posted by handycat (Member # 2323) on 01-16-2020, 06:28 AM:

Last night’s game proved something that i’ve suspected for a long time. We have to score more points than our opponent no matter who they are. If we don’t, we’re going to lose the majority of the time. I continue to tell Cal and the players this but it appears they aren’t listening.

This is not a great Kentucky team and this type of thing may happen more than many of us like.

Side note, could not believe the “announcers” acted like the last second shot by SC was any thing but pure luck.

A side, side note. IMO, this game was poorly called

[ 01-16-2020, 06:54 AM: Message edited by: handycat ]

Posted by country cat (Member # 1774) on 01-16-2020, 07:04 AM:

I think the refs was the reason we lost this game--I never have posted about how a game is called--but I think this one was called very poorly----that being said--I don't think we will see the top ten again this year

Posted by Old Norm (Member # 1482) on 01-16-2020, 07:39 AM:

Worst officiated game I ever saw. Period. Also, worst announcers ever. I wonder if they were wearing their cheerleading outfits.

Posted by PaulCat (Member # 513) on 01-16-2020, 07:41 AM:

This loss can be summed up in one word - offensive rebounding. (A shout-out to Handycat there) [Big Grin]

USC had 20 offensive rebounds and took 18 more shots than us. They shot 39.7% FG, 36.8% 3-FG and 53.3% FT. There's no way they come close to winning if we had just rebounded the ball. And with Richards on the bench a lot with foul trouble, we now know that our other bigs aren't capable of geting the job done when we need them to step up.

Posted by jerseycat (Member # 9) on 01-16-2020, 10:00 AM:

54 fouls called (UK 26, USC 28)

Wished someone had clocked that as*hole that was mocking Hagans after he fouled out.

Posted by blue hoot (Member # 398) on 01-16-2020, 10:39 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by Bama Cat:
Very disappointed in this team how they fall apart so easily when everything is going their way.

Bama, Totally agree, you took the words out of my mouth. I've notice a lot of Cal's teams get nice leads and then try to give the other team confidence in coming back. Drives me crazy! There were times in that game that I thought we were going to win by 25. South Carolina is a bad team IMO.

Posted by PaulCat (Member # 513) on 01-16-2020, 10:55 AM:

Maybe it's just me, but I always feel like Cal really slows things down in the second half, like trying to run out the cock with 18 minutes to go in the game. We just always seem so much more aggressive in the first half of games. IMO, that's why we don't put teams away like we should be capable of.

Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 01-16-2020, 11:05 AM:

Paul you make a very good point.

Posted by ALA_KAT2 (Member # 1559) on 01-16-2020, 01:21 PM:

Those are all good observations. I will add that if Cal had used his timeouts better and had gone to a zone midway through the second half that we would have won. When your team is in foul trouble and cannot stop the opponent from getting to the rim, it’s time to try the zone, and not for just one possession. Of course, Cal’s stubbornness about NBA-ready first and U of K winning second will not allow him to change.

Posted by blue hoot (Member # 398) on 01-16-2020, 05:02 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by PaulCat:
Maybe it's just me, but I always feel like Cal really slows things down in the second half, like trying to run out the cock with 18 minutes to go in the game. We just always seem so much more aggressive in the first half of games. IMO, that's why we don't put teams away like we should be capable of.

Paul, Good point! Never thought of that but so true. It's like the old saying...play not to lose but in Cal's game play not to lose in the second half. Crazy!

Posted by ukman (Member # 3032) on 01-16-2020, 08:29 PM:

HE does slow it down when we get a lead. He goes to the Circle play and we basically end up with someone trying to get their own shot with about 5 seconds left on the shot clock. It's terrible because he tends to go to it way too early in my opinion. I say keep playing the same until about 2-3:00 minutes, then think about running clock.