[Mr. Pike Central]

Player Thoughts:

Kyle Wiltjer - He has been extremely cold the last few games. If he can't make shots, he is no help to us at all, because he's a defensive liability. Wiltjer missed wide open shot after wide open shot. It was rather pathetic, really.

Nerlens Noel - He did do some good things and some bad things, but one thing he could not do is make a layup. He must have missed a dozen short shots. A quick check of stats reveals he was 3-14, and so he missed only 11. But did do a number of very good things otherwise, including 16 rebounds, 7 offensive. Noel also had 6 (!) steals. All he needed to do was make layups to have a monster game -- well, that and defend better.

Archie Goodwin - He also did good things and bad, but he had a team high 5 turnovers to go along with 5 assists. I liked Archie's effort but once again it was unfocused and somewhat wild. No way this team has a chance without him, but he certainly wasn't enough. Calipari said it in his news conference: Archie has the will to win, but he doesn't know how to win yet.

Julius Mays - He had what I consider to be his worst game. He was 2-8 from three and made a number of bad decisions.

Willie Cauley-Stein - He did some things well, but he was so weak inside offensively that it was almost embarrassing. But he did some good things, but just not enough of them.

Ryan Harrow - Despite his horrible shooting, he did some good things and got into the paint a lot. But we need so much more from him.

Alex Poythress - He almost had a good game, but he had five turnovers and way too many defensive breakdowns, and he let several rebounds get away, as well as performing the equivalent of a Morgan Newton self-sack along with Archie Goodwin.

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Overall Game Thoughts:

This Kentucky team is far to laid back to be successful. They take too many plays off, and they show no sense of urgency.

Kyle Wiltjer is really playing badly right now. He gets good shots, but missed them. Today, he missed an obscene number of open three-point shots.

Kentucky did a much better job on the glass this game than they have been, and if there is a bright spot in this loss, that is it.

I have to say that it is extremely unlikely that Kentucky will ever be this cold again. They got great look after great look, inside and outside, and just missed them.

I thought Baylor did a good job of disrupting Kentucky in the painted area. The Wildcats big men have to learn to keep the ball higher.

The officiating in this game was vastly one-sided, and just plain horrible. I don't often complain about the officiating, and I honestly doubt if it actually changed the game's outcome, but it is extremely frustrating to be a fan and see that many bad calls.

This team reminds me that we are spoiled as fans. We expect to win every game after last year, and we have been reminded over the last two games that those expectations are not rational.