[Old School Hound]

This one is more than just the sting from a loss-- it's how they lost.

Think it's obvious that the biggest killer was the lack of defense. So many defensive breakdowns-- some of those were against very simple (even high school level) sets that the Cats put up little, if any, defensive effort against. The line-ups A&M used were too small to have the rebounding advantage, much less those type of numbers.

Two empty possessions from the 3:11 mark to the 2:30 mark were back-breakers. Didn't think we got any breaks on whistles late, but we didn't play like we deserved them and I'm not sure that it would have mattered anyway.

Kentucky's starting five combined for 32 of the team's 87 points (36.78% of the scoring). Two of their starters combined for 55 of their 97 points (56.7%)... yes, two players scored over half of their near-100 point output. Their third leading scorer (also a starter) had 17, so 72 of their 97 (74.2%) came from those three. Fourteen turnovers to their six... uggghhh.

Reeves and Dillingham can score, but they have some very real deficiencies. Same for Sheppard despite how he can stuff a stat sheet and has some high percentages or certain metrics that he grades well in.

Onyenso was beyond terrible tonight-- two points, two rebounds and two blocks in 19 minutes. Just looking at the stat sheet, Wagner, Mitchell, and Ivisic's numbers don't look too terrible, but nothing jumps out and Wagner was tied for the third-worst +/- with -9 (Thiero -14, Onyenso -12, and Sheppard -9 were the others).

Didn't get much of anything from Edwards-- you feel for him, but also think that it's getting to the point where it's obvious that we can't count on him and anything you get is gravy. Fair to say that Calipari has thrown in the towel on Bradshaw.

The offensive line-up that looked so good against Alabama and others showed how bad things can get when they don't play well.


Loss will definitely drop us from #17 in KenPom (+20.75), the question is how far it will be. I've saved a screenshot of where we were at tip and want to compare to where we land at the end of the night and weekend. Imagine that there'll be a separate thread on seeing and the NCAA Tournament, so I'll save that for later.

Well said, love how you presented facts of players performances vs Fire Cal!! Change needs to happen but this isn’t all on Cal

Absolutely right!  A&M played like a team that knew their season might end tonight if they didn't play well. They played very well. We played like a team that knew it had a secure 3 or 4 seed in the Big Dance next week. Bad matchup for us with their guards who can create off the dribble.  Forget this one and move on to something that has some importance.