[jetpilot]

If we come out next week like we did tonight it will make the 5th straight year we have not made it out of the first weekend. We currently have last got out of the first weekend of the NCAA tourney in 2019.

[Old School Hound]

All we can do now is hope our boys can outscore six straight opponents and maybe get one  or two stops down the stretch in games. The defense isn't getting any better, at this point. I don't think this team enjoys playing on the defensive end.  Maybe , just maybe, with a little luck (or a LOT of luck) they can GO ALL THE WAY.


RIP to the great , Eric Carmen, who passed away earlier this week.

[jetpilot]

^^^Great song of all time almost no one knows

[Old School Hound]

Tres Terrell
@TerrellTres
·
3h
As John Calipari left the floor and walked through the tunnel back to the locker room, a Kentucky fan yells “Is this the Gold Standard?”

lol make him uncomfortable everytime he leaves the house. Let him go to an naia school where he belongs

You sound like the type that would trepass his property and egg his house or leave burning poop on his doorstep. You are one of the 17%.

[jetpilot]

I'm crying and not about the game thank you OSH

[jetpilot]

Tres Terrell
@TerrellTres
·
3h
As John Calipari left the floor and walked through the tunnel back to the locker room, a Kentucky fan yells “Is this the Gold Standard?”

lol make him uncomfortable everytime he leaves the house. Let him go to an naia school where he belongs

You sound like the type that would trepass his property and egg his house or leave burning poop on his doorstep. You are one of the 17%.

Nobody is trespassing or egging or lighting poop. Calm down and stick to music.

[Old School Hound]

We need some magic!  Hopefully, we'll all be sitting here three weeks from now , only a win away from our March Magic Moment.

[jetpilot]

[Old School Hound]

We need to shake it up and just have fun from here on out. Did anyone notice how much tighter the Cats were than the Aggies? Tight, right from the start. And why?  A&M had , like, four people in the crowd cheering for them. It was literally a home game for us. I say, ust go out and have fun playing the game. SHAKE IT UP!!!

[jetpilot]

This is for all the UK and UT fans who had to DRIVE back home today after getting embarrassed.

[jetpilot]

I should have placed bets on T A&M +5 1/2 and the money line today. Would have been huge. But probably done for the year in basketball. Will probably use my winnings at Keeneland + Breeders Cup.

[jetpilot]

Kyle Tucker
@KyleTucker_ATH
·
8h
Texas A&M, ranked 360th in 3-point percentage, splashes two in a row and jumps out to an 8-1 lead on Kentucky.

Again, I ask, why does it even matter who starts, right?

[jetpilot]

Matt Jones
@KySportsRadio
·
6h
Kentucky has won 1 SEC Tournament game in the last 4 years

[jetpilot]

Oscar Combs
@wildcatnews
·
5h
Once upon a time, everyone around the South called it UK Invitational, that colorful March Madness event SEC staged in cities from Birmingham to Atlanta, with stops in Baton Rouge, Lexington, Knoxville, Tampa, and St. Louis. It no longer is, not with just 1 win in last 6 years.

[jetpilot]

Matt Jones
@KySportsRadio
·
8h
Just start the best lineup. It’s March


Idiot Cal won't admit he's wrong and do it.
#1 pick in some NBA drafts sits the bench for the first 5 or more minutes of both halves. Everybody knows better except the idiot who has pocketed $100 million $$$ since he has beat anybody.

[jetpilot]

Corey Price
@coreyp08
·
4h
.
@KySportsRadio

@ryanlemond
2018-2019 is the only season since 1991-1992 that Kentucky advanced to at least the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament without advancing to the championship game of the SEC Tournament

[Cactus Jack]

Kyle Tucker
@KyleTucker_ATH
·
8h
Texas A&M, ranked 360th in 3-point percentage, splashes two in a row and jumps out to an 8-1 lead on Kentucky.

Again, I ask, why does it even matter who starts, right?

I know that he posted this early, but in hindsight, I don't that that this game is the "starter" argument that you'd want to use if that's the point that you're trying to make.

[jetpilot]

^^^Cal could use some of his $10 million $$$ a year and hire an assistant for minimum wage to tell him this sh!t.

[jetpilot]

Kyle Tucker
@KyleTucker_ATH
·
8h
Texas A&M, ranked 360th in 3-point percentage, splashes two in a row and jumps out to an 8-1 lead on Kentucky.

Again, I ask, why does it even matter who starts, right?

I know that he posted this early, but in hindsight, I don't that that this game is the "starter" argument that you'd want to use if that's the point that you're trying to make.

I don't need any game to know the best player on the team needs to start both halves. Please god make it stop.

[Cactus Jack]

I don't need any game to know the best player on the team needs to start both halves. Please god make it stop.

Just so we're clear, who are you calling the "best player"-- Dillingham, Sheppard, Mitchell, or Ivisic? I'm assuming that Reeves isn't in the conversation because he started.

No matter who you pick from this team, I see a lot of talented players with some very apparent flaws in their game. I'd even say the more talented they are, the more you have to hope that they play well enough that their "good" overrides the "bad" and/or that you can put enough pieces around them to mask their deficiencies.

If Sheppard could defend like most lottery picks, you'd think we could have just put him on their leading scorer or hottest player and that'd have been enough to essentially take them out of the game against an opponent of this caliber. I want to see him do well, but his on-ball defense and other parts of his game have a very long way to go. Getting a steal from sweeping passing lanes in a college game is going to be much different than defending in space in the NBA; same for creating his own shot or finishing though defenders (especially if help comes).

I'm not saying that UK wouldn't have done better with different line-ups at certain points, just that I saw repeated lapses from every player on the floor.

Ideally, the team would have been healthy and eligible all season. If so, we'd probably have a definitive answer on what we have with Ivisic and Mitchell wouldn't have been run into the ground from playing so many minutes out of position against bigger players.

I could also be dead wrong about all of this though-- coming into the season, I expected Justin Edwards to be the best player on the team and on his way to being a consensus high lottery pick.

[Van Hagar]

You’re right Cactus Jack, this isn’t the best game to base the starter argument on. But there are plenty others. Unless Reeves is hot, how is a lineup of him, Wagner, Edwards, Onyenso and Theiro gonna get us out to an early lead? I’m like JP, please God, make it stop.

[jetpilot]

There isn't an argument for not having Shepherd on the floor for the 1st 5 minutes of both halves. Cal gimmick for being too cute x 5.
Only he understands the genius of it because we ignorant hilljacks don't know basketball. I'm almost to the point where I'm afraid to turn my TV or radio on because Cal might be on.

[jetpilot]

In other news we should have a HUGE advantage over
North Carolina
Iowa State
Houston
Marquette
UConn
Illinois
Auburn
Purdue

And others who won today and have to play this weekend because they are stupid enough to try to win their conference tournaments.

[Van Hagar]

Those idiots! Don’t they know how tired they are gonna be next Thursday or Friday? Fire their head coaches right now!

[jetpilot]

^^^No way they will be able to get out of bed to catch the plane to their game next week. I'm just thankful our coach gets the big picture. That's why he has made $100 million plus the last 10 years. No price too high to keep our players well rested.

[Cactus Jack]

You’re right Cactus Jack, this isn’t the best game to base the starter argument on. But there are plenty others. Unless Reeves is hot, how is a lineup of him, Wagner, Edwards, Onyenso and Theiro gonna get us out to an early lead? I’m like JP, please God, make it stop.

I think it's a question of what type of team they're trying to be, how they want to play, and whether they're truly trying to make their opponent adjust to them instead of vice versa. With all of the injuries, eligibility issues, and already having to blend so many new players, it's going to be tough; regardless, it was still doable and others have done more with much less.

Dillingham, Sheppard, Reeves, Mitchell and Ivisic is going to give you the best (and most consistent) offensive line-up. But how many do they give up? When do you see diminishing returns from five scorers versus sticking a defender or two in?

Some loathe platoons, but I'm not opposed overall. I've seen great coaches who, without fail, play certain line-ups for very defined periods. I don't know that this is the kind of coach that Cal is though, at least with an eight to ten man rotation this deep but still so flawed (and more importantly, so young/inexperienced).

In theory, I think that the idea is that Wagner, Reeves, Edwards, Thiero and Onyseno start to set the tone defensively and to see what you'll get from them on offense. They don't let the opponent get hot, and you grind the opponent down before subbing and hitting another gear offensively. Until then, you just run everything on offense through Reeves while the bigs just rim-run and you feel out whether Edwards and Wagner have it that night (read: if they can hit shots that they're being dared to take). The thought is probably "well, if we're not getting anything, then let's do what we'd have done anyway and just go to the offensive line-up to try and outscore them). This works well when you get stops and see that Wagner or Edwards is getting hot, Thiero is going to be effective, or Onyenso is able to block some shots and catch lobs or clean up misses. It gets thrown on it's head when the other team starts hot, your offensively challenged players start slow (except the one you need in your offensive line-up that is in foul trouble) and you have to bring in worse defenders to try to slow the already-hot opposition.


This may be a bit out there, but I think that part of why Dillingham and Sheppard mesh so well is because defensively, you just plan on going all-out and gambling to create turnovers and easy baskets, even if you give up some easy ones. I don't think it's a terrible strategy, and it's definitely more from the new school/analytics side of the coaching spectrum, but I can see the validity to it with how much they can create havoc by gambling on defense and how well Reed compliments Rob being so ball-dominant and looking to be the primary scorer.

I don't know that Reeves and Sheppard play as well together as some may think. I do know for 100% that if you play extended minutes with a line-up with Dillingham, Sheppard, and Reeves & the other team has guards who can score, then you'd better be in a position to score in the mid-90's. Despite everything Dillingham brings, Reeves is still probably the #1 option on offense, or at least the most consistent.

If you can't play all three together, maybe the solution could be to start Dillingham and Sheppard but bring Reeves off the bench. If you tried that, how does a senior take that and is he still going to buy in? I know that we can say what we'd do or what should happen, but if Reeves gets upset and decides to mail it in, then where do you go?


I'm sure that there's a line-up with Dillingham/Wagner, Sheppard, Reeves/Edwards, Mitchell/Thiero/Edwards, and Onyenso/Ivisic that is better than what we normally use in the first five minutes, but regardless of the combo you choose, they'll still have holes (especially if held in isolation).


However you slice it up, I think that all of this works extremely well if Edwards is the player that you thought he was. His offense is behind his defense, but if he were able to defend multiple positions (better) while creating and exploit mismatches, even if it were just for 10-14 points per game, then everything that we're trying to do looks so much better. Look at his performance in our big wins as opposed to losses.

Had Edwards or Bradshaw played up to their ranking, this team could be unreal.

[jetpilot]

PLEASE GOD PLEASE GOD PLEASE GOD PLEASE GOD PLEASE GOD PLEASE GOD PLEASE GOD

[jetpilot]

EDWARDS AND BRADSHAW WILL GO PRO AND CAL WILL GET HIS PICTURE TAKEN WITH THEM AND DRAKE AND TELL US WE JUST DON'T GET IT

[rookie57]

Disgusting

[Granny Bear]

^^Yep. And I'm done. Not because they lost the game but because of the non-existent defensive effort.
You just don't allow your opposing team to rebound, go coast to coast and shoot an uncontested lay up. EVER!!!
So I don't care if they win the NCAA, I won't be watching. I'm just not interested in the type of game that college basketball has become.

This is similar to Kenecht going in for an uncontested dunk, and missing the shot. smh
And yes, that happened.