Cal's "We didn't play well" causes uproar

[Michael Corleone]

UK played rather poorly for 28 minutes and then great for 12 minutes. ND was solid for 40.

 

As for Cal's comments this what happens when you stick a mic in front of a guy after an incredibly stressful situation. After having time to reflect he was very complimentary of the Irish.

[Juneball1]

UK had two games go to OT. I would say those were tougher games, right?

 

I would agree a game going to OT was a tougher game.

[hidinout]

People don't like truth . Truth is we brought about a C- last night . That surely wasn't our A or B game. Twins went a combined 2-9 . Liles has 5 TO by him self . It wasn't our best .

[GrizzlyAdams]

I seem to remember Pitino getting blasted for words after a UL loss earlier this year...

[swamprat]

Maybe he should have gotten on knees and thanked them for letting his team win.

 

ND played the way they had to, to beat UK, and still failed.

 

Cal has no responsibility to praise anybody, but his team.

 

People really need to get over themselves.

[SLINK]

People nowadays get upset over the most minor of things. I feel this happens because people who are in the spotlight have every word dissected with a microscope with all of the social media.

[DragonFire]

People nowadays get upset over the most minor of things. I feel this happens because people who are in the spotlight have every word dissected with a microscope with all of the social media.

 

RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!!!!!

[4chs]

No wonder Cal is paranoid...

[The Professor]

UK didn't play well until the last 12 minutes. Breakdowns on defense that led to easy ND baskets. Unforced turnovers, I know Lyles threw passes straight to ND at least 3 times, one which led to 3 point play. It is what it is. I would grade it no better than a C.

[SSC]

What is it that people think UK could have done significantly better? If they didn't play well...

 

Guarded ball screens. They got killed on those.

[JohnnyUtah]

He did over and over in every subsequent interview go out of his way to praise ND and Brey for the job they did.

 

But that said I understand ND fans being upset if that was the only comment they heard.

 

Cal was correct in saying UK didn't play that great, because they didn't and I would say that ND didn't play their best either but were very very good.

 

 

its not just Notre Dame fans who had an issue with any of this. I saw alot of commentary from people who were Notre Dame fans for the night, who were taking exception to his assertion that the game not being their toughest.

 

I happen to think it was their toughest game -- simply because of the stakes. If Kentucky had lost one of their OT games, they still would have the rest of the season ahead of them. Had they lost on Saturday night, it would've been their last night together as a team.

[JohnnyUtah]

They were not themselves on defense, especially when defending the pick and roll.

 

Trey Lyles had three, maybe four just awful turnovers that lead to easy points. I don't even think it was ND's D that caused the turnovers I remember, just awful plays. I'm going to watch the game again on Monday or Tuesday but I just remember them being bad.

 

Didn't shoot free throws at the same percentage that they were throughout the last month.

 

I'd say they were themselves against the pick and roll -- the announcers on TV said they came into the game ranked 178th against the pick and roll -- it was a bad matchup for Kentucky as far as how much Notre Dame relies on the pick and roll but they survived it.

[ESPNdeux]

Here's what I'll give you... Trey Lyles didn't play well. Did nothing in the post and had some mind boggling turnovers. Other than that, I don't get it. It's easy to say "Oh we didn't defend the pick and roll..." well as pointed out, it's not their strength, and it allowed Auguste to run free to the glass often. Also easy to say that ND's ball movement was because of bad or slow rotations. But ND has been doing that to EVERYONE. They didn't shoot FT's at the clip they have been. They still shot 70%.

 

How bout the fact that they hit 54% from the field and 50% from 3? How bout they stayed composed when they were throughly backed into a corner. I just think that to say "Oh well we played bad..." takes away from the game a lot.

 

The bottom line to me was it looked like they were a different team because offensively, Towns is the only low block scorer. Connaughton played 5 feet off WCS and he had no interest in the jumper. So it was a 4 man offensive attack. Defensively, their secondary shot blocker (be it WCS, Lyles, etc.) was taken out of the picture because he was usually guarding Connaughton so they couldn't play help on the drive near as much for fear of the kick out 3. The first helper was usually the post to challenge the drive and then, like stated above, Auguste ran free to the rim for the putback.

[MJAlltheWay24]

Trey Lyles didn't play well. Did nothing in the post and had some mind boggling turnovers.

 

You put together a good argument in your post, but I just wanted to highlight this. I'm still baffled by some of the plays.

[theguru]

Without reading all the comments here I am glad Cal focused on his team instead of any "blah blah blah" coachspeak about ND.