3 hours ago, bugatti said:

Notre Dame did two things. Sagged off the perimeter begging UK to shoot (they did, poorly, from outside) and focused on not letting Oscar get getting going on the glass. Through much of the game they executed ok in the half court, which is promising, but those final 10 minutes or so are not going in the Naismith Hall of Fame. 

They only player they sagged off begging to shoot was Wheeler.  Just UK couldn’t hit a shot. Completely agree with the rest though. 

2 hours ago, sportsfan41 said:

Is Mintz not playing as consistently due to his illness of the past few weeks?  I’m not certain.  But outside of Tshiebwe, no one looked impressive tonight. 

Possibly, but honestly even in the Duke game before his illness I didn’t think Cal was playing Mintz as much as he should. That Duke game he didn’t even play the final 4 minutes, and last year he was our most clutch player. I feel like he is a bigger part to this team than Cal is using him so far. Maybe Cal knows what he has in him, and just trying to see what other guys can do too. However, I just haven’t really liked how he has used Mintz this year so far. 

2 hours ago, sportsfan41 said:

Just realized Collins only played 3 minutes tonight.  Any reason why?  

Oscar, he is the reason. 

2 hours ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

I feel like the defense was absolutely atrocious tonight. ND players cutting right across UK's faces, back door cuts. It was ugly and I hope Cal focuses on that during whatever film sessions they might do this week. So bad.

They had a great play for the look that Grady had 3/4 the way down. Very unlucky. Next trip down, you get Oscar deep and he gets a great look too. Unfortunately neither of those shots fell.

Thats a bad loss.

I honestly didn’t think the defense was that bad tonight until the final 5 minutes. Those final 5 minutes Notre Dame was getting any shot it wanted, and obviously that stands out more. Until those final 5 minutes I honestly thought the defense played well. 

Oscar has saved face this season.  It’s likely to be another up and down season. We’re certainly not as bad as last year but could only go up.  Can Sharpe play this year?  Cal has been missing that dynamic scorer for years now.  Is he the answer?

7 hours ago, John Anthony said:

Oscar has saved face this season.  It’s likely to be another up and down season. We’re certainly not as bad as last year but could only go up.  Can Sharpe play this year?  Cal has been missing that dynamic scorer for years now.  Is he the answer?

I believe he can after New Years but not positive.

9 hours ago, futurecoach said:

I honestly didn’t think the defense was that bad tonight until the final 5 minutes. Those final 5 minutes Notre Dame was getting any shot it wanted, and obviously that stands out more. Until those final 5 minutes I honestly thought the defense played well. 

Did you see ND players driving to the rim for layups throughout the entire game? What about the defense on out of bounds plays that ND shot layups on? The defense was terrible except for our WVa transfer and if he hadn’t played out of his mind defensively, the game isn’t even close.

1 hour ago, nikeman49 said:

Did you see ND players driving to the rim for layups throughout the entire game? What about the defense on out of bounds plays that ND shot layups on? The defense was terrible except for our WVa transfer and if he hadn’t played out of his mind defensively, the game isn’t even close.

I thought it was bad most of the game, especially in the second half.  ND were taking guys right off the dribble, with no help defense or constantly getting caught looking at the ball and letting guys go back door.  It was really bad all around.

Makes it difficult for me to say that others should be playing over Allen because he can't play defense when none of the guards were doing anything defensively.

12 hours ago, Randy Parker said:

I'm not impressed with us.  We've beaten a bunch of pansies and lost to an ACC powerhouse and ACC bottom feeder.  

I'm not either, not much flow on offense and defense is lacking to say the least.

14 hours ago, futurecoach said:

Possibly, but honestly even in the Duke game before his illness I didn’t think Cal was playing Mintz as much as he should. That Duke game he didn’t even play the final 4 minutes, and last year he was our most clutch player. I feel like he is a bigger part to this team than Cal is using him so far. Maybe Cal knows what he has in him, and just trying to see what other guys can do too. However, I just haven’t really liked how he has used Mintz this year so far. 

Like it or not, Cal knows what he has in Mintz.  He has to put other guys in those situations to find out what they have. People don't like the way Calipari Coaches because he won't choke on a loss. It's as though he deems them necessary.  I think it's hard to watch but I genuinely think that's his coaching at this point. 

3 hours ago, Jumper_Dad said:

I'm not either, not much flow on offense and defense is lacking to say the least.

But "they'll be ready by March."

4 hours ago, Jumper_Dad said:

I'm not either, not much flow on offense and defense is lacking to say the least.

Seems to be a lot of shooting off the dribble and not a lot/enough of driving and finishing at the basket. 

17 minutes ago, sportsfan41 said:

Seems to be a lot of shooting off the dribble and not a lot/enough of driving and finishing at the basket. 

They were hot early hitting mid-range jumpers...that sucked them in and all anyone wanted to do from there on was shoot jumpers. 

Excerpt from KSR/On3:

It’s not what it used to be

This version of John Calipari just doesn’t hit the same anymore. His demeaning posture and comments just don’t do it anymore. It was cool when he was still running teams out of the building 90% of the time. He could talk when Kentucky had legitimate hopes of seeing a Final Four each and every year. It hasn’t felt like that in Lexington for a long time.

 

3 hours ago, sportsfan41 said:

Like it or not, Cal knows what he has in Mintz.  He has to put other guys in those situations to find out what they have. People don't like the way Calipari Coaches because he won't choke on a loss. It's as though he deems them necessary.  I think it's hard to watch but I genuinely think that's his coaching at this point. 

Are you really serious?