Final a tough loss for the Cats played hard to get back in it, but absolutely no execution by the Cats down the stretch. With the loss and if the Vols beat Auburn they will be a 3 way tie for 2nd in the conference.

Bummer.  I was impressed they battled to get back in it.  Winning at Arkansas is a tough assignment. 

Tough loss in a tough environment. It was back and forth down the stretch, but Brooks pushing off on an inbounds play was the difference with under a minute left. They were down only one at that time, and it literally was back and forth. 
 

It was nice seeing the full team back together. However even though everyone was back, and I said this at the beginning of the year after the Duke loss. I believe Mintz has to be in the game at the end of games. He was one of your most clutch players last year and has been good at end of games this year too. While Wheeler was having a solid game. I think your closing lineup in regards to guards should be Washington, Mintz, and Grady. 

Brooks shouldn’t have been in the game in the last few minutes. 

How stellar was that officiating crew. 

Getting that 3 pointer for Brooks gave me flashbacks of the 3’s Cal drew up for Sarr little bit ago.

2 hours ago, The Professor said:

Brooks shouldn’t have been in the game in the last few minutes. 

Brooks played a really good game until the end of the game. So if you don’t play him at the end and someone comes and makes mistakes, then people wonder why you don’t play someone who played good at all game. So I do think it would have been hard not to play him at the end today, because he had played well until that point. 
 

Now with that said and @Voice of Reason said this in the game thread. This is two straight games now Brooks struggled at the end. So that is something Cal definitely should start looking at now that Brooks struggles at the end may be starting to become a thing, and may need to play Toppin at the end of games. Similar to how I feel about Mintz needing to play at the end. 
 

My favorite end of game lineup would be 

Washington, Mintz, Grady, Toppin, and Oscar. 

2 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

Getting that 3 pointer for Brooks gave me flashbacks of the 3’s Cal drew up for Sarr little bit ago.

Aren’t you always the one saying Cal needs to take timeouts at the end to draw up plays. Yet at the same time you seem to always complain about the plays he draws up. So if you don’t like the plays he draws up, shouldn’t you rather him not call a timeout?

13 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

 

My favorite end of game lineup would be 

Washington, Mintz, Grady, Toppin, and Oscar. 

 If you have a lead, Wheeler has to be on the floor at the end. Ball handling and very good free throw shooter.

4 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

 If you have a lead, Wheeler has to be on the floor at the end. Ball handling and very good free throw shooter.

If playing with a lead like they had at the end of LSU absolutely agree. In a one possession game, then rather not have Wheeler in. Washington, Mintz, and Grady is a good ball handling lineup plus teams can’t back off and fill the lane like they do when Wheeler is in. The only issue the other night with closing it out was because they basically had three bigs in trying to beat the press with Toppin, Brooks, and Oscar in. 

10 hours ago, futurecoach said:

Aren’t you always the one saying Cal needs to take timeouts at the end to draw up plays. Yet at the same time you seem to always complain about the plays he draws up. So if you don’t like the plays he draws up, shouldn’t you rather him not call a timeout?

He used his timeout in both situations when he should have, now he needs to be able to draw up something with merit to score.

I had to leave to go work the UC game and missed most of the 2nd half, will need to watch that later.

We gotta start games out better and stop climbing out of deficits. Hopefully with the two guards back, that won't be the case.

The first five minutes of the game, I kept saying to my buddy, we haven't touched the ball one time in the post. As soon as that changed, they were scoring on just about every trip for a good stetch.

5 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

He used his timeout in both situations when he should have, now he needs to be able to draw up something with merit to score.

So once again my question is do you still want him taking a timeout and drawing something up? Since you usually complain about the plays he draws up?  If you don’t think is he good at drawing up players, then wouldn’t it make more sense for you to rather him just let them play rather than take a timeout?

3 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

So once again my question is do you still want him taking a timeout and drawing something up? Since you usually complain about the plays he draws up?  If you don’t think is he good at drawing up players, then wouldn’t it make more sense for you to rather him just let them play rather than take a timeout?

No way, play the game with timeouts the way it suppose to be, just work on your setups for players in those timeouts that give your team a chance to win and this is a game situation you work on in practices every time you get a practice situation, and there will be numerous times during regular and post season play that these opportunities arise, all great teams function well with this.

I think the last play where Brooks missed the three was actually a nice play. There were two problems with that play. One, Brooks being on the floor to take the three. He is 24% on three pointers on the season. Two, Brooks and TyTy stood at the 3 point line and watched the entire rebound from that missed shot from there. Neither one crashed the boards. Oscar did a great job keeping the rebound alive and those two watched it all.

On that play, if you are spreading the floor for the 3, put Mintz in. Better chance of making the 3 and Mintz will hustle his tail off for that rebound instead of watching the play from a distance. I would even rather have Toppin in on that play than Brooks, maybe even Hopkins. Give me effort and energy I can count on. I will take a mistake of effort over not enough effort every day of the week.