1 hour ago, LongTimeReader said:

Looking at UT game in the SEC tournament and this game, Cal's "college players" played nervous and couldn't rise to the occasion. His star played like a star. Tyty pressed like an inconsistent freshman player. Big time players don't let the bright lights intimidate them, Wheeler, Grady, Tyty, and Brooks let the bright lights of the moment get to them. Oscar was ready for the stage he just couldn't carry the whole team, tried his best but at some point the others have to do their part. 

I said the same thing...the guys who are "college players" didn't have that "dog" in them to handle the pressure.

This team peaked around the time there was all the Sharp and will he play talk.  Maybe that is coincidence, or maybe those guys were playing to prove they deserved minutes if Sharp was allowed to play.  We will never know, but the last few weeks looked like a team that was "full" instead of hungry!

1 hour ago, Voice of Reason said:

I heard that this is considered the 4th biggest upset in tournament history. 

UK had won something like 20 straight tournament games against double digit seeds.

By spread I believe it is. 

I laughed.

4 hours ago, Randy Parker said:

1-6 in OT.

An ode to Nazr Mohammed (I think he actually went 0-6).

My thoughts about the Kentucky Game:

1. Should Kentucky lost to a 15 seed? No
2. This team is not a championship caliber team, this team was more of a Tubby Smith Talent team. Sweet 16 elite 8 talent. Those type of teams win in regular season but struggle in March. 
3. Kentucky has guys in their top 6 who started their careers at Georgia, Rhode Island, Creighton, and Davidson. They are a reason all those guys started at those schools and not blue boods. 
4. Kentucky has no go to scorer who is versatile and big enough to get his shot off. Everyone is a specialty player or a role player besides Oscar and maybe TYTy but TYTy isn’t elite enough or big enough to enforce his will. At Kentucky not a Tennessee not a Florida, your talent level has to be even greater than usual to win it all cause everyone comes after that name on the chess that says Kentucky , Duke , Carolina. That’s a fact. Anyone who argues this is a jealous fan base of someone who doesn’t like being considered less than the blue bloods. 
5. Think back to Cal’s best teams or 90% of the teams that win a title. They have the best player on the floor almost every game. John Wall, Karl Anthony Towns, Dearon Fox, Brandon Knight/Terrance Jones/ Darius Miller, Julius Randle, Anthony Davis /Kidd Chilchist. Guys that can impose their will when games get tough. They arent none of them type talents this year beside Oscar and he’s not enough with what’s around him. 
6. Kenny Payne is not the reason Cal won, Kenny Payne was here the years we lost also. I think the combination of Antigua , Payne, Cal, Robic is the reason we recruited so well and won early. Losing parts of all those guys is why we lost the early buzz of the Cal era. Plus Wisconsin killed us. Has uk won that game and went 40-0 they never lose their edge. Look at Gonzaga and recruits they started getting by winning. We stared missing on some recruits. Others started going after one and dones also.  
7. They are negatives to calling a timeout with game online also. One the defense can switch up what they are doing. Two defense can rest and organize  themselves. I probably call the timeout but not always. Sometimes going fast you can catch them off guard.
8. Why in the world does Cal let Wheeler be the one to isolate and drive on the last play that has to be either TyTy , Grady , or Mintz cause they are bigger and can get their shot off. Or you can go to Oscar. But once again that’s why it’s usually a bad thing when your best player is your big. Anthony Davis even struggled in 2012 tournament some. 
9. Which leads to …Calipari was wrong in not making Sharpe play this year. This is bigger than one kids draft stock: we aren’t arguing injuries here. We are arguing that the kid plays this year and hurts his stock a little and becomes the 10th pick instead of a top 5 pick or number 1 by waiting to next year. That ultimate is using Kentucky basketball and all it provides you to only care and benefit one kid. 
10. He was the missing piece at 6’6 he is considered an excellent 3 point shooter , excellent slasher, and prolific scorer. He is the #1 player in his class!!! 
11. Last, Coach K once lost as a 2 seed to a 15 seed. And he’s considered the greatest all time or second to only wooden. It happens, we have been lucky it hadn’t  happened in 36 years. Next year will be the year for cal: he’s got his staff back in place and a elite class again. ( elite means he has a couple top 10 guys, they are a difference in having the top ranked class and an elite class. Elite is when you get a top 2-3 guy and another 1-2 top 10. Top classes can have 4 guys in top 25 but no one higher than 10th in the class) if he doesn’t win next year than it could be the start to the end of Cal at UK.

The law of averages was bound to catch up of not losing to a double digit seed in the NCAA tournament (36 years, which is one of the more remarkable stats in college basketball), but also not suffering defeat as a super favorite (say a 1-3 seed) and losing first round. The other blue bloods have suffered this same fate in recent memory.

We were good when all parts were working. When one part did not play well we were in trouble. We only had one part that produced last night. We need a player like Jabari Smith that can shoot! 

4 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

My thoughts about the Kentucky Game:

1. Should Kentucky lost to a 15 seed? No
2. This team is not a championship caliber team, this team was more of a Tubby Smith Talent team. Sweet 16 elite 8 talent. Those type of teams win in regular season but struggle in March. 
3. Kentucky has guys in their top 6 who started their careers at Georgia, Rhode Island, Creighton, and Davidson. They are a reason all those guys started at those schools and not blue boods. 
4. Kentucky has no go to scorer who is versatile and big enough to get his shot off. Everyone is a specialty player or a role player besides Oscar and maybe TYTy but TYTy isn’t elite enough or big enough to enforce his will. At Kentucky not a Tennessee not a Florida, your talent level has to be even greater than usual to win it all cause everyone comes after that name on the chess that says Kentucky , Duke , Carolina. That’s a fact. Anyone who argues this is a jealous fan base of someone who doesn’t like being considered less than the blue bloods. 
5. Think back to Cal’s best teams or 90% of the teams that win a title. They have the best player on the floor almost every game. John Wall, Karl Anthony Towns, Dearon Fox, Brandon Knight/Terrance Jones/ Darius Miller, Julius Randle, Anthony Davis /Kidd Chilchist. Guys that can impose their will when games get tough. They arent none of them type talents this year beside Oscar and he’s not enough with what’s around him. 
6. Kenny Payne is not the reason Cal won, Kenny Payne was here the years we lost also. I think the combination of Antigua , Payne, Cal, Robic is the reason we recruited so well and won early. Losing parts of all those guys is why we lost the early buzz of the Cal era. Plus Wisconsin killed us. Has uk won that game and went 40-0 they never lose their edge. Look at Gonzaga and recruits they started getting by winning. We stared missing on some recruits. Others started going after one and dones also.  
7. They are negatives to calling a timeout with game online also. One the defense can switch up what they are doing. Two defense can rest and organize  themselves. I probably call the timeout but not always. Sometimes going fast you can catch them off guard.
8. Why in the world does Cal let Wheeler be the one to isolate and drive on the last play that has to be either TyTy , Grady , or Mintz cause they are bigger and can get their shot off. Or you can go to Oscar. But once again that’s why it’s usually a bad thing when your best player is your big. Anthony Davis even struggled in 2012 tournament some. 
9. Which leads to …Calipari was wrong in not making Sharpe play this year. This is bigger than one kids draft stock: we aren’t arguing injuries here. We are arguing that the kid plays this year and hurts his stock a little and becomes the 10th pick instead of a top 5 pick or number 1 by waiting to next year. That ultimate is using Kentucky basketball and all it provides you to only care and benefit one kid. 
10. He was the missing piece at 6’6 he is considered an excellent 3 point shooter , excellent slasher, and prolific scorer. He is the #1 player in his class!!! 
11. Last, Coach K once lost as a 2 seed to a 15 seed. And he’s considered the greatest all time or second to only wooden. It happens, we have been lucky it hadn’t  happened in 36 years. Next year will be the year for cal: he’s got his staff back in place and a elite class again. ( elite means he has a couple top 10 guys, they are a difference in having the top ranked class and an elite class. Elite is when you get a top 2-3 guy and another 1-2 top 10. Top classes can have 4 guys in top 25 but no one higher than 10th in the class) if he doesn’t win next year than it could be the start to the end of Cal at UK.

I actually agree with most of this except for about Sharpe. We seen last year how much those freshman struggle with not getting as much work in during the summer, and struggled to adapt to the college game. Sharpe didn’t join until half way through the year. After the team had practiced together all summer and already played a good amount of games together and even had the important tune up games everyone talked about that was missing last year. 
 

Not to mention in January and early February the team was playing great. So it is hard to then think about putting a freshman in with game experience and throwing him to the fire in conference play. If they play him and the team struggles still like they did to finish this year. People then say he messed up the rhythm of the team by putting him in, and probably call Cal selfish for putting him in and possibly hurting the players stock just to try to help himself. 
 

At the end of the day I think ultimately Sharpe was also ok with the decision not to play too. If he truly wanted to play and was all about trying to play this year, Cal probably would have let him. So I think people discount that Sharpe may truly have been fine with not playing. 

On 3/18/2022 at 7:21 AM, nikeman49 said:

Wheeler driving all the way under the basket and hitting a guy for a contested 20 footer!!! That’s surely not a designed set for last second shot!!

 

On 3/18/2022 at 7:48 AM, cincyswords said:

The NKU last play in the conference tournament final comes to mind.

 

On 3/18/2022 at 8:38 AM, 9068 said:

Amen!

 

On 3/18/2022 at 9:01 AM, Randy Parker said:

I have no problem not calling a timeout on the last play of regulation.

I have a major problem not calling a timeout when you're up 68-62, they switch defenses, and we look absolutely lost.

And we have another example of what happens far too often on these last second timeout plays.

UNC versus Baylor. Tie game. 11 seconds to go. UNC calls timeout. On the play after the timeout, they spread the floor, watch the guard dribble at the top of the key for 10 seconds and then he jacks up a NBA 3. I repeat, this was a tie game.

2 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

 

 

 

And we have another example of what happens far too often on these last second timeout plays.

UNC versus Baylor. Tie game. 11 seconds to go. UNC calls timeout. On the play after the timeout, they spread the floor, watch the guard dribble at the top of the key for 10 seconds and then he jacks up a NBA 3. I repeat, this was a tie game.

 No way! Calling a timeout increases the odds of making a shot from 17% to 97%. We all know this.

Princeton knocked out the women’s team, so since Thursday, it’s New Jersey 2, Lexington,KY, 0.