Final just a tough night for the Cats all the way around just could not get a good rhythm all night. A huge road trip this Saturday night to take on the Zags of Gonzaga.

That was hard to watch! I totally agree just never could get anything going

Carr 5 pts, Brea 3 pts….. gotta do better!

Seth speaking Frank trueisms 

Just shows even having a bunch of older players, doesn’t mean it gets any easier playing a true road game. It’s tough to win on the road. Clemson won more of those 50/50 balls tonight, and made the plays. 
 

I didn’t love the lineup Pope used for most of the last 5 minutes or so. I would have liked to have seen Brea get in earlier at the end rather than just with 20 seconds to go. 
 

With that said I think we all know that this is kind of what this team will be like. They don’t really have a guy that can create on their own at the end of the game. So they need to rely on passing and shooting the ball well. They will have nights where they shoot great, and nights like tonight where they struggle from 3. I still really like this team and the job Pope has done so far. 

22-82 from 3 in the last 3 games.  7-27 tonight.

Tough loss, was bound to happen.

Sun will come up tomorrow 

Still bleed blue, love my CATS!!

Onto Gonzaga!

Nothing worse then having to stay up this late to watch a loss. 

Wish me luck in Seattle!

Every bounce went the wrong way for the Cats tonight.

I told my wife I didn't like being ranked so high this early, I'd prefer the 10-15 range for now. Looks I may get my wish.

Pope said he should've played Butler more despite the foul trouble, which I agree with. At the same time, Butler needs to stop getting cheap fouls 20+ feet away from the basket, especially in the first 5 minutes of the game. 

13 hours ago, futurecoach said:

Just shows even having a bunch of older players, doesn’t mean it gets any easier playing a true road game. It’s tough to win on the road. Clemson won more of those 50/50 balls tonight, and made the plays. 
 

I didn’t love the lineup Pope used for most of the last 5 minutes or so. I would have liked to have seen Brea get in earlier at the end rather than just with 20 seconds to go. 
 

With that said I think we all know that this is kind of what this team will be like. They don’t really have a guy that can create on their own at the end of the game. So they need to rely on passing and shooting the ball well. They will have nights where they shoot great, and nights like tonight where they struggle from 3. I still really like this team and the job Pope has done so far. 

Agree with almost all of this. My added takes:

1. Half court offense needed to keep working. Too many shots taken too early in possessions. That caused very few good looks and the poor shooting. Against good defense, you need 2 or 3 or 4 extra cuts and passes to get to better shot selections.

2. Should have put Williams in the low post and get him a touch there on every possession. Clemson could not stop Williams. Best player on UK's roster.

3. Carr got too many minutes last night. He was worthless on both ends of the floor. Too much depth on this team to give minutes to players who don't match up well and are ineffective on a given night.

 

3 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

Agree with almost all of this. My added takes:

1. Half court offense needed to keep working. Too many shots taken too early in possessions. That caused very few good looks and the poor shooting. Against good defense, you need 2 or 3 or 4 extra cuts and passes to get to better shot selections.

2. Should have put Williams in the low post and get him a touch there on every possession. Clemson could not stop Williams. Best player on UK's roster.

3. Carr got too many minutes last night. He was worthless on both ends of the floor. Too much depth on this team to give minutes to players who don't match up well and are ineffective on a given night.

 

Agreed!!

20 hours ago, FrankNicodemus said:

That was hard to watch! I totally agree just never could get anything going

Carr 5 pts, Brea 3 pts….. gotta do better!

Glad to see your post Frank. I was worried about you after that second half last Friday.

3 hours ago, futurecoach said:

Agreed!!

I also think this team has the ability to mix and match parts to get the best matchups. That could mean one game a player gets 30 minutes and the next game only gets 15.  But watching UK I feel they can change every game to create problems for teams.

This game reminds me a lot of the 1996-1997 matchup between the schools in which Clemson also shocked Kentucky. This Kentucky team has averaged over 90 offensive points per game. Even when Kentucky had their chance to strike, I felt like Clemson was in control of the pace. Although these are two different scenarios (The 1997 Clemson Tigers were ranked 20th, finished in the sweet 16, ironically Rick Barnes was their coach) I feel like the flow of the game was similar as they slowed it down and were able to keep Kentucky from getting into their rhythm, as other posters have mentioned with this game.

I was concerned about this game from the beginning due to being on the road but even if UK won, it's likely we would have seen this team exposed at some point. They have some challenging games coming up and this will provide them an opportunity to adjust. 

In the grand scheme, this is an entirely new UK team with the only returning player being Walker Horn and it's remarkable how they have gelled to the point they have in such a short amount of time. Mark Pope has done a great job but faced the challenge of being a new coach. Think of Billy Gillispie when he came in as he still had Ramel Bradley, Joe Crawford, Jodie Meeks or John Calipari who had Patrick Patterson, Ramon Harris, Perry Stevenson, Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins, Mark Krebs in his first season, at least some stability to start out with whereas Pope had to go out and get an entirely new team in a short time. So far they have picked up a strong win over Duke and I think by the end of the year will be in position to make a deep run.

One neat tie from this game if you're from the Eastern Kentucky area, is Clemson guard Del Jones once played at nearby Huntington Prep for a season. Jones has cracked the rotation for Clemson this season and had a bucket against Kentucky.