Final. A good game Cats played hard and never gave up when down by as many as 9 several times the last 5 minutes. Give Bama credit they made their FT's down the stretch and held off any attempts by the Cats to get a come from behind win. The Cats are off until they go to Vandy next Saturday.

As I mentioned in the prediction thread the first to 100 probably wins. That was the case. This is the first game UK has lost when the offense has played a good game. Usually when the offense has a good game, they win despite the defense not being great. Today unfortunately they played another team that also is great on offense and just made a few more plays. It was a fun game to watch, even though the loss sucks. 

Another fantastic defensive effort.

17 minutes ago, Randy Parker said:

Another fantastic defensive effort.

2 of the highest scoring offenses in the country. If you tuned in expecting a lot of defense I'm not sure why. 

45 minutes ago, Randy Parker said:

Another fantastic defensive effort.

“The defense will come along.”

27 minutes ago, sportsfan41 said:

2 of the highest scoring offenses in the country. If you tuned in expecting a lot of defense I'm not sure why. 

If this game was an outlier, maybe.  It isn't.  UK can't defend.  Five SEC games and given up 90+ in three of them.  100 or more in two.

1 minute ago, Randy Parker said:

If this game was an outlier, maybe.  It isn't.  UK can't defend.  Five SEC games and given up 90+ in three of them.  100 or more in two.

And I get it, Alabama is a great offensive team. But several buckets were layup level difficulty because of lapses, going under screens, and being out of position which put Alabama in the bonus five minutes into the second half. I thought UK was fortunate the game didn’t get away from them. Oweh and Butler willed them to keep it in striking distance. But there was no evidence UK could string together enough stops to complete the comeback.

Uk had their chances multiple times after getting a defensive stop and couldn’t score. I know we are all irked at the loss, mainly bc our brains think it’s UK these guys are way better than that, but they’re all 4-5th year senior transfers for a reason. They have a great coach and a never say attitude which is alot better than the last 4 years. Still making boneheaded mistakes, but we all thought they’d be worse off before the season started.

29 minutes ago, Breds82 said:

Uk had their chances multiple times after getting a defensive stop and couldn’t score. I know we are all irked at the loss, mainly bc our brains think it’s UK these guys are way better than that, but they’re all 4-5th year senior transfers for a reason. They have a great coach and a never say attitude which is alot better than the last 4 years. Still making boneheaded mistakes, but we all thought they’d be worse off before the season started.

Good point.  They have far exceeded expectations given the circumstances on how the team was built in such a short time frame.  There's still a good chance that this is a 10+ loss team in the regular season.  Honestly, in the SEC this year, they could lose 6-7 games and still be a top 10 type team.  

3 hours ago, Randy Parker said:

If this game was an outlier, maybe.  It isn't.  UK can't defend.  Five SEC games and given up 90+ in three of them.  100 or more in two.

That has as much to do with pace of play as it does defense. With the pace UK plays at there are going to be several more possessions and shots taken by both teams. They could walk it up, run clock, limit possesions and play games in the 60s and it would look like they were playing great defense.

 

The loss doesn't bother me at all, even at home. It was a 50/50 game at the end. Alabama has key players with experience who are more talented than UK's. The things that concern me for tournament time are getting stops at key times and rebounding. Too many second chances down the stretch for Bama. Other than that, they hit shots and UK didn't. Not to be a doomsayer, but today we saw how this season will likely end, probably in the elite 8. UK will face another experienced team that has more talent and will make the key plays at crunch time. And if that is how it ends, I will be very happy with Pope's first season considering the situation he inherited.

2 hours ago, Jumper_Dad said:

That has as much to do with pace of play as it does defense. With the pace UK plays at there are going to be several more possessions and shots taken by both teams. They could walk it up, run clock, limit possesions and play games in the 60s and it would look like they were playing great defense.

 

They are ranked 100th in defensive efficiency. 

4 minutes ago, Randy Parker said:

They are ranked 100th in defensive efficiency. 

They finished last year ranked 211th in that category. I'd say they're trending in the right direction. 

7 minutes ago, sportsfan41 said:

They finished last year ranked 211th in that category. I'd say they're trending in the right direction. 

I don't know what last year has to do with this year's team playing lousy defense.  

4 hours ago, Jumper_Dad said:

That has as much to do with pace of play as it does defense. With the pace UK plays at there are going to be several more possessions and shots taken by both teams. They could walk it up, run clock, limit possesions and play games in the 60s and it would look like they were playing great defense.

 

UK played at a fast pace last year and didn’t stop people from saying the defense sucks and should switch defenses. However, I definitely get what you are saying. With the pace of play, they are going to give up points. That is why I like looking at defensive efficiency rankings, and that isn’t good either as they are in the 100s. So defense is definitely an issue with this team up to this point. Now today Alabama is also a very good offensive team, so they are going to get theirs no matter if you have a good defense or not.