Kentucky 83 Oklahoma 82

[16thBBall Fan]

Final from Norman Oklahoma. The Cats get a huge game from Oweh in the win!

[DragonFire]

Thank goodness for Oweh!

[futurecoach]

Oweh said get on my back and I will lead you to the promise land!!! Huge win tonight!!!

Also you don’t want Garrison to do anything stupid and get a Technical called at the end. However, I really liked the fight I seen in Garrison tonight. Plus made huge block shots! This team is going to need more of that grittiness on defense by everyone all game moving forward. 
 

Also great play drawn up by Pope out of the last timeout that got UK the lead with 40 seconds to go. 
 

Now get Robinson healthy soon and let’s see what happens. 

[Breds82]

Thank goodness for Owen and just trash behavior by Garrison at the end. Could’ve cost them the game. As soon as he blocked the shot he went out of his way to get in the players face instead of celebrating with his own guys. Unacceptable 

[theguru]

Can't even shake hands, wow. 

I thought a foul should have been called on Kentucky on the last shot. 

[sportsfan41]

Garrisons biggest down fall right now is his maturity level. I get the feeling that it's not just what we see on the court but perhaps his overall approach to the team. 

As for the game, it was ugly but it was a needed win on the road. 

[Jumper_Dad]

35 minutes ago, theguru said:

Can't even shake hands, wow. 

I thought a foul should have been called on Kentucky on the last shot. 

Refs were inconsistent all night. Probably could have called one on Oweh's last shot as well.

[Jumper_Dad]

Fans threw stuff at UK players as they left the floor going to the tunnel.

Stay Classy OU!

 

 

[Voice of Reason]

More proof tonight that Pope is still in his UK honeymoon. No one screaming for zone defense. Last season it was an every game complaint. UK defense allows OU to shoot 53% from the floor and still gets the win.

[Jumper_Dad]

8 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

More proof tonight that Pope is still in his UK honeymoon. No one screaming for zone defense. Last season it was an every game complaint. UK defense allows OU to shoot 53% from the floor and still gets the win.

I think it's partly because fans trust Pope's decisions. They've played zone some, have definitely practiced it and it's available if Pope thinks it's what they need in a game. I think frustration with Cal was that he never played it, rarely practiced it and couldn't go to it when a game dictated that it should be played. 

[Voice of Reason]

Just now, Jumper_Dad said:

I think it's partly because fans trust Pope's decisions. They've played zone some, have definitely practiced it and it's available if Pope thinks it's what they need in a game. I think frustration with Cal was that he never played it, rarely practiced it and couldn't go to it when a game dictated that it should be played. 

I get all that, but the UK defense is bad and Pope has played virtually zero zone defense. Where are those posters who screamed for zone every game and trashed Cal for not playing it? I want to hear from them.

[sportsfan41]

6 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

I get all that, but the UK defense is bad and Pope has played virtually zero zone defense. Where are those posters who screamed for zone every game and trashed Cal for not playing it? I want to hear from them.

Probably sleeping because it was close to midnight on a Wednesday. 

[16thBBall Fan]

6 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

I want to hear from them.

I for have said it many times below is two comments from the Kentucky at Texas update thread.

I just looked at the shot chart on ESPN for the 2nd half of this one and they have hit 1 three pointer, and every other basket has been a layup or a shot in the lane 3 foot and in. You cannot win in this year's SEC doing that on defense!

Hey we went zone and got a turnover hopefully we will play it some more!

Back to this game this was one of the few games this year where Kentucky actually outscored a team in the paint. Also last night Oklahoma was shooting it pretty well from 3 (10-25) 40%. I get frustrated when teams that are not good 3 point shooting teams and shooting layup after layup and don't try some zone. I don't understand coaches they will go zone and a team hits a jumper and that's it no more zone, but they don't quit playing man when a team has a straight line drive and shoots a layup. lol

[okie1]

9 hours ago, Jumper_Dad said:

I think it's partly because fans trust Pope's decisions. They've played zone some, have definitely practiced it and it's available if Pope thinks it's what they need in a game. I think frustration with Cal was that he never played it, rarely practiced it and couldn't go to it when a game dictated that it should be played. 

Which gets you the "we can play 5 different defenses, but we are no good at any of them teams."

Like it or not, Cal had lots of Roster turnover and chose to stick to one philosophy and get as good at is as possible.  The fans who screamed for zone probably had not ever coached or played basketball past little league (maybe middle school) where kids can't hit open shots and zone defenses are great!

[futurecoach]

9 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

More proof tonight that Pope is still in his UK honeymoon. No one screaming for zone defense. Last season it was an every game complaint. UK defense allows OU to shoot 53% from the floor and still gets the win.

Agreed. No doubt Pope is still in the honeymoon period. As bad as the defense has been this year, I figured more people would be screaming maybe you should try to go zone more often. Or even screaming that Pope must not be teaching them how to deal with pick and rolls correctly, or how to handle screens, how to box out, play with consistent effort, etc. 

Some people have eventually acknowledged that this defense is bad, however no one seems to really nitpick Pope like they did the previous coach, in that regard.  They just say the defense is bad.  All areas that this team has struggled with defensively, people would have put all on the coach in years past. However have been very quiet this year in regards to nitpicking everything and putting anything that goes wrong on the coach like years past. 
 

Offensively Pope has been great as the offense has been pretty consistent all year even with injuries. Pope has been great with out of timeout calls too. Defensively, rebounding, and even effort at times have not been great under Pope though.