Louisville missed 7 of 8 free throws on consecutive possessions and Kentucky didn't gain a single point on them.

53 minutes ago, GBR said:

I hate to say it, but this was true in last night’s game. Oweh and Lowe showed no “dawg” in them when the game was on the line. The Louisville guards did. 

It has looked like Oweh has been on cruise control so far this season. I'm not sure if he's just trying to let this team develop or what, but he's not been the same as he was in February and March of last year. Lowe has played what, 20 or 30 something minutes total in 3 regular season games and 2 exhibition games. I expect both to be ok but Lowe still coming back from injury, isn't 100% right now. 

5 hours ago, Kentucky Windage said:

This game will play out much differently come March... 

How so?

1 hour ago, Jumper_Dad said:

I know UK missed some free throws down the stretch, but if the Cards hadn't gone cold from the line late it wouldn't have mattered. I'm sure Louisville fans were just as upset with their free throws in the last several minutes.

This.

1 hour ago, TribeTime said:

Louisville missed 7 of 8 free throws on consecutive possessions and Kentucky didn't gain a single point on them.

The sad part is, I believe UK only got off one shot in that span. And it was not like UL was forcing shot clock violations. 

No need for Cat fans to hit the panic button, Ville played as good as they will play all year and the outcome was decided in the last three minutes.

11 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

They definitely do not have better guards. 

Didn’t have better guards last night but let’s see how the guard play works out throughout the season and we will reopen the topic.

It's early, so I'm not going to get too worked up. But, had UL gone .500 from the FT line down the stretch, they would have dropped 100 points. Last season UK was statistically one of the worst defenses in the country (315 out of 364 for PPG), but was told to hold out hope until Pope could bring in his own team... whatever that means in the NIL era. The early reviews are not good, but again, it's early. 

And I realize some of that is the pace of play for defensive PPG, but there were a TON of lapses leading to wide open shots for the Cards.

15 minutes ago, nikeman49 said:

Didn’t have better guards last night but let’s see how the guard play works out throughout the season and we will reopen the topic.

Sure. 

Louisville has the best guard and it's not remotely close. Beyond Brown, I'd imagine it will be up to the individual to determine who they think is better, but position by position, it will be tough for UK's guards to consistently out-play Louisville's, IMO. 

Besides, a head-to-head is the best measuring stick most of the time. There are always exceptions to the rule, though. 

The team with the best player won.  Brown was unreal last night, wow!  

2 minutes ago, bugatti said:

And I realize some of that is the pace of play for defensive PPG, but there were a TON of lapses leading to wide open shots for the Cards.

Some of that is on UK, of course. But that's exactly what Louisville does. They move you around to get open looks and they almost always will have at least three guys on the court who can knock it down. 

3 minutes ago, bugatti said:

It's early, so I'm not going to get too worked up. But, had UL gone .500 from the FT line down the stretch, they would have dropped 100 points. Last season UK was statistically one of the worst defenses in the country (315 out of 364), but was told to hold out hope until Pope could bring in his own team... whatever that means in the NIL era. The early reviews are not good, but again, it's early. 

Agree with this, as defense definitely is still a big concern after last night. With that said, they are a lot more athletic this year. So I do believe that they will be better on defense this year, especially as the year moves on and he settles into rotations. 

32 minutes ago, nikeman49 said:

No need for Cat fans to hit the panic button, Ville played as good as they will play all year and the outcome was decided in the last three minutes.

They've already played two games better than last night, LOL. 

They also got two minutes and zero production from probably our best front court player. 

37 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

Some of that is on UK, of course. But that's exactly what Louisville does. They move you around to get open looks and they almost always will have at least three guys on the court who can knock it down. 

Kentucky fans have to realize that it isn't a zero sum game. Both teams can be very good, possibly even championship contenders. I think Kentucky will get better on defense, but so will Louisville on offense. And vise versa. This notion that only Kentucky can be good and Louisville must be bad was true for a handful of Kenny Payne years, but for most of the last four decades it hasn't been the case and it isn't the case this year.

1 minute ago, gchs_uk9 said:

Kentucky fans have to realize that it isn't a zero sum game. Both teams can be very good, possibly even championship contenders. I think Kentucky will get better on defense, but so will Louisville on offense. And vise versa. This notion that only Kentucky can be good and Louisville must be bad was true for a handful of Kenny Payne years, but for most of the last four decades it hasn't been the case and it isn't the case this year.

A co-worker this morning said "I don't know what happened to UK."

My response was simple: "Louisville is good."