Final. An ugly game all around. Hopefully there will be a different starting lineup on Wednesday at Rupp vs. Missouri.
 

 

Kind of went how most of us thought it would… being handled. And we are not talking some kind of juggernaut opponent. 

It is very simple for UK. The more minutes they get out of Lowe and Quaintance, the better they are. Still a work in progress because of those injury challenges and the rest players are all flawed. 

Just now, Voice of Reason said:

It is very simple for UK. The more minutes they get out of Lowe and Quaintance, the better they are. Still a work in progress because of those injury challenges and the rest players are all flawed. 

I add Oweh to that list. 

As I see it now, when we get to March the UK 5 that need to be on the floor the last 4 minutes of a close game are Lowe, Oweh, Aberdeen, Quaintance and Moreno. 

It’s very concerning now that in both years under Pope. Uk has a tendency to get down double digits pretty consistently any time they play a good team. I’m not sure what the issue is, but it has now happened a lot in both years under Pope.  They can’t always put themselves in such a hole. Last year luckily they came back to win a couple of those games, so it was kind of overlooked. 

Ugh.

Agree with most on still a work in progress but I’m giving Bama a bunch of credit for their shooting and pace of play, would have been very difficult for most teams to keep up today.

Always tough on the road in college basketball both Louisville and Kentucky found that out this weekend.

42 minutes ago, nikeman49 said:

Agree with most on still a work in progress but I’m giving Bama a bunch of credit for their shooting and pace of play, would have been very difficult for most teams to keep up today.

I give it up for how The Tide shot the ball, but that has been reoccurring pattern for the last several years, and only one common denominator.

1 hour ago, futurecoach said:

It’s very concerning now that in both years under Pope. Uk has a tendency to get down double digits pretty consistently any time they play a good team. I’m not sure what the issue is, but it has now happened a lot in both years under Pope.  They can’t always put themselves in such a hole. Last year luckily they came back to win a couple of those games, so it was kind of overlooked. 

Correct. This is the law of averages catching up with UK. They probably collected three wins more than they should have last season. As I said last season, consistently getting down by double-digits is a long term bad indicator.

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And not to go full doom and gloom, but what has been bad this season is not the amount of games they’ve lost, it’s that in all but one loss UK has gotten worked. Including a 35 point drubbing at home. Not like these games are coming down to the final minutes.

1 hour ago, nikeman49 said:

Agree with most on still a work in progress but I’m giving Bama a bunch of credit for their shooting and pace of play, would have been very difficult for most teams to keep up today.

The problem is and been a consistent problem for two years now. Is the lack of much contesting or making the shots tough. As a lot of the threes today were straight up good looks, which makes it even easier to make. Which if you let teams get in a rhythm, then they also make the few tough contested shots too. The defense struggled guarding Bellarmine the last game too. Essentially unless UK plays a bad shooting team like St. John’s was, who misses the open shots. Then they struggle to keep teams from scoring much. Which now it’s been two totally different teams player wise, but yes same issues now both year with Pope, and that is the concerning part. 

16 minutes ago, bugatti said:

Correct. This is the law of averages catching up with UK. They probably collected three wins more than they should have last season. As I said last season, consistently getting down by double-digits is a long term bad indicator.

——

And not to go full doom and gloom, but what has been bad this season is not the amount of games they’ve lost, it’s that in all but one loss UK has gotten worked. Including a 35 point drubbing at home. Not like these games are coming down to the final minutes.

This! As VOR mentioned, obviously should be a little better once they continue to get Lowe and JQ on the floor more. However, the issues we have seen have now been pretty consistent for two years now no matter what players are playing. 

21 minutes ago, DragonFire said:

I like Oats a ton but this was obvious to the layman. Nobody watched this team in November and December and said, “wow they really pass it well to get good looks.”