Also from the Tennessee loss thread

 

And that is this team's Achilles heel. Force the Cats to shoot from outside. When they don't fall in March, the Cats fall.

Too many posts to read through to see if it was already mentioned or not, but did anyone else see Flowers and Butler of West Va doing the "John Wall Dance' after the game on the scorers' table and then on the podium when accepting the East Region Championship trophy?

 

Salt in the wound for some UK fans and players, IMO.

You reap what you sow. It's not the first time it's happened in sports.

John Wall is a tremendous example. Dang, I wish we could pay him to stay.

 

While he is a great offensive player, he is not a good defensive player and was part of the defensive play of UK tonight. He was horrible on defense and it contributed to good shots for WVU too many times.

 

To be a great player, he has to play on both ends of the floor and he does not. Hopefully, that will be learned next year as the #1 pick in the draft.

Too many posts to read through to see if it was already mentioned or not, but did anyone else see Flowers and Butler of West Va doing the "John Wall Dance' after the game on the scorers' table and then on the podium when accepting the East Region Championship trophy?

 

Salt in the wound for some UK fans and players, IMO.

 

It was mentioned. No big deal as you had to know it was coming if they lost. Been shown on TV too many times for a team not to ride them about it.

I only made Scribe's list one time. At least I'm not the worst whiner. :lol:

Disappointing loss,nothing we can do about it now, need to move on as I have.

Lets Go Reds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell me that the refs didn't play an outcome in this game??? What game did you watch? Big Cuz got murdered everytime he touched the ball. Liggins's tech was a joke! It was a bad officiated game all together. I think it is a shame that refs on all levels don't have to answer questions or be contested. But they definitely decide the outcome of the game. Just look at Big Cuz!

 

The refs were horrible both ways...plain and simple. If I recall correctly, UK actually shot more free throws than West Va (29 to 17) so don't try to pull the "refs affected the game" card. West Va had several questionable calls against them too brother.

 

The difference was that West Va's more EXPERIENCED players made their free throws and UK's INEXPERIENCED players didn't make theirs.

 

Let's also not leave out the fact that UK out-rebounded West Va by 16 (47-31).

 

I've seen some posts on here making this excuse or that excuse for why UK lost and that UK was the better team. Uk may have had better TALENT, but if you think they had a better TEAM than West Va, you obviously haven't seen them much this year. West Virginia is an extremely talented AND experienced team that brings swagger and toughness to the table with players like Jones, Butler, Mazzulo, Smith, and Ebanks to name a few.

 

Both Cal and Huggy Bear described this team best when they referred back to some of Denny Crum's teams from the 80's. Look at West Va's lineup: 6'2 Mazzullo, 6'7 Butler, 6'7 Smith, 6'7 Flowers, 6'8 Jones, 6'9 Ebanks.

 

You want to point out why West Va won last night, point directly to their defense because they flat out got after it in that 1-3-1 and contested nearly everything UK put up. What makes West Va so good defensively is that all of their big guys are athletic enough to switch and guard anyone on the floor. That's why UK's quickness and ability to get to the rim wasn't much of a factor...which forced them to continually settle for 3's.

 

First half, WV outside shooting kept them in it, but second half they were simply tougher than UK and it showed as they continually got inside for lay ups.

 

Lastly, let's not forget that "Truck" Bryant didn't even play in this game which affected their depth.

 

UK lost to a very good team last night that IMO should've been a 1 seed over both Syracuse and Duke.

Contested everything UK put up? The Cats missed 12-15 WIDE open three pointers. It's rare to see high school teams shoot that bad. Obviously a good strategy by them though.

Contested everything UK put up? The Cats missed 12-15 WIDE open three pointers. It's rare to see high school teams shoot that bad. Obviously a good strategy by them though.

That's what I was thinking. Most of the missed 3 pointers were wide open shots. It's like Cal said, you don't have to make them all but you have to make a few of them. If Kentucky makes 7 of 32 from behind the arc (22%), which isn't asking too much:rolleyes:, they win this game. Or they could have made more free throws. They were definitely wide open on those shots.

 

UK did more to lose this game than WV did to win it. They beat themselves. But after having a night and today to reflect on it, I see this season as a tribute to some amazing talent that got a lot of milage from such a young group of players. They were fun to watch, and 35-3 is an unbelievable record. But their youth and inexperience finally caught up with them.

Good luck to Huggs in the final four!:thumb:

 

I agree! I hope Huggs wins it all. To come in aginst the CATS ( loaded with all th NBA talent) and out play and out coach Cal again was impressive. It was a great year for the cats but once again Cal was out coached by Huggs. At least cal brought the cats back and hopefully next year they will be ok. Now who will be back ?

First off once a UK fan always a UK fan, no matter what. Alot of people joined on the bandwagon this season but I have always been a UK fan. What a heck of a run by this team this season. From NIT last season to Elite 8. I respect the players decisions if they want to go to the NBA draft because they gave UK fans 110% and played their heart out. I wanna thank Krebs, Harris, and Stevenson for everything. 35-3 SEC Regular Season and SEC Tourny Champs.

 

 

PS-It's crazy how many bandwagon WV fans there now are on here.

PS-It's crazy how many bandwagon WV fans there now are on here.

 

You had better believe I'm not one of them. There are just some teams or coaches you don't cheer for: Memphis, Cincinnati, and West Virginia are at the top of that list as far as I'm concerned. Granted, UK is also among them. Interesting that Bobby Huggins and John Calipari tie a couple of those pairs together. Certainly dealing with Sophie's Choice last night... :lol:

I sure don't feel like reading through everything that's been posted about this game. I never thought this UK team was unbeatable, but I did think they were the best and most talented team in college basketball, and I really thought this was UK's year.

 

But, I'd say 4-5 minutes into the second half, that realization that it was just one of those nights hit. I'm not surprised that WVU won. But, the way the game played out was unexpected to say the least.

 

Regardless, this was a heck of a season. This team was fun, entertaining and great. The eventual champion almost always needs some luck at some point during their tournament run and it just wasn't meant to be for this squad.

 

This was a great season. UK was a serious threat to win a title for the first time in a few years and they've laid the foundation for (hopefully) a run of great seasons and title contenders.

 

It's sad that ended with a loss, but it sure was a lot of fun watching John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, and the rest. This team is probably my favorite of the UK teams I've seen in my lifetime.

That's what I was thinking. Most of the missed 3 pointers were wide open shots. It's like Cal said, you don't have to make them all but you have to make a few of them. If Kentucky makes 7 of 32 from behind the arc (22%), which isn't asking too much:rolleyes:, they win this game. Or they could have made more free throws. They were definitely wide open on those shots.

 

UK did more to lose this game than WV did to win it. They beat themselves. But after having a night and today to reflect on it, I see this season as a tribute to some amazing talent that got a lot of milage from such a young group of players. They were fun to watch, and 35-3 is an unbelievable record. But their youth and inexperience finally caught up with them.

 

I think that UK's poor defense for much of the second half was the main reason for the loss. Some of their defensive lapses were mind boggling during one stretch in the second half. I'm not sure what caused it, but it was the worse defense they have played since early in the season.