Sitting Jones with 2 fouls for that long in the 1st half was something I question. He is your horse, and you sit him from the 9 min. mark? At that juncture, he MUST stay in the game. Thought his second foul was a nickel-dimer, but Cal has to know if Jones is out, UK is out. That is exactly what happened. Some coaches sit guys with 2 and some sit them with 3. With this team, Jones cannot go out with 2 in any game. Jones must learn how to play smart and change his game when he gets 2 fouls. We win this game tonight with Kanter. Looking forward to the appeal results next week.

 

Kemba Walker looked liked he was still upset about getting "undressed" by Wall last year.

This loss didn't shock me. Even with the Huskies not being in the top 25, everyone should know by now that Calhoun is one of the best coaches out there and that his teams are going to be tough. This is a very early part of the season and things should be better for UK and I don't see any trouble for them in SEC play.

Miller hardly ever touched the ball in the first part of the game. Liggins and Knight were forcing shots every time down. Miller never had much of a chance to score. You're not going to win forcing half the shots you take.

UK looked extremely slow getting back on defense. I think this year's SEC teams could give them some problems in that area.

No excuses here I am proud of the team 3-1 on that trip :thumb:. 3 games in 3 days . Beat a very good Washington team ,looked tired last night . Yes I know U Conn played 3 in 3 days also but there bench is deeper . I believe we need to get more minutes out of Hood and/or Poole , Still gonna be a fun year watching Jones and CO. Like I said earlier this team will be good come March when every one figures out their roles and if just if we do get Enes :scared:,Uk will be in the elite . This is my opinion . On the bright side am I the only one who thinks Vargas looked better last night ,he may be our best free throw shooter:idunno:

UK looked extremely slow getting back on defense. I think this year's SEC teams could give them some problems in that area.

 

I thought the same thing. But how much of that might be fatigue from playing a three-game, three-day tournament with basically no bench? That's a scenario that won't happen until the SEC tournament. I do think this team isn't nearly as quick as last year. Hopefully they'll learn to get back on the defensive end a little better in the coming weeks.

With the lack of depth, Coach Cal may want to rethink the benching of a key player with two fouls for 1st half.

Young teams produce stinker games every once in a while and that was one. Problem is the stinker games usually comes on the biggest stages like the NCAA game last year and the finals this year in Maui. UCONN attacked the basket aggressively and seemed to get alot of fouls called on UK. I believe we need to go to Vargas a little more. He looked impressive. I agree with an above post. I don't see how Coach Cal would let them close the half on a 21-2 run with Jones on the bench. That was the game.

First of all the obvious, we got our butts kicked in every way a team could. U.K.'s defense is not good and it was really exposed by a very well coached UConn team with one superstar in Walker that just dominated U.K. like he did the entire tourney. Kudos to UConn, they are a young team that are very well coached.

U.K.'s defense was not getting back on the break at all or communicating on the half court sets. UConn's Walker just dominated like he did the entire tourney. Both teams were young, UConn was just playing imo more team/well coached basketball tham we were.

I do think that Cal was outcoached last night but I am not bashing at all and this loss really doesn't bother me all that much at this point in the season. U.K. should have played better but didn't so this one is over, learn from it and get better.

 

GO BIG BLUE !!!

Sitting Jones with 2 fouls for that long in the 1st half was something I question. He is your horse, and you sit him from the 9 min. mark? At that juncture, he MUST stay in the game. Thought his second foul was a nickel-dimer, but Cal has to know if Jones is out, UK is out. That is exactly what happened. Some coaches sit guys with 2 and some sit them with 3. With this team, Jones cannot go out with 2 in any game. Jones must learn how to play smart and change his game when he gets 2 fouls. We win this game tonight with Kanter. Looking forward to the appeal results next week.

 

Kemba Walker looked liked he was still upset about getting "undressed" by Wall last year.

 

You mean the same way Walker continually "undressed" any UK guard that tried to defend him last night?

I failed to mention our lacking on inside/post defense. U.K., when faced playing someone with a dominate big man/inside game is going to be hurting. U.K. cannot sit back and wait on Kanter to be ruled eligible bc imo that is just not going to happen. I hope it does and that would be great but the inside/post defense is going to have to be addressed regardless.

You mean the same way Walker continually "undressed" any UK guard that tried to defend him last night?

 

Exactly!

You take as many bad shots like they did last night, it will trigger transition offense going the other way.

i thought they did a pretty good job in transition defense versus Washington.

Its still November and you have a young team, going to be more ups and downs.

I thought there was a real possibility of two losses on the Islands.

I thought the same thing. But how much of that might be fatigue from playing a three-game, three-day tournament with basically no bench? That's a scenario that won't happen until the SEC tournament. I do think this team isn't nearly as quick as last year. Hopefully they'll learn to get back on the defensive end a little better in the coming weeks.

 

That played a role, IMO. Plus, the announcers, Raftery I think, commented that transition defense was one of the toughest things to for young players to learn. I've been impressed with this UK team to this point in the season and I'm with LABS. I'll take the results to this point in the season. Considering Knight had a terrible game and we had to play the last 8-9 minutes of the first half without Jones, I'm not surprised by the result. I thought the second foul on Jones was a bad call. Once he went to the bench, I was just hoping we could go the half within 10 or so. UK played relatively even with UConn other than the period when he sat with 2 fouls.

 

Here's one thing I think...Calipari may need to re-think his strategy of sitting anyone with 2 fouls until the second half. Against a good team, I'm not sure this UK team can survive an extended period with Jones on the bench, especially when Knight is a non-factor. Come tournament time, I wonder if he'll stick with that strategy should this situation arise again.

 

All in all, this UK team plays hard, they don't seem selfish to me, they compete defensively, I've been impressed with them thus far and the best part is I see plenty of room for improvement, especially offensively. I like this team.

 

Kemba Walker and Terrence Jones are the two best college basketball players I've seen this season.

Its November!