bugatti

That would be about right. A few years later he ended up on UK's bench.

Maybe.... I would like to see it. The grind of college seems so much worse for me than the NBA. The college game is cratering with diminishing prestige for coaches. It ain't the same college landscape he was once coaching in.

It's crazy, but Billy Donovan has been in our lives as a coach now for 30 years (going back to Marshall) and he is still just 58. 10 years have been in the NBA. Normally, once these guys get out of the college coaching game and in the NBA mix, they remain there. Given the hand he has been dealt, he has proven to be a solid NBA coach.

Players make boneheaded plays when the action is tight. The clock in their head moves faster and they sometimes lose their minds. Chris Weber, Bill Buckner, Dak Prescott in the playoffs, etc.

I'm fine with it as long as UT is not playing at home. Then it's obnoxious.

Yep. UT losing gave UK an outside shot of still winning the SEC regular season title, but Auburn losing was more advantagous from a double-bye standpoint.

He is horrendous on defense. A match made in heaven!

The Hump seems like a dump, but also a cool venue to play a game.

He had another one early on. He was near the top of the key and tried to hit Reeves in the corner. Only problem is there were two guys within five feet of Reeves and it was easily intercepted... my only guess is he thought those were holograms of Mississippi State players. The good part about Sheppard is he has a knack for making up for his mistakes almost instantaneously.

Fair. But my point remains. No matter the starting lineups (offensively dynamic or not), it has looked rough. And to zag with all this, I do not see UK's slow starts having to do with a lack of offensive firepower. It is because they can't guard a cardboard cutout of their opponents. The problem is not who starts in the backcourt, it is the Center position being downright putrid in most games at deterring any action toward the rim and getting pushed off the block which leads to putbacks, layups, or open jumpers. Last night being a great example.

Again, when Sheppard was starting they were still coming out as dysfunctional and a lot of those losses are with him starting. I also think the "starting poorly without Sheppard" is a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. If they start well, it is not exactly the first thing people come on here praising.

Does anyone put up a quieter 20+ ppg consistently more than Reeves?

One game to mess with everyone I hope Calipari starts Sheppard, plays him the first 38 minutes, and has him sit to finish the game.

UK's worst stretch. On balance, DJ was not there to back up Sheppard.

It was obvious from day one that the players Calipari likes/trusts most are Sheppard and Reeves. They will be playing the bulk of the minutes and in the ball game when it matters most. There are hundreds of examples of this throughout basketball history. I'm thinking of Bruce Brown for the Nuggets last year. Manu Ginobili his entire career. Mike Dunleavy at Duke. Hell, the "original sixth man" Frank Ramsey (UK grad) made a HOF career of it. And so on. People view starting as a status symbol. And in fairness, it is to a degree. In this case, the decision not to start Sheppard is strictly about chemistry and messing up juju. No different than the guy who must put on a certain sock before the other or his entire day is ruined. The irony in it all is that the first person to say they do not start would probably be Reed Sheppard.

Obviously, Reed Sheppard. But hats off for the continual in game adjustments. UK always seemed one step ahead of the Bulldogs tonight. All credit goes to the players for that and of course to Calipari for properly rolling out the ball.

And to paint the full picture, that was against Alaska-Anchorage. This was against one of the better defenses in the country.

No, the fans or the home team deserve 100% of the blame. Again, if we have to go through this much of a process to protect players in their safe space just to allow "kids to be kids," the formula is all wrong.

Not sure you are correct with most of this; it at least is not an absolute. Some schools have outside management companies, but smaller (most) schools may not. At Murray State you have students handling many of these responsibilities. There have been a lot more than two injury cases. There have just been two higher-profile players in the last couple of weeks. Heck, a student died during a field storming after a football game years back at a smaller school up in Minnesota.

Sheppard has 19 steals in the last 4 games, 26 over the last 6. He is creeping towards averaging 3 a game which is big-time elite.

You are correct. You also see this with rebounds now when a player makes a controlled tip-over to another player, they give the rebound to the player tipping the ball.

I do not disagree, but it is silly we have to go through this much work to protect players on the field/court of play.

This is fine for big schools, but those without large endowment funds get hit on the equity front.

Keep in mind many court stormings are spontaneous, say on a buzzer beater. PA announcers have made announcements before, but asking someone to make this announcement when the team is down in the closing seconds is a bit presumptuous. Again, make it a forfeit and I guarantee it’ll be a point of emphasis for universities.

A great win, but I am not getting too excited. UK was making everything. If they shoot like they did yesterday, UK will be cutting down the nets (unlikely). The pessimist in me knows the correction game is coming. The optimist in me is saying this was the correction game from LSU. 😄 This was a perfect match-up against a non-physical team. When UK is allowed to run unimpeded, they are tough to stop.