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Cal "It never entered my mind that we were going to lose"

I certainly agree with much of that, but I don't think that, at least for many, it's shock that we lost as much as its that once we got ahead by 4, we quit playing to win...with 5 minutes still to play in the game.

It was a difficult situation.

When your up big, you limit possessions so the other team basically has no chance of coming back. Cal has won a ton of games by doing this and while people hate it, it's the correct strategy.

Where he went wrong was he went to it too soon IMO. Then again he says they weren't trying to play stall ball so maybe we give a bit more credit to Wisconsin's defense on those possessions.
 
I did question the strategy in the Wisconsin game...but only because our guys forgot how to drive and shoot the ball. I'm not sure how Andrew missed the first one so badly as I have seen him at least hit rim or make those types of shots in 2 years...and then Aaron got fouled/and could have forced the refs to call a shooting foul by violently jumping into the guy as he was on him, and did not do it and threw up a bad shot...and then Karl shot way too far out on his shot. Regardless, Cal should have called a TO after the 2nd possession to calm us down and set up the best play possible. The guys were randomly panicking and Cal should have calmed them down. It kept snowballing for the team.

The one thing that bothers me about the shot clock violation no call is that could have been a huge momentum shift in UK's way. That would have pumped our guys up going onto offense that they made a huge stop, and maybe Towns hits a hook shot or whoever scores and UK is up 4-5 points with 90 seconds left and looking pretty decent to win it. The 3 straight shot clock violations lost the game, but the bad ref call was the final nail in the coffin to me. That does not even include the dog crap call on UK with 20-ish seconds left when we stopped Kaminsky and had the rebound and they made up a foul to rob UK a shot to win the game.
 
It was a difficult situation.

When your up big, you limit possessions so the other team basically has no chance of coming back. Cal has won a ton of games by doing this and while people hate it, it's the correct strategy.

Where he went wrong was he went to it too soon IMO. Then again he says they weren't trying to play stall ball so maybe we give a bit more credit to Wisconsin's defense on those possessions.

I agree with you again. But a 4 point lead, at least to me, might be considered big with maybe under 20 seconds to go if we have the ball...but certainly not with 5 minutes remaining.
 
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Brother, I agree he had a strategy and I didn't like it.

If you still to this day do not know why he made the 2010 comment I can't help you.

It's not up to me, and Cal says it's not up to him, to make the draft call for these kids and their futures.

I thought Booker for sure should have stayed, but then again I think Lyles could improve his spot as well by staying. The twins and Dakari may simply be what they are and might as well go for the money now.
Oh I know exactly why he said it and for the most part it has worked with recruiting, but are you telling me that it has hurt Alex , Willie and several guys of the past to stay, get their degrees and be prepared for the future after bb...Maturity is a wonderful thing especially if some of the people you have advising you are only in it for one thing and aren't much more mature than you...We shall see
 
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Oh I know exactly why he said it and for the most part it has worked with recruiting, but are you telling me that it has hurt Alex , Willie and several guys of the past to stay, get their degrees and be prepared for the future after bb...Maturity is a wonderful thing especially if some of the people you have advising you are only in it for one thing and aren't much more mature than you...We shall see

I don't disagree, some of these decisions are beyond me. Of course I thought Teague, Lamb and more should have stayed.

I was kind of shocked Archie and James Young went as high as they did, as both lacked some real fundamentals.

WTH do I know though? You are correct, we will see.
 
That same poor coaching got them to that point, a championship and the other final 4's. No one knows how the game would turn out if something was done different. Change that and still loose and you will still find something to troll about.


If there is a troll in this thread, it is you!!
 
I knew it was over when they gave them the tying basket after the shot clock expired. Those types of incidents are so detrimental to your psyche as a player. Basketball is more mental than anything so in a span of less than a minute we had..

- Shot clock expire where a basket was allowed to count against us to tie it
- Wisconsin hits a three to go up 3 instead of up 1
- Wisconsin flops under the basket which instead of making it a possible tie game or at worst a 1 point deficit, they have the ball going the other way with a 3 pt lead

That one minute lost it. If the shot clock missed call doesn't happen, the entire remaining part of the game changes. EVERYTHING CHANGES.
 
We didnt play with a sense of urgency. Either Cal and the coaching staff blew it or we had players who wouldnt listen to the coaches. It was a half ass effort from the start and no way in hell Im going to believe that Wisconsin was the better team or Bo Ryan a better coach. After the WVU game, it was as if this team thought it would coast. You would think the ND game would have served as a wake up instead of a spill over. I had a bad feeling we were going to lose and their was nothing I could do about it.

I felt powerless like Robert DeNiro in the movie "Goodfellas" when he found out Joe Pesci got whacked. I wanted to cry and break shit while a narrator said "and there was nothing we could do about it except take it".
 
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That's why after 2 consecutive shot clock violations you call timeout and say , dammit guys we're getting a good shot this time . LIKE I WAS SCREAMING FOR HIM TO DO ! We needed 1 more basket, just one more. Draw up a damn play , other coaches do it all the time .

I haven't seen it since that night, but I am pretty sure that of the 3 possessions late where we got a shot clock violation, we didn't go without a shot at all. I believe on one of them we got multiple offensive rebounds but ended up with the violation at the end of it.
 
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If he really was that cocky then I am speechless; that is a mindset that a fan at home should have, not a coach at the University of Kentucky in the biggest basketball game of the year to date. I guess we now know why he used zero strategy down the stretch, he never thought we could lose. Call me a bad fan and troll all you want, but that pisses me off because that game is still weighing on my heart. It will always haunt me, but Cal's season is still not over, not until after the draft; so oh well. NO championship and seven drafteees, bravo! Hoooray!

I'm with you
 
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If Cal learned something about this shot clock management BS then we will be better for it in the long run...Wisky was on the ropes ready to be knocked out , but he let them off and it bit him and the team in the butt...Hopefully he junks this philosophy until you are far enough ahead that you can afford a couple of mistakes and run out the clock...This was a Dean Smith ploy except it was a with a shot clock...:(
It doesn't take a Monday morning quarterback to know that a 4 point lead with 5 minutes to go in a Final Four game is nothing.
Nor does it take one to know you don't basically go into a stall in such a situation.
Most who even an elementary understanding of the game can tell you that...while the game is going on.

Sounds like you may need to watch a little more basketball.
He is also quoted in the article as saying he thought the game was over when we got up by 4 with 5 minutes to go...
Absolutely mind boggling....he certainly coached like he thought it was over.
yes...just as the OP stated.
So 3rex, since Cal does not have the elementary skills to coach basketball; who should be coaching UK?
Coach K ain't leaving Duke. He has had some HUGE flameouts in the NCAAT (well then, I guess he sucks also).
Rick would never have been in position to make a run at 40-0
Izzo...hahaha
Really, who do you want here? Which coach never makes a mistake, gets every recruit and wins every game? Jesus ain't walkin' through that door.
 
Who said we needed a perfect coach or one that would never lose? No one that I've seen.

Your straw man argument has nothing to do with this one game & the decisions made in the last 5 minutes?
 
I thought at the half Wisconsin couldn't win the game but UK could lose it and by god they did. Calipari will relive the last 5 minutes for ages, it was most disappointing.
 
We lost. Quit replaying it in your minds. If you want to do that then there are probably several scenarios where Notre Dame should have won. There are definitely scenarios where we would have/should have lost to Wichita State, Louisville, Michigan and Wisconsin last year. Or Ohio State or North Carolina in 2011. Cal let the players decide all of those games and they did. That's what he meant by his comments. All of those games came down to the last minute. All of them. And we had the more confident players on the floor BECAUSE of the way Cal coaches. Andrew Harrison kept us in the game at the beginning. Wisconsin backed off of him down the stretch and he didn't know what to do. That decided the game.

Tip your hat to a future Hall of Fame coach in Bo Ryan. And seven really good and smart players on their team. They beat us, fair and square. Same way we beat superior Wichita State and Ohio State teams. And Duke didn't beat Wisconsin because K is a better coach than Cal. Duke beat Wisconsin because K gets a lot more calls than Cal does. Wisconsin had a lot more to bitch about against Duke than we did against Wisconsin.
 
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I have said since that night that I couldn't believe we weren't attacking when we HD them down. That's how we played all season, I have no idea why they seemingly called the dogs off. I don't know why he felt that game was in the bag with a 4 point lead over a team that was 35-3, who led us most of the game. They got complacent, it bit us in the ass And it sucks because we should have won that game and we would have beat duke. This year will always be the worst "one that got away" to me. WVU was bad, but we weren't leading with a chance to out the game away and we weren't undefeated, uconn 2011 and 2014 were also bad, but of the Cal era, nothing has topped loosing in that situation. We can appreciate that fantastic season and making the final 4, but any uk fan that dosent feel this to be terribly bittersweet is lying
 
Bittersweet was having great players and being ranked top three almost every year but losing to Duke at home, UAB, and Middle Tennessee in consecutive years. Then losing to Louisville the next year and Georgetown the year after that despite double digit leads in both games.

I had a feeling we weren't going to make it to the finish line. Just a bad gut feeling that we were like the leading car at Daytona, a sitting duck without any help or momentum. It's so hard to improve without losing. Duke, like UConn last year, lost in its conference tournament. That's a fresh reminder of how bad losing feels.
 
I think we were a 3 point favorite in this game. I think it was around 60/40 we'd win. I'm not so sure why it would be a "shock" to anyone we lost.

Of course this is right. This wasn't NC State/Houston, and I think everyone knows that. Everyone is just really disappointed to lose, and the way most people deal with disappointment is to moan and blame. Then you got the other guy in this thread, who most likely was pleased UK lost as it means a whole summer of being able to complain about Cal.....
 
By the way, I've watched the Notre Dame and Wisconsin games several times by now. Let me say that if people are going to bitch publicly, I'd much rather they point a finger at the coach making $5 million a year or whatever, even if I think it's misguided. But there was one kid who really played fairly poorly in both those games, and I'm not talking about Willie. Willie disappeared, but worse than no plays at all are negative plays....
 
ESPN just showed their top 10 games in March. UK-Notre Dame was number one.
 
All big losses hurt. Hell last year against UCONN hurt. It was a great run, but felt like we had the better team and should have won once we made it to the final. That said, Cal has had UK in a position 4x in his first 6 years to be within one or two wins of a championship. winning it all is hard, even if you do have the best team.

Btw, I'm not sure how old you are, but Rupp, the best coach in UK history didn't win a title in his last 19 seasons here. And he didn't have to replace his team every year. I bet you would have been calling for his head about 2 years into that stretch.

And as another poster said, it's not your take on the coaching or lack of strategy that is annoying. It's the fact you throw in the jabs about the draft and players leaving that makes you sound a bit over the top.
Listen, I understand that going to four final fours has been great, Cal has certainly done many great things here and anyone who denies that would be crazy. However, when looking at the talent that has been here during his tenure, only having one title is a little disappointing to me. Would I be calling for Rupps head? No, that would be crazy! Am I calling for Cal's head? Nope! I am thirty so I never watched a live game coached by Rupp, so it is hard for me to compare him and Cal. Cal is perfect for this job, I only wished that he would change a few of his approaches; if that makes me a bad fan or whatever then so be it. I am sorry that I am not giddy that seven players left this year, some of you guys seemed tickled to death that those guys are gone, like you are going to be profiting from their NBA success or something. For me, I love Kentucky basketball and the entity of Kentucky basketball is my main concern. Do not get me wrong, I wish all of these guys luck and I will always root them on in league, but I am just not jumping for joy that they are gone like many posters on this board.
 
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I've reaized that my life doesn't change at all whether we win or lose a title. Basically it's one euphoric feeling for a brief time and you buy a bunch of merchandise and talk smack. Literally nothing else changes for us.
 
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I've reaized that my life doesn't change at all whether we win or lose a title. Basically it's one euphoric feeling for a brief time and you buy a bunch of merchandise and talk smack. Literally nothing else changes for us.
I've reaized that my life doesn't change at all whether we win or lose a title. Basically it's one euphoric feeling for a brief time and you buy a bunch of merchandise and talk smack. Literally nothing else changes for us.
That is a good way to look at it actually.
 
I am not into second guessing one of the best coaches ever. If he learned something then we are better off in the future. No one is perfect.
I believe Cal is the best recruiter ever but as a Xs an Os coach he is good but not great, all of us have our achilles heel not matter what we do and Cals is closing out big games we seen it at memphis and here, I do believe he thought that Andrew would be able to penetrate and score or get fouled as he has done many times and in this game that strategy did not work so thats not on Cal. Last season we were on a roll at tourney time and Aaron was clutch. I would have liked to have seen him continue the platoon system with Dominque still playing some minutes...but losing Poythress probably cost us the Wisconsin game I believe he would have shut done Dekker and we would have won that game by double digits.
 
Yep. We won one in 2012 and two years later fans wanted to run Cal out of town.
 
The only thing I would change about Cal if I could is to tone down the hype. I'd rather play college basketball, not be college basketball.
 
If he really was that cocky then I am speechless; that is a mindset that a fan at home should have, not a coach at the University of Kentucky in the biggest basketball game of the year to date. I guess we now know why he used zero strategy down the stretch, he never thought we could lose. Call me a bad fan and troll all you want, but that pisses me off because that game is still weighing on my heart. It will always haunt me, but Cal's season is still not over, not until after the draft; so oh well. NO championship and seven drafteees, bravo! Hoooray!

I honestly don't think you're a troll, but....that post smh
 
Cal is doing the nearly impossible by winning with as many freshman as he does. You don't accomplish what he has without being a great x and o coach.

Yeah, it's a tired and unimaginative claim. If you ask people to get specific on how exactly he's not great on Xs and Os, usually they can't. What they usually mean is they don't think he wins enough for the talent he has had. It's the Dean Smith criticism, and most aren't old enough or detailed enough in their thinking to understand why that comparison fails...
 
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It appears you need to read and listen to Cal's interviews. He didn't stall or slow the game; he told the guys to get it to KAT.

Ive heard this several times as well and out of Cal's own mouth. They didn't post the ball to Karl. Why didn't they you ask? Maybe it wasn't open. Maybe it looked too risky. Maybe someone wanted the ball in their own hands.

We will never know and everyone is free to decide for themselves why it never happened...I'm just going to tell myself that it wasn't there and live with that.
 
ESPN just showed their top 10 games in March. UK-Notre Dame was number one.

And Sports Illustrated picked it as the best college game of the year, second year in a row SI has picked a UK game number one. Speaking of that game, there hasn't been a lot of talk about it on here.

Did Brey get out-coached that game? If we're going to harp on Cal for 3 bad possessions, what about Brey going the last 12 minutes without an answer for Townes? The announcer in the UK/Wisconsin game didn't question Cal once, but for most of the last half Elmore and Webber repeatedly wondered why Brey wasn't making an adjustment.

And if Cal us going to get criticized for slowing the ball down against a Wisconsin, are any of the critics going to step forward and praise him for the same strategy against ND, which produced an incredibly efficient offense down the stretch, allowing us to catch up and retake the lead? Or is the strategy fine unless it results in a loss - making it not a valid criticism and merely a bitch....
 
Yeah, it's a tired and unimaginative claim. If you ask people to get specific on how exactly he's not great on Xs and Os, usually they can't. What they usually mean is they don't think he wins enough for the talent he has had. It's the Dean Smith criticism, and most aren't old enough or detailed enough in their thinking to understand why that comparison fails...
I am not wanting to argue but I guess I wonder why in three years he never developed a hook shot for WCS I wonder why he couldn't exploit a matchup between WCS and a 6'4" Conaughton fro ND I wonder why he couldn't draw up plays to help our guys exploit a lot of our strengths for open looks when we were 5 star at every position if ou don't get to angry with me we saw Bo Ryan exploit Booker on pick and rolls. Now for the disclaimer I wouldn't trade Cal for anyone but I do think Coach K, and Rick Pitino can out coach him with comparable talent and I hope you take this as someone explaining what you asked not someone wanting him to leave or running him down.
 
I am not wanting to argue but I guess I wonder why in three years he never developed a hook shot for WCS I wonder why he couldn't exploit a matchup between WCS and a 6'4" Conaughton fro ND I wonder why he couldn't draw up plays to help our guys exploit a lot of our strengths for open looks when we were 5 star at every position if ou don't get to angry with me we saw Bo Ryan exploit Booker on pick and rolls. Now for the disclaimer I wouldn't trade Cal for anyone but I do think Coach K, and Rick Pitino can out coach him with comparable talent and I hope you take this as someone explaining what you asked not someone wanting him to leave or running him down.
Before anyone misinterprets this and reminds me of Cals record against Pitino.. Cal can out recruit Pitino so that throws Cal over the hump in an overall comparison of coaches... but everyone on here thats interested in this discussion can take their heart out of their thinking and use their head knows what Pitino can do with less than top notch talent...doesnt mean you have to like him.
 
Love the confidence. Thought the same thing. Hated that he went into stall ball, so if that thinking lead to the stall ball tactic, then it's time to rethink it.
 
Most Cat fans get angry when Digger Phelps questions Cal. We usually say things similar to, "Digger doesn't know our players or how we've prepared for an opponent. Digger doesn't have enough information to make comments about Cal's ability to coach. He doesn't what he is talking about." My question then becomes who on this board is a more successful coach than Digger. This was a long and hopefully polite way of saying that we aren't qualified to rate Cal's coaching ability.
 
I struggle to understand how our offense rated so high by Kenpom. Our offense never looked that great and it was the reason we lost. Cal's teams have never looked great offensively, other than 2012.
 
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If you watch the Memphis-Kansas final, Memphis didn't try to slow it down, and it cost them. Kansas made a play every time down the floor to erase a nine point deficit. Then in 2012 Cal DID slow it down, and it resulted in an eight point win and a championship. Kansas still made a lot of plays, but didn't have enough possessions to come back.

Either way it all comes down to whether your players make their shots.
 
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