Come on 🐸

Just does not get it done. If it wasn’t obvious already, it is painfully obvious tonight. Statistics do not lie, and they bear this out that more often than not he lays eggs against quality competition.

This is not to say that he shouldn’t play, but it is to say that he should not be taking the bulk of the shots or be relied upon as the go-to scorer. He simply cannot get buckets against the likes of Duke and Kansas, etc..

How many crazy high off the glass layups did Reeves make look easy today? Dude is so smooth. He and Wagner have no fear.

I’m struggling to see what he excels at. Weak, can’t finish, gets pushed around, inconsistent jump shot. I just don’t see it

Young Cats, showed a lot of tenacity in a hostile environment.
Closed out a Florida team in a tight game. The Gator’s, couldn’t of played any better and controlled the tempo most of the game.

The Cats grew up in big way today. Still more growing to do for this young Cats team. Today was a big step in the right direction.

An we won without Adou!!

I’m excited! How about you?

NM

From now through the end of the season? Would that be enough for us to get back to the F4, assuming everything else stays on track?

...???

I thought Florida scored when the ball was on the rim. Watching Tre, he thought so too. Is that not reviewable under current rules?

He deserves big props today for his second half adjustments. It took a long time to break through to get the lead but this was a game we needed to grind out. I know people don’t like that style but you have to be able to play multiple styles to win in March. Cal put the team in a position to show another dimension and they seemed to get it. Read the game and adjust. Cal gets an A+ today

…did not win their first true road games: 2011 Final Four team lost to UNC, 2012 National Champs lost to Indiana, 2014 Final Four team lost to UNC, 2017 Elite Eight team lost to Louisville, and so on.

To come back and win this road game in a tough environment with clutch play is very impressive.

Florida was 49 in NET going in to the game. If Florida can stay top 75 (which I believe they will) it’ll stay quad 1.

Oops

Thought he played well in the 2nd half and got us back in the game- he didn't look scared of anyone on the court today

In the game thread I said multiple times Bradshaw had to sit. He was killing us, and I didn't understand why he kept playing. I know UGO gets winded and needs a breather but I said go small ball with 4 guards and Mitchell. To my credit even when we were down 8-11 I consistently posted we'd win the game.

Well as awful as he played the first 30 minutes, he played excellent the last 10. He was crucial to us winning that game and I think had Cal benched him like I called for we lose.

Thats being said we took Florida's best punches and fought through it for a great win! Go cats!

He’s got to be the least talked about Kentucky player to average just under 20 a game, that I can ever remember . The guy doesn’t get the credit he deserves. But he sure gets shit on when he rarely has his bad shooting nights. Props to him. He’s a stud

Truly 8x5 every single game.

TCU currently playing better than KU but getting bent over by the refs. REPEATEDLY.

Zero chance TCU pulls the upset.

when the big boy blocked the shot into the rim is that not goal tending

On that 3 AB took that gave us the lead?

…drawing up the best inbounds play of his career. And that’s probably not much of an exaggeration.

Im assuming ya’ll know which one I’m referring to.

I LOVE IT

Per Joe Lunardi - Kentucky is not a 1-seed and is not in the same class as Purdue or UCONN.


Also says we are behind Kansas.

I think Kentucky has a better upside than any of these teams. What say you?

Game Stats

First the bad:

1. Man do we miss Thiero. There is just no substitute for his pugnacious defense, rebounding, and consistent scoring.
2. Edwards is a bust. A BUST. We're almost halfway through the season and he's not improved an inch. He's still soft at the rim and weak on the boards. But hey, go eat a pizza at Cal's.
3. Cal is irresponsible at this point for not starting Sheppard. Bringing him in cold from the bench like that with instant pressure to perform and then not running plays for him is coaching malpractice. Sheppard is the best player on the team; Cal should be focusing on him and running the offense THROUGH Sheppard. Instead he lets DJ play hero ball and flip awkward lefty layups clanking off the rim or simply dribbling the ball to the other team at crunch time. (And yes, I can hear all you Calbois pounding on your keyboards as you read this - "ZOMFG SHEPPARD MADE MISTAKES TOO!" But Sheppard should be handling the ball, that's the major point.

Let me lay this out for you:

A SIXTY PERCENT THREE POINT SHOOTER SHOULD BE GETTING PLAYS ALL GAME TO SHOOT.

Cal is also, as another poster pointed out, mishandling Edwards by starting him both halves. He's not helping his draft stock at all, instead he's exposing him as inadequate.
4. Cal's post up offense reared its ugly head in crunch time again. Watch for that. Cal will revert when times get tense, like in late game NCAA tournament situations.
5. We looked nervous in the first half but we settled down in the second.
6. The refs were ATROCIOUS. Horrible.

Now the good:

1. DJ wasn't all that bad, really. He played pretty well, but he needs to be off the ball. He doesn't look for Shep enough and he plays too much hero ball, and he telegraphs his drive too much. It's obvious when he's about to go bonkers to the rim because he starts jitterbugging with the ball.
2. Mitchell is a hoss. Plain and simple. God bless that guy. We need him so badly.
3. Bradshaw and Shep were the second half heroes. Nice to see Cal pull Bradshaw under 35 seconds on offense so he wouldn't get fouled.
4. Sheppard is the smartest and dumbest player on the team, LOL. He dribbles around burning clock like a boss and then fouls a three point shooter at the buzzer. I guess he'll grow up eventually.
5. Reeves was really good today. He seems to have steadied down quite a bit. Hopefully he'll continue to be reliable in big games.

Final thought:

We all thought we'd get some answers as to how good or bad we really are after this game. I find myself still having serious doubts and uncertainty, and most of it is due to Cal not utilizing his players properly. He still inexplicably benches his best two guards while starting Edwards who should be #8 in the rotation. Maybe it's simpler than that - with Thiero in the lineup we probably coast to a 10-12 point victory anyway.

Figured it’s worth a shot …