For those that are still defending Calipari….

[rabbitTown]

Kentucky should have won that game last night. I don’t know what set play was called at the end, the helter shelter or the broken weave but it was horrible. Kentucky gave Kansas a present last night. This is the trademark of Cal and has always been that way, he does so many things right but his play calling or lack of in tight games is atrocious.

You're in for a lot of disappointment again this year.

 

[Skyguyb27]

If you thought that play coming out of the timeout was bad, what did you think of KUs play coming out of the timeout at the end of the game that led to Harris forcing a three as time expired on the shot clock that clanked off the side of the backboard...lol.

In reality, Cal's play call was fine. Reeves should have thrown in to Thiero who was wide open at the top of the key for three. The defense would have then rotated off Reed to Thiero, who would have then swung the ball to an open Reed for a chance to tie the game. Out fifth yr senior screwed it up.

If you thought that play coming out of the timeout was bad, what did you think of KUs play coming out of the timeout at the end of the game that led to Harris forcing a three as time expired on the shot clock that clanked off the side of the backboard...lol.

In reality, Cal's play call was fine. Reeves should have thrown in to Thiero who was wide open at the top of the key for three. The defense would have then rotated off Reed to Thiero, who would have then swung the ball to an open Reed for a chance to tie the game. Out fifth yr senior screwed it up.

His play wasn’t fine, lol. At no point during that play did UK look like they knew what they were doing and appear organized. Let’s be honest about this, there wasn’t a single fan here who was confident the play call he made was going to burn the defense for a wide open 3. Anyone who has watched Cal teams knew it was gonna end up with a disorganized jacked up 3 after some sort of half assed screen or weave at the top. Cal has done this same trick for over 10 years.


I would love to know what Cal’s record is against ranked teams when tied or within 5 points at the less than 5 minute mark. It might be the only thing worse than his play calling. This game left me a little pissed because UK was clearly the better team. It happens time and time again.

 

[BigBlueManSouthCentralKY]

His play wasn’t fine, lol. At no point during that play did UK look like they knew what they were doing and appear organized. Let’s be honest about this, there wasn’t a single fan here who was confident the play call he made was going to burn the defense for a wide open 3. Anyone who has watched Cal teams knew it was gonna end up with a disorganized jacked up 3 after some sort of half assed screen or weave at the top. Cal has done this same trick for over 10 years.


I would love to know what Cal’s record is against ranked teams when tied or within 5 points at the less than 5 minute mark. It might be the only thing worse than his play calling. This game left me a little pissed because UK was clearly the better team. It happens time and time again.

Like Bilas said, the ball should have been taken to rim and get the two even though we are down three. That is what I thought we should have done. Then foul on the inbounds.

 

[Cats192]

….please answer the following three questions:
A) did you feel confident that we would run a good set play to tie the game down three late in the game?
B) when is the last time you found yourself saying: “wow, Cal really outsmarted the other coach there”
C) did you enjoy seeing a second in-bounds play twice last night before we went back to “lob it into Mitchell”?

I used to defend Cal. I really did. But like many of you, I was defending Cal the recruiter, and not Cal the terrible in-game coach.

I'll play.

A. I think we were supposed to run a set and then Reed took a bad shot. He either thought the shot clock was at 1, or the guy on his hip was going to foul him. But we had 10 seconds to get the look we wanted with a guy coming off a pick. So I'm not too mad at Calipari there.

B. I actually thought Cal had the right game plan. Some of you guys act like one coach outsmarted the other everytime someone wins or loses. We knew what Self wanted to do. Self knew what we wanted to do. There was no outsmarting the other guy. It was simply a matter of which side executed better. The team with all the 22 and 23 year olds did in the end.

C. We tried to run some inbounds sets. Kansas covered it well. Which led to use Mithcell as the escape valve. Next time when they cover up the inbounds play, we should just not throw it to Mitchell and get a 5 second violation. At least that way people can't complain about inbounding the ball.

 

[BigRedMachineBigBlueNation]

Every tight game Kentucky plays in, I'm hoping for something different, and yet I'm seeing the same old Cal. He can't win close games if it requires him to out-coach the other sideline.

I go into big games expecting a loss. EXPECTING A LOSS. This is Kentucky. There’s something seriously wrong. Half the fanbase expected a loss. The other half celebrates moral victories.

 

[Mike-McD]

Fans like OP are moronic & too emotional to understand your sound logic

What a godly thing to say.

 

[CatsFanIL]

….please answer the following three questions:
A) did you feel confident that we would run a good set play to tie the game down three late in the game?
B) when is the last time you found yourself saying: “wow, Cal really outsmarted the other coach there”
C) did you enjoy seeing a second in-bounds play twice last night before we went back to “lob it into Mitchell”?

I used to defend Cal. I really did. But like many of you, I was defending Cal the recruiter, and not Cal the terrible in-game coach.

A. I didn't hate the set. Had misdirection, screen the screener, went to the right guy. It was well-defended. I assumed maybe Welch would have something to do with what set we ran, but I don't know if he actually did or not
B. Can't give you an exact date, no idea who possibly could. I felt like he had a pretty good gameplan last night, would you agree or disagree? I though last year in both games vs Tennessee, he outcoached Rick Barnes. I thought last year vs Providence he had a great gameplan to stop their scoring attack, specifically Hopkins. But there's been plenty of times I've wanted to pull my hair out
C. I noticed we ran a couple OBU sets - good, hope we keep doing it and hope we keep adding more. I will say, as a HS coach, there's just too much stuff you want to get accomplished in a practice and not enough time. I don't know exactly what the NCAA rules are, but I know there's rules for how many hours you can have on the floor with your guys per week. Did Kansas have any OBU plays that hurt us?

 

[crestcat]

I was hoping Sheppard would be plan A and Reeves would be a decoy. It was not Reeves night from 3.

 

[BigRedMachineBigBlueNation]

28-35

28-35 against ranked opponents since 2015.

 

[bnewt]

Well said. Wagner and Edwards went straight from playing high school competition to a couple very low level D1 schools to #1 Kansas. Luckily it didn’t phase Shepard and Dillingham (although Dillingham cost us at the end. Still wouldn’t be in that position without him though) .
This team will be good. This team will also lose many games (hopefully not too many). But they’ll be fun to watch and when healthy we are more talented and can beat anyone.

this team will lose enough games to allow Kansas to retake the all time wins lead
ccc, not only gets that honor once, he will have it twice

 

[bnewt]

"Moral victories"
"Wait until March"
"The freshmen will get better"
"Wait until the team reaches it's potential"

It's November and this shit has already started

the freshman will improve........but the coaching will not
that is the problem

 

[bnewt]

I'm not happy about the loss either. It's time to start winning these games. But like you said, if you can't see the ceiling this team has you're blind. It's as high as any team in the country once the roster fills back out, maybe higher. I get we're all not happy with Cal right now. But I'm willing to let things play out more this year before I pass judgement completely. Not like I have any choice.

everyone is talking about this team's ceiling. What if NONE of the big guys play this year, then what is your expectations? With the lousy coaching, it will be another double digit loss season, again something that is becoming the "norm" under ccc.

 

[Justwantadecentteam]

Imo, if they didn't have Dickinson we'd of won

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

It hurts to lose a game like last night. But crying about it and acting like it is some amazing evidence of a poorly coached team borders on childish.

"It hurts to lose a game like last night. But crying about it and acting like it is some amazing evidence of a poorly coached team borders on childish."

2008 Calipari vs. Kansas
2010 Calipari vs. West Virginia.
2011 Calipari vs. UConn
2013 Calipari vs. Robert Morris
2014 Calipari vs. UConn
2015 Calipari vs. Wisconsin
2016 Calipari vs. Indiana
2017 Calipari vs. UNC
2018 Calipari vs. Kansas State
2019 Calipari vs. Auburn
2022 Calipari vs. St. Peter's
2023 Calipari vs. Kansas State


In which of those games did Calipari have LESS talent than his opponent? 2? 3?

Cal's a trash end-game coach. Everyone knows this. You're too smart to not acknowledge it.

We were up 6 points with 3:40 and change. This felt like the 2019 meltdown to Tennessee when we were up 8 points with 3 minutes to play.

Same script. Total collapse at the end. Total.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

everyone is talking about this team's ceiling. What if NONE of the big guys play this year, then what is your expectations? With the lousy coaching, it will be another double digit loss season, again something that is becoming the "norm" under ccc.

In that scenario, a buyout would be on the way. Cal simply cannot afford a disappointing effort with this team.

 

[cmallory]

….please answer the following three questions:
A) did you feel confident that we would run a good set play to tie the game down three late in the game?
B) when is the last time you found yourself saying: “wow, Cal really outsmarted the other coach there”
C) did you enjoy seeing a second in-bounds play twice last night before we went back to “lob it into Mitchell”?

I used to defend Cal. I really did. But like many of you, I was defending Cal the recruiter

, and not Cal the terrible in-game coach.

 

[the dopester]

Kentucky lost a very close game to the #1 team in the country in early November with three players out, five freshmen playing their first significant college game, and the team's best players having a cold shooting night.

Your questions are pointless. There are 50 things in any college basketball game like inbound passes and the set used on one particular shot that anyone could isolate, win or lose.

The freshmen will get better like all do. Reeves will shoot better. Ivisic and Bradshaw and Onyenso will give the team many, many more options and looks.

It hurts to lose a game like last night. But crying about it and acting like it is some amazing evidence of a poorly coached team borders on childish.

If Kansas is the #1 team in the country, then the team Calipari has assembled has a higher ceiling than any team in America. I hope the people weeping like children are embarrassed for how they acted in early November if and when the team reaches that potential.

This. Precisely this. Had a shot to win and didn’t. It sucks. But what I saw was very encouraging. More so than I imagined going into this game.

 

[sk73]

Well said. Wagner and Edwards went straight from playing high school competition to a couple very low level D1 schools to #1 Kansas. Luckily it didn’t phase Shepard and Dillingham (although Dillingham cost us at the end. Still wouldn’t be in that position without him though) .
This team will be good. This team will also lose many games (hopefully not too many). But they’ll be fun to watch and when healthy we are more talented and can beat anyone.

Since some of you do not hesitate to bash players on our team. I like them all. I think we are going to have a very good to excellent season. If you ask anyone that knows anything about basketball who they would rather have in the NCAA pool right now, Right Now, UK would dominate Kansas in that vote.
Who took a last second shot last night, on off balanced last second shot, with 7 seconds left on the clock? Doesn't matter because I like that player a lot. I really like this team. They deserve better than fans like you , Omahacats.

 

[HagginHall1999]

Definitely disappointed in outcome. No clue how people are walking away from game so deflated though. If anything that game last night reassured me of how flipping good we may be by EOY. It took 3 pretty special performances by Kansas players to hold off our bunch. And for ankle we only had a few guys show up.

We have to start winning some of these games...I agree with everyone who has that take.

 

[Blisterpac]

….please answer the following three questions:
A) did you feel confident that we would run a good set play to tie the game down three late in the game?
B) when is the last time you found yourself saying: “wow, Cal really outsmarted the other coach there”
C) did you enjoy seeing a second in-bounds play twice last night before we went back to “lob it into Mitchell”?

I used to defend Cal. I really did. But like many of you, I was defending Cal the recruiter, and not Cal the terrible in-game coach.

 

[Blisterpac]

A: No
B: My memory is not that good
C: No
Last paragraph: ditto & ditto for me.

 

[Blisterpac]

Taking Sheppard out late is when the score turned. Cal put him back in when we lost our lead and got behind. We never recovered from that. They had control the rest of the way.

I agree and posted in two spots about that. I got the specifics wrong as far as who he put in the game, but my point was he took Sheppard out of the game after stating after the previous game that, "Reed has to be on the floor".

 

[Blisterpac]

Kentucky lost a game they shouldn't of lost. When you are up 14 in the second half and up 6 with 3 minutes to go, you have to pull it out if you're Kentucky. You just have to.

I don't care if heading into the game, nobody thought we had a shot. Our guys proved they were the better talent, but poor coaching decisions down the stretch led to the loss (line-ups down the stretch, play calling, you name it). The sad part is I expected us to lose those leads and fall. It's been a common theme under Cal lately.

I agree with all of what you said. Cal must have overwhelming talent to overcome his lack of coaching skills.

 

[Blisterpac]

"It hurts to lose a game like last night. But crying about it and acting like it is some amazing evidence of a poorly coached team borders on childish."

2008 Calipari vs. Kansas
2010 Calipari vs. West Virginia.
2011 Calipari vs. UConn
2013 Calipari vs. Robert Morris
2014 Calipari vs. UConn
2015 Calipari vs. Wisconsin
2016 Calipari vs. Indiana
2017 Calipari vs. UNC
2018 Calipari vs. Kansas State
2019 Calipari vs. Auburn
2022 Calipari vs. St. Peter's
2023 Calipari vs. Kansas State


In which of those games did Calipari have LESS talent than his opponent? 2? 3?

Cal's a trash end-game coach. Everyone knows this. You're too smart to not acknowledge it.

We were up 6 points with 3:40 and change. This felt like the 2019 meltdown to Tennessee when we were up 8 points with 3 minutes to play.

Same script. Total collapse at the end. Total.

Love the post. Thanks for the details of the Cal Choke Years with superior talent. He must have overwhelming talent to win. He is a recruiter and car salesman, not an in-game coach.
P.S. I copied your details to use in response to Cal's sheep on here. Thanks again.

 

[RunninRichie]

''He's doing good gotta find ways to get him out on the floor''-John Calipari after Bryce Hopkins beat LSU by himself, he then went on to never play another minute in a UK uniform.


''Reed is so good. He's gotta be on the floor''-Plays Reed Sheppard 16 minutes. The guy is a total joke.

 

[chevyman 50]

Cal is a good recruiter but a very average coach.

 

[Skyguyb27]

Imo, if they didn't have Dickinson we'd of won

If UK had a good X and O coach UK would have won by 30 if you want to play the if game.

 

[CincyUKFan]

If UK had a good X and O coach UK would have won by 30 if you want to play the if game.

Not sure about 30 but yes, even without the bigs, we had far more athleticism and talent. A good coach could do a lot with this group.