For you moral victory folks..

[dmpatp]

If you think Cal lost that game then your hate for Cal has blurred your ability to be rational. Edwards and Wagner with 1 and 4 points hurt us, but I don’t blame cal for rolling the dice and keeping them in the game to see if they can get going. He’s managing his team and testing his players. They need to experience situations like this. To feel and learn from it…because we absolutely need those guys if we want to make a deep run. You don’t kill their confidence right out of the gate in what is essentially a fairly meaningless game.

Did I want to win? Hell yes and we should have…but at the end of the day we were playing the #1 team in the country. A team with more experience and size. What we almost did with a young new team and zero bigs was impressive. We were in a position to win and some mistakes were made by players in their first real college basketball game. That’s the reality of it. However, if you can’t be excited about this team after watching last night then you really should just keep your TV off and check back in around March.

 

[YardCat]

They haven't lost yet. We'll get better Wagner and Edward's definitely will.

Are you sure? Edwards going to wake up and realize he isn’t soft and start playing like a man.

 

[YardCat]

If you think Cal lost that game then your hate for Cal has blurred your ability to be rational. Edwards and Wagner with 1 and 4 points hurt us, but I don’t blame cal for rolling the dice and keeping them in the game to see if they can get going. He’s managing his team and testing his players. They need to experience situations like this. To feel and learn from it…because we absolutely need those guys if we want to make a deep run. You don’t kill their confidence right out of the gate in what is essentially a fairly meaningless game.

Did I want to win? Hell yes and we should have…but at the end of the day we were playing the #1 team in the country. A team with more experience and size. What we almost did with a young new team and zero bigs was impressive. We were in a position to win and some mistakes were made by players in their first real college basketball game. That’s the reality of it. However, if you can’t be excited about this team after watching last night then you really should just keep your TV off and check back in around March.

Yep, like we did playing Boston and Askew waiting on them to get rolling. How did that season end? If you not playing well, who cares if you bench the 5 star and play the guy that doesn’t disappear. They knew they sucked and they should have expected to be on the bench. IMO

 

[The_Answer1313]

If you think Cal lost that game then your hate for Cal has blurred your ability to be rational. Edwards and Wagner with 1 and 4 points hurt us, but I don’t blame cal for rolling the dice and keeping them in the game to see if they can get going. He’s managing his team and testing his players. They need to experience situations like this. To feel and learn from it…because we absolutely need those guys if we want to make a deep run. You don’t kill their confidence right out of the gate in what is essentially a fairly meaningless game.

Did I want to win? Hell yes and we should have…but at the end of the day we were playing the #1 team in the country. A team with more experience and size. What we almost did with a young new team and zero bigs was impressive. We were in a position to win and some mistakes were made by players in their first real college basketball game. That’s the reality of it. However, if you can’t be excited about this team after watching last night then you really should just keep your TV off and check back in around March.

I think people really need to have patience with guys.

I get we wanted to win this game but it's game 3 of the season. People are already claiming that certain guys are better and so and so needs to start over so and so and it's like can we just slow down a bit here lol

 

[HerrosHeroes]

I see a lot of “lost to the #1 team in November” stuff being posted. So what will you say when we inevitably find out Kansas is not some great team after dropping a few bad ones? Nearly every season people watch this champions classic and think the games are amazing, only to find out later these are fairly average teams.

If you think this KU team is avg I dont know what to tell you.

They are F’in loaded and their starting five is easily the best in the country.

Cal has amassed another Juggernaut that could require platoon if and when all 3 bigs are available.

In the end though UKs depth will be the Jayhawks demise.

 

[BlueArrow87]

His 3rd college game damn if him and Wagner stay that bad well be in trouble but they don't need one game to determine the player they are going to be just like us fans. If he starts giving us zero come sec then I'd be worried.

 

[Mike-McD]

You can't just look at the score and result.

Cal, is that you?

 

[The_Answer1313]

His 3rd college game damn if him and Wagner stay that bad well be in trouble but they don't need one game to determine the player they are going to be just like us fans. If he starts giving us zero come sec then I'd be worried.

Yeah I mean it's not as if we haven't had some highly rated players struggle in their first few games only to become significant contributors down the road.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

A few years ago I would have agreed with you. And, I'm seeing last night from a silver lining point of view, and like this team. But, recently "sometimes" losing a close game has more accurately become 'usually' when we play good teams.

We need two things for greatness;
1) get healthy, playable bigs
2) honest roster management that prioritizes winning.

I agree. The coaches need to put the players in positions to succeed. At some point you have to say to certain players "let's work on getting to the rim and getting to the line. Let's work on softer touch on your shots and finishing around the rim. Once that's good, we can work on perimeter more but for now let's limit them n games" and so forth. Issue is cal won't do that.

 

[Logan Sackett]

No such thing as a moral victory at Kentucky leave that crap for Indiana, Louisville, Tennessee and that bunch. What are we 1-5 in the last 5 games against Kansas?

 

[CaptainBoogerBuns]

It’s just sports.

 

[JonathanW]

I see a lot of “lost to the #1 team in November” stuff being posted. So what will you say when we inevitably find out Kansas is not some great team after dropping a few bad ones? Nearly every season people watch this champions classic and think the games are amazing, only to find out later these are fairly average teams.

KU is certainly flawed.
But name me a team that isn't. Duke's not looked that good either so far. You can go down the list.

I saw more positives than negatives last night. This UK team passes the eye-test.
Negatives:
1) I've been saying all along this will be a mediocre 3pt shooting team, making 33-35% for the season. So far, I stand correct.
2) Another game like this by Reeves vs a real Opp, and he may start hearing "fans", and he seems like the type that could let that get to him.
3) As the lineup is now, we can be outmuscled inside.
4) If/When we add some combination of those 3 big guys, could that negatively affect how we play.
5) The combined shooting of Reeves, Wagner & Edwards, who may be our top 3 scorers this year was bad.

Positives:
1) Sheppard is not a star player yet, or will he be this year. But generally the team plays better when he is on the court.
2) I liked what we got out of Burks. Even if he doesn't play much later in the year, knowing he is capable if needed is good.
3) He will be streaky for sure, but when he is "ON" just get out of the way of Dillingham. But yeah, he will play out of control some, force some shots.
4) Not only did we take the #1 (questionable how long they will be top 5) team to the wire; BUT.... we did it when our likely top 3 scorers for the year going 8-43 (19%), AND... we did it with our three 7-footers (or as announcer said, "our seven 3-footers") were all 3 out.
5) We simply looked like the better team for much of the game. The difference, they showed poise and patience, and we did not at the end of the game. But that should come with experience. But if you don't have talent, that you aren't going to improve much during the season.

 

[the nail at the foul line]

No moral victory here.

Sometimes you just lose a close game. It is what it is.

9/11 is not sometimes. It is a habit.

 

[catsfan9234]

My god it’s one game in November I seem to remember us spanking Kansas in phog by 30 and you see how that year turned out

 

[-BBH-]

Cal haters are insufferable.

 

[crestcat]

I don’t want to be better than the other team for 36 minutes, I want to win the game. Too many choke jobs after under four TO.

 

[sluggercatfan]

It's too early to judge.

 

[Mdnerd]

Ahem…

 

[warrior-cat]

I see a lot of “lost to the #1 team in November” stuff being posted. So what will you say when we inevitably find out Kansas is not some great team after dropping a few bad ones? Nearly every season people watch this champions classic and think the games are amazing, only to find out later these are fairly average teams.

There comes a time (we are there) where moral victories lose their appeal. Although, I have hope we will be much better this year if we could just get a big or two back with enough time to help them get good enough to contribute. Well, maybe get one or two back is incorrect since technically they have never really been involved with the team yet.

 

[warrior-cat]

Tbf, we still almost won, even with that. Just had a couple of miscues from Reed and Dilly that hurt us late. Reeves didn't help either. But we def. have to have more that 1-18 production from two lotto picks.

Not ragging on you but, this one just tickled me. It is the battle cry from most of the fan base that are hopeful. I agree with the sentiment, it was just funny because it is true.

 

[warrior-cat]

I don't think it's so much a moral victory. I think there's more to analyze than win or lose. How did we look?

For 3 straight seasons, I've watched terrible basketball. I didn't need the result to know we were playing badly. Even when we won, I knew we weren't good because of how we played basketball. The Tyty/Oscar team had a solid stretch, but we also had a lot of times we just passed around the perimeter and chucked a bad shot late.

Last night, I watched really good basketball. We have guys that can get to the rim. We have guys that can shoot. We have NBA talent that can take over a game in the blink of an eye. Last night was very different from what I've seen the last 3 years. I don't need the result to tell me we have a good team. I can tell we have a good team from the basketball. There's LOTS that needs to be cleaned up. But the talent, for once, is there.

We played modern basketball. Dudes were driving. We were moving the ball. We were getting open looks. I think we went away from that late and dudes were doing too much Iso. Again, things need to be cleaned up. But the last 3 Calipari teams aren't even in this game. We'd be talking about losing by 15+.

I went into last night's game expecting us to lose. If you read all of the pre-game threads, most people seemed to agree Kansas was going to handle us. These kids showed up and gave 100%. I was surprised as how well we played.

Best post on this imo.

 

[DeerTurkHunter1]

We little below average right now but have potential

Below average, hahahahahahahahahahaha

 

[HoneyMoon155]

UK fans settling for morale victories tells you how low Cal has lowered our once great program.

It’s not really settling for moral victories it’s just optimism at how this team can grow

 

[nssdigitalchumps]

Not many teams can shut down an All American.

Paper champion.

 

[The_Answer1313]

It's not about "moral victories" tho. That's what some aren't getting here. No one is happy we lost. No one is saying well gee we were close.

No a loss is a loss. Whether we lost by 30 or lost by 1, it's still a loss. It's still disappointing in that regard.

That being said, some can be sad at the result and still become optimistic based on what we've seen. The result is the same whether u lose by 1 or 100, but in terms of future prediction on where this team is heading, it DOES make a difference. So while it stinks we lost yet another big game, some can see potential in this team moving forward especially given what we did to the "supposedly number 1 team in the nation" and without 3 big men.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

I see a lot of “lost to the #1 team in November” stuff being posted. So what will you say when we inevitably find out Kansas is not some great team after dropping a few bad ones? Nearly every season people watch this champions classic and think the games are amazing, only to find out later these are fairly average teams.

Kansas is a good team. They played at their best against us.

UK was without multiple big men and had two of our better players (Edwards and Wagner) played like dog vomit.

There's actually a ton of upside with this UK team. Dillingham is a special player. Edwards and Wagner have high ceilings. Our veterans would be starters pretty much anywhere in the country (Thiero, Mitchell, and Reeves). Sheppard is looking like an All-SEC level performer.

Factor all of that in and we don't even have a true big men back.

 

[Deli owl]

Not going undefeated. I’d rather have a loss to number 1 than number 80 on our resume.

 

[BlueSince92]

Wait, wait:

Your whole premise is that Cal kept players in a huge game, probably our single biggest game of the regular season, even though they were performing poorly, because “They need to experience situations like this. To feel and learn from it”——and you want people to believe that while also believing that “If you think Cal lost that game then your hate for Cal has blurred your ability to be rational”?

That’s patently absurd not to mention rather abusive.

I frankly have no opinion on whether Cal lost that game due to his decisions or not. BUT Cal definitely DOES have free will. He definitely WAS free to choose whether he would leave ineffective players in at the end of a huge game rather than put in more effective players who were available all in the name of teaching some very very poorly-timed lessons. And IF he really did that, then that means he really did lose that game. That has nothing to do with my hatred for Cal, which I don’t even have. It’s just common sense, pal. Pick one narrative and go with it.