Did the same exact thing against Notre Dame a week earlier. Was that a choke? If you do the same thing twice, and win one and lose one, does the final score alone determine whether you choked?Originally posted by AirRaidFan:
JMO, but we slowed the game down in the last five minutes. We should've attacked, attacked, attacked! Instead we get three shot clock violations. Basically, we choked.
I think that what you say is true..... So much so, that I also think that our players got to the point where they thought they were entitled.... They worked and played so hard to get to 38 straight victories, with ESPN coming out every day with new coaches on ways to beat UK..... Our players were complacent and didn't play with the emotion that got them that far.... I'm not blaming them, because any team can lose a game with complacency... It just happened at the wrong time for us... I also think we peaked early and was digressing... No ones fault on that either..... Players had a goal and coaches thought the players were doing their job... They did up until the moment that they met a team that was as talented, and wanted to beat us bad for sending them home... They met us with emotion that we couldn't over come.... We almost did, simply because we had the better team and athletes, but it was just too much to ask.... Especially, with the NCAA wanting K to get his 5th championship.... Giving them an easy road... Letting that team alone while they built for the climax, while they hounded Kentucky and placed them on a pedestal to be knocked off......Originally posted by TubbysTabbys:
We have a lot of fans on here who seem to think we were entitled to this championship. We were not. Wisconsin lost one player off the team that we beat in a coin flip in 2014. Yes we added more parts than they did but we also lost three players, including the three who played the best against them last year.
They beat UNC when UNC was playing its best this season, they beat Arizona again, and then they beat us, (almost) fair and square. Kaminsky and Dekker were the two best players on the floor that day. Two of ours (Willie and Aaron) played terrible.
I tip my hat to them. They should be national champions. Up nine on Duke until the referees took it from them. And yes, the referees took it from them.
Originally posted by Gary4UK:
I think that what you say is true..... So much so, that I also think that our players got to the point where they thought they were entitled.... They worked and played so hard to get to 38 straight victories, with ESPN coming out every day with new coaches on ways to beat UK..... Our players were complacent and didn't play with the emotion that got them that far.... I'm not blaming them, because any team can lose a game with complacency... It just happened at the wrong time for us... I also think we peaked early and was digressing... No ones fault on that either..... Players had a goal and coaches thought the players were doing their job... They did up until the moment that they met a team that was as talented, and wanted to beat us bad for sending them home... They met us with emotion that we couldn't over come.... We almost did, simply because we had the better team and athletes, but it was just too much to ask.... Especially, with the NCAA wanting K to get his 5th championship.... Giving them an easy road... Letting that team alone while they built for the climax, while they hounded Kentucky and placed them on a pedestal to be knocked off......
You have enough posts to realize that you can't recognize any danger on this board. The Cats win every game or it is stolen by the refs, NCAA or Vegas.Originally posted by michaeluk26:
Gary4uk, I agree. We played with little to no intensity in every tournament game outside of the wvu game. It was shocking. Me and the group I watched the games with were particularly stunned to see WCS play with absolutely no aggression against both Notre Dame and Wisconsin. It literally looked like he was in the place he least wanted to be at. Our team was at its absolute best when he played with energy. It got our guys going when he dunked on someone or blocked their shot. Its so shocking because the dude kept talking about being on a sole mission of winning the title.
Love Cal but why does he let the other team dictate the pace, especially in tourney games? With our athleticism and depth we should have been always pushing the pace. The 2012 team pushed the pace all the time and the 2015 was built to but we were content walking the ball up the floor. Cal says all tournament games are grind it out games but that absolutely does not have to be true when you had the weapons we had. Bar none the most painful loss of my life. Duke won our title to top it off. I frequently mentioned on here that going away from platooning would dramatically drop our chances for a title. Its what separated us from the Wisconsin's and Dukes. By removing our best weapon, we were simply on par with them and very beatable. A lot of us said this when we were seeing it but we kept winning.
Also, I was one of the group everyone made fun of for not wanting to play Wisconsin. They were the perfect team to beat us the way they were built. I said all year they were our biggest threat. We were not scared of Wisconsin, some of us just recognized the danger the possessed early on.
Originally posted by TubbysTabbys:
Yeah. Friggin' Dekker can go do naughty things to himself as far as I'm concerned. He killed it against UNC, Arizona and us, though. Wish those nerves would have shown up one game earlier.
I'm not asking people to say Wisconsin was better than us. Just that there was no shame in losing to them. Yes, we were deeper. But that depth let us down. Or Cal didn't use it correctly, however you want to look at it. They had five really good players and two that were good enough coming off the bench.
They got two points in the first half off of Koenig jumping in bounds and catching it and two on the shot clock violation in the second half. But don't forget that was a pretty obvious flagrant one on Trey the refs let slide. Instead of two shots and the ball for Wisconsin it was our ball. The way they shoot free throws you gotta figure we got at least a free two points on that call plus an extra possession.
I agree with your first point regarding the no call on Trey. However, points 2,3,and 4 are completely irrelevant and wrong. Legitimate basketball moves can be flagrant ones. It doesn't matter if anyone had played dirty up to that point and the fact that Trey had not been aggressive all year does not matter. It was a bad call that kept Wisconsin from having two shots and the ball. I'm glad they didn't make the call, but still think it was wrong. What everyone complaining about the refs here fail to acknowledge is that at the least, it was a simple foul, but the refs can't look at a video and call a foul. So, after watching the video and realizing they missed a foul call, they could not fix it......on that play.Originally posted by preacherfan:
Originally posted by TubbysTabbys:
Yeah. Friggin' Dekker can go do naughty things to himself as far as I'm concerned. He killed it against UNC, Arizona and us, though. Wish those nerves would have shown up one game earlier.
I'm not asking people to say Wisconsin was better than us. Just that there was no shame in losing to them. Yes, we were deeper. But that depth let us down. Or Cal didn't use it correctly, however you want to look at it. They had five really good players and two that were good enough coming off the bench.
They got two points in the first half off of Koenig jumping in bounds and catching it and two on the shot clock violation in the second half. But don't forget that was a pretty obvious flagrant one on Trey the refs let slide. Instead of two shots and the ball for Wisconsin it was our ball. The way they shoot free throws you gotta figure we got at least a free two points on that call plus an extra possession.
Actually, they got that one right. First, they did it by the book by going to the monitor. Second, the THREE refs felt that it was a legit basketball move that just seemed awkward and looked worse than it was. Third, up to that point, nobody was playing dirty on either team. It wasn't ANYTHING like the Cinci game. Fourth, Trey has NO history of overly aggressive play. Heck, he isn't even aggressive, to be honest.
All things considered, the refs decided it was unintentional, similar to a poke in the eye.
Finally, I am usually on the other side of these debates. Normally, on a play like that, I would be saying that we got a gift. But, I honestly feel like this one was simply the right call. But, I can see why some think I am wrong. It looked worse than it was.
You gotta keep up with the rule changes. The NCAA changed the rule to give discretion to the refs to decide if it should be called a F1, F2, or no call. We had the same situation when Ulis was bloodied by an elbow in an earlier game. The refs determined that it was a legit basketball move and Ulis just got too close.Originally posted by BBBLazing:
I agree with your first point regarding the no call on Trey. However, points 2,3,and 4 are completely irrelevant and wrong. Legitimate basketball moves can be flagrant ones. It doesn't matter if anyone had played dirty up to that point and the fact that Trey had not been aggressive all year does not matter. It was a bad call that kept Wisconsin from having two shots and the ball. I'm glad they didn't make the call, but still think it was wrong. What everyone complaining about the refs here fail to acknowledge is that at the least, it was a simple foul, but the refs can't look at a video and call a foul. So, after watching the video and realizing they missed a foul call, they could not fix it......on that play.