I don’t understand….

[bbncal02]

This is not an attack on Pope or anyone.

But the one thing I didn’t think we’d have to worry about any longer is a lack of effort from our players. What has happened? Did everyone just get a big head after some gutsy wins? What has changed? Or are we just seeing a lack of talent?

The lack of effort bothers me the most. If you get beat going all out, tip your hat. But this lack of effortt and energy for a few players needs to stop.

 

[Wonky]

This is not an attack on Pope or anyone.

But the one thing I didn’t think we’d have to worry about any longer is a lack of effort from our players. What has happened? Did everyone just get a big head after some gutsy wins? What has changed? Or are we just seeing a lack of talent?

The lack of effort bothers me the most. If you get beat going all out, tip your hat. But this lack of effortt and energy for a few players needs to stop.

We had effort at the beginning. When the other team can mug you but you aren’t allowed to breathe on them, it saps the effort real quick. Players get confused and play tentative because they don’t know wtf they can do or not do. That’s poor officiating and it ruins A LOT of college basketball games anymore, not just ours.

 

[mdlUK.1]

I thought we started the game with great effort but then the refs took over. 2 quick fouls on Oweh and 2 on Williams. They had one FG, a 3 by blue but were hanging with us due to free throws.

 

[chroix]

We had effort at the beginning. When the other team can mug you but you aren’t allowed to breathe on them, it saps the effort real quick. Players get confused and play tentative because they don’t know wtf they can do or not do. That’s poor officiating and it ruins A LOT of college basketball games anymore, not just ours.

I think this is right. I hate blaming officiating but watching the bad calls be isolated and the sheer volume of them… no way that doesn’t get on your head.

 

[FiveStarCat]

It’s two players not giving full effort. Bench them until they decide to fix that. The SEC provides plenty of opportunities for big wins. I’d gladly take an L to send a message to those two if it means they change their effort and toughness levels

 

[CrazyCat74]

Just a bad game on the road. Road games are different animals for everyone.

We have talented players but they each have limitations.

All these guys have had games of just not showing up mentally and physically for whatever reason.

We had opportunities last night for a different outcome but just couldn't capitalize.

You can question a lot of things. Like last night we didn't we mix up defensive strategies?

Why not see what a zone would look like?

Why not press a lot more? We needed to speed up the game but never pushed or pressured to do so.

 

[Wonky]

I think this is right. I hate blaming officiating but watching the bad calls be isolated and the sheer volume of them… no way that doesn’t get on your head.

Ask yourself this: when the opposing team’s coach and players, and all the media covering the game before, during, and after it ALL SAY that the plan was to muck the game up and “out physical” Kentucky, then how is it that Kentucky (the supposed finesse team that shies away from confrontation) is the team in deep foul trouble from the jump? That makes zero sense, and I wish the media (and coach Pope) would ask this question.

 

[Terrapin_Station]

Would love to see Amari go play in Europe. Immediately.

 

[CGblue]

What we're seeing nowadays is something between AAU and bad NBA teams. It's not just a UK issue, college basketball across the board will never be the same, and no I don't have blue hair.

 

[hoggwildcat]

It’s two players not giving full effort. Bench them until they decide to fix that. The SEC provides plenty of opportunities for big wins. I’d gladly take an L to send a message to those two if it means they change their effort and toughness levels

All three of our losses are from a lack of effort, how many more messages do they need?

 

[Fox2monk]

We had effort at the beginning. When the other team can mug you but you aren’t allowed to breathe on them, it saps the effort real quick. Players get confused and play tentative because they don’t know wtf they can do or not do. That’s poor officiating and it ruins A LOT of college basketball games anymore, not just ours.

Agreed 100%. Especially when on one end they don’t call any contact.

 

[bbncal02]

We had effort at the beginning. When the other team can mug you but you aren’t allowed to breathe on them, it saps the effort real quick. Players get confused and play tentative because they don’t know wtf they can do or not do. That’s poor officiating and it ruins A LOT of college basketball games anymore, not just ours.

Fair enough. Admittedly dozed off, but I went back and watched pieces I could stomach. Just tired of seeing this team get out muscled.
At the end of the day, it's an L, bad officiating or not. Committee won't care.

Wonder how much difference Kerr would make.

 

[king of cali]

We had effort at the beginning. When the other team can mug you but you aren’t allowed to breathe on them, it saps the effort real quick. Players get confused and play tentative because they don’t know wtf they can do or not do. That’s poor officiating and it ruins A LOT of college basketball games anymore, not just ours.

Ok that explains last night. But this has been an ongoing trend since December. This isn’t a 1 game thing.

 

[bbncal02]

Ok that explains last night. But this has been an ongoing trend since December. This isn’t a 1 game thing.

This. It's become a disturbing trend.

The slow starts.
The lack of contact seeking.
Just no DOGS outside of Butler and Oweh and Kerr. Sometimes Carr has it.

I'm not mad at Pope by any means unless he doesn't figure it out.

 

[MegaBlue05]

We had effort at the beginning. When the other team can mug you but you aren’t allowed to breathe on them, it saps the effort real quick. Players get confused and play tentative because they don’t know wtf they can do or not do. That’s poor officiating and it ruins A LOT of college basketball games anymore, not just ours.

Fully agreed. I watch a lot of games from around the country. Road wins are hard to come by because officials tend to subconsciously be biased towards the home team (Florida game at Rupp notwithstanding).

Some refs seem like they’re there to perform for the fans with their late whistles and dramatic motions.

Officiating isn’t an excuse for last night as we shot poorly and got bludgeoned on the boards. But, that game was called differently at both ends. UGA could play as physical as they want. UK got called for touch fouls on defense and were allowed to be mugged on offense. UGA also might’ve set 5 screens that weren’t illegal by rule.

 

[SkyPrince1]

Three top 10 wins 31/79 3pt 39.2%
Three losses 17/74 23%.
Plus Lamont had a career day from 3 vs UL that probably kept us from losing.
The three point shot hides a lot of deficiencies of this team.

 

[king of cali]

Three top 10 wins 31/79 3pt 39.2%
Three losses 17/74 23%.
Plus Lamont had a career day from 3 vs UL that probably kept us from losing.
The three point shot hides a lot of deficiencies of this team.

Yes it does.

 

[TTTblue24]

How many air balls did we shoot last night?? I know we’re not going to make them all but my goodness can we atleast hit the rim?? And why have we stopped looking to push the ball in transition?? Started to remind me cal holding his hand up all the time, but this team is going to have to lock in defensively. We can’t score so we need to try to limit others from as well instead of making AAs out of guys.

 

[UKWILDCAT2004]

We had effort at the beginning. When the other team can mug you but you aren’t allowed to breathe on them, it saps the effort real quick. Players get confused and play tentative because they don’t know wtf they can do or not do. That’s poor officiating and it ruins A LOT of college basketball games anymore, not just ours.

This.

Anyone who plays or have played basketball understands no matter how hard you try this gets in your head. The guy guarding you is allowed to hand check you all night long with minimum fouls. You (Lamont) barely gets up into guy on a 3 point shot and he is rewarded by going to the line. We won't even get into the physical play their bigs were allowed to get away with and how ours weren't. I don't care who you are when your opponent is allowed to shoot 31 to 9 free throws at one point you have to play absolutely perfect at that point. I don't think it's too much to ask of SEC officials to just be consistent. However you want to call it keep it the same from the tip to to the end. What's a foul on one end should be the same on the other. If they would do that a lot of it would be cleaned up. The SEC and Mike Eades should be ashamed of how they officiate games.

 

[kennyskywalker34]

Just a bad game on the road. Road games are different animals for everyone.

We have talented players but they each have limitations.

All these guys have had games of just not showing up mentally and physically for whatever reason.

We had opportunities last night for a different outcome but just couldn't capitalize.

You can question a lot of things. Like last night we didn't we mix up defensive strategies?

Why not see what a zone would look like?

Why not press a lot more? We needed to speed up the game but never pushed or pressured to do so.

If they would have pressed more the refs would have fouled the entire team out.

 

[ala_kat2]

I mostly agree with all the sentiments about the officiating. However, our guys seem to shy away from contact at times. How many shots under the backet did we pass up early to throw it back outside for a contested three? Out Bigs need to go through the defender instead of around him at times. Georgia got more calls because they were beating us off the dribble all night long. Why not play a Zone in those situations? The officiating was bad, but we have to be stronger. Not sure we have the mentality to fix it.

 

[docholiday51]

We are doing what we are doing with a collection of 2nd or 3rd best players from their previous teams. Our early success was a bit of fools gold. We are a somewhere between decent and good as a team. We are similar to Pope's BYU team of last year. We will win some games we shouldn't and lose some we should win. All that being said I doubt the 1996 or 2012 teams would have won that game last night(the officials were that bad)

 

[sk73]

We had effort at the beginning. When the other team can mug you but you aren’t allowed to breathe on them, it saps the effort real quick. Players get confused and play tentative because they don’t know wtf they can do or not do. That’s poor officiating and it ruins A LOT of college basketball games anymore, not just ours.

You may be right about poorly officiated games in general. Last night our effort was weak, very weak. Outside of Butler and 6 minutes of Perry, I saw a much slower, less intense version of our team. Playing with less effort usually puts you positions to foul more often. Having said that, the officiating was very poor in last nights game. The monitor was used last night more than I used it with my first daughter.

 

[Cats192]

The rebounding has been a constant issue. The effort on the boards needs to improve.

As far as offense and defense--I thought the effort was there. We just weren't allowed to touch Georgia and they were allowed to manhandle us.

If this continues, the SEC road games are going to be even worse than we expected--and we already thought they would be ridiculously difficult.

 

[JFCats22]

Three top 10 wins 31/79 3pt 39.2%
Three losses 17/74 23%.
Plus Lamont had a career day from 3 vs UL that probably kept us from losing.
The three point shot hides a lot of deficiencies of this team.

Yep, great point. We have some GREAT wins but we are a Gonzaga miracle and a Butler explosion away from this team being seen in a totally different light.

I still think we are a solid team but we have now dropped to #15 in the NET and #22 in KenPom. We are hovering in the 4/5 seed range with 3 top 10 wins on our resume. That's not ideal.

 

[Bluesnky]

I mostly agree with all the sentiments about the officiating. However, our guys seem to shy away from contact at times. How many shots under the backet did we pass up early to throw it back outside for a contested three? Out Bigs need to go through the defender instead of around him at times. Georgia got more calls because they were beating us off the dribble all night long. Why not play a Zone in those situations? The officiating was bad, but we have to be stronger. Not sure we have the mentality to fix it.

Garrison went through the defender and was called for a charge on a play I have never seen called a charge. He backed his man down, got an angle, and with two hands on the ball used his elbow to the side to fend off the defensive player. It’s pretty much exactly what we are asking for.

 

[Digger-Cat]

This is the 3rd game where we looked lifeless. Jaxson needs to get straightened out, he has this really bad body language stuff way too often.

But we have guys on this team that will take this personally and will try their best not to get punked again. It's a learning experience, even for veterans.

This is an elite league with more physicality from team to team than I have seen in a long time and our guys play with finesse. However, they have been getting more physical from game to game. Baby steps.

The weird thing to me is we had seniors getting frustrated and doing dumb things just to lash out, that has to stop.

Problem is, they're going to Mississippi State on Saturday, these guys could play tough as nails and still lose by 20.

The 2010/11 team went through this, couldn't win on the road for nothing, but by the end of the year, they learned from all those losses. Hopefully it doesn't take that long for this team.

 

[the nail at the foul line]

Whistle happy refs that call games one-sided make playing games like playing basketball in a minefield. You're scared to do anything because you're going to hear a whistle.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Fair enough. Admittedly dozed off, but I went back and watched pieces I could stomach. Just tired of seeing this team get out muscled.
At the end of the day, it's an L, bad officiating or not. Committee won't care.

Wonder how much difference Kerr would make.

We always get screwed by the officials.

Our team is a finesse team and will struggle and lose to physical teams. The committee will put a physical team as our first round and potential 2nd round opponents.

 

[docholiday51]

Whistle happy refs that call games one-sided make playing games like playing basketball in a minefield. You're scared to do anything because you're going to hear a whistle.

In the SEC games the fta disparity has been 73-43 and we are a finesse team. Something is wrong with this picture. It also seems that on shooting fouls called against us the refs wait to see if the ball goes in before deciding to blow the whistle

 

[yoshukai]

Would love to see Amari go play in Europe. Immediately.

We would be cooked without him.

 

[yoshukai]

How many air balls did we shoot last night?? I know we’re not going to make them all but my goodness can we atleast hit the rim?? And why have we stopped looking to push the ball in transition?? Started to remind me cal holding his hand up all the time, but this team is going to have to lock in defensively. We can’t score so we need to try to limit others from as well instead of making AAs out of guys.

Like my grandfather used to say “Robinson couldn’t hit a bull in ass with a bass fiddle “ .

 

[InAcorner]

Would love to see Amari go play in Europe. Immediately.

Why even post anymore?

 

[Boyd94]

Three top 10 wins 31/79 3pt 39.2%
Three losses 17/74 23%.
Plus Lamont had a career day from 3 vs UL that probably kept us from losing.
The three point shot hides a lot of deficiencies of this team.

How many free throws in those wins and losses?

 

[bucsrule8872]

No one is giving UGA any credit. They are a good team and they were desperate. They knew they had to win their home opener or fall to 0-2. They know they won’t win on the road. They cannot lose at home. Every team knows they have to protect home court. They will fight tooth and nail to protect home court. They wanted it more, for good reason. They had waaaay more to lose than we had to gain.

 

[Digger-Cat]

No one is giving UGA any credit. They are a good team and they were desperate. They knew they had to win their home opener or fall to 0-2. They know they won’t win on the road. They cannot lose at home. Every team knows they have to protect home court. They will fight tooth and nail to protect home court. They wanted it more, for good reason. They had waaaay more to lose than we had to gain.

Honestly, UGA did not look like a good team, they're probably going to lose all their road games and a couple at home. They stole one from us.

I get that the road is a hard place to play, especially in this conference, but in all 3 of our losses, we were completely disjointed, out of sync and looked like we just woke up from a Terrance Jones nap.

Wide open looks became airballs/bricks and our guys got frustrated, started making a bad problem (foul disparity) into a worse problem by not staying mentally focused. They let the refs get in their heads.

My hope is, they let this burn in real good (stole that from Red Dawn) and not let it happen again.

 

[TOMCATS1990]

I thought we started the game with great effort but then the refs took over. 2 quick fouls on Oweh and 2 on Williams. They had one FG, a 3 by blue but were hanging with us due to free throws.

Yeah at the first tv timeout Georgia was something like 1-8 from the field KY 5-9 from the field and Georgia was 1 point behind. You have to shoot incredible to overcome playing 5 on 8.

 

[bucsrule8872]

Honestly, UGA did not look like a good team, they're probably going to lose all their road games and a couple at home. They stole one from us.

I get that the road is a hard place to play, especially in this conference, but in all 3 of our losses, we were completely disjointed, out of sync and looked like we just woke up from a Terrance Jones nap.

Wide open looks became airballs/bricks and our guys got frustrated, started making a bad problem (foul disparity) into a worse problem by not staying mentally focused. They let the refs get in their heads.

My hope is, they let this burn in real good (stole that from Red Dawn) and not let it happen again.

UGA is better than people on here give them credit for.

Conversely, we are not as good as some people thought we were.

We are not a top 5-10 team in the country.

We have overachieved thus far.

 

[jwphelps]

This is not an attack on Pope or anyone.

But the one thing I didn’t think we’d have to worry about any longer is a lack of effort from our players. What has happened? Did everyone just get a big head after some gutsy wins? What has changed? Or are we just seeing a lack of talent?

The lack of effort bothers me the most. If you get beat going all out, tip your hat. But this lack of effortt and energy for a few players needs to stop.

This team really needs a Chuck Hayes, Winston Bennett or Maglore, when teams are allowed to get really physical we don't respond well,

 

[UKWildcats1987]

UGA is better than people on here give them credit for.

Conversely, we are not as good as some people thought we were.

We are not a top 5-10 team in the country.

We have overachieved thus far.

I was about to say. He says uga will lose a couple at home and most road games. He just described UK as well potentially.