Is there any silver lining today?

[bbncal02]

Not looking for moral victories at all but is there any reason to be hopeful for the rest of the year?

I mean if defense doesn’t get better, we won’t go anywhere. I don’t understand how a team that is so good in transition and has the speed to get by their man (DJ and Dilly especially) can’t guard a a fence post. Why do we lack such lateral quickness?

 

[HenryMuto]

Any reason to be hopeful for rest of year ? Maybe the fact we are 12-3. It isn't like we fell to 7-7 after this loss folks. It was a road game. It was against a team desperate to win. We had a shot go in and out that would won it for us. We lost in OT. It was not like we lost by 20 or something.
What are we talking about here.

 

[M4CAT]

Ugonna gave them serviceable minutes off the bench. About all I can think of.

 

[Aike]

Hit 15 threes and were 22/11 assist/turnovers in a tough road environment.

We had the ball in a tie game under 30 seconds. We were technically an underdog.

 

[cardkilla]

It's freakin middle of January. I don't know if our fans just started watching basketball or can't remember that good teams get exponentially better going into March. Defense is usually last to come around. Weird considering how everyone been crying about offense for years and now it's defense they whining about.

 

[Easternkybb]

It's freakin middle of January. I don't know if our fans just started watching basketball or can't remember that good teams get exponentially better going into March. Defense is usually last to come around. Weird considering how everyone been crying about offense for years and now it's defense they whining about.

Yea I’m not worried either. I think we finish 40-0.

 

[Ky_Bred_Cat]

That is the absolute best A&M has to offer. So, there's that.

 

[BGCATFAN2012]

Any reason to be hopeful for rest of year ? Maybe the fact we are 12-3. It isn't like we fell to 7-7 after this loss folks. It was a road game. It was against a team desperate to win. We had a shot go in and out that would won it for us. We lost in OT. It was not like we lost by 20 or something.
What are we talking about here.

Well said but we hate losing to middle of the pack schools when we have a mountain to climb already. We need a one seed plus payed refs or Cal will never win another title. Toe stomping on the road is things that kill your seed.

 

[KYFOSSIL]

Not looking for moral victories at all but is there any reason to be hopeful for the rest of the year?

I mean if defense doesn’t get better, we won’t go anywhere. I don’t understand how a team that is so good in transition and has the speed to get by their man (DJ and Dilly especially) can’t guard a a fence post. Why do we lack such lateral quickness?

Honestly you really need to just step back after a loss. Nobody is impervious and with everything we did wrong we did alot right.

 

[MegaBlue05]

Nope.

All hope is lost. Ranked in the top 10 and dropped a road game we were underdogs in played in early January in the same week as 5 of the top 6. I don’t think this team recovers. NIT bound.

 

[cardkilla]

Yea I’m not worried either. I think we finish 40-0.

LOL

 

[BBNinSC]

Ugonna gave them serviceable minutes off the bench. About all I can think of.

The experience Ugo got today will help the team going forward. He had a good game

 

[Wildcats1st]

No. None. We couldn’t stop a mediocre team when we needed to. We get these opportunities the last several years to be a top team and crap the bed. The game was wild I mean we had a possession to win it and turned it over. No this game today sucked

 

[aikenite4uk]

Yea I’m not worried either. I think we finish 40-0.

What an asinine comment.

 

[YardCat]

We were underdogs by Vegas for a reason

 

[ukfan1622]

Our defensive rebounding was horrendous and has to get better. On the other hand, we held them to 40% field goal for the game which certainly isn't bad at all. They did hit almost the same % on threes but that was at least as much about them making tough clutch shots than our 3 defense. It's okay to admit that the other team isn't trash and also wants to win so they sometimes do.

To end on a positive note this team's 9 man rotation includes five true freshmen, two sophmores with little experience before this season(and one of the two coming off an injury and only 3 games of action so far). One of our two seniors is a transfer so this is his first year in the system. That leaves Reeves as the only non-freshman with experience in our defensive schemes. It was very unrealistic for anybody to expect this team to be good on defense for the 1st half of the year. We should all be happy that his team can make shots and will almost certainly be better on defense by tournament time.

 

[ukcatz12]

Well said but we hate losing to middle of the pack schools when we have a mountain to climb already. We need a one seed plus payed refs or Cal will never win another title. Toe stomping on the road is things that kill your seed.

A&M isn't a middle of the pack school despite what their record says. There's a reason we were an underdog today. Conference road games are incredibly though no matter who you play, and A&M is a good team. They were 34th in Kenpom and this would have been a Quad 1 win.

 

[WCSPlayedWRInHS]

Y’all seriously have to take a breath. It’s always possible to lose on the road in conference. This team has tons of fight, tons of guts. Stop losing faith every single time we hit a bump in the road.

 

[ukcatz12]

No. None. We couldn’t stop a mediocre team when we needed to. We get these opportunities the last several years to be a top team and crap the bed. The game was wild I mean we had a possession to win it and turned it over. No this game today sucked

A&M is not a mediocre team.

 

[OmahaCats]

Well said but we hate losing to middle of the pack schools when we have a mountain to climb already. We need a one seed plus payed refs or Cal will never win another title. Toe stomping on the road is things that kill your seed.

We don’t “need’ a 1 seed. Sure it would be nice. But from watching March madness year after year. The seeds maybe matter in your first game. That’s about it

 

[wcc31]

- Thiero is a very important piece and a big game player.

- Mitchell won’t have many more games like that.

- Dillingham is a gamer.

- Cal is still learning about us in clutch situations.

- Wagner continues to improve.

- Onyenso showed some good stuff.

- Got some more experience for this young team.

 

[MegaBlue05]

Y’all seriously have to take a breath. It’s always possible to lose on the road in conference. This team has tons of fight, tons of guts. Stop losing faith every single time we hit a bump in the road.

BUT WE HAVE TO GO UNDEFEATED AND WIN EVERY GAME BY 30 OR ALL IS LOST!!! RAWAR.

 

[CASblue]

Well said but we hate losing to middle of the pack schools when we have a mountain to climb already. We need a one seed plus payed refs or Cal will never win another title. Toe stomping on the road is things that kill your seed.

This is what goes through my mind when we lose these type of games. Sure A&M may show that they are better than what they’ve shown earlier this season, but at what cost to UK? It could be the reason we get bumped to a 4, or the vulnerable 5 seed that gets beat by the 12. Obviously we may not be one seed material but another loss that could affect our seeding and shows othet coaches/teams our weakness to further exploit.

 

[Easternkybb]

What an asinine comment.

Once again we got a name caller. Grow up and learn basketball so you don’t sound asinine lol.

 

[CBBCrazy]

There is the opportunity for a silver lining. Every game we have lost we were missing one or two or more players. If we ever get the whole team healthy we may make some noise. Here's hoping we do anyway.

 

[Wildcats1st]

A&M is not a mediocre team.

They aren’t good. 10-6. Idk what you call that. They aren’t bad but not good.

 

[ukcatz12]

They aren’t good. 10-6. Idk what you call that. They aren’t bad but not good.

There's a reason we were an underdog today. This would have been a quad 1 win, they are top 50 in Net and Kenpom and a conference road game against a top 50 team will always be tough no matter how you slice it. We just saw a string of top 10 teams lose to unranked conference teams on the road for this very reason.

 

[KYExtemper]

Tons of other ranked teams went down this week so we may not lose much ground?

 

[Runnin'Ramel]

Silver lining is Thiero was out and people are realizing just how much he brings to the floor .... hopefully that includes Cal?

 

[truckbrandon]

We were not supposed to win today. It was a perfect storm. A&M is a really good team... way better than their record suggests. A&M backs were against the wall, and at home... all that being said- our cats showed a ton of fight, and had the ball with a chance to win at the end of regulation.

 

[Mike-McD]

Not looking for moral victories at all but is there any reason to be hopeful for the rest of the year?

I mean if defense doesn’t get better, we won’t go anywhere. I don’t understand how a team that is so good in transition and has the speed to get by their man (DJ and Dilly especially) can’t guard a a fence post. Why do we lack such lateral quickness?

We're a Sweet Sixteen team at best. Need to start accepting that.

 

[VAWildcat15]

Silver lining? We just lost an SEC road game in overtime in January. Texas A&M was considered a threat to win the SEC in the preseason. We’ve lost to far worse teams than this and still gone to the E8 or farther. Most of the rest of the top ten lost this week and some lost more than once. I’m not even looking for a silver lining. I think the idea that we should be looking for a silver lining after that is absurd from the start.

 

[bbncal02]

Y’all seriously have to take a breath. It’s always possible to lose on the road in conference. This team has tons of fight, tons of guts. Stop losing faith every single time we hit a bump in the road.

I’m not losing faith in the offense. But the defense has to get better. My worry is what if it doesn’t?

 

[bbncal02]

Silver lining? We just lost an SEC road game in overtime in January. Texas A&M was considered a threat to win the SEC in the preseason. We’ve lost to far worse teams than this and still gone to the E8 or farther. Most of the rest of the top ten lost this week and some lost more than once. I’m not even looking for a silver lining. I think the idea that we should be looking for a silver lining after that is absurd from the start.

Doesn’t bother you at all that we gave up 89 in regulation? Other insiders and media people seem to be bothered by that but hey. The fact we can’t stay in front of our man isn’t conserving at all. Literally nobody by maybe DJ can guard right now.

 

[VAWildcat15]

Doesn’t bother you at all that we gave up 89 in regulation? Other insiders and media people seem to be bothered by that but hey. The fact we can’t stay in front of our man isn’t conserving at all. Literally nobody by maybe DJ can guard right now.

Your OP didn’t ask for concerns, it asked for silver lining. I didn’t think silver lining was even necessary but I think I provided examples anyway. But sure, pretend like I have no issues with this team because I didn’t answer a question you didn’t ask.

 

[bbncal02]

Your OP didn’t ask for concerns, it asked for silver lining. I didn’t think silver lining was even necessary but I think I provided examples anyway. But sure, pretend like I have no issues with this team because I didn’t answer a question you didn’t ask.

I think when you’re looking for silver linings there are problems and concerns. They kinda go hand in hand.

 

[VAWildcat15]

I think when you’re looking for silver linings there are problems and concerns. They kinda go hand in hand.

So make that a thread then. If you wanted negativity you should have asked for that. I’m not going to answer a thread asking for silver linings by complaining about everything I can think of to complain about, unless the season is clearly lost.

And I don’t think that’s what is happening here. I would have responded much differently to this thread last season, as an example.

 

[KYFOSSIL]

We're a Sweet Sixteen team at best. Need to start accepting that.

You accept it. I wont

 

[CatOfDaVille]

Reed was cold-blooded on those two FTs to tie it up at the end of regulation. I loved seeing him smiling on the line too.

We have some absolute killers on this team.

That's my silver lining.

 

[KyCPA]

Any reason to be hopeful for rest of year ? Maybe the fact we are 12-3. It isn't like we fell to 7-7 after this loss folks. It was a road game. It was against a team desperate to win. We had a shot go in and out that would won it for us. We lost in OT. It was not like we lost by 20 or something.
What are we talking about here.

Desperation does not make a poor offensive team shoot better. The defense is terrible and so is the rebounding with no sings of improving. We all see another disappointing post-season coming. That is why fans are upset.