Kentucky was playing a road game against a really bad Vanderbilt team and struggling. Apathy was growing as we now appeared to be in our 5th straight season of underwhelming UK basketball. I don’t think anyone expected much. People had all but given up on Tubby and were ready to move on. I was one of them.
Down 8 at halftime, something happened in that locker room. Kentucky came out and experienced one of the biggest turn arounds in quality of play in a single game ive ever seen. Ended up winning by 22. And it wasn’t because they just caught fire either. They shot okay that second half but weren’t exactly burning the nets down. They just smothered Vanderbilt on defense.
I don’t know what Tubby said in that locker room. I heard part of it was just “guys, we’re better than this”. But somehow he pushed a button that he’d been struggling to find for 4 years. That was the hardest i’d seen us play collectively since the 1998 title team. That team won their next 9 by double figures. 4 of them conference road games and that was in route to winning 26 in a row. 3rd longest UK winning streak in my lifetime.
Im bringing this up because i feel like this is where we are now. It’s either hope for a nearly unprecedented turn around (ie cal magically finally finding the right button) or we’re left looking for consolations. That said that 2003 season at least gives us a reason to not give up on this group of players or season. It’s possible.
What would our consolations be if we don’t turn it around? If we don’t accomplish anything worth note this season, at least we didn’t suffer the embarrassment of losing to a historically bad UL team. I’m also hoping we can somehow win some of the tougher remaining home games against Kansas and Tennessee. Maybe we can protect home court. Ive seen plenty of teams worse than ours pull off similar upsets at home. We have talent. Teams like that often get beer muscles and manage to find motivation against superior competition. Don’t see why that can’t be us at this point. Lastly we’d be that much closer to moving on.
Down 8 at halftime, something happened in that locker room. Kentucky came out and experienced one of the biggest turn arounds in quality of play in a single game ive ever seen. Ended up winning by 22. And it wasn’t because they just caught fire either. They shot okay that second half but weren’t exactly burning the nets down. They just smothered Vanderbilt on defense.
I don’t know what Tubby said in that locker room. I heard part of it was just “guys, we’re better than this”. But somehow he pushed a button that he’d been struggling to find for 4 years. That was the hardest i’d seen us play collectively since the 1998 title team. That team won their next 9 by double figures. 4 of them conference road games and that was in route to winning 26 in a row. 3rd longest UK winning streak in my lifetime.
Im bringing this up because i feel like this is where we are now. It’s either hope for a nearly unprecedented turn around (ie cal magically finally finding the right button) or we’re left looking for consolations. That said that 2003 season at least gives us a reason to not give up on this group of players or season. It’s possible.
What would our consolations be if we don’t turn it around? If we don’t accomplish anything worth note this season, at least we didn’t suffer the embarrassment of losing to a historically bad UL team. I’m also hoping we can somehow win some of the tougher remaining home games against Kansas and Tennessee. Maybe we can protect home court. Ive seen plenty of teams worse than ours pull off similar upsets at home. We have talent. Teams like that often get beer muscles and manage to find motivation against superior competition. Don’t see why that can’t be us at this point. Lastly we’d be that much closer to moving on.
