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Kentucky vs. Clemson Game Thread

I don't think it's that, I think they're just out matched. Aside from this Zackery kid, I'm not sure if we're any more talented than this Clemson team. Now think about how many times we can say that with Cal. Just not something we're used to seeing, and we really need Pope's class next year.

This might just be a tough year.

But we were also out matched vs Duke.

And tbh, I don't think we were outmatched vs this team or out talented. We simply don't have shot creators. Like at all.
 
I’m feeling that I need to temper my expectations with this team. I just don’t see that we have that one guy that can score one on one to create those gaps and power plays. I thought we played with good defensive effort but poor defensive IQ.
You can't win on the road against a great team when you shoot like that.
 
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We had our chances. Still think we’re one of the teams with a chance to win it all.
What are you smoking? We have zero chance to win it all. Let's hope we make March Madness and hopefully get to round of 32. If we do that we will have had a great job of coaching by Pope. We have to be more realistic and just enjoy what we have after getting the entire squad depleted.
Welp... we played like inexperienced freshmen. We'll see the same type of intensity against nearly every SEC away game
We will see more intensity in every SEC road game. Remember guys, it is hard to win on the road. I think we beat Clemson by 5 in Rupp. Clemson will be one of the better ACC teams this year. It is not a disgrace to loose to Clemson on the road.
 
I hope we get that fixed. How many times in the Cal era did bad FT shooting bite us like it did tonight.

I feel like we have a lot of experienced guys here. Not to say they couldn't improve but after years of track records I tend to just think they are what they are.

Like Williams
61%
61%
66%
62%

Going forward I'm going to assume he's going to shoot in the 60s.
 
Amari Williams - 9 pts, 11 Rebs
Lamont Butler - 16, 5 assists
Otega Oweh - 17 pts, 7 Rebs

Jaxson Robinson - 12 pts, 4 Rebs

Andrew Carr - 5 pts, 5 Rebs

Bench - 4 players combined for 7 pts, 6 Rebs.

Thats the tiers on who came to play tonight. Pope was tight with his rotation. I’m guessing he’s going to say that he went with who he thought could defend the best.
 
Meh… I’m not too worried about it. Frenzied crowd, many, many curious calls by the refs, uncharacteristic poor shooting night from the floor and the FT line, perhaps a mistake not getting Brea more minutes in the second half, and to top it all off we had an opponent YET AGAIN bank in a prayer of a 3 point shot… and we only lost by 4 points.

Plenty of easy fixes here and this game is a win. Time to move on to Gonzaga.
 
I still prefer Pope.. but my problem with THIS years team as opposed to Cal teams.. is that Cal teams still have the talent that can beat any team, as evidenced by beating Alabama last year.

Yes we beat Duke, but that's looking more like a 2nd half collapse By duke after watching these last few games.

It's Pope's first year, so we can't expect much, but this just isn't a very talented team. I know I keep saying it, but it's just glaringly obvious. They struggle with better teams DESPITE Pope's coaching and scheme.

This has always been the thing. But he has to get a pass this year since he literally could not recruit.

But yeah.......ultimately you need good coaching but that could only take you so far. You still need some top tier guys.
 
You may be right and we may be soft as a team overall, but I think we’re just not that athletic and quick enough to be effectively aggressive on both offense and defense. We are a finesse team.
You can tell even when a slow player playing hard. I never felt like we were playing hard. It looked like we believed we could start making 3s whenever we wanted to win the game and we didn't.
 
May be time to see if one of the young kids can be an alternative to Kriisa.
I’ve never been his biggest fan even going back to when he signed, but he’s just not been good at all so far this year. We knew he was going to be a trade defense for offense kind of guy anyway, but he’s shooting 28% from the field. He’s been a total bust so far, and he hurt us a lot tonight when Butler was battling injuries and fouls.
 
I don't think Perry is near ready to compete at an SEC level, but I'm not sure he'd be worse than Kerr
Not sure how he could be with what we’ve gotten from Kriisa so far. maybe a good time to see if he can ever play at this level or if he’s more of a mid-major type kid. And there’s no shame in that if he is.
 
Not gonna lie. Felt like a Cal Era loss. And that's what sucks the most about this.


it was our first road test in a crazy environment. This was nothing like a Cal loss to me. Pope played his rotation trying to keep the guys fresh and mindful of their foul situation.
 
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Amari Williams - 9 pts, 11 Rebs
Lamont Butler - 16, 5 assists
Otega Oweh - 17 pts, 7 Rebs

Jaxson Robinson - 12 pts, 4 Rebs

Andrew Carr - 5 pts, 5 Rebs

Bench - 4 players combined for 7 pts, 6 Rebs.

Thats the tiers on who came to play tonight. Pope was tight with his rotation. I’m guessing he’s going to say that he went with who he thought could defend the best.
Yeah the bench was rough, I wish we got a four minute stretch of Chandler just to see how he looked. I would put Williams in the second tier with Robinson.
 
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His back down dribbling skills are atrocious. I cringe every time he dribbles the ball.
I could live without him bringing the ball up the court but Shieflin or whatever his name was - was on him most of the night and he couldn't stop him. The big russian guy was focused on Carr
 
We had the same exact number of offensive and defensive rebounds as Clemson. That doesn't happen very often.
 
Nothing that happened this game changes my mind about what I think this team can accomplish this year tho. This was a coinflip game. All predictions said it would be.

And the game was back and forth. Both teams went on runs.

Strangely, this the FULL GAME into account, I feel better about this than I did the Duke game. The Duke game we were completely overmatched the majority of the game.

This wasn't that at all.
 
Is Clemson great though? I don’t think Clemson is great, they’re alright, Kentucky just sucked for the third game In a row.
Let's debate the word great until midnight. You're obviously up for that.

They're not great. I'm tired, and meant to use the word good, but I want you to focus on that word, because that's what matters right now, right?
 
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it was our first road test in a crazy environment. This was nothing like a Cal loss to me. Pope played his rotation trying to keep the guys fresh and mindful of their foul situation.

I get what you're saying. Just felt like Pope had no answers. I'm not panicking. Pope is s good coach. Just didn't have it tonight. Happens to all coaches. Could be worse....could be UConn.

Just lowering expectations a bit. And worried about the physicality of the SEC.
 
What are you smoking? We have zero chance to win it all. Let's hope we make March Madness and hopefully get to round of 32. If we do that we will have had a great job of coaching by Pope. We have to be more realistic and just enjoy what we have after getting the entire squad depleted.

We will see more intensity in every SEC road game. Remember guys, it is hard to win on the road. I think we beat Clemson by 5 in Rupp. Clemson will be one of the better ACC teams this year. It is not a disgrace to loose to Clemson on the road.
We’ll see i guess. I haven’t seen anybody that much better when we’re playing well. Think you’re putting way too much stock into losing on the road to a good team. We weren’t going 40-0.
 
We basically got nothing from any of the bench players and Carr was terrible, along with Amaris numerous turnovers. Rebounding and free throw shooting killed us!
 
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We’ll know much more about this loss in Feb/March. I think Clemson is a tournament team.

I still think we finish around 21-10 to 23-8. Thanks very good in today’s P5 conferences. SEC is loaded this year
 
I get what you're saying. Just felt like Pope had no answers. I'm not panicking. Pope is s good coach. Just didn't have it tonight. Happens to all coaches. Could be worse....could be UConn.

Just lowering expectations a bit. And worried about the physicality of the SEC.

Bringing up Uconn is a great point tho.

Hurley.......the guy a lot of people wanted as coach on this board. The guy who's team won back to back National Titles. That team has lost 3 in a row. And their schedule isn't going to get any easier any time soon.

It happens to even good coaches.
 
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