The Morning After , dissecting the SS loss .

[ManitouDan]

Not wanting to point fingers or call individuals out , just curious how we fell so far short of our normal offensive production . 65 total points . And how was the opponent able to lock us down . Most glaring stats were rebounding , we just got dominated Carr has 1 rebound Amari has 4 . We were led by Lamont with 6 . The other obvious shortcoming was offense , Brea just got erased . We got nothing from the bench , Chandler looked timid ? Was Tennessee game plan for this one game just superior to our approach ? Did they want it that much more ( appeared that way to me , they were just more focused ). And they had big bench help and we got nothing .

 

[Fitch44]

The first 10 min of the game it was lost.
We did not match their aggressiveness and fight and by the time we started to we were down 15.
Honestly, when Brea didn’t dunk that first back cut and tried to do an unnecessary reverse lay up that he missed I knew that didn’t bode well.
Just didn’t come out with a competitive spirit and got us in a hole we couldn’t get out of.
Tough to watch them go out like that.

 

[ArtLaibsGhost]

Williams and Carr had disappointing games. Brea looked slow and jacked up several bad shots because he couldn't get open. Tennessee quickness and athleticism really bothered us yesterday. Ziegler finally had his usual game against us. Our bench was totally exposed last night, no help at all. Finally Tennessee is playing really well right now, I think they beat Houston and go to Final Four

 

[Ugoff]

The first 10 min of the game it was lost.
We did not match their aggressiveness and fight and by the time we started to we were down 15.
Honestly, when Brea didn’t dunk that first back cut and tried to do an unnecessary reverse lay up that he missed I knew that didn’t bode well.
Just didn’t come out with a competitive spirit and got us in a hole we couldn’t get out of.
Tough to watch them go out like that.

As soon as that layup clanked off the rim I had a bad feeling.

 

[BlueWorldOrder74]

The first 10 min of the game it was lost.
We did not match their aggressiveness and fight and by the time we started to we were down 15.
Honestly, when Brea didn’t dunk that first back cut and tried to do an unnecessary reverse lay up that he missed I knew that didn’t bode well.
Just didn’t come out with a competitive spirit and got us in a hole we couldn’t get out of.
Tough to watch them go out like that.

Yeah, Brea misses an easy one at the rim, next trip Amari air balls 5 footer. I said to my wife, looks we we don’t have it today.

 

[Digger-Cat]

Lack of effort, the rebounding numbers tell the story. The team that plays with effort, is getting the rebounds. Our guys played like it was a pick.up game, which is very surprising to me.

 

[Aike]

1) Got whipped on the glass all night. Could have made a run in the second half had we secured several rebounds.

2) Credit to UT defensively. Injuries caught up to us here, as we needed Brea, and even guys like Noah and Almonor to step up from 3. UT is elite defensively, and our margin for error was thin. Having JR available would have given us redundancy and put much more perimeter pressure on UT.

 

[FirewithFire]

UK didn't play like they wanted it. Tennessee did. We have all seen this version of the team hit the floor in previous games this year. The loses at Ohio State, Arkansas, and that thirty point beatdown all come to mind. It's like they think they are too cool to play hard. idk.

Anyway, this team made it as far as I predicted they would. Just wish it hadn't been Tennessee we lost to.

 

[K_TIME]

1. Tennessee really executed their gameplan well and took our shooters right out of the game. We struggled to score on getting to bucket and post up

2. The one thing I was bothered moreso then giving Tennessee credit is rebounding…just got punked…UK js just as big and we got trounced. Carr 1 , garrison 1 Amari 4 rebounds….just unacceptable. I do hold Pope accountable for the lack of toughness in the game and on the season


Not sure it would have won the game but it would have been under 10 pt game had we
Rebounded snd put game pressure on them

 

[ukwazoo]

Wish it was the EE

 

[AJG-15]

In the warms clips the day before, we could see that some players were considering as optional the warm up exercises. Interesting enough no staff member corrected that.

During the game the same players failed to secure rebounds or make easy layups or make unforced turnovers.

My hat off to Butler and Chandler the only ones that showed up.

My issue is with staff for being to soft on players and nod demanding excellence, for not making adjustments in game preparation and allowing the team to play so flat and with no energy. This game was lost by coaches.

From all the teams in sewer 16 we had the worst showing. We would have lost to anybody regardless of whom the opponent was .

When you don’t rebound, you don’t move and offense and you are ball watching, when you don’t run in transition, when you play hero balll….and the coach allows then the outcome is the one we all seen.

 

[Digger-Cat]

Might need to correct the thread title. EE should be SS.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Team didn't come to play, with a few exceptions. It's like they thought "well we beat them twice already, how hard could this be?"

 

[billoliver40]

We found ourselves in a 19 point hole and couldn't dig out. Tennessee set and controlled the tempo and disrupted any offense with their defense. This team has not been a good rebounding team all year whether that was scheme or talent/ ability...but truth be told we are as similar to Alabama as any team and they beat us three times on the boards.
Some of it was likely the deer in the headlights and pressure of a one game season. Only Butler had experienced that before and that experience showed.
Kentucky actually played Tennessee even in the second half. Poor first half and UT didn't wilt.
Fine season. Hate to see these guys go, but best of luck to all of them.

 

[Titpwhami2014]

Getting beat to loose balls was a major weakness this year. I don’t think it was because we didn’t try or didn’t hustle. As Matt Jones has said all year — UK is probably the least athletic team in the SEC. It was on full display last night. Tennessee has better athletes at most positions. UK offset that in the two regular season matchups with 3-point shooting but didn’t shoot it well last night.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

I just posted this on another Thread, but it seems appropriate for this one. I know we would have been different without the injuries and depleted roster. We just fell behind early on and 3 points became 6, then 7, then 10 and up to 19 and it was a struggle from there to play catch up. I wish we could have closed the gap there in the middle part of the first half before it got so wide, the game may have ended differently. Maybe we should have taken a timeout, though I think we were waiting for the under-12 media timeout and it wasn’t called until 9:36.
We did score 2 more points than UT in the second half, though, so they never gave up and kept fighting.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

The first 10 min of the game it was lost.
We did not match their aggressiveness and fight and by the time we started to we were down 15.
Honestly, when Brea didn’t dunk that first back cut and tried to do an unnecessary reverse lay up that he missed I knew that didn’t bode well.
Just didn’t come out with a competitive spirit and got us in a hole we couldn’t get out of.
Tough to watch them go out like that.

This. For all our experience, we only had one guy with experience at this level. It showed and i knew it when brea botched the great pass by missing that easy layup.

Then in came Chandler who is either all or nothing; and he was certainly nothing. They made a run with him and Garrison and it was over.

I will never understand popes super early sub outs of Butler and Williams. We weren't winning that game anyway, because our bigs somehow weren't ready to battle, but that early sub let them basically put us away in the first 10 minutes of the game.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

The first 10 min of the game it was lost.
We did not match their aggressiveness and fight and by the time we started to we were down 15….

I wonder, at what gap in the score is it best to take a timeout, even if waiting on a media timeout? I think during a very critical stretch where we got down by 10 points UK was waiting on the under-12 Media Timeout, which didn’t come until 9:36, and we were still down by 8 at that point.

 

[Myotis]

I feel the game was lost in the 3-1/2 minutes from 6:30 left in the half until the 3:05 mark, when UT extended their lead from 31-20 to 39-20. From that point on, UK out scored UT 45-39, but they could not close the gap nearly quickly enough. UT defended the three point line extremely well, which really left limited how fast UK could catch up. Both teams shot right at 50% from the field. The Cats did a relatively poor job of defensive rebounding, but perhaps not surprisingly as UT is one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country.

To me, that was the difference. In the first game, UT shot a mere 35% from the field and in the second only 17% from beyond the three point line. Last night UT shot about as well as UK, while limiting UK’s three point opportunities, especially in the first half. That and UT’s prowess at offensive rebounding did in the Cats.

 

[WildcatfaninOhio]

If you’ve watched more than a handful of games in any sport you should understand that dozens of things can affect the outcome, and that sometimes you just can’t pinpoint an exact reason for a loss, or for a win.

Before the season started we had numerous threads here about expectations. IIRC, the consensus was that not much was expected from this group. A win or two in postseason would be great. But we needed to give Pope at least until year 3 to make a deep run. I’m disappointed, of course. But I’ve enjoyed watching this group play. Still proud to be a part of BBN. And looking forward to doing even better next season.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

I feel the game was lost in the 3-1/2 minutes from 6:30 left in the half until the 3:05 mark, when UT extended their lead from 31-20 to 39-20. From that point on, UK out scored UT 45-39, but they could not close the gap nearly quickly enough. UT defended the three point line extremely well, which really left limited how fast UK could catch up. Both teams shot right at 50% from the field. ….

Agree. The gap got too wide early on and became extremely difficult to overcome. It’s hard to recoup 19 points. We didn’t call a timeout until we were down by 15 (4:38).

 

[wobycat]

Barnes game plan is what made KY look bad.
UT intentionally game planned to keep brea out of the game and took chances with one on one with our bigs. Our bigs really aren’t one on one players. Great plan by Barnes. It worked. Pope adjusted in the second half but the damage was done.

 

[king of cali]

Lack of effort, the rebounding numbers tell the story. The team that plays with effort, is getting the rebounds. Our guys played like it was a pick.up game, which is very surprising to me.

Yea indeed. The lack of effort for long stretches of a game happened so many times that it shouldn’t have been surprising. It’s also emblematic of Pope coached teams. That has to change moving forward.

 

[catlogic15]

Barnes schooled Pope last night and Pope seemed ok with it.

 

[BlueRunner11]

Got beat all night staying in front of their man, on the boards, and to 50/50 balls.

All effort and hustle stuff. Just wasn’t there for whatever reason. If they had played with the effort that they showed the last minute and half of the game could’ve looked way differently.

 

[JFCats22]

We were never in this game. From the tip when Brea missed a wide open layup followed by Amari air balling a 4 foot shot I knew it wasn’t going to end well.

UT out hustled UK all night long, got whatever they wanted on offense and controlled the entire game.

I wasn’t going to be too upset if we lost in the Sweet 16 but to get blown out and have it be by UT doesn’t sit well with me.

 

[kats23]

I know this is hard to believe but sometimes when you lose it isn’t because of effort, fight, whatever. It’s just the other team played better. I think that was the case last night.

UT didn’t fall into the trap of just jacking up shots when their first few didn’t fall like the previous two games. They went inside to get baskets. Used their rebounding advantage better getting easier 2’s and more shot opportunities. I think playing in a football stadium really hurt our guys. Brea had a bad game. As it seems all year, if he doesn’t shoot well we don’t win. If we shoot like we did in the first 2 games against them, we might win or at least be a one or two possession game.

UT inside is just more physically daunting than we are. The one thing UK has to get next year is at least one big that can score inside. I think the staff thought it would be Williams, but for all his positive his biggest negative was he wasn’t able to be strong enough in the SEC most nights.

 

[MegaBlue05]

As soon as that layup clanked off the rim I had a bad feeling.

Same.

I said to my buddy “this doesn’t bode well”

 

[MegaBlue05]

Getting beat to loose balls was a major weakness this year. I don’t think it was because we didn’t try or didn’t hustle. As Matt Jones has said all year — UK is probably the least athletic team in the SEC. It was on full display last night. Tennessee has better athletes at most positions. UK offset that in the two regular season matchups with 3-point shooting but didn’t shoot it well last night.

I think this is overlooked.

Our margin for error was razor thin for this game and we HAD to shoot well from 3 to have a chance. We did not shoot 3s well and it showed in the final score.

 

[bbncal02]

As soon as that layup clanked off the rim I had a bad feeling.

Thought that might have been nerves. It was when Amari air balled that 8 footer I was like “Oh no”.

 

[bbncal02]

Barnes schooled Pope last night and Pope seemed ok with it.

You’re crazy if Pope “seemed ok” with it. Have you not seen that video of him walking down the hallway? My brother in BBN, it looked like somebody shot his dog, kissed his wife, and stole his heart.

 

[bbncal02]

Wish it was the EE

Yes and no. Losing in the EE one game before the FF sucks too. Because you were sooooo close. Heck any loss in this tourney sucks.