UKs slow start this season is easily explained away

[HerrosHeroes]

Injuries and toughness of schedule as well as location of games and 4 new players transitioning into the 7 man rotation.

Im not a big excuses guy but the first half of this UK basketball season has been wrought with peril:

-Oscar’s knee surgery
-Wheeler’s knee injury
-Collins Dad passing
-CJ’s dislocated shooting finger
-Wallace’s back problems
-Toppin and Wheeler’s shoulder injuries

I realize most teams have to deal with injuries and sometimes tragedy but what I listed is more than a team’s fair share, especially in less than half a season.

Now, couple that with basically 4 key players (Reeves, Frederick, Livingston and Wallace) trying to acclimate themselves into the Kentucky system.

Finally, look at the schedule amount of tough games and where those tough games were played:

at Gonzaga
v Michigan St
v UCLA
at Mizzou
at Alabama
at UT

6 of UKs toughest 10 games of the season before mid Jan. all away from Rupp.

A + B + C = 12-6.

Now, look at our schedule the rest of the way. Potentially zero games left v ranked teams on the road and only 2 more games v ranked teams at Rupp (KU and UT).

UK has a Generational Talent in Oscar, easily one of the five greatest to ever play at Kentucky and maybe the best.
We have 4 really good guards.

The team has found their lineup and if we can stay relatively healthy the rest of the way UK has the horses to potentially get back to the FF and then who knows after that?

 

[HagginHall1999]

Let's just beat TAM and go from there...

 

[Aike]

It can be explained away by poor coaching decisions.

 

[K_TIME]

So what?

Oscar knee injury is the line thing we had lingering start the season as an explanation

- Collins is not helping us win games we’ve won lately ….and never was going to help regardless
- CJ finger didn’t get hurt until the last week of December
- Wallace back hasn’t been an issue since sec play
- Toppin has had shoulder tape from get gi
-Wheeler back problems..was last weekend

None of this explains Michigan st ucla Gonzaga

 

[Blue Bigfoot]

The only issue holding us back is an apparent brain injury to the coach's noggin.

 

[Kats meow]

Im not a big excuses guy but….

You lost me at “but”.

 

[SaltyCat22]

I swear we have some crackhead fans, especially the Calipari Militia.

 

[JST390-2]

Ok well I see most here already beat me to the main point lol …playing the right personnel

 

[jwphelps]

Injuries and toughness of schedule as well as location of games and 4 new players to the 7 man rotation.

Im not a big excuses guy but the first half of this UK basketball season has been wrought with peril:

-Oscar’s knee surgery
-Wheeler’s knee injury
-Collins Dad passing
-CJ’s dislocated shooting finger
-Wallace’s back problems
-Toppin and Wheeler’s shoulder injuries

I realize most teams have to deal with injuries and sometimes tragedy but what I listed is more than a team’s fair share, especially in less than half a season.

Now, couple that with basically 4 key players (Reeves, Frederick, Livingston and Wallace) trying to acclimate themselves into the Kentucky system.

Finally, look at the schedule amount of tough games and where those tough games were played:

at Gonzaga
v Michigan St
v UCLA
at Mizzou
at Alabama
at UT

6 of UKs toughest 10 games of the season before mid Jan. all away from Rupp.

A + B + C = 12-6.

Now, look at our schedule the rest of the way. Potentially zero games left v ranked teams on the road and only 2 more games v ranked teams at Rupp (KU and UT).

UK has a Generational Talent in Oscar, easily one of the five greatest to ever play at Kentucky and maybe the best.
We have 4 really good guards.

The team has found their lineup and if we can stay relatively healthy the rest of the way UK has the horses to potentially get back to the FF and then who knows after that?

I call bull crap

 

[the nail at the foul line]

It can be explained away by poor coaching decisions.

Hey, he said he wasn't a big excuse guy.

I don't think he's a big self-awareness guy either.

 

[STL_Cat]

I was tempted to actually formulate a legit reply to this and thought better of it.

 

[KYCAT78]

Injuries and toughness of schedule as well as location of games and 4 new players transitioning into the 7 man rotation.

Im not a big excuses guy but the first half of this UK basketball season has been wrought with peril:

-Oscar’s knee surgery
-Wheeler’s knee injury
-Collins Dad passing
-CJ’s dislocated shooting finger
-Wallace’s back problems
-Toppin and Wheeler’s shoulder injuries

I realize most teams have to deal with injuries and sometimes tragedy but what I listed is more than a team’s fair share, especially in less than half a season.

Now, couple that with basically 4 key players (Reeves, Frederick, Livingston and Wallace) trying to acclimate themselves into the Kentucky system.

Finally, look at the schedule amount of tough games and where those tough games were played:

at Gonzaga
v Michigan St
v UCLA
at Mizzou
at Alabama
at UT

6 of UKs toughest 10 games of the season before mid Jan. all away from Rupp.

A + B + C = 12-6.

Now, look at our schedule the rest of the way. Potentially zero games left v ranked teams on the road and only 2 more games v ranked teams at Rupp (KU and UT).

UK has a Generational Talent in Oscar, easily one of the five greatest to ever play at Kentucky and maybe the best.
We have 4 really good guards.

The team has found their lineup and if we can stay relatively healthy the rest of the way UK has the horses to potentially get back to the FF and then who knows after that?

I think it is because Cal sucks as a Coach.

 

[Fox2monk]

This is legitimately the best 12-6 team ever.

 

[Jont0805]

It could be the whole square peg and round hole thing. Then once national media shredded Cal and did his job for him by showing him the line ups and the success and failures of each Cal played that group a little more.

Not by choice against Tennessee, but down 8 at half he checked twitter and realized his errors.

 

[Deli owl]

Injuries and toughness of schedule as well as location of games and 4 new players transitioning into the 7 man rotation.

Im not a big excuses guy but the first half of this UK basketball season has been wrought with peril:

-Oscar’s knee surgery
-Wheeler’s Playing
-Collins Dad passing
-CJ’s dislocated shooting finger
-Wallace’s back problems
-Toppin and Wheeler’s shoulder injuries

I realize most teams have to deal with injuries and sometimes tragedy but what I listed is more than a team’s fair share, especially in less than half a season.

Now, couple that with basically 4 key players (Reeves, Frederick, Livingston and Wallace) trying to acclimate themselves into the Kentucky system.

Finally, look at the schedule amount of tough games and where those tough games were played:

at Gonzaga
v Michigan St
v UCLA
at Mizzou
at Alabama
at UT

6 of UKs toughest 10 games of the season before mid Jan. all away from Rupp.

A + B + C = 12-6.

Now, look at our schedule the rest of the way. Potentially zero games left v ranked teams on the road and only 2 more games v ranked teams at Rupp (KU and UT).

UK has a Generational Talent in Oscar, easily one of the five greatest to ever play at Kentucky and maybe the best.
We have 4 really good guards.

The team has found their lineup and if we can stay relatively healthy the rest of the way UK has the horses to potentially get back to the FF and then who knows after that?

Fixed it for you

 

[$Z71$]

Injuries and toughness of schedule as well as location of games and 4 new players transitioning into the 7 man rotation.

Im not a big excuses guy but the first half of this UK basketball season has been wrought with peril:

-Oscar’s knee surgery
-Wheeler’s knee injury
-Collins Dad passing
-CJ’s dislocated shooting finger
-Wallace’s back problems
-Toppin and Wheeler’s shoulder injuries

I realize most teams have to deal with injuries and sometimes tragedy but what I listed is more than a team’s fair share, especially in less than half a season.

Now, couple that with basically 4 key players (Reeves, Frederick, Livingston and Wallace) trying to acclimate themselves into the Kentucky system.

Finally, look at the schedule amount of tough games and where those tough games were played:

at Gonzaga
v Michigan St
v UCLA
at Mizzou
at Alabama
at UT

6 of UKs toughest 10 games of the season before mid Jan. all away from Rupp.

A + B + C = 12-6.

Now, look at our schedule the rest of the way. Potentially zero games left v ranked teams on the road and only 2 more games v ranked teams at Rupp (KU and UT).

UK has a Generational Talent in Oscar, easily one of the five greatest to ever play at Kentucky and maybe the best.
We have 4 really good guards.

The team has found their lineup and if we can stay relatively healthy the rest of the way UK has the horses to potentially get back to the FF and then who knows after that?

This post is the opposite of the doom and gloom Cal must go posts. The true reality falls somewhere in the middle. Is the slow poor start to the season easily explained away? No! Is Cal terrible and needs to go? Also No. Does Cal need to continue to adapt and change some of his coaching mindset? Absolutely!

In reality had we adapted quicker and made changes sooner we could be best case scenario 15-3, and most likely 14-4. We underperformed and lost several games we could have won. We also beat UT which had we adapted sooner we more than likely would have lost.

It’s human nature to overreact and have a “sky is falling” mentality. That’s the survival instincts that have been ingrained in our DNA for thousands of years. Same can be said for the glass half full “pumpers” as well. It’s never as good as we think or as bad as we think. It’s almost always somewhere in the middle. Problem is you can never convince people of that because perception is reality and they’ve lived their entire life with a certain perception and you’ll never convince either side otherwise.