Very Weird Game

[CatFanInIlliniLand]

This game had some very odd moments that I keep replaying in my head. No, this isn’t an attempt to defend Cal. I’m 100% ready for him to ride off into the sunset & take his floppy action offense with him. Here’s some moments that come to mind:

1. That LSU FT at the end that bounces all the way up, hits the top of the backboard, bounces in. Friendly bounce to say the least.

2. Obviously, the last play. Busted play that fell into LSU’s hands in the perfect spot.

3. The lob in the 2nd half to Thiero that ended up being a missed dunk. Nothing against Thiero, he played great and that play takes athleticism. Just looked beautiful & ran to perfection….until it missed. Could have used those 2 points.

4. The Ref had a very friendly whistle to the Home team.

5. Reed had a layup attempt on a drive (late 1st half) that appeared to just slip out of his hands. He put the burners on around the 3 point line, blew past his defender, then ended up having to do some sort of two handed back to the basket reverse lay up attempt.

Many, many more sequences that could be analyzed in a game this close. This is why you put your foot on their neck when up 15.

 

[MissingWCC]

This game had some very odd moments that I keep replaying in my head. No, this isn’t an attempt to defend Cal. I’m 100% ready for him to ride off into the sunset & take his floppy action offense with him. Here’s some moments that come to mind:

1. That LSU FT at the end that bounces all the way up, hits the top of the backboard, bounces in. Friendly bounce to say the least.

2. Obviously, the last play. Busted play that fell into LSU’s hands in the perfect spot.

3. The lob in the 2nd half to Thiero that ended up being a missed dunk. Nothing against Thiero, he played great and that play takes athleticism. Just looked beautiful & ran to perfection….until it missed. Could have used those 2 points.

4. The Ref had a very friendly whistle to the Home team.

5. Reed had a layup attempt on a drive (late 1st half) that appeared to just slip out of his hands. He put the burners on around the 3 point line, blew past his defender, then ended up having to do some sort of two handed back to the basket reverse lay up attempt.

Many, many more sequences that could be analyzed in a game this close. This is why you put your foot on their neck when up 15.

It was the cat from outer space.

 

[BigBlueManSouthCentralKY]

We gave them too many offensive rebounds. We have three seven footers and should not be beat on the boards. A lot of that is whoever gives the most effort. Ugo was standing away from the basket too many times. Reeves and Sheppard needs to be in the game most of the time. Refs took over the second half. Got Reeves out of the game, gave them tons of fouls and missed a few fouls we drew. All that stuff adds up.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

Both teams had a string of crazy missed layups and bunnies at one point in the first half. We continued our bad luck in the 2nd half.

By bad luck, I also mean that Cal can't coach his way out of a wet paper bag if the score is close.

COACHING MALPRACTICE

 

[WeWant9]

Honestly, this has kind of been common for UK the last 4 years.

 

[CASblue]

Honestly, this has kind of been common for UK the last 4 years.

Can't agree more. Seems like we see this each and every season.

 

[ThunderCat98]

We gave them too many offensive rebounds. We have three seven footers and should not be beat on the boards. A lot of that is whoever gives the most effort. Ugo was standing away from the basket too many times. Reeves and Sheppard needs to be in the game most of the time. Refs took over the second half. Got Reeves out of the game, gave them tons of fouls and missed a few fouls we drew. All that stuff adds up.

How in the heck do we have 3 - 3!!! - 7 footers and not one of them could rebound to save their life? It's insane.

 

[NociHTTP]

We gave them too many offensive rebounds. We have three seven footers and should not be beat on the boards. A lot of that is whoever gives the most effort. Ugo was standing away from the basket too many times. Reeves and Sheppard needs to be in the game most of the time. Refs took over the second half. Got Reeves out of the game, gave them tons of fouls and missed a few fouls we drew. All that stuff adds up.

I know most here would not do such a thing, but I'd just sit Ugo and Bradshaw, and if we lose just tell the media "if they're not going to fight for rebounds they make themselves unavailable". And give the playing time to Z. And if he does the same thing they do, then he can become unavailable too. Pure laziness, afraid of contact is all that can really be said about these guys.

 

[ManitouDan]

From reading the game thread Reeves was on fire and he yanked him . Insanity to pull a guy thats in a groove .

 

[westerncat]

I thought we play some bad defense in the 2nd half.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

From reading the game thread Reeves was on fire and he yanked him . Insanity to pull a guy thats in a groove .

To be fair, Reeves did receive THREE phantom foul calls off the ball. It's almost like the refs didn't want him to keep scoring.

 

[CatsFanIL]

I know most here would not do such a thing, but I'd just sit Ugo and Bradshaw, and if we lose just tell the media "if they're not going to fight for rebounds they make themselves unavailable". And give the playing time to Z. And if he does the same thing they do, then he can become unavailable too. Pure laziness, afraid of contact is all that can really be said about these guys.

Ugo has been pretttttty impactful the last couple weeks. This seems like a strange knee-jerk reaction from you. He's coming off a game with 10 blocks, another game where he played 36 minutes because he was so solid - this just seems like a strange take. I wish he grabbed more rebounds last night as well, but he still was 2nd on the team in rebounds (7 total), but only recorded 1 block. I'd definitely like to see him be more aggressive in blocking shots against a team that attacked the rim as often as LSU did last night.

But Ugo ain't the problem you're making him out to be

 

[ManitouDan]

Ugo has been pretttttty impactful the last couple weeks. This seems like a strange knee-jerk reaction from you. He's coming off a game with 10 blocks, another game where he played 36 minutes because he was so solid - this just seems like a strange take. I wish he grabbed more rebounds last night as well, but he still was 2nd on the team in rebounds (7 total), but only recorded 1 block. I'd definitely like to see him be more aggressive in blocking shots against a team that attacked the rim as often as LSU did last night.

But Ugo ain't the problem you're making him out to be

If .. IF this were not a year with such high expectations coming in then allowing Big Ugo to progress at his own pace then everything would be seen with less pressure .. But we have an explosive force in Dilly , a smooth heady sniper in Reed , an All American playing his ass off with Reeves , and we need just a slight constant inside to be a force in the NCAAT and the SEC regular season, but roster mis management at the 4 spot has screwed everything up . I guess I'll say it because I believe , Ugo cant get us to where this team should have gotten too, NOT entirely his fault at all , he's been throw into the fire by dumb Bennie and he's really not ready .

 

[X-Man96]

While Ugo gets some blocks, which is good, he sometimes hurts us more than helps us.

He is out of position a lot on defense. He is also very weak. Guys knock him off the block all the time. Doesn't have the best or strongest hands either. Goes for every ball fake. All of these things can be improved with experience. Should have gotten more experience last season but Cal buried him on the bench.

Unfortunately he is still miles better than Bradshaw on the defensive end.

 

[WyleECoyote]

Where was the floppy action that destroyed Auburn? We left that in Alabama I guess. Tonight was loose balls, offensive rebounds and turnovers that beat us. What cause those turnovers? The lack of an offensive plan, all we did was weave and go 1v1 and only did a screen if the handler wanted one. It was pick up basketball. Defense was the same way. We went out and played a pick up game.

 

[Imafan4evr_]

It would be a shorter list to take note of the games that weren’t weird since around November, 2020 at this point.

 

[NociHTTP]

Ugo has been pretttttty impactful the last couple weeks. This seems like a strange knee-jerk reaction from you. He's coming off a game with 10 blocks, another game where he played 36 minutes because he was so solid - this just seems like a strange take. I wish he grabbed more rebounds last night as well, but he still was 2nd on the team in rebounds (7 total), but only recorded 1 block. I'd definitely like to see him be more aggressive in blocking shots against a team that attacked the rim as often as LSU did last night.

But Ugo ain't the problem you're making him out to be

He needs to make an effort to rebound. No excuses not to. That's not reactionary, it's been a problem from day one with all of our bigs. Because he's not as bad as the others doesn't exempt him from criticism. Strange take from you as well.

 

[nptb]

The refs wanted to be part of this game in the worst. The fouls they called on Reeves were for him slightly grabbing the jersey of his man trying to keep up. As physical as these games have been, the officials and particularly one official choosing to call that was so weak. You could tell he knew he was fvcking up when Rob was talking to him about the fouls they were calling and our guards not getting the same treatment up to that point. The cats got 3 straight whistles directly after Rob had words for the official. He was basically saying its cool when they do it but it's a problem when we do it.

People the cats are starting to play physical and are matching the energy of their opponents.

 

[susan2361]

How in the heck do we have 3 - 3!!! - 7 footers and not one of them could rebound to save their life? It's insane.

I was just thinking the same thing. Getting ready to post that thought then I saw yours. Great minds, huh?!?!😃🤣

 

[Jont0805]

Did someone ever figure out how it’s possible to get a shot clock violation 23 seconds into the game?

 

[katwest]

Fountain and Reed dominated for them, if they played that way all the time, I would have heard of them. They also played without Cook, their leading scorer, those two both played about 20 minutes and both had above averages in points and rebounds against Kentucky. Sound familiar doesn't it, players upping their game against Kentucky, only being average other games.

 

[CatsFanIL]

He needs to make an effort to rebound. No excuses not to. That's not reactionary, it's been a problem from day one with all of our bigs. Because he's not as bad as the others doesn't exempt him from criticism. Strange take from you as well.

So you think he makes no effort to rebound? 7 rebounds just fell into his lap last night, I suppose. He had 11 rebounds against Auburn, those fell into his lap as well? I assume his 16 rebounds against Florida wasn't enough of an effort for you as well?

He has 3 games of double-digit rebounds, 4 more games of 6+ rebounds. He's constantly rotating over to block shots, as designed and instructed, which also rotates him OUT OF POSITION to grab rebounds.

Again, just an absurd take on your part. I understand being frustrated after a loss, but just throwing shi*t at the wall and calling it a take is.....something else....

 

[CatFanInIlliniLand]

If .. IF this were not a year with such high expectations coming in then allowing Big Ugo to progress at his own pace then everything would be seen with less pressure .. But we have an explosive force in Dilly , a smooth heady sniper in Reed , an All American playing his ass off with Reeves , and we need just a slight constant inside to be a force in the NCAAT and the SEC regular season, but roster mis management at the 4 spot has screwed everything up . I guess I'll say it because I believe , Ugo cant get us to where this team should have gotten too, NOT entirely his fault at all , he's been throw into the fire by dumb Bennie and he's really not ready .

I think the problem is we all expected Bradshaw to play like a lottery pick based on recruiting rankings.

I’ll admit, I’ve fallen for those rankings way too many times. Bradshaw, Edwards & Wagner seem to be great people, but none of them have played up to their rankings.

 

[aceman509]

Refs were bad but one of the biggest calls of the game helped us in a major way. LSU had what was probably a clean steal on Reeves and a run out dunk and instead they called a foul on them which put Reeves in the 1 and 1 where he made both.

You can always point to certain calls and say things are lucky or unlucky but it all averages out in the long run. Bottom line is you need to be good enough so that those things dont directly turn Wins into Losses

 

[HenryMuto]

Still can't get over this loss. Thought about watching back the game but just can't do it. So frustrating to lose this game.

Don't forget Dilly hitting the game tying 3 pointer late and got clearly fouled on it (the one they called it a 2 originally) and no foul called. Even those idiot announcers we had to listen to all game said it was a foul.

That FT going up to the top of the backboard and falling in was stupid crazy to get that to go in.

Those 3 quick fouls on Reeves all off the ball jacked up our foul count getting them to the line sooner plus taking Reeves out of the game at the worst possible time as they were making their big run.

Despite all this Dilly hit some unreal shots the 3 ball to tie the up and under layup foul for AND 1 to cut it to 1 and then of course the Dilly 18 footer to take the lead.

Such a damn shame to waste Dilly's effort to will this team to a win.

All that said it was Dilly's guy who made the put back no reason for him to be so far off his guy.

Just a maddening sickening loss that I can't get over.

 

[yoshukai]

Both teams had a string of crazy missed layups and bunnies at one point in the first half. We continued our bad luck in the 2nd half.

By bad luck, I also mean that Cal can't coach his way out of a wet paper bag if the score is close.

COACHING MALPRACTICE

lol, Ugo shot an airball from 3 FEET !

 

[yoshukai]

He needs to make an effort to rebound. No excuses not to. That's not reactionary, it's been a problem from day one with all of our bigs. Because he's not as bad as the others doesn't exempt him from criticism. Strange take from you as well.

He is terribly uncoordinated , especially hand eye coordination. He’s off balance on defense ALOT . Both hinder his rebounding ability.

 

[AzubuikeandFitch]

How in the heck do we have 3 - 3!!! - 7 footers and not one of them could rebound to save their life? It's insane.

Because anytime the opponent runs a high screen and roll our bigs are drawn way too far out on the perimeter. There's no need for a big to extend that far out. One step beyond the free throw line and you can still close out/contest a shot and still protect the rim without being out of position. It leads to easy baskets and poor rebound positioning.

Furthermore, they consistently attempt to block shots from the weak side and give up easy rebound put backs. Above everything else, defense and rebounding is simply heart and effort.