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Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 12-13-2020, 12:15 PM:

Not sure anyone saw this coming. The Wildcats are off to a very ugly 1-4 with losses to every team that was top-100 caliber to start the season. The result is four consecutive losses with double-digit defeats to Richmond and Georgia Tech while Kansas and Notre Dame were able to win squeakers. UK has a bunch of questions to answer and they didn’t seem to find any answers after the first week of Camp Cal.

Things aren’t set to get any easier with matchups against UCLA and Louisville looming away from home before SEC play begins. UK is not a good offensive basketball team at the moment while the defense has strangely disappeared in unfortunate moments this season. The lackluster effort in the first half against Notre Dame costed the team a chance at getting a much needed win.

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Posted by m hamilton (Member # 127) on 12-13-2020, 12:29 PM:

It's beginnings like this season is seeing for us that always makes me wonder how AP pollsters predict us so high in the polls at the beginning of the season . Especially when you have a team like we are putting on the floor right now that has never played for a single second at KY.
Yeah, 2 of our players have played college ball before but not with one another!

Posted by clydeh (Member # 7) on 12-13-2020, 02:11 PM:

My wife says that they are young and are used to being "the man" and are not yet a team.
She has been watching basketball since the late forties and learned a lot from her Dad. I hope she is correct in her idea that they need more time but will be a team.

Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 12-13-2020, 03:39 PM:

Clydeh, you got yourself one smart Lady that knows her basketball.....

[ 12-13-2020, 04:45 PM: Message edited by: catmandoo ]

Posted by clydeh (Member # 7) on 12-13-2020, 06:11 PM:

Cat,
Her Dad was a great high school basketball coach. She told me that she went to many games and listened to his coaching. She also was around some times at practices.

Posted by m hamilton (Member # 127) on 12-13-2020, 06:21 PM:

Lady I go to church with, their family has season tickets for football, said today that they've turned the corner in the second half of yesterdays game. Her family used to own a coal mine or two in eastern KY.

Posted by clydeh (Member # 7) on 12-13-2020, 07:19 PM:

Hamilton, my wife is originally from Eastern Kentucky and her dad owned some coal mineral rights. They lived in Inez, KY, and he coached the Inez basketball team for many years.

Posted by Bama Cat (Member # 153) on 12-13-2020, 10:43 PM:

I also think they finally learned a lesson. They can compare the halves and see what happens with no defense and a pretty good defense. If they don't see that they will never play much for Cal. This was the game they should have a good understanding that they must play good defense for 40 minutes, not play it in short stretches when they feel like it. Mintz has got to start at this point and you could see that Mintz playing caused Askew to really pick up his defense. Sarr was finally moving into position to make his 12-15 foot jumper. Clarke looked like he was learning he must play D on his man instrad of chasing him. I am not so sure how far up the ladder of the SEC we will finish but I would bet we don't win the conference and may have a hard time finishing in the top 3 positions.

Posted by PaulCat (Member # 513) on 12-14-2020, 07:20 AM:

I think ND just tried to run out the clock the entire second half. We did play much better, but the game was close because ND laid down.

Posted by m hamilton (Member # 127) on 12-14-2020, 09:10 AM:

I honestly think ND got tired in the second half as well. If you notice, some of those shots that were falling for ND in the first half, were coming up short in the second half. They were losing their legs

Posted by Tiptree (Member # 844) on 12-14-2020, 03:54 PM:

ND plays their starters over 35 minutes per game; that does make them vulnerable at the end of games to fatigue.

I think both of you are correct. ND was running the shot clock down to almost nothing before shooting, and they were losing their legs. I think that they wanted to bleed some clock after they built that huge lead, but I also think our improved defense forced them to shoot even later in the clock than they wanted to.

Really, that second half was something to watch. On defense, we were active, going over screens, sticking with our man, challenging shots and passes. On offense, we had good spacing, moved without the ball, and ran the offense through the post, either getting Sarr in a position to score or getting a good look on the arc after the post pass.

Posted by ALA_KAT2 (Member # 1559) on 12-16-2020, 08:16 PM:

Good take, Tiptree. Also, ND was not getting nearly as many good looks from three in the 2nd half. Their point guard made several shots in the game, but he made three or four turnovers in the 2nd half due to loose ball-handling and UKs better on-ball defense.
We need to play the offense through Sarr more often, space the court and play inside-out. Cal’s teams recently have had trouble doing this (playing inside-out with good spacing).