The Good
* Fox and Briscoe playing a game of 21. Without them we obviously lose this game. These guys were really the only two who bothered to show up in Nashville.
The Bad
* Kentucky's bench. What in the world? Every guy Cal threw out there managed to under-perform the last guy. It was a total comedy of errors starting the second the fouls began to rack up.
* Kentucky's defense. ONCE AGAIN those ball screens on the side killed us. Again we had guys out of position. Cal has always switched everything as we all know, and we got hurt early on by having our small guys on their bigs--but as the game went along and we started to try and work over the screens, Vandy just got open shot after open shot. If they hit those wide open threes they not only win, it's a rout.
* Walking the ball up the court. Like Louisville, Cal was okay playing at Vandy's pace. Instead of being dead-set determined to sprint it up like he did against Arkansas, we began to play at a slow-drip pace. This let a team that has no depth virtually stay fresh all the way through.
* Cal not acknowledging that Luke Kornet had four fouls. What was happening here? The guy gets four with a ton of time left, and I think Bam got the ball exactly one time on the block after this. Just boneheaded coaching and losing himself in the moment. That ball should have gone in to Bam as soon as Kornet came back in the game.
The Ugly
* Isaiah Briscoe taking jumpshots at terrible times. It's hard to fault Briscoe too much, but on at least three crucial possessions he ended up with the ball for a jumper. Vandy was playing the ol' "stand forty feet away from him" defense, and it baited Briscoe into those bad shots. When he attacked he was obviously unstoppable, but the three in late-game situations needs to be put in the drawer.
* Derek Willis scuffling. Willis got attacked last night from every conceivable angle, and instead of bowing up he shrunk away from the game. He was really bad and somehow stood out in a game that was chock full of badness.
* The ghost of Riley LaChance. The player with the second most punchable face in basketball next to Grayson Allen hurt us bad in this game. If I ran into this guy in the mall I'd think he was a professional Magic: The Gathering player or maybe a cinephile. Something to do with staying indoors virtually all the time. That he inexplicably balled out against Kentucky makes me a little sick to my stomach.
* One block. The interior defense was nonexistent last night, partially because of the foul parade but also because nobody seemed to want to block a shot. One block isn't getting it done for a Calipari-coached team.
* Bam's inability to grab rebounds. Several balls fell into Bam's hands last night and he couldn't corral them. On one huge possession this actually helped us as the ball caromed right to Briscoe for a lay-up. But for a guy who's usually sure-handed, Bam just could not hold on to the rock last night.
The Egregious
* The officiating. Kentucky fans don't have the only beef here. As the game went on I thought Vandy got jobbed more than UK. But the refs were horrendous all the way around, starting with the touch fouls early and ending with the bizarre way every whistle in the last five minutes seemed to come seven seconds late. The fouls changed the way this game could be played and was at least partially the reason Vandy was able to run their offense the way they wanted to. I watched Kansas and Oklahoma last night and the refs at Vandy would have called the police.
* Fox and Briscoe playing a game of 21. Without them we obviously lose this game. These guys were really the only two who bothered to show up in Nashville.
The Bad
* Kentucky's bench. What in the world? Every guy Cal threw out there managed to under-perform the last guy. It was a total comedy of errors starting the second the fouls began to rack up.
* Kentucky's defense. ONCE AGAIN those ball screens on the side killed us. Again we had guys out of position. Cal has always switched everything as we all know, and we got hurt early on by having our small guys on their bigs--but as the game went along and we started to try and work over the screens, Vandy just got open shot after open shot. If they hit those wide open threes they not only win, it's a rout.
* Walking the ball up the court. Like Louisville, Cal was okay playing at Vandy's pace. Instead of being dead-set determined to sprint it up like he did against Arkansas, we began to play at a slow-drip pace. This let a team that has no depth virtually stay fresh all the way through.
* Cal not acknowledging that Luke Kornet had four fouls. What was happening here? The guy gets four with a ton of time left, and I think Bam got the ball exactly one time on the block after this. Just boneheaded coaching and losing himself in the moment. That ball should have gone in to Bam as soon as Kornet came back in the game.
The Ugly
* Isaiah Briscoe taking jumpshots at terrible times. It's hard to fault Briscoe too much, but on at least three crucial possessions he ended up with the ball for a jumper. Vandy was playing the ol' "stand forty feet away from him" defense, and it baited Briscoe into those bad shots. When he attacked he was obviously unstoppable, but the three in late-game situations needs to be put in the drawer.
* Derek Willis scuffling. Willis got attacked last night from every conceivable angle, and instead of bowing up he shrunk away from the game. He was really bad and somehow stood out in a game that was chock full of badness.
* The ghost of Riley LaChance. The player with the second most punchable face in basketball next to Grayson Allen hurt us bad in this game. If I ran into this guy in the mall I'd think he was a professional Magic: The Gathering player or maybe a cinephile. Something to do with staying indoors virtually all the time. That he inexplicably balled out against Kentucky makes me a little sick to my stomach.
* One block. The interior defense was nonexistent last night, partially because of the foul parade but also because nobody seemed to want to block a shot. One block isn't getting it done for a Calipari-coached team.
* Bam's inability to grab rebounds. Several balls fell into Bam's hands last night and he couldn't corral them. On one huge possession this actually helped us as the ball caromed right to Briscoe for a lay-up. But for a guy who's usually sure-handed, Bam just could not hold on to the rock last night.
The Egregious
* The officiating. Kentucky fans don't have the only beef here. As the game went on I thought Vandy got jobbed more than UK. But the refs were horrendous all the way around, starting with the touch fouls early and ending with the bizarre way every whistle in the last five minutes seemed to come seven seconds late. The fouls changed the way this game could be played and was at least partially the reason Vandy was able to run their offense the way they wanted to. I watched Kansas and Oklahoma last night and the refs at Vandy would have called the police.
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