Ole Miss vs KENTUCKY Game Thread

[Vinnie]

I never in my wildest dreams thought the game against Ole Miss would be like it was tonight. I have to hand it to Andy Kennedy his team came to play and our guys just didn't seem to get their act together until the overtime. That game took at least five years off of my life. Is it possible that all of the hype about UK in the media could have affected our players?

[KevinHall]

This was really a good game to watch just from the pure baketball standpoint. Both teams shot well which doesn't happen much in college basketball anymore. A good hard fought game. But when you are a Kentucky fan and are spoiled by beating everyone fairly easily in the first 13 games of the season it was struggle to get through.
UK let off the gas peddle after the first five minutes,Ole Miss hit some shots,gained confidence and it was game on the rest of the way. Ole Miss was terrific. Their guards played out of their mind and if Moody doesn't cramp up at the end they probably win this game. I also thought Saiz of Ole Miss played a big factor. He was really quick with his hands and was a quick jumper. He caused a lot of problems for UK's bigs. When he fouled out at the end of regulation I thought that would be big if the game went OT.
Ole Miss really exposed a big weakness UK has for leaving their feet on pump fakes. It had been happening some in other games but they really took it to new level tonight. Expect every team in the SEC to pump fake them to death and if UK doesn't correct this they will be on the wrong end of foul shooting in most games. And it will cost them a couple of losses. Ulis was exposed defensivley too. He just doesn't have the strength to handle the more experienced and older guards in the league at this point. Cal may have to limit his minutes against teams with this type of guard play. Both Harrisons were very good tonight. In the end they saved UK. The big guys just weren't there. They were getting out fought most of the time and just not going after balls hard enough.
I do think the platooning is slowly going away. Lee only played one minute. Aaron played 40,WCS 39 and a couple of others were over 30. I think when its all said and done for this seaosn UK will be better off with 8 man rotation.
I think we can put to bed the 40-0 talk for UK or anyone else. There's too much parity in college basketball and when you get into conference play no one is scared of you or will back down. If you don't come ready for a fight you will lose. If someone is undefated by mid February we can seriously talk about it. This team will take a couple or three losses before the conference season is done. Just too many good players and coaches these days and too many games for anyone to go undefeated. I mentioned in another thread that the SEC is better this season. I still stand by that. Not a great league but better than the last two or three years. In the end that will make UK that much better.

[Joneslab]

The platooning was ditched last night the second platoon came in and let Ole Miss back in the game.

If the second platoon comes in and extends that early lead then that game probably doesn't play out like that. But we made it so easy for them to score during that stretch, and from then on it was a fight.

[TrueblueCATfan]

I am willing to bet that Ole Miss will lose their next game and Moody won't be able to buy a basket

[UKBoo]

UK looked very human last night. It seemed that the team play displayed so far on both ends kinda went out the window. I just checked the box score and UK did have 16 assists but I think that number is deceiving because they also had 11 3's and UK almost always gets an assist on 3's. The team defense was the worst I have seen, by far, all year. Ole Miss hedged on the high screens all night and got away with it. Many teams do. UK offered very little help when those two guards were working for 3's. I am not sure what happened in Camp Cal but if this is the result, they need to scrap everything they worked on and get back to basics. Because the UK team that played last night is going to lose several games if they do not. Sure the effort was down after the early fools gold. Sure Ulis had the worst game of his college career. Sure Ole Miss had a couple of guys that shot lights out. But let's give UK quite a bit of credit for that because the help that was given (if given) was horrible.

Many guys seemed to be just going through the motions. Almost everyone, including me, has praised Ulis for his beyond his years focus but he left it in the locker room last night. Not only did he get exposed on defense, but he laid a bunch of bricks to go along with the poor defense. I chalk it up to simply not being focused. Thank goodness for the twins last night. While Andrew wasn't at his total best, he was much improved from the UofL game. Johnson hasn't been the same post up option since he trimmed down. I guess he was using weight instead of strength on the block. WSC was pretty much usless for most of the game. KAT really needs to work on his touch in the post. I cringe when he gets the ball on the block and starts making a move because I feel certain he's going to brick it. Aaron and Booker sort of saved the day on the offensive end but no one should get a smiley sticker for defense last night.

This poor showing may have to do with rust. But they certainly didn't come out rusty. After the 12-0 run and the first subs, it seemed like the guys just checked out. Maybe this is a learning experience. I am hoping this was a learning experience.

[GOCAT15]

I really don't feel that the Defense was that awful last night, if you just take away four of Ole Miss's ridiculous running sideways, fade-away threes with a hand in their face, we win by 10-15 points and the conversation is way different today. It just seems like this team only gets pumped up to play defense in the "big" games. WCS really hustled and made some crucial plays, even though he missed his FT's he still played with the most energy.

[GOCAT15]

I am willing to bet that Ole Miss will lose their next game and Moody won't be able to buy a basket

110% agree, happens all the time after a team plays us. I would bet money that the Game****************s will go into Oxford this weekend and Moody won't be able to make a shot.

[KevinHall]

Oscar Combs re-tweeted a tweet from Ulis. Ulis said it sucks to be sick. That may explain his play more than anything from last night.

[UKBoo]

Yes, the defense was really awful by UK's standards last night IMO. Look at it from a sheer production standpoint.. UK gave up 86 points in 42 minutes last night to Ole Miss of all teams (Ole Miss spotting UK 12-0 the first three minutes). Some of those were circus shots but not 30 something points worth. Many were from hot shooters that had UK players frantically trying to get a hand in their face versus having a guy already in their face.

Here is to hoping Ulis feels better. All in all, most things are bigger than the game and health is close to the top of the list.