The @%*!#
* If it weren't clear before last night, something is seriously wrong with this team. This is no mere funk; these guys are out of sorts in a way that I haven't seen in the Cal era other than the post-Noel injury team. There is definitely something wrong with them in a pretty profound way. This is deeply disappointing, especially in a year that looks as wide open as this one suddenly looks.
* The illness was a real thing, at least as far as De'Aaron Fox goes. I thought De'Aaron tried his best out there (and ironically along with Mulder I thought they gave us the best efforts) but you could tell he was struggling. He did not look good when the camera zoomed in close to his face.
* Cal looking helpless on the sideline. I noticed this on Tuesday night as well: Cal is feeling it. He seems baffled and disheartened by what he's seeing out there, and apparently he doesn't have any answers or he would've plugged them in by now.
The $@*@!
* You can go an entire lifetime and not see a Kentucky team get punished on the glass like that one did last night. It was incredible and infuriating. In the first half Florida chased down rebounds that caromed right to us. They went over us, through us, next to us...it was mind-bending to sit there and watch that. Never should a Kentucky team as athletic as this one get beat like that. That's just outright softness, and it's yet another thing I'm not sure is really fixable.
* Getting the ball into Bam every time is not working. Bam is clearly not Karl Towns down there, and even if he were the way this team stops dead when he has the ball is hard to watch. Bam is a very good passer; we know that because of the first few games this season. But notice what happens now: he gets the ball, he backs down, he tries to fight for position...and meanwhile everybody else stands and watches. That isn't good basketball, and to top it off it's ending a lot of times with Bam missing the shot. That gameplan needs to be ditched ASAP.
* Bad Isaiah Briscoe. Like Bam, Briscoe gets into these things where he tries to make a move while everybody else on the team stands and watches him. The game does not come easy for Briscoe. Even when he's playing well it's an absolute fight. The ball just kind of sticks to him as he's battling with his defender, and it clogs the rest of the team up. When he's going bad he's very hard to watch, and last night wasn't just bad--it was spectacularly horrendous.
* The officiating left a lot to be desired. There were a bunch of blown and mysterious calls, though it obviously wouldn't have mattered in the final score. The one play in particular where Canyon Berry walked at the top of the key stung. We had some momentum there, the call wasn't made, and Florida promptly scored. I thought Cal was going to be thrown out, and in his heart of hearts I'd say he would have preferred it that way.
The ^*$@$
* Defense in the second half. Again, we held our own defensively for the first half. We forced some turnovers, we held them down, we shut off their best player. In the second half once again everything broke loose. I'm not sure what's happening with this, whether we just quit guarding as the game goes along or if there are physical things going on. But if I have to hear "_____ is shooting 70% in the second half" again I might have a meltdown.
* I didn't see Malik Monk laughing on the bench, so I can't comment on it too much, but clearly it's indicative of where we are right now. A team that's struggling, a coach that obviously has very little idea how to fix it, and players that aren't feeling the necessary pain from getting their butts beat.
* People are going to talk about--and have talked about--the Julius Randle and Brandon Knight teams. And I'm all for trying to find silver linings. The only thing is that with those teams you didn't see a sudden break like you have with this bunch. The Knight team just couldn't win close games on the road; the Randle team had some stuff that stayed pretty static until the tournament. This team was borderline dominant...and then it wasn't. That suggests some kind of rift inside the team and/or that opponents have just figured us out, and we haven't been able to counter. I expect it's a little of both, which is unfortunate because if there is something happening internally to the team, that stuff usually doesn't get fixed.
* It was literally last week when we were talking about Kentucky being in position for a 1 seed. Now we aren't even a 1 seed in the SEC Tournament.
* If it weren't clear before last night, something is seriously wrong with this team. This is no mere funk; these guys are out of sorts in a way that I haven't seen in the Cal era other than the post-Noel injury team. There is definitely something wrong with them in a pretty profound way. This is deeply disappointing, especially in a year that looks as wide open as this one suddenly looks.
* The illness was a real thing, at least as far as De'Aaron Fox goes. I thought De'Aaron tried his best out there (and ironically along with Mulder I thought they gave us the best efforts) but you could tell he was struggling. He did not look good when the camera zoomed in close to his face.
* Cal looking helpless on the sideline. I noticed this on Tuesday night as well: Cal is feeling it. He seems baffled and disheartened by what he's seeing out there, and apparently he doesn't have any answers or he would've plugged them in by now.
The $@*@!
* You can go an entire lifetime and not see a Kentucky team get punished on the glass like that one did last night. It was incredible and infuriating. In the first half Florida chased down rebounds that caromed right to us. They went over us, through us, next to us...it was mind-bending to sit there and watch that. Never should a Kentucky team as athletic as this one get beat like that. That's just outright softness, and it's yet another thing I'm not sure is really fixable.
* Getting the ball into Bam every time is not working. Bam is clearly not Karl Towns down there, and even if he were the way this team stops dead when he has the ball is hard to watch. Bam is a very good passer; we know that because of the first few games this season. But notice what happens now: he gets the ball, he backs down, he tries to fight for position...and meanwhile everybody else stands and watches. That isn't good basketball, and to top it off it's ending a lot of times with Bam missing the shot. That gameplan needs to be ditched ASAP.
* Bad Isaiah Briscoe. Like Bam, Briscoe gets into these things where he tries to make a move while everybody else on the team stands and watches him. The game does not come easy for Briscoe. Even when he's playing well it's an absolute fight. The ball just kind of sticks to him as he's battling with his defender, and it clogs the rest of the team up. When he's going bad he's very hard to watch, and last night wasn't just bad--it was spectacularly horrendous.
* The officiating left a lot to be desired. There were a bunch of blown and mysterious calls, though it obviously wouldn't have mattered in the final score. The one play in particular where Canyon Berry walked at the top of the key stung. We had some momentum there, the call wasn't made, and Florida promptly scored. I thought Cal was going to be thrown out, and in his heart of hearts I'd say he would have preferred it that way.
The ^*$@$
* Defense in the second half. Again, we held our own defensively for the first half. We forced some turnovers, we held them down, we shut off their best player. In the second half once again everything broke loose. I'm not sure what's happening with this, whether we just quit guarding as the game goes along or if there are physical things going on. But if I have to hear "_____ is shooting 70% in the second half" again I might have a meltdown.
* I didn't see Malik Monk laughing on the bench, so I can't comment on it too much, but clearly it's indicative of where we are right now. A team that's struggling, a coach that obviously has very little idea how to fix it, and players that aren't feeling the necessary pain from getting their butts beat.
* People are going to talk about--and have talked about--the Julius Randle and Brandon Knight teams. And I'm all for trying to find silver linings. The only thing is that with those teams you didn't see a sudden break like you have with this bunch. The Knight team just couldn't win close games on the road; the Randle team had some stuff that stayed pretty static until the tournament. This team was borderline dominant...and then it wasn't. That suggests some kind of rift inside the team and/or that opponents have just figured us out, and we haven't been able to counter. I expect it's a little of both, which is unfortunate because if there is something happening internally to the team, that stuff usually doesn't get fixed.
* It was literally last week when we were talking about Kentucky being in position for a 1 seed. Now we aren't even a 1 seed in the SEC Tournament.
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