Scrooge
* That was one of the more frustrating losses of the Cal era yesterday, all things considered. That was a game Kentucky should have won, and really needed to win considering the fact that there are going to be a few road losses out there that this team just won't be able to dodge.
* UCLA is not a good basketball team. That's a borderline NCAA team with probably zero professional players (maybe Welsh) and we had to fight in the second half to keep them from running away from us. Did I say frustrating?
* Defense. As in: we're in trouble. This team got beat on a plethora (can I say plethora on Christmas Eve?) of actions last night. They were beaten off the dribble. Beaten on pick and pop (OMG the pick and pop) by Feathers Welsh. Beaten on straight line drives. If you're looking for a sign of doom and one thing that will likely keep this team from competing for even an SEC title, it begins on the defensive end. Not one stopper on this team.
* Low energy. This is to be expected in a lot of ways, and we saw it in this same event against Ohio State two years ago: it's Christmas, the gym is practically empty, the atmosphere is pretty stagnant. But this young Kentucky team got a lead and played very well for that one stretch in the first half, and then they thought they could just float through the rest of the game. What actually happened was that UCLA beat us to virtually every loose ball, they outworked us in almost every way imaginable, and the game came apart at the seams.
The Grinch
* Quade Green. Ouch. Quade came off arguably his best game as a Cat and put up his worst game. He even went to a variety of different shades before ditching them altogether, which hurt something in my soul. But really the most worrying thing was that there were multiple loose balls in his area, and he just could not get to them. And when they isolated him defensively, he could stay in front of no one. His lack of athleticism came out yesterday in so many ways.
* Shooting woes. Kentucky fired up a 21 threes yesterday, which is about the target that John Calipari wants. But they only hit 6, and were doubled up by UCLA in that stat. (Oddly, all the other stats in this game were eerily similar.) This was one of the more disappointing things about this game, particularly as they were coming off a Virginia Tech game that saw them torch the nets. But if you go 6-21, you better hit the offensive glass. We couldn't, and UCLA turned the game into a slog in the last 10 minutes.
* Steve Alford has Cal's number. That's 3 out of the last 5 for Alford, who is obviously not considered one of the nation's elite coaches. I think the reason for it is probably because Alford runs a screen-heavy system that UK has trouble with. I noticed in yesterday's game and in the game in Rupp last year that they just really baffled us on so much stuff where they ball screened and flat screened and pinned down and did all kinds of unusual stuff that I just don't think we practice. But whatever the reason, it's disappointing to continue losing games to a program that Kentucky should really be out-classing.
* The most devastating section of the game was when Wenyen (who I thought gave the most heart of anybody) hit the two threes in a row only to see UCLA go down and knife us with two threes of their own. That was when the game was there for us to take, and we couldn't take it.
* PJ Washington: still not enough. Washington is just not as in on the game as he needs to be. Had only one little run where he registered as a game-changing player. Otherwise he was just out there. This is a team that needs everybody on board if it's going to be special, and too many times UK has one or two guys playing and the others just kind of floating through the game.
The Ghost of Christmas Future
* After a game like that, one inevitably starts to look ahead. It really rattles everything you believed about the team and its ceiling. The team we saw yesterday is that 7- or 8-loss team in the SEC, and the one that probably has to fight to not go home in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. In short, it's a team that really doesn't register in the national discussion. That's a really disappointing turn of events, and I just hope that Vanderbilt comes back and is as good as advertised, and/or yesterday's game was just a slip on the ice.
* A lot of discussion after the game about how apathetic people are about this team. I've heard it out in the world: people are just not fired up about this team at all. So many of my friends have told me they just haven't caught any of the games. This is what happens when one and done goes haywire. We don't have elite players outside of Knox and at times Diallo, we don't have a cohesive team yet, and when you get a situation like we had yesterday I think people start to move from apathetic to infuriated. We need the Louisville win in the worst way.
* That was one of the more frustrating losses of the Cal era yesterday, all things considered. That was a game Kentucky should have won, and really needed to win considering the fact that there are going to be a few road losses out there that this team just won't be able to dodge.
* UCLA is not a good basketball team. That's a borderline NCAA team with probably zero professional players (maybe Welsh) and we had to fight in the second half to keep them from running away from us. Did I say frustrating?
* Defense. As in: we're in trouble. This team got beat on a plethora (can I say plethora on Christmas Eve?) of actions last night. They were beaten off the dribble. Beaten on pick and pop (OMG the pick and pop) by Feathers Welsh. Beaten on straight line drives. If you're looking for a sign of doom and one thing that will likely keep this team from competing for even an SEC title, it begins on the defensive end. Not one stopper on this team.
* Low energy. This is to be expected in a lot of ways, and we saw it in this same event against Ohio State two years ago: it's Christmas, the gym is practically empty, the atmosphere is pretty stagnant. But this young Kentucky team got a lead and played very well for that one stretch in the first half, and then they thought they could just float through the rest of the game. What actually happened was that UCLA beat us to virtually every loose ball, they outworked us in almost every way imaginable, and the game came apart at the seams.
The Grinch
* Quade Green. Ouch. Quade came off arguably his best game as a Cat and put up his worst game. He even went to a variety of different shades before ditching them altogether, which hurt something in my soul. But really the most worrying thing was that there were multiple loose balls in his area, and he just could not get to them. And when they isolated him defensively, he could stay in front of no one. His lack of athleticism came out yesterday in so many ways.
* Shooting woes. Kentucky fired up a 21 threes yesterday, which is about the target that John Calipari wants. But they only hit 6, and were doubled up by UCLA in that stat. (Oddly, all the other stats in this game were eerily similar.) This was one of the more disappointing things about this game, particularly as they were coming off a Virginia Tech game that saw them torch the nets. But if you go 6-21, you better hit the offensive glass. We couldn't, and UCLA turned the game into a slog in the last 10 minutes.
* Steve Alford has Cal's number. That's 3 out of the last 5 for Alford, who is obviously not considered one of the nation's elite coaches. I think the reason for it is probably because Alford runs a screen-heavy system that UK has trouble with. I noticed in yesterday's game and in the game in Rupp last year that they just really baffled us on so much stuff where they ball screened and flat screened and pinned down and did all kinds of unusual stuff that I just don't think we practice. But whatever the reason, it's disappointing to continue losing games to a program that Kentucky should really be out-classing.
* The most devastating section of the game was when Wenyen (who I thought gave the most heart of anybody) hit the two threes in a row only to see UCLA go down and knife us with two threes of their own. That was when the game was there for us to take, and we couldn't take it.
* PJ Washington: still not enough. Washington is just not as in on the game as he needs to be. Had only one little run where he registered as a game-changing player. Otherwise he was just out there. This is a team that needs everybody on board if it's going to be special, and too many times UK has one or two guys playing and the others just kind of floating through the game.
The Ghost of Christmas Future
* After a game like that, one inevitably starts to look ahead. It really rattles everything you believed about the team and its ceiling. The team we saw yesterday is that 7- or 8-loss team in the SEC, and the one that probably has to fight to not go home in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. In short, it's a team that really doesn't register in the national discussion. That's a really disappointing turn of events, and I just hope that Vanderbilt comes back and is as good as advertised, and/or yesterday's game was just a slip on the ice.
* A lot of discussion after the game about how apathetic people are about this team. I've heard it out in the world: people are just not fired up about this team at all. So many of my friends have told me they just haven't caught any of the games. This is what happens when one and done goes haywire. We don't have elite players outside of Knox and at times Diallo, we don't have a cohesive team yet, and when you get a situation like we had yesterday I think people start to move from apathetic to infuriated. We need the Louisville win in the worst way.
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