SEC: Tennessee vs Kentucky Game Thread

[Catatonic]

It's prevalent enough that makes me think it's a Cal thing.

It's definitely a Cal thing, and probably to do with the constant freshmen majority on all these teams. I don't know if he doesn't trust them to manage late game situations, or if they just tighten up on their own and this is Cal trying to coach them through it. But they always play better when they let the game come to them naturally. Grinding it out is sort of the opposite of that.

[Dwight Schrute]

It's definitely a Cal thing, and probably to do with the constant freshmen majority on all these teams. I don't know if he doesn't trust them to manage late game situations, or if they just tighten up on their own and this is Cal trying to coach them through it. But they always play better when they let the game come to them naturally. Grinding it out is sort of the opposite of that.

I think it's just that we're usually not a good enough jumpshooting team to overcome it.

[Lighthouse]

This is 1000% absolutely incorrect. I know for a fact Cal does not like Shows and does not want Shows anywhere near a UK game. Cal would rather have Higgins officiate a UK game than Shows.

Shows may be a nice guy and be passionate about basketball. However, it is clear he has an agenda when it comes to UK and Cal.

And as usual you have no idea what you're talking about. If you do, prove what you say!

[JFCats22]

And as usual you have no idea what you're talking about. If you do, prove what you say!

Haha, ok if you say so! I think I have proven multiple times that I know people close to UK who provide insight from time to time.

For once if would be ok if you said a ref was garbage or did a terrible job. Is that some sort of ref code? I have never seen someone be so steadfast in defending mediocre work/performance.

It's ok to critique when it's warranted (as it is with Shows' pathetic performance Saturday).

[Lighthouse]

He has the option to block one ref from officiating, right? And yet he never does.

No sir, not any more. Coaches cannot scratch officials, unless they changed the rule back the last year or so. However, they can voice their opinions and I would imagine the commissioner of officials makes every effort to not assign officials to their games.

[Joneslab]

This team doesn't handle a lead very well. If we're up 10 points and there's more than 30 seconds to go I have very little confidence in them to maintain it.

Part of it is the fouls, much of it is youth, but also it's the way a desperate opposition plays late in games against us. We don't handle a press very well, we don't handle a zone very well. We start grinding in ill conceived half court sets instead of doing what we do well, which is uptempo full court drives to the basket.

Absolutely correct.

That "circle" play Calipari runs maddens me, because in all the years he's been here the success rate for that thing has to hover around 25%.

The payoff is that you will never see a Cal team do what Louisville did against Duke. He will absolutely not let his guys come down and jack up crazy shots when we have a lead. But I do wonder sometimes if we get too deliberate with leads.

[Lighthouse]

Absolutely correct.

That "circle" play Calipari runs maddens me, because in all the years he's been here the success rate for that thing has to hover around 25%.

The payoff is that you will never see a Cal team do what Louisville did against Duke. He will absolutely not let his guys come down and jack up crazy shots when we have a lead. But I do wonder sometimes if we get too deliberate with leads.

When we were walking the ball up the court in the Bama game I felt like Cal knew we would win that game and was saving his team for the next day. But when we did the same against UT, it puzzled me. We hardly ever forced the tempo, and we built an 8 pt lead because we were the better team, but when they went to the zone and hit the first 3, it looked like we panicked and played awful the rest of the game.

[Catatonic]

No sir, not any more. Coaches cannot scratch officials, unless they changed the rule back the last year or so. However, they can voice their opinions and I would imagine the commissioner of officials makes every effort to not assign officials to their games.

Good info, thanks. To be honest I thought it was kind of crazy that they ever had that option, and I really respected Cal for not doing it.

[Lighthouse]

Good info, thanks. To be honest I thought it was kind of crazy that they ever had that option, and I really respected Cal for not doing it.

As far as I know, Cal never scratched any official. A few years back, a coach could scratch up to 10% of the officials in their conference. But when officials started being affiliated with more than one D1 conference, that changed. Kentucky fans have a history of not liking some officials, me included, mainly because they see them so often, and they are bound to make questionable calls and fans don't forget. What fans don't realize is the coaches may have an issue with a particular call in a game, but they want that official on their games because they are trustworthy on the whole.

[lilproUK98]

I hate Cal's "stall ball" as much as anyone, but we didn't lose this game because of it.

[Joneslab]

I hate Cal's "stall ball" as much as anyone, but we didn't lose this game because of it.

No, I agree.

Many more things in play than that. In the Tennessee game I don't even think we were stalling necessarily. We were just completely baffled by the zone.

The only time I thought there might've been some hesitancy caused by coaching was on the Herro turnover. I thought he might've been caught between pushing it and holding up. But a relative of mine suggested that the pass to Herro might have been bad and he was trying to tightrope-walk the sideline, thus he walked.

[lilproUK98]

No, I agree.

Many more things in play than that. In the Tennessee game I don't even think we were stalling necessarily. We were just completely baffled by the zone.

The only time I thought there might've been some hesitancy caused by coaching was on the Herro turnover. I thought he might've been caught between pushing it and holding up. But a relative of mine suggested that the pass to Herro might have been bad and he was trying to tightrope-walk the sideline, thus he walked.

Exactly.

It wasn't the correct pass to make. Herro's momentum was going towards the sideline. Hagans broke open but we were hesitant to pass it to him. Should have called a timeout, but for some reason we always hesitate to do that. This team has been shaky in late game lead holding situations against pressure all year. Hopefully it doesn't cost us our season.

[lilproUK98]

Furthermore, I think Herro should be the guy taking it out of bounds instead of PJ or Keldon. Much better bball IQ. And we can pass it back to him immediately to get fouled. But what do I know?

[Lighthouse]

No, I agree.

Many more things in play than that. In the Tennessee game I don't even think we were stalling necessarily. We were just completely baffled by the zone.

The only time I thought there might've been some hesitancy caused by coaching was on the Herro turnover. I thought he might've been caught between pushing it and holding up. But a relative of mine suggested that the pass to Herro might have been bad and he was trying to tightrope-walk the sideline, thus he walked.

I think your relative is right. The pass was not good and Herro was trying to stay inbounds and walked. When UT went to the zone it really disrupted our offense as it has in other games. Barnes made that move at the right time. What puzzled me, was walking the ball up instead of trying to push the tempo, which we are much better at.

[40bill]

Not pushing it is kind of Cals thing late in games it seems. When UT went on their run, I don't know if it would have mattered. After Travis went out the team maturity took a heavy dive. I'm not sure even burning time outs to slow down the Vols would have mattered
just hope that even though it's awful late in the season the team learns from it.....and doesn't get haunted by it.

Same thing happened to Michigan they had State down and out, then got blistered the last of the game.