UT @ UK game thread

[Joneslab]

Best thing for Cal to do now is to bury his a$$ on the bench and go with Quickly and Maxey with Juzang. Hagans entered the second half at the 13 minute mark with a big lead, enough said...

Can't bench guys in March unless there are monumental issues.

Hagans still leads the SEC in assists and is the only real point guard on the team. Plus, he's a devastating defender.

I've heard UK fans call for the benching of several players over the last few years, from Marquis Teague to Andrew Harrison to Terrence Jones and on down. Unless Hagans has become intolerable in the locker room then Cal isn't benching him, nor should he.

Marquis Teague went from a guy who couldn't hit a shot to the light going off in the tournament. Other guys have gone through similar things: De'Aaron Fox is light years beyond Hagans offensively as we all know, but that guy couldn't hit anything outside three feet from the basket until March.

This team has no choice but to hope Hagans finds a way to play through this. It can't win without him.

[teamchemistry15]

I think Nick just wants the ball and gets frustrated when they don't give it to him. I noticed a few times after he scored he was trying to get Cal to run "circles" the next trip down. That play can ultimately lead to him posted up, open for an elbow jumper, or him setting a screen up top and rolling. I know Immanuel has been playing lights out, but I still think we need our offense to run through Nick.

[KCKUKFan]

Lunardi is excellent at picking the teams in the field, but notoriously awful at predicting seeds.

I'm not going to be paying any attention to any bracketology or talking heads between now and Selection Sunday, because it will be changing fifty times between now and then and most of them are guessing the same way we are.

I still think that, barring a loss at Florida and a first game flame-out from the SEC tournament, Kentucky will enter into the tourney as a three seed, which essentially is the same as a 2. Last night sucked, but it's not the death knell, either.

[Joneslab]

Hagans entered the second half at the 13 minute mark with a big lead, enough said...

This isn't quite accurate, though something was definitely going on with Hagans.

After watching about five minutes of the replay, I caught some interesting things I didn't see last night.

Hagans is indeed on the bench when we built our big lead. He's sitting there sort of slumped-shouldered, staring straight ahead. No warm-up on.

We get a 17-point lead with about 16:00 to play in the game. Fulkerson immediately comes down and beats E.J. Montgomery to a spot, gets an and-1. UK's lead cut to 14.

Quickley comes back down and gets an and-1 to put us back up 17.

An interesting thing: as Quickley shoots free throws, Hagans has put a warm-up on and has pulled the hood up over his eyes. Again, something is definitely up.

Tennessee goes back down for what I think is the most important possession of the game. We stop Tennessee and the rebound is there, but Keion Brooks is hit in the mouth and doesn't react to the ball. Tennessee gets three shots and finally hits a three.

We go back down, Quickley has a terrible traveling call and then it's game on.

Immediately after this traveling call you can see Cal nudging Kenny Payne and pointing at who I assume to be Hagans. There is some exchange I can't quite catch. But undoubtedly something is going on and there was some beef happening before we got that lead.

Hagans does then check in and immediately tries to take his man and gets bailed out with a foul. But the damage is done and Tennessee is back in the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFqIef8RQW8

[TrueblueCATfan]

Apparently Cal and Hagans had some words during the game. We don't need this stuff right now.

I saw that...so did Richards and Hagans

[lilproUK98]

This isn't quite accurate, though something was definitely going on with Hagans.

After watching about five minutes of the replay, I caught some interesting things I didn't see last night.

Hagans is indeed on the bench when we built our big lead. He's sitting there sort of slumped-shouldered, staring straight ahead. No warm-up on.

We get a 17-point lead with about 16:00 to play in the game. Fulkerson immediately comes down and beats E.J. Montgomery to a spot, gets an and-1. UK's lead cut to 14.

Quickley comes back down and gets an and-1 to put us back up 17.

An interesting thing: as Quickley shoots free throws, Hagans has put a warm-up on and has pulled the hood up over his eyes. Again, something is definitely up.

Tennessee goes back down for what I think is the most important possession of the game. We stop Tennessee and the rebound is there, but Keion Brooks is hit in the mouth and doesn't react to the ball. Tennessee gets three shots and finally hits a three.

We go back down, Quickley has a terrible traveling call and then it's game on.

Immediately after this traveling call you can see Cal nudging Kenny Payne and pointing at who I assume to be Hagans. There is some exchange I can't quite catch. But undoubtedly something is going on and there was some beef happening before we got that lead.

Hagans does then check in and immediately tries to take his man and gets bailed out with a foul. But the damage is done and Tennessee is back in the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFqIef8RQW8

Cal has said before he'd never let a player hijack the team. Well it happened last night. His relationship with his point guards are so complex. He lets players go back at him and if they're right he'll acknowledge that, but if they're wrong Cal will set them straight. It's up to Ashton to figure it out, but he's clearly pressing and feeling the pressure knowing he's leaving and his stock is plummetting and the fate of the team depends on him running the team the way Cal wants him to. And on top of all that, he can't throw the ball in the ocean. Ashton clearly boiled over. Given what we saw in the Elite 8 last year, Cal will just keep him in there. But having Maxey this year is a great fail safe option....

[Dwight Schrute]

Nope, you are wrong....here you go. 5 year average of #55

http://www.bracketmatrix.com/rankings.html

He is not good at this

I've never heard of 95% of those people so, sure, okay.

[JFCats22]

I've never heard of 95% of those people so, sure, okay.

Facts are tough....I know.

[Dwight Schrute]

Facts are tough....I know.

If you want to be persnickety, a 5 year ranking of #55 in a list of over 100 doesn't equate to being one of the worst.

But when you continually tilt statistics to back up your own misery, you do what you gotta do.

[Joneslab]

Looks like #55 out of 130+ brackets is okay. Also doesn't appear to be a whole lot of difference in most of those? Look to be separated by tiny margins.

I always assumed Lunardi got that gig at ESPN because he was one of the first to start doing it, and because he was a northeast guy with easy access to ESPN's campus. (Lunardi does color commentary for St. Joe's basketball.)

[justford]

The Nick and Quick campaign may be having adverse effects.

[Joneslab]

The Nick and Quick campaign may be having adverse effects.

I've had the same thought.

Taking Hagans out for a moment, I actually think Richards' intensity and focus have really dropped off since that whole thing started.

[40bill]

Just listening to KSR this morning it's pretty solid there was some kind of emotional blowup on the bench just before Ashton went back in
A team is an awfully fragile thing. Some players react positively to stuff like that....Al MacGuires teams were notorious for it. Last night the wheels came off completely. Several reports stated when Cal told Hagans to go in, he refused....and at one time was told either go in or go to the locker room. When he did go in, the whole team folded.

What happens next???? Anybodys guess. Could pull together, could gold tents and go home. I think there likely is something to Nick and Quick being a contributor.
This was supposed to be Hagans time to really shine.

[Lighthouse]

I think Nick just wants the ball and gets frustrated when they don't give it to him. I noticed a few times after he scored he was trying to get Cal to run "circles" the next trip down. That play can ultimately lead to him posted up, open for an elbow jumper, or him setting a screen up top and rolling. I know Immanuel has been playing lights out, but I still think we need our offense to run through Nick.

I agree, and a few times last night he was posted up and open and didn't get the ball. In my opinion,Nick has to get the ball in those instances for us to have a deep run. Our guards are great, but we have to have an inside game for them to be their best.

[GOCAT15]

I noticed after that play late in the game where Hagans made a layup, got a steal and got fouled and went to the FT line. When he was flexing and some teammates came over he seemed to ignore them, like "get outta my way".

If there are some internal issues going on I hope they figure it out, if these guys don't play as a team and just play for themselves it will be a very short March.