Kentucky vs. Vandy: Game Thread

[Joneslab]

I’ve turned negative in a hurry here...but Boston is the worst finisher in transition ever.

I thought Ashton Hagans was one of the world's worst lay-up shooters, and then I saw Boston.

It's wild. He just can't put the ball in when he's got it near the basket. He and Sarr both have similar problems and with Boston it's obviously just lack of physical strength. Sarr is always off-balance and just throwing shots up rather than trying to aggressively finish.

[TrueblueCATfan]

Happy we won but Geez thought we were going to give it way at the end

honestly I will be glad when this season is over

on a positive note....Free throws were amazing last night

[Joneslab]

Any win with this team is great. But that game showed just how bad this UK team really is. Any of the other Cal teams (minus 2013) would have easily won that game by 20+.

EVERYTHING is a struggle with this team. Obviously not surprising at this point but man that was difficult to watch.

There seems to be a direct correlation with how we're playing and how the point guard is playing.

There are fluctuations at times. Sometimes the point guard is doing just okay but we're hitting shots, so we look better than we are (Vandy first half). Sometimes the point guard is playing well but the other team is just on fire and there are defensive breakdowns all over the place so we we look worse than we are (Tennessee second half).

But usually we settle back to the mean and what's happening at those times appears to be Devin Askew giving us nothing. When he starts breaking down as he does a couple times a game, things can get really bad. If we aren't hitting shots *and* Askew is giving us nothing, that's when the real badness starts to happen.

It's just really hard to play this game at a high level if your point guard is struggling, and Askew has spent about 50% of the season struggling. I think this is why we get these wildly erratic games where we seem to be pretty good 50% of the time and really bad 50% of the time.

[Dwight Schrute]

College officiating sucks, the refs bad calls nearly changed the outcome of this game.Two other observations. HOW does Oliver Sarr only get one rebound in a basketball game. Second HOW does anyone believe Keon Brooks will go pro. He has 0 NBA skills at this point in his career.

I don't think anyone actually believes Brooks is ready to go pro. Whether he will is a different matter.

[Joneslab]

Brooks hit a couple of threes in a game two weeks ago or so, and now every time he's open he fires it. Problem is he isn't a maker. He's just a shooter.

He did have the highlight of the season wiped away last night. That dunk was .

[Joneslab]

Another weird thing about that game is Allen got 0 minutes.

I don't think that's a huge deal at this point as Kentucky has started to score a bunch of points, but you have to think the chances of Allen transferring are significantly high at this point. I know a couple of WKU fans who seem convinced he'll be playing there next season.

[Dwight Schrute]

The Allen thing almost has me done with Cal.

[Joneslab]

The Allen thing almost has me done with Cal.

Well, if Kentucky were struggling like they were early to hit any shots at all, I think he should be out there.

When you're up near the 80s consistently, I don't think he brings a whole lot to the table.

I do like him down the road because you can always use somebody who can hit shots, but when the guys in front of him are hitting shots the argument to play him becomes much harder. He's shown as the season has gone along that he really gets picked on defensively. Whoever he's on just drives him right to the bucket.

[Dwight Schrute]

Well, if Kentucky were struggling like they were early to hit any shots at all, I think he should be out there.

When you're up near the 80s consistently, I don't think he brings a whole lot to the table.

I do like him down the road because you can always use somebody who can hit shots, but when the guys in front of him are hitting shots the argument to play him becomes much harder. He's shown as the season has gone along that he really gets picked on defensively. Whoever he's on just drives him right to the bucket.

But this team sucks at defense. Vandy scored 78 points last night. We routinely give up 75-80 points. How many games would we have won if Allen had the chance to play through mistakes and hit shots? I don't know but we might be better than 7-17.

Cal's going to drive off Allen because of how there's two standards at play here. If you're BJ Boston you get to play through your mistakes, if you're Dontai Allen you don't. If you're an athletic freak you get time to figure it out, otherwise you don't.

[GOCAT15]

https://kentuckysportsradio.com/basketball-2/calipari-changes-tune-on-second-half-playing-time-rule-i-make-up-the-rules-so-i-can-break-them-too/

[JFCats22]

I really do not get the obsession UK fans have with Allen. He is a freshman averaging 15+ minutes a game this season. I really don't understand how or why people think he should be playing more. He is a spot up shooter and that's it. He can't play defense, he can't dribble, he can't beat a guy to get a basket, he can't shoot from 2 (6/20 for 30%) and he is not strong.

Those that are comparing him to Askew are dumb. I think Askew is the worst player on the team but he is really the only PG option we have so he has to play. Comparing Allen's minutes to Askew's makes no sense.

He is a normal freshman who could be very good given time. But the UK fans demand for a mediocre (at best right now) player to be getting 25-30 minutes a game is what's going to drive Allen away. If he leaves then screw him and let him leave. Cal probably should have played him earlier in the season but he has done nothing the last 3-4 weeks to warrant any significant playing time.

[Joneslab]

I really do not get the obsession UK fans have with Allen.

Kentucky fans have always had an obsession with "pure shooters." And they've always had an obsession with Kentucky natives.

This goes back before Cal. I remember very similar discussions during the Tubby years. I.e. "Tubby won't recruit Kentucky boys" and "Tubby won't recruit shooters." You see the same with Cal--probably more with Cal because of his obvious emphasis on length/agility over skill/precision.

With regards to Allen specifically, the obsession has been cranked up because the team has been so bad. The Allen thing was an obvious outlet for frustration. Then Mississippi St. happened and it cranked up about 100 notches.

I'm convinced Allen is the kind of player who could go to Western, get stronger, and have a great career. Like Taveion Hollingsworth. There's absolutely a place for those kinds of players at Kentucky but as we all know, Cal doesn't look in those players' direction much. It's helped him more than hurt him but there are some isolated cases where he has made mistakes.

[JFCats22]

I'm convinced Allen is the kind of player who could go to Western, get stronger, and have a great career. Like Taveion Hollingsworth. There's absolutely a place for those kinds of players at Kentucky but as we all know, Cal doesn't look in those players' direction much. It's helped him more than hurt him but there are some isolated cases where he has made mistakes.

I completely agree that he has a place at UK and can be a huge help at some point. He's just not there yet. I hope he stays and I hope he sees the long-term plan at UK.

Right now he's an up and down freshman that is getting 15+ minutes per game. I really don't see how he could expect more than that. Rumor mil is strong with him transferring but I really hope he stays.

[Dwight Schrute]

What I see is that he is the only guy who can reliably hit a 3. Just because our team has started scoring lately doesn't make that less true. He also has the shortest leash of anyone not named Cam'Ron Fletcher.

[Catsrock]

Allen probably played too well against Miss St. They didn’t know who he was. They didn’t bother closing out on him until it was too late. So he hit 7 of 10 threes (if I remember correctly). Ever since then any time he’s in a game his guy stays glued to him and he simply cannot get a shot off. Not quick enough or crafty enough to create his own. And lord knows we’re not running anyone off a screen for anything outside the paint.

I argued as much as anyone for him to get a chance while no one on the court could hit a shot. At this point I think he’s not bringing anything to the table when he gets in. He was actually in briefly last night. But it still aggravates me that Cal has never acknowledged Boston’s defense is worse than Allen’s. You can have Allen in playing so-so defense and not shooting or you can have Boston in playing ZERO defense a shooting all night but shoots 25% on a good night. Cal goes with the latter for 28 minutes a game because he was a 5 star recruit.