Kansas vs. Kentucky: Game Thread

[KentuckyWild2020]

It's not the loss to Kansas at home that ticks me off,it's the fact we are 3/4 of the way through a season and I'm just hoping we make the Ncaa tournament, that is the reality of Kentucky basketball right now.

Not on the firecoachcal.com train but this record would of been much better had he realized the point guard was killing this team the whole time. The kid at Gonzaga bailed on us and Calipari had to settle for Wheeler.

For all those who are still on the Wheeler train, maybe not here but other UK social media sites, let's be clear, Wheeler was never the 1st option,not then not now not ever...

[Jload]

All these comments blaming game on Wheeler are just mind blowing. Let's see was he responsible for us having o second chance points to KU 18-no. Did he miss7 free throws in the first half-no. Did he go 2 for 13 from 3vpoint range-no.Did he grt beat repeatedly on back doors and ball screens at the rim-no. Was he responsible for us being out rebounded - no. We're these the main reasons we lost tonight- YES

[GOCAT15]

Agreed, wheeler didn’t really do anything to help us but he didn’t hurt us.

[Ratt]

All these comments blaming game on Wheeler are just mind blowing. Let's see was he responsible for us having o second chance points to KU 18-no. Did he miss7 free throws in the first half-no. Did he go 2 for 13 from 3vpoint range-no.Did he grt beat repeatedly on back doors and ball screens at the rim-no. Was he responsible for us being out rebounded - no. We're these the main reasons we lost tonight- YES

Yes, there are many other reasons why they lost but it is so obvious that the spacing, passing, and defense comes to a halt when he is in the game... He played way too much and shouldn't have been in there at the end. Where was Livingston. Playing him doesn't give the team the best chance to win and that's been proven. Where has Adou been? He's played well and hasn't seen the floor the last 2 games? Just baffling and then the garbage like Cal states in the post game - "Livingston should have played more" --- DUH.

[Lighthouse]

Cal went back to coaching and yelling at the officials. Well he got out coached again and we all know how much good it does to yell at the officials. Why Livingston didn't play much the second half and the ball stopped going in to Oscar is all on Cal.

[justford]

Cal said Livingston should have played more??? So why didn’t he?? So tired of hearing him say this. It is no wonder players enter the portal after hearing these kind of statements.

[Catsrock]

All these comments blaming game on Wheeler are just mind blowing. Let's see was he responsible for us having o second chance points to KU 18-no. Did he miss7 free throws in the first half-no. Did he go 2 for 13 from 3vpoint range-no.Did he grt beat repeatedly on back doors and ball screens at the rim-no. Was he responsible for us being out rebounded - no. We're these the main reasons we lost tonight- YES

Your opinion is every bit as important as mine but since your mind is blown I’ll attempt to clarify my stance. Actually Ratt did it pretty well above, but…

First—the comments I made and others I read didn’t really blame Wheeler for playing poorly and losing the game—we blamed Cal for playing him too much. We’re 21 games into the season. There’s lots of eye test as well as statistics showing which players have fueled our resurgence from what was heading toward a horrible season. Cal has affirmed that with his starting lineup and first guy off the bench each and every game the last several.

Sure we’re a bunch of armchair coaches—that’s what these boards are for. But here you are against a really good team. You’ve made a real nice comeback and have a chance to win down the backstretch. Why would you and Cal want to give your opponent a significant stretch of crunch time with a lineup whose +/- virtually guarantees you fall back behind and require you have to make a yet another comeback? What good is history and statistics if you’re not going to use them? I don’t know where folks come up with +/- for different combinations and lineups. But did we expect to score a point while Wheeler and Ware were in together?

[KCKUKFan]

Your opinion is every bit as important as mine but since your mind is blown I’ll attempt to clarify my stance. Actually Ratt did it pretty well above, but…

First—the comments I made and others I read didn’t really blame Wheeler for playing poorly and losing the game—we blamed Cal for playing him too much. We’re 21 games into the season. There’s lots of eye test as well as statistics showing which players have fueled our resurgence from what was heading toward a horrible season. Cal has affirmed that with his starting lineup and first guy off the bench each and every game the last several.

Sure we’re a bunch of armchair coaches—that’s what these boards are for. But here you are against a really good team. You’ve made a real nice comeback and have a chance to win down the backstretch. Why would you and Cal want to give your opponent a significant stretch of crunch time with a lineup whose +/- virtually guarantees you fall back behind and require you have to make a yet another comeback? What good is history and statistics if you’re not going to use them? I don’t know where folks come up with +/- for different combinations and lineups. But did we expect to score a point while Wheeler and Ware were in together?

The point here is that Wheeler wasn't the reason we lost the game. The reason we lost the game is because we showed a complete inability to guard the pick and roll for 30 of the 40 minutes, and when we finally figured that out, we refused to get hands up to guard threes. And when we finally figured that out, they had guys hit them anyway.

Kansas was just a better basketball team tonight. I don't think we played terribly, especially offensively.

Wheeler is obviously not the guy that we want on the floor when the game is on the line, but he wasn't noticeably better or worse than anybody else on either side of the court for us tonight.

[Joneslab]

Cal went back to coaching and yelling at the officials. Well he got out coached again and we all know how much good it does to yell at the officials. Why Livingston didn't play much the second half and the ball stopped going in to Oscar is all on Cal.

Yeah it looked like we actually started bringing Oscar up into ball screens. This was immediately after we'd been pounding it down to him for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half.

I'm not sure why that changed or what the thinking was there. But I can't remember him shooting the ball much in the last few minutes after he brought us back into the game.

I want to say that Kansas switched what they were doing defensively, but just reacting to it on the fly last night it sure looked like we changed our philosophy and moved Oscar out of the paint to use him as a screener. It worked only one time that I can remember. After Fredrick started to clank shots and Wheeler came in I don't remember Oscar getting it down there in position to score.

[Joneslab]

A few folks on Twitter are saying Sahvir Wheeler was booed pretty loudly last night when he came in. That ain't a good look at all.

[Joneslab]

First—the comments I made and others I read didn’t really blame Wheeler for playing poorly and losing the game—we blamed Cal for playing him too much.

I think Fredrick forced Cal's hand last night. He played so terribly it threw our rotations out of whack.

Definitely think Livingston should've been the man there in the second half but Cal said after the game Livingston was creating problems for Oscar in the first half because his man wasn't guarding him, thus we couldn't get the ball into Oscar.

I do wonder though when Wheeler came in if that was the reason we started bringing Oscar into pick and rolls rather than banging the ball inside to him. Wheeler suffers from the same thing as Livingston: you don't have to pay attention to him outside, which obviously makes Oscar's life down there much harder.

[TrueblueCATfan]

A few folks on Twitter are saying Sahvir Wheeler was booed pretty loudly last night when he came in. That ain't a good look at all.

If true....booing your own is just pathetic

[Catsrock]

Seems if Wheeler were booed loudly we’d hear it at least a little on TV. When the season started I couldn’t care less who turned out to be our best players of the season. I have never disliked Wheeler. But I don’t agree with post 137 above that’s it’s absurd to question Cal’s rotations.

On January 10 we were beaten at home by SC. We were well off the bubble. On January 14 we beat UT and started a stretch that put us back inside the bubble. Not per me, per Lunardi and the other bracketologists. Something changed. Did we go from man to zone? No. Did we start gambling on D and become a run and gun juggernaut? No. We (Cal) changed the lineups/minutes/personnel. And it has helped a lot. The change was out in the open and obvious.

Last night—like KCKUKFan and others have pointed out—multiple factors determined the outcome. Personally I think the biggest is that a POY candidate couldn’t miss down the stretch. BUT—half way through the second half it was a 1 point game. We had a chance. Down the stretch we went with closer to a pre-Jan 12 lineup than a post-Jan 12 lineup. And got a pre-Jan 12 result. Forget about the names on the jerseys for a moment and I don’t see it as brilliant to ignore what the 1st 2 months of the season taught you.

Yes, CJ was bad last night. I noted that during the game. A certain guard really didn’t take his minutes last night. He took Livingston’s.

We got beat by a better team. But we should always give ourselves our best chance and our staff should learn from what a season has taught them. Whether a certain guard is throwing the ball away or not—was there any reason to believe we would score OR prevent them from scoring while a certain guard and certain forward were in together with the way that allows the opposition to play against us? ie by ignoring them and playing 5 on 3.

[KCKUKFan]

A few folks on Twitter are saying Sahvir Wheeler was booed pretty loudly last night when he came in. That ain't a good look at all.

Absolutely unacceptable and embarrassing.

[Catsrock]

Cal said Livingston should have played more??? So why didn’t he?? So tired of hearing him say this. It is no wonder players enter the portal after hearing these kind of statements.

Cal’s new way of trolling the fans. Each of the last few losses he has figured out between the final horn and the post game press table just who should have played more. Perhaps his staff points it out in the locker room?