UCLA vs. Kentucky: Game Thread

[thughes]

UCLA had 18 turn overs to KY's 9.

[KCKUKFan]

UCLA played better than anybody ever has against a Cal Kentucky team. Hats off to them, but losing home games sucks.

[Owllycat]

Glad this beating is over now, time to move on and focus and get ready for the next match.

[Catsrock]

I watched whole game and never heard anything about Mulder being sick but if so that makes sense. As to his defense...97 PTS...who stopped anyone?

[Katmendo]

The defense was horrible, and that's effort. The defense is the players' fault.

The offense, though. That's Cal. 5 players on the floor wearing the same uniform, but not one hint of collective movement or scheme from them. Just one on one.

No screen roll. No cutting. No inside out game, until the end. It's like he only expected to go out and run up and down the floor. 2 months into the season (practice and all) and your team still doesn't have a half court set?

[Jeff ROCKober]

Kentucky lost to a great shooting UCLA team. Briscoe's foot grew 6 inches last night, UK will get much better on defense, and our bigs must be able to hit the open 10 footer. Kentucky settled and had a chance to really get up in the first half. Kentucky was not used to an athletic team and got burned several times. Willis is hesitating to much unless its second on the next tattoo.
Both these teams will be there in March. I hope to see them again late March and I think we will.

[Catsrock]

Honestly kind of feels like a Dec. 3rd game when Cal WANTS to be able to go to the film room and teach. Not saying he threw the game but didn't look like his best effort.

I think and hope we'll be better for this.

[Katmendo]

We scored a lot, but I just felt like that was due to the fact that UCLA turned the ball over ***18*** times.

We took 80 shots. But there were just bad sets. It just seemed like we were scoring off of the ability of talent, but there just wasn't cohesion.

UCLA scored a lot of points, but it looked like they scored the way they planned to score. The took the shots their offense was designed to create. They moved the ball. I saw multiple possessions with the ball going to three and four different players in the half court.

[Blue Heaven]

We have some competitive guys. Now they know what it's like to be outplayed. This can only help.

[KCKUKFan]

Our defense was atrocious, but i loved the way UCLA mixed it up. they had success in every facet of offense: pick and pops, offensive rebounding, inside outside, baseline jumpers. it was an offensive tour de force that looked even better because we had no clue how to guard it.

still think this team has the potential to be cals best at UK. they just need some work on the defensive end, and cals teams always get better there.

the rebounding is a concern going forward. they kept two big guys on the court at all times and our front court looked confused.

i wasnt terribly impressed with ball, but leaf deserves all the accolades he gets. toughest player on the court today. for us, thr backcourt was ridiculous again, mjnus briscoe who suffered through a reeeeally crappy day.

i dont like losing marquee games like this, especially at home, because well need a fair share of big Ws for a one seed. well probably need to be at least 2-1 against unc, louisville and kansas, maybe 3-0.

[Wonderstruck]

The guys on the court were doing such a fantastic job at guarding everyone? I don't think it would've been much worse with him out there for ten or twelve minutes.

I agree. If he plays, he guards his matchup and that's it. Can't see a possible scenario where it would have hurt us even more with him out there.

If he had been healthy, that is...

[Joneslab]

We scored a lot, but I just felt like that was due to the fact that UCLA turned the ball over ***18*** times

Almost all of them were in the first three minutes and last three minutes of the game.

They went a huge stretch in the middle of the game where they didn't turn it over at all.

97 points.

[Wonderstruck]

Our free throws also hurt us, we were 18-27 for 66.7%. We have been shooting better than that.

They were 17-21 for 81%.

Harder for a young team to hit when they feel the pressure to shrink the lead, IMO. Easier to hit when you're up 40.

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[KCKUKFan]

The 97 points we gave up has got to be humiliating to Cal.

Either that, or he loved it because it will give him plenty of teaching opportunities.

[Joneslab]

Cal says in the postgame that he's kicking himself for not having a morning shootaround.

He's talked about having to call a timeout early in the game, but the best Kentucky played was really at the beginning. It's the only time we were doing what we do, which is forcing turnovers and running.

After that we just did nothing defensively that created any resistance.