Kellan Grady, Keion Brooks and Oscar Tshiebwe spear to media following their loss in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
Disappointed, let down and rightfully upset. Those were the emotions going through every member of Big Blue Nation on Thursday night. As they always do, Kentucky fans traveled once again for a neutral site game — this time in Indianapolis for the start of this year’s NCAA Tournament. After drawing a favorable No. 2 seed for the East region, Kentucky was believed to have one of the better paths to the Final Four. While it’s easy to fill out a bracket and put Kentucky as your national champion, it’s much more difficult to win the six games required on that journey. In fact, the Wildcats quickly saw their Big Dance quickly come to an end Thursday night in Indianapolis.
Kentucky opened their NCAA Tournament bid with the No. 15 seed St. Peter’s Peacocks — a team many members of Big Blue Nation had probably never seen. As an 18-point favorite, Kentucky was believed to have a “cakewalk” to the second round on Saturday and a possible matchup with in-state opponent Murray State University. However, Kentucky had to handle the task in front of them first.
To the disappointment of Calipari, his team and Big Blue Nation, the No. 15 seed Peacocks gave the No. 2 seed Wildcats their version of “one and done” with a 85-79 overtime defeat in the tournament’s opening round. The loss came in spite of Oscar Tshiebwe tying his season-high for points (30) while grabbing 16 rebounds. Kentucky’s star big man played a near-perfect game for his team, yet the historically excellent Wildcats came up short against the Peacocks.
Kentucky’s guards continued their rough shooting from the SEC Tournament as the group of Davion Mintz, Kellan Grady, Sahvir Wheeler and Tyty Washington combined for just 32 points on an abysmal 10-34 shooting. 11 of those points came from Wheeler, but he coughed up the ball six times to match his assist count. Grady and Mintz saw their shooting slumps carry on with Washington completely out of rhythm — finding himself on the bench for a few of the game’s final minutes.
Even with their guards’ horrific shooting performance, Kentucky would have likely won the game if their backcourt had turned up the defensive intensity. Junior Peacocks guards Daryl Banks (9.6 PPG) and Doug Edert (11.5 PPG) combined for 47 points, shooting 53% from the field and not missing from behind the arc. You have to give credit to the players for making shots, but it’s also reasonable to expect better defense from Kentucky considering they’re just two games removed from holding All-SEC guard Scottie Pippen Jr. to 10 points on 11% shooting in the SEC Tournament.
Give credit to Peacocks head coach Shaheen Holloway for preparing his team and having them ready to go. The head coach was calm, cool and collected with that demeanor spreading to his players. On the other half of the sideline, Calipari and his Wildcats couldn’t seem to calm their “nerves” from start to finish. Whether it was Kentucky being hesitant to shoot the ball, missed opportunities to close out a lead with three minutes left or Calipari forgoing his opportunity to draw up a play for a chance to win at the end of regulation, the Wildcats simply couldn’t find their rhythm.
Instead of a historical in-state showdown with Murray State on Saturday, Kentucky finds themselves headed back to Lexington a day earlier than expected for the second consecutive week.
So, where do we go from here? For Big Blue Nation, many still need time to process what just happened. The same can be said for Calipari and his team. Several players have key decisions regarding their futures with Calipari’s staff having multiple recruits hanging in the balance.
With that said, one thing’s for certain. It’s been a decade since the Wildcats cut down the nets in New Orleans — the same season Kentucky’s Anthony Davis won Naismith Player of the Year.
Since then, Kentucky has fallen short of replicating that success. Some of Calipari’s higher recruits/transfers haven’t panned out and the team’s postseason runs have fallen short with Kentucky even missing out on last year’s NCAA Tournament. While Kentucky will likely have the Naismith Player of the Year in Oscar Tshiebwe and the Final Four will once again be hosted in New Orleans, College Basketball’s Royalty and their Big Blue fanbase will be watching from home.
12 Responses
Oscar was the only consistent player on this team and the only player that seemed to play with heart every game. I am starting to think there was some jealousy over all the accolades being bestowed on Oscar.
I don’t want to hear Cal complaining about injuries. Every team has injuries. It is up to the coach to develop replacements and if he doesn’t have any, it still falls on him. St. Peters had more depth, because their coach understands that everyone wants to contribute, and will, when developed throughout the year. Cal had 3 other players on the bench that all should have been seeing meaningful minutes throughout the year but never did. Cal’s one goal is to get specific players to the NBA as quickly as possible – that’s it.
As for playing to the competition, that is what you get when you accept the “a win is a win” mentality. Playing badly and still winning, is only winning basketball for the moment, not for the big picture of a title.
You can’t expect to go very far with 1 consistent player, 1 player that rebounds, only 1 player that can beat their man off the dribble (but too short to score inside consistently and can’t shoot outside), several players that disappear from game to game, seldom give bench players meaningful minutes so that when you need them, you can count on them, very apathetic attitude towards defense until it’s too late.
This team was having fun and pushing the ball a few weeks ago and then disappeared.
Cal tweaked them right out of the tournament and had his very own 1 and Done!!!
The above pretty much says it all.
Had twenty texts this AM that said – “ whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat !?
Very sad outcome, BBN deserves better than a performance like that from a big blue team with so much promise, talent, and hype. I thought this team could win No. 9, but the loss to UT in the SEC tournament was very telling. Like winning the rebound battle by a mere 1 rebound last night, really? This loss was a strong dose of reality for us fans. UK looked lost, especially from a shooting standpoint, and their defense was AWOL all night. Time and time again they gave up points at the rim on layups and backdoor. UK has no excuses, Saint Peters deserved this win, they were the better team and better prepared. As for Calipari, my question is, has he lost his edge? All this so called talent and then play like that in a first round NCAA tournament game against a 15th seed from a school no one has even heard of. This loss hurt, big time, and one we will not forget anytime soon.
Well said, LP. My question is what caused this team to quit having fun??? After the first TN loss, they just seemed to quit pushing and looking for the first good, open shot. Most of the players just seemed to vanish into a stupor.
What is Cal doing that is making these kids feel so much pressure? They seldom start games hot and loose. They quit having fun. They started questioning themselves, their shots, backing off defense, etc.
It has to be something he is doing or saying because it happens to many of his teams.
As I’ve said for years, cal is a great recruiter but his game day coaching lacks something. It’s pretty obvious recently.
I gotta echo the comments that has been made about the team loss there composure the last month. They just weren’t the same team we saw back in January something may have happen that we don’t know about or Cal put to much pressure on them.
I agree, Cats79.
It is a lot of pressure to put on Grady; especially, after Mintz went stone cold. It would have been really nice to have seen Allen being brought along through the year and building his confidence so he could have taken some pressure off Grady.
Cal is taking us to a lot of new lows
Defense… The Cats lack thereof and the Peacocks positive pressure. Ky was totally taken out of their game by an overpowering defense…..and did not fight back. Our guards were pressured away from the basket all night and the Peacocks got all the shots they wanted where they wanted. Very sad. Please be football season soon.
This program has been in decline since 2015 and the Wisconsin debacled when Calipari left the two best guards on the bench down the stretch so the Harrison Twins could win or lose it on their own. How did that work out for UK?
This man is a fraud, and but for a lifetime contract with a $60 million buyout, he would be fired by any respectable AD. Oh, wait, it was the AD that gave him that despicable contract. Ooops.
Barnhart must go, and then someone with authority needs to tell Calipari that it is time for his lifetime coaching UK basketball is ending, and he should do the honorable thing, please resign.
Cal has said many times that his primary goal is to get players in the NBA. He has said he doesn’t care about winning the SEC. When that is a coaches attitude it does not bode well for the fans who wish to see a winning team. It is good that a coach wants to get players in the pros and become millionaires but I don’t think that matters that much to most fans. A coach is hired to win ball games, period. If he does the NBA will still be there for the ones who are talented enough. Losing a game to a lessor team is something tat happens sometimes. But his attitude that nothing matters except making kids rich is not right. I would like to see him retire and UK look for a young coach with a different outlook. I have no idea who that might be. But I realize that is unlikely to happen. My 2 cents.
Do not think there are any wrong opinions Doug. Ten years since a title, seven years since a Final Four
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