Vicky Graff Photo
There are many more games to play and a tournament bid to receive but when all is said and done that long night Rupp against the Gamecocks might have been the the saving game of the season.
“The one this that brings about change is crisis,” Calipari said of the team meeting after the South Carolina loss. “The team got lots off its chest, and were honest with each other.”
The Cats won their third game in row in what seemed much more like a football game, handing the Aggies their first SEC loss of the year. The game wasn’t sealed until the final minutes. The Cats whet 11-32 from beyond the arc, the most three point shots taken in a game since 2011.
Reeves led the team with 23 points while playing 28 minutes. Toppin contributed 17, followed by Wallace with 11. Oscar missed his usual double/double today while scoring just 7 points and grabbing 17 rebounds.
The start of the game was once again a slow one for the Cats. CJ hit a three that put the Cats on the board. CJ wouldn’t hit another until the second half. That was no problem since Reeves, Wallace and even Livingston decided to camp out on the three point shot line and make the shots.
The Cats never looked as if they were going to lose this game. There was no panic just execution down the stretch as the buzzer sounded, 76-67.
So what does this win mean for this team?
Cal has found his lineup that works.
It is ok to call time outs.
Not every ref calls a coach out the box.
Players be prepared to be without your phone on game nights.
Players might want to keep an overnight bag packed for home games.
Cats will play at Vandy at 9 p.m. Tuesday night. Could be interesting since there is no love loss between Stackhouse and Cal. Combine with the fact that Vandy is play well right not.
Time to take a break and watch some football. Oh yeah…Who Dey!
3 Responses
Not sure that this season has been turned around. The win over Tennessee was the strongest game of the season by this team, but neither of the wins at Rupp over Georgia or Texas A&M were particularly strong games.
The jury is still out on this "turnaround" business. Every team has occasional games with particularly strong performance levels, and every team has occasional games with particularly weak performance levels. What matters is the team’s average level of performance over time, and on a secondary level, any long term trend of decline or improvement.
This team has not changed its average nearly enough to make a legitimate claim to being competitive on the real national stage. This is certainly true for the year to date values, and is also true for the running 5-game averages. No judgment about the significance of this "turnaround" will be appropriate until at the earliest, next week after the Kansas game.
This team will be favored to beat Vanderbilt on Tuesday, but the margin will be probably about 1 or 2 points, thus a road game that this team can lose. Vanderbilt just beat Georgia on the road, and Vanderbilt has been playing basketball this season at about the same level of efficiency at this UK team. Neither of them is a legitimate contender for the Elite 8, much less the Final Four at this point. UK and Vandy are currently struggling to earn competitiveness for the Round of 32.
You are right Prof. If anything has changed the play of this team it is Wheeler playing a limited role.
We’re fighting and that makes big difference to our last 3 game’s.