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If Kentucky players were wondering what Southeastern Conference play might be like they found out Tuesday night at Clemson.
The Tigers beat No. 4 UK 70-66 in a resume-building win that led to a court-storming by the loud and rowdy Clemson students who created a terrific game atmosphere.
“This will be great for Mark Pope and his team. This will be a typical game in the SEC. Every game in the SEC is going to be a rock fight,” ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg said after the game.
He’s right. Clemson was just a bit tougher than the Cats in clutch moments. The Tigers got to more loose balls and created a few more deflections. They also always seemed to be able to hit the big shot when needed to stop a Kentucky run.
Clemson was not ranked but remember this is a team that went to the Elite Eight last year, returned key players and is expected to be the second best team in the ACC behind Duke, a team UK beat earlier this season.
“They know how to play. They saw what was working and kept doing what they were dong and Kentucky could never force them to play the way the Cats wanted,”: said UK Radio Network analyst Jack Givens after watching UK get only eight fast break points.
Kentucky was only 7-for-27 from 3-point range — Otega Oweh missed three open looks from 3-point range in the final two minutes — and only 24 of 63 (38 percent) overall. Kentucky didn’t help itself at the foul line, either, missed seven of 18 charity shots.
“We are a tough-minded physical team that really guarded a talented Kentucky team,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “Just sustaining is what is hard to do. We had to sustain our mental toughness and we did that.”
He knew the home crowd helped do that. Kentucky was playing its first true road game and ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes said “this building tonight was as good as you will find in college basketball” based on the noise level.
“The crowd was terrific,” Brownell said. “I am really proud of our fans. The students were unbelievable in the lower bowl. This is special.”
Kentucky got 17 points from Oweh but he was only 5-for-13 from the field. He also had seven rebounds. Point guard Lamont Butler had 16 points and did go 6-for-9 from the field and also had five assists. However, he was limited to 19 minutes due to foul trouble.
Jaxson Robinson also had 12 points but he was also 5-for-13 from the field. That meant Oweh and Robinson combined to go 10-for-26 overall from the field and just 3-for-12 from 3.
Clemson also limited Koby Brea to just three shots — he went 1-for-2 from 3.
“Clemson just imposed its identity on the game,” Greenberg said. “They pounded the paint, got on the glass and took Kentucky off the 3-point line. Clemson made the game more physical, set its defense and pushed them off the 3-point line and Kentucky did not have as much energy.”
Kentucky was behind 66-58 with 4:20 to play and held Clemson scoreless for over four minutes. However, UK’s offense managed only three field goals the rest of the game and one came with just 2.2 seconds left from Butler. Kentucky had four spells of 2 1/2 minutes or more where it did not score in the loss.
“Kentucky was tough but Clemson was tougher,” Dykes said. “The tenacity of this Clemson team for 40 minutes was the difference in the game.”
9 Responses
L’s are gonna happen. 20 win season will be a success.
Height and physicality will continue to take us down. Calipari, UT, Gonzaga all had to sleep a little more comfortably last night with what they witnessed. This team looked a lot like Cal’s teams…can’t score in close, can’t stop in close, and don’t have a good jump shooting inside game. We talk the talk on physicality but Clemson had their way. We don’t have a person that seems to be capable of taking over a game. Carr sucked and can only bring it a half at a time if that. We will go as far as he goes. If Scheiffier had shot anywhere near a normal % we would have lost by double digits. What has happened to the 3pt shooting excellence we were supposed to have? When you have your best, and supposedly one of the best 3 pt shooters in the country only take 2 shots you know you are in trouble. Many of the 3’s we took were bad shots also.
We just couldn’t hit any shots. That’s the difference between winning and losing. Oweh went cold in the second half but its not on him. Nobody could make a shot. We missed a ton of shots right by the basket. It also seemed like once there guys penetrated to the basket we backed off of them. They were driving to the basket at will. Carr played terrible. Williams played fair but was often lost on defense. If we make 2 more 3s we win. We go 7-27 at 3! That’s almost 25%. Brea was 1-2. We have to do better! If we are going to shoot 35 3 pointers a game he needs to shoot at least 8-10 a game. Especially with him being the best shooter in college basketball. It almost doesn’t make any sense. The best shooter in college basketball only takes two 3 pointers goes 1-2 and we lose by 4? If he shoots 5 more 3 pointers he’s hitting at least 2 or 3 and we win. It just blows my mind! Carr is terrible around the basket he needs to shoot jumpers about 10-12 feet out.
Ok, we were exposed. We have a lot of work to do this month. We won’t get much practice time for Gonzaga, but we should make a better showing regardless. We came out thinking Clemson would not be competitive. They outplayed us the entire game. Even when we got the lead a few times, it still felt like we were losing. Clemson played their game and forced us out of playing ours. If we are going to be a 35 shot 3 point shooting team, Butler is going to have to change his style. He looks for his shot first and then passes. We need for him to pass first, but we have to have better movement off the ball. Everybody was standing around hoping the ball would come to them so they could do their one-on-one stuff. Pass, pass, and pass for a good shot, but make one more pass for a great shot. Free throws are an unguaded 15 foot shot. We should be hitting 85% as a team but we are wallowing under 70% most games. We have to do better. Let’s see how the game goes on Saturday and then get ready for Lousyville on the 14th.
I used to break out TLT and TLC when Tubby and CAL were here–now I’m going to have to break out TLP: TEN-LOSS-POPE Im just saying that’s the possibility that exists with this team if they do not improve and do not find answers to alot of the problems they have been dealing with. I saw this loss coming a mile away and unfortunately I think loss #2 comes Saturday against Gonzaga. I went to the Western KY game last week—it was actually my first UK game in many years–but I was not impressed at all with what I saw in terms of talent. It’s kind of like this team has to make its shots, or its over–as in they can’t win any other way. That’s the dilemma they sit in now as they deal with their first loss of the Pope era. They’re going to have to figure out some answers to physicality, because the SEC this year is going to be murderer’s row. And not just the top half of the league, but look what Ole Miss did to LOU last night. And I worry more so now about LOU than I had been. It just seems like starting with the Western KY game, this team has not been able to shoot the ball, and hasnt been able to find answers to the way the other teams have been playing them. But seeing this team up close and in person, I really do question the level of talent, even with somebody like Robinson, who I was very high on from the beginning. And Williams–theres an example of a kid I really like, but I feel like he could do so much more—but can he, in reality? There is a real lack of physicality with our team that is very very concerning, in my opinion. And this trend that has existed since the Western KY game gives me reason to question and wonder. They really have not played well or been themselves since that game. They were never in danger of necessarily losing that game, but they also could never pull away for good, either. The GA ST game was going much the same way as the Western game until the fight–then it seemed that that woke our guys up and they went on a run from there to close it out. But I was very concerned about the Clemson game, and I think maybe our guys got a little too full of themselves with the #4 ranking and the fact that they beat DUKE. I think because of that, they did not take Clemson as seriously as they should have, and I think they underestimated the environment they were going to play in. Honestly, all of that caught me a little off guard myself. I didn’t expect Clemson maybe to be as good in the areas that they were, that they are. But our team is going to have to face up to that, and start making adjustments to it, because Gonzaga is going to be even better on SAT, and LOU will give us a war, I guarantee it, as well as OH ST. And let’s not even think about all the SEC matchups. Again, it’s the question of will this team be able to win any other way besides when they are hitting their shots and able to push the tempo? When these teams have slowed it down and forced us to have to play half-court, I started thinking like somebody else said: that our play offensively in the half-court looked like CAL-BALL. It’s like we stopped trusting each other, and stopped trusting in the way we play, and everybody feeling like they had to take it upon themselves–one-on-everybody—the exact way CAL’s teams used to play. This team needs to learn to start trying to get to the free-throw line more, and then hitting them when they get there! Another major concern is the lack of bench contribution: last night Kriisa, Garrison, and Ainsley were complete non-factors. And whenever Butler gets in foul trouble, we don’t seem to have anybody who can reliably back him up—it appears as don’t have a backup PG at this point. I really am questioning this team’s talent level–I don’t think it’s as good as we have been told and sold–i think the first 6-7 guys have to all step up and make big plays both offensively and defensively, as well as stay out of foul trouble, in order to pull out wins against the Power 5 competition and the SEC—much like they did against DUKE–but I think you’re looking at alot of ugly games like this even if they do win–thats how that DUKE game was–and in reality, they were very very fortunate to pull out that win over DUKE. I think that win got the national media stirred up on us early, and now we havent had anywhere else to go but to crash back down to earth. Now if this team is hitting their shots and are able to get out and run, then yes, they can stretch their potential out further. But it definitely is looking more and more like a "live by the three, die by the three" kind of team. To my point, they almost have to be hitting their shots to beat good teams to overcome their lack of physicality, lack of athleticism, and lack of talent. As I said, I love Amari to death, but idk if he is a banger inside, and idk that Carr is either. Otega is the closest thing we have to that. I think he and Butler have shown the most amount of tenacity, grit, and heart on the court thus far compared to anybody else. But this team has a very long way to go, they are definitely not a top 5 or a top 10 team right now. And idk that they are really built for a Final 4 in the long run. I think the lack of depth is going to be a major concern the whole season. And right now they don’t have that "one guy" who u know u can get the ball to in those critical moments with the game on the line, the guy who is able to take everyone else off the dribble and create his own shot. Butler and Oweh are the closest we have to that, or unless somebody can find Amari or Andrew for an open lob to the basket. Besides that, that’s an issue right now–and that is one thing under CAL’s system that, when it DID WORK, it worked–it was something u knew u could go to because the individual talent was there. That’s where this team has to come together more and make the sum of their parts GREATER than their individual talents. Hopefully they can do so, and become the team we all want them to be. They just need to concentrate and focus right now on the areas where they can get better and improve. And hopefully those shots will start falling again soon, and will open things up again for this team’s style of play, and will help get their confidence back up–because I think this team’s confidence is hurting right now. It could be a long season in the SEC this year, and I don’t want to see TLP become a REALI-TY…….here’s to hoping for IMPROVEMENTS ALL-AROUND!!!
I was hoping that maybe we had the talent and the juice to minimize our L’s to around 5 or so. I am now thinking could be much closer to 10 or so. The 3pt shooting was very good with the cupcakes but we are past that now and last 3 games or so were brutal. We still have no inside game and still jack up 3’s at will with no inside game. Carr is my biggest disappointment at this time, and he really seems to have little Dog to match his height and talent level. He really doesn’t want to accept a leadership position, and I hope Pope is not willing to accept what he saw last night. Jax may also be overrated from yo yo performance so far.
You and Mike are getting delusional over one game. It’s a long season anybody can be beaten any given night.
I look for us to be more dialed in for Saturday’s game, but even if we lose to Gonzaga, that doesn’t mean that the sky is falling. And if we win, that doesn’t mean that we will win the rest. The SEC is a meat grinder; there will be losses for everyone, but I don’t see double digit losses for this team.
Bottom line still a fun team to watch play