Brandon Garrison pleads his case to an official after being called for a foul Saturday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky players certainly accepted that they were outplayed by Alabama in Saturday’s 102-97 loss and made no excuses after the game.
“It was definitely a transition and a challenge. Alabama plays very fast. It’s hard to simulate at practice and until you really go out there you don’t realize how fast they really are and that’s definitely a challenge for us,” said Kentucky’s Ansley Almonor, who had 10 points and three rebounds. “We are going to watch film and get better from it and use what we learn when we play again.”
Kentucky sent Alabama to the foul line 34 times, just like it did Georgia when the Cats lost in Athens. Kentucky had seven fouls in 5 1/2 minutes to start the second half, which put the Crimson Tide in the bonus, and then had to foul late when it was behind.
“The fouls we kept giving up sending them to the free throw line. They’re a very good free throw shooting team, so I feel like that hurt us tonight,” UK center Brandon Garrison, who had 11 points, six rebounds, and five assists, said. “It was little fouls, and we just kept giving them easy buckets. I don’t think it was just the offense that hurt us.”
Otega Oweh led UK with 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting. He also had six rebounds, including five on defense, along with three assists, two steals, and one block, and admitted there “was a lot of fouling” that UK must work to eliminate.
“There are things to work on, so we just have to bounce back and get better on the things we didn’t do so well today, which was our physicality and rebounding,” Oweh said. “In terms of rebounding I think we did a good job on that and limiting transition passes but we gave up a lot of big six points. We started off doing a great job with boxing them out, but you have to keep that going for 40 minutes.”
Alabama got 15 points off 15 offensive rebounds. However, UK had 20 points off 13 offensive boards. The Cats also outscored Alabama 22-16 on fast break points and 44-34 in points in the paint.
Oweh said UK knew what was coming from Alabama’s offense but just did not stop it.
“We just had to stay solid and not break. Coach preached that a lot. Trying to have perfect possession versus possession with a rebound. That’s something we have to do better on,” Oweh said.
The game was tied 81-81 but Alabama went on a 9-0 run that included two 3’s after UK failed to grab loose ball opportunities.
“I felt like towards the end we didn’t execute our defense well and that’s what ended up hurting us. We played our game for the part but then it was just going back and forth and that made us lose focus,” Almonor said.
“I was actually pretty amazed by the passes they were making. I don’t know if they practiced that or that’s just natural. It was crazy to see, it was tough to play against them. They have really great players over there.”
12 Responses
Gonna happen. Toughest league in the history of college bb. All these “street fights” then top it off with a SEC tournament brawl – I’m concerned NO team from the SEC will have anything left in the tank for March.
That is a valid concern. And, then the "pundits" will say the SEC wasn’t so tough after all, look how they did in the tourny.
Glad we have all week off.
How about that idiot SEC coach that has only 9 players because he wants "everyone to be happy." Now his McDowell All American is faking an injury so he can save himself for the NBA draft.
McDowell All American? Is that a Ephraim McDowell All American? So is Kriisa faking his injury? Who’s really the idiot? You’re a fake human being.
Watch the movie "Coming To America"
Kerr broke a bone in his foot. He courageously limped back to defend a fast break. He was immediately taken out. Had foot surgery and hasn’t played since.
Boogie Fland allegedly hurt his hand in the Florida game. He has played in 3 more games since then. He has chucked up 43 shots in that period of time.
He sees the Razorback ship is sinking fast.
With him and his coach it is and always has been ALL ABOUT THE NBA
I don’t even know if the 1 and done is even helping the players anymore. I’ve watched several Arkansas games and to me it’s hurting them more than helping, Fland is a great PG but looks average at best and Richmond is possibly better than all the freshman he’s always playing with energy and great defense but they look horrible in that ( offense) . I know they won’t admit it but I guarantee you that a few of them wish they had stayed at UK. Richmond and Fland could have had unbelievable seasons at UK and UK would be better as well
Maybe we can get Richmond.
Injuries are going to happen, real or otherwise. We have a week to rest and recover, but nobody plays until they are ready to compete. Come next Saturday, everyone who does play better be ready to go all out…no pacing themself to stay on the floor. Better work on a 2-3 zone too.
Those high number of FT’s were the result of typical SEC biased refs. Inconsistent calling fouls depending on which team. A typical raw deal.
UK did not play adequate D, but the whistles going 1 way make it impossible to know how much contact is allowed.
Smart money would be to rest/ sub a lot of players that won’t necessarily play a lot in tournaments ir March and save your starters as much as you can for the tournament. As long as you are not taking too many losses along the way I would definitely try it. Easier said than done I know but honestly the rankings really don’t mean much to me. I mean the last few years there’s been unranked teams making it all the way to the elite 8 and knocking off #1 and #2’s. So save as much of your team as possible
And as far as playing against SEC teams the only thing I see that’s keeping us from being 5-0 is defending the 3 point line. They act like Nelson killed UK but UK killed UK. They would watch him shoot and not even put a hand up or attempt to close out and his 1st half is what killed UK.. And it’s been all year even the games they won. Florida scored enough to beat us we just scored more.. If they start defending the 3 better they will be fine as long as Butler stops attacking the rim and getting stuck. He needs to shoot the 3 a lot more