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Kentucky collapsed in the final 3 1/2 minutes of Saturday’s 74-69 loss at Vanderbilt but guard Jaxson Robinson knew the trouble started way earlier.
“I just feel like in the first half we got punked,” said Robinson on the UK Radio Network postgame show. “You can’t wait until halftime to fix things. We dug a deep hole and did an amazing job the first 15 minutes (of the second half) of staying gritty and staying in it. But the last four or five minutes, we can’t have that.”
Kentucky led 23-21 with 7:49 left in the first half but was down 41-27 at halftime when it had almost a four-minute scoreless drought and got just two field goals in the final 7:49. Vandy had a 13-2 run when the Cats committed five turnovers in 4 1/2 minutes.
The Cats had averaged 11 turnovers per game in five previous SEC games but had 10 in the first half as Vandy’s pesky, hustling defense gave the lethargic Cats fits.
“Turnovers were a real problem for us,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “It has been a place where we have excelled most of the season. Credit to Vanderbilt. They are good at turning teams over and exerting pressure and we didn’t manage it very well.”
Point guard Lamont Butler had six turnovers. Backup center Brandon Garrison had four and even leading scorer Otega Oweh (21 points, 12 rebounds and three assists) had three.
Kentucky did open the second half on an 8-0 run and even opened a 58-51 lead with 8:39 to play on a 7-0 run capped by Amari Williams’ basket. Kentucky was playing free and more focused when it made 11 of 17 shots but the rest of the game belonged to Vanderbilt. Kentucky took its last lead at 69-68 on Otega Oweh’s basket with 2:56 to play but Vandy hit six of its last eight shots and UK came unglued.
“We knew we had to play with a different mentality (in the second half),” Robinson, who had 11 points and three rebounds, said. “We played harder. We did a great job of defensive rebounding. We got stops but we have got to do that the whole game. When you don’t do that for 40 minutes you are not going to win. We have beaten top 10, top five teams but when you cannot do it consistently it is not good.”
No it is not. Kentucky lost its previous game to Alabama. Now it goes to Tennessee, the nation’s No. 1 team most November and December, on Tuesday to play perhaps the most physical team it will face. Then comes that home game with Arkansas which doesn’t look like an easy win at all now.
Pope said UK started “hemorrhaging” on the defensive glass midway of the first half and that gave “life and energy” to Vanderbilt in the first half.
“Then they exerted more pressure and we responded poorly. Normally we hurt teams that pressure us but we did not execute well,” Pope said.
Kentucky outrebounded Vanderbilt 43-30 but the Commodores got 66 shots from the field to UK’s 54 because the Cats had 17 turnovers compared to only five for Vandy, which did not make one in the first 10 minutes of the game.
Pope was obviously disappointed with the loss based on his tone talking to Tom Leach on the postgame radio show but probably not nearly as disappointed as Big Blue fans or hopefully his players.
“My guys did a lot of talking (after the game). They want so badly to be good and perform well. We just have to understand what that means and execute better in the future,” Pope said.
8 Responses
WE ARE A SOFT TEAM, PERIOD! We are a selfish team. We are a lazy team. The word is out…smack Kentucky in the mouth and they go to the bench and pout. Butler single handedly gave this game away. WE ARE ALL ABOUT PLAYING HERO BALL! Coach Pope, it’s time for you to stop being their friend and start being their coach. You have a lazy, selfish team! You are losing control of this bunch! You are better than that! It’s not too late to right the ship, but you can’t be their friend anymore.
I want to hear Pope say more than "It’s super disappointing". He needs to do more tough, instructive BB 101 coaching and less psycho babble. This team is not getting better. Oweh appears to be the only one that can drive to the basket. Williams is a offensive liability at the rim with little touch on the ball. Butler had 6 pts and just as many turns. How can a player look so good and dominating one game and then flameout the next? Jax still does not show the Dog that he needs to be a consistent leader. Coach talks about fatigue this game. Why is he and the staff unable to develop a bench? If it wasn’t for Ansley hitting those 3’s we would have even been more embarrassed. How can we not be a better passing team at this point in the season? Yes, I am very worried about UT and to some extent the Calmeister and ex UK players coming in here and taking us out.
Lord guys , as always act like the season has ended. We just need get everyone healthy you gotta remember we didn’t have Carr which makes a difference and were playing the toughest sec schedule. How that happened beats me. I still like this team. Go cats!!
The season is over you Rah Rah. That was an embarrassing performance today. We refuse to play Pope ball, we refuse to shoot 35 threes, we refuse to play defense. If Carr and Kriisa don’t come back, we will do well to win 5 more games.
To re-enforce the above message, there are 9 teams that have better conference records than we do and we go to Knoxville on Tuesday. I am having doubts about the Arkansas game now. RAH RAH RAH!!!!
Barry you bury the eggs before it’s Crack, we haven’t play a half our SEC yet and you blowing smoke as always. There will be more of movement in the SEC standings as we go along anybody can beat anybody any given night. It was proven yesterday. Smh
We are doing about as good or better than I expected with the time Pope had to put together a team and a staff. We are competitive with just about any other team and the days of UK dominating the SEC are long gone. When you are playing a top 20 or top 25 team every single game, that’s rough on everyone. UK misses Carr a lot because he is the only player that shoot and defend at all 3 levels. Anyone you can replace him with is mostly just a 3 point shooter and not a good defender. I would like to see Oweh and Robinson become a lot more selfish and say give me the ball and drive it to the basket. They can then decide to take the close in jumper, layup, or kick it out. Amari is a good player, but he is to passive for the players he is going up against.
I don’t like losing to Vandy, but heck, they are a very good team and we played them on their court with 2 top players out and third one very limited due to injuries. With all of that, I still think this team can make some noise, if they can get healthy.
If they don’t, then it is what it is. I am just happy to have a team I enjoy watching and a coach I enjoy watching and listening to.
Games are just that, Games and I am not going to let what goes on with a bunch kids playing with a ball ruin my day!
Barry, the ARK game is going to be an ABSOLUTE WAR. Our fans have taken that game for granted all year, especially after the start ARK got off to in SEC play. In a way, their start could almost come back to haunt us now, because I think ARK has settled down to a degree, I think they are playing with less pressure–and honestly, all the pressure for winning that ARK game is going to be on us. The real sh***y thing about that game is that ARK and CAL are almost going to have more of a psychological edge and advantage in that matchup than our team. CAL and the ex-KY guys have had more playing time and more playing experience in Rupp Arena than our coach or our team. So It makes for a really twisted setup. Although i will say with Fland out, that’s definitely a blow to their team. But I would expect to see Wagner take over the PG duty in Fland’s place, so that right there will be one of the biggest determining factors in the game: Wagner vs Butler. We all know what DJ brings to the table. And so then already u r talking about one of our team’s biggest problems, if not THE BIGGEST: PHYSICALITY. And it’s not just on the inside with the big men. We have had a major problem all year with physical guards just as much as physical big men: look at the Clemson, Ohio St, Gonzaga, FLA, GA, and Vandy games. We not only are having trouble matching up on the defensive end with these physical guards, but then on the OFFENSIVE END, we are not as capable of going one-on-one, taking the ball to the basket, and trying to draw the foul. We know thats one strength of DJ Wagner when he chooses to do it. So he is much better than Butler at that, and he also has the advantage over Butler defensively as well. Last year, Wagner was one of the few good defenders on a team that sucked at defense. Our team this year isn’t much better at defense, but it’s in a different way. This team is just not that talented–plain and simple–thats just the facts–and I see the ceiling for this team at Sweet 16. They look like a classic Sweet 16 team to me. They are a team who can play well enough at times, and who, if they play well at the right time, and get favorable matchups, are capable of winning a couple of games in the NCAA Tournament and making the regionals, and trying to make a run from there. But they are going to have to play well just to do that–based on where they sit today. Its nothing against these guys, but I mean, let’s face it–we have a team full of a bunch of mid-majors, who all mostly came from lesser programs, and places we would not be competing with on our normal level of recruiting. As I have said, I would like to take the group we have and figure out their rating as if they were one recruiting class this year, based on where all of them were ranked when they came out of high school, and see where they would rank as a class nationally–and it would probably scare us. Oweh and Butler are our two best players, and Butler came from San Diego St–I know they made the championship game–but just talking about overall talent level nationally. Oweh comes from Oklahoma, which is more on the level of which we would be recruiting against–MINIMALLY–but then look at Robinson–he comes from BYU, and wasn’t even a starter. And I would have never dreamed that I wouldn’t be saying that Robinson was one of our two best players–its just shocking to me what he has been–or more so, what he HAS NOT BEEN. Last spring, I believed he was the key to it all–i believed he was the difference maker for this team being a good team vs a great team. Of course, think about had we NOT gotten him…….but it’s not good right now–it really isnt–and the problem is, most of it isn’t going to change, because most of it is rooted in realities that none of us can change. The fact is that they are just not physical, they are not athletic, they are not big, they don’t play with a passion or the fire of a DOG, and it’s because they don’t have a DOG. They struggle with rebounding and defense. All the success hinges on being able to make shots. And u aren’t going to make all of them all the time. U have to find other ways to win sometimes. But even with the shot-making: it seems that not all of the guys have bought in, as u say, Barry, to Pope’s style and system. I thought this would be the kind of team that would more so resemble the Unforgettables–in that they would be out there running and gunning on the floor offensively at all times, getting after it, sharing the ball, scrapping, screening, moving, running plays, doing everything they could OFFENSIVELY to have success no matter what the score was, and no matter what the opposing team was or wasn’t doing offensively. The Unforgettables, for 3 years, damn near played the game as if there were no scoreboard–and I think Pitino damn near coached them that way too. WIN OR LOSE–the product was always going to look the same. U were always gonna see the same effort, the same heart, the same hustle, the same scrappiness, the same intensity level, the same fight, whether they were winning against LSU 100-95 or losing to KANSAS 150-95. That really was true of those first 3 years under Pitino. The team always looked and played the same way. Their effort, desire, and heart were never in question. And they had to play with high levels of heart, hustle, desire, and fight, because they knew, athletically, and talent-wise, they were not up to the same level against the top competition nationally and in the SEC. So those guys had to BRING IT, LITERALLY, every game MENTALLY. They were one of the most mentally tough KY BBALL teams to ever play at the school. And it was because THEY HAD TO BE. And that’s your difference today. This current team is going to have to bring high levels of all those qualities and tendencies to be able to finish with a winning record in the SEC and to make a run in either tournament. Because their talent level and athleticism IS NOT UP TO PAR with the SEC this year, and alot of these other teams nationally. SAT FEB 1ST is going to be an absolute war and bloodbath. I just hope our guys are up to that–at least for that day!