Travis Perry hit two 3's against Texas and earned praise from coach Mark Pope. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Sometimes the truth can be difficult to accept but former Kentucky All-American Jack Givens warned Kentucky fans after Saturday’s 82-78 loss at Texas that the next few weeks could be frustrating at times.
“In spite of those (15) turnovers Kentucky was right there and had a chance to win this game,” Givens said on the UK Radio Network after the Cats were outscored 19-9 to end the game. “Look at the last couple of minutes when you want the ball in your sure-handed guards that will bring the ball up the floor, get your offense started.”
Kentucky gave true freshman Travis Perry his first start at point guard with starting point guard Lamont Butler, backup Kerr Kriisa, and emergency point guard Jaxson Robinson all out with injuries.
Perry had six points on 2-for-8 shooting, three assists, two rebounds, and one steal in 28 minutes of play along with three turnovers — the same number Amari Williams had in 27 minutes.
“Guys are being asked to do stuff that they have not had to do all year,” Givens said. “This is not going to change. Ugly is going to be the word on the offensive end until those guys are back. We just can’t afford the mistakes that turn into baskets on the other end.
“Lamont Butler is going to find a way down the stretch to get the ball where you want.”
He’s right but Butler is also a fifth-year player with Final Four experience. Robinson is another fifth-year player. So is Kriisa. Kentucky is having to use freshmen Pope, Trent Noah, and Colin Chandler to fill the minutes that the veteran trio was expected to be filling.
“Kentucky only had 10 assists. When you have that many more turnovers (five) than assists, it is going to make for an ugly brand of basketball on the offensive end,” Givens said. “In spite of those numbers, Kentucky still had a chance to win.
“Up three points with three minutes to go with the lineup, we have that is really good and gave us a chance to win. But you miss having a veteran point guard getting the ball into the hands of people you want and that showed in the last two minutes.
“You don’t want to have to rely on your freshmen to make plays and win games. It is great they can and we have young players who can do that but you have to have your leaders (make those game-winning plays). You vets have to be the ones to make critical plays and they just didn’t do that.”
On the postgame radio show, Pope said he was “incredibly proud” of Perry.
“To be starting this game on the road in this environment … I thought he was courageous and brave,” Pope said. “I thought he played well. I thought he gave us a solid defensive effort. I thought he was really good. He will continue to get better and better logging a lot of minutes. He gave us a great effort tonight.”
18 Responses
A old wise man named Zig Ziglar said “You cannot perform in a manner inconsistent with the way you see yourself and succeed”…This years team: The UNPREDICTABLES
👏👏 Zig Ziglar was inspirational and I molded much of my career around his advice.
Interesting… & correct 👍
Do it want to harp on this team ? Ya a little.. will it help ? No. Said it a while ago , they win then lose it’s just how they are. Once again some of the unforced turnovers for a college basketball player is really unacceptable.. onward and upward.. can’t dwell…just pray for health for them.
👍😊
Were still better off than Arkansas
Is that anything to be proud of?
Glass half empty? If you can’t be proud of this team, you are not a fan of KY at all. They have over-achieved all year. Did you honestly think they’d win this many games against top 15 opponents??? Especially with the little amount of time Pope had to put together a team and staff. Are you proud of anything Pope and KY have done this year? Probably not by reading your comment.
The change was good for UK! We are down 3 5th year players and have a 4th that is maybe at 50%. This is not the time for us fans to start going negative. The team is adapting and improvising, and I am proud of them.
Definitely and that is so important for the long run as well as this season!
ENOUGH! We still have 6 games left. How do we beat Vandy. Their guards are too quick for man to man so play zone. Vandy is an undersized team. Do more pick and rolls with the bigs going to the basket for lobs. Clear out the floor and let Williams, Garrison, and Carr take advantage of their height and bulk going to the basket. That doesn’t mean play hero ball for everyone, but our bigs will have the advantage. Stop trying to make passes that have little or no chance to be received, reverse it to the other side and back again if need be. Slow the game down, be more deliberate, use more clock. This might not work against Bama and Auburn, but Vandy, Oklahoma, and LSU are winnable games if we make adjustments. Missouri is a toss-up, but we have a much better chance of winning that game if we are 3-2 for our last 6 games going to Mizzou. With that being said, we have to be better at the foul line. If we shoot 70%, we might win 2 more games. 80%, 3 more. 90%, 4 more. This team is not going to beat Bama and Auburn, but if we win the other 4 we are no worse than a 5 seed in the Big Dance, maybe a 4 seed. Sure, we will be playing on Thursday in the SEC tourney but that will be a game we can win. You can’t stop playing. Play hard, play smart. Win the games you can. Go CATS!!!
Ditto! Agree! 👍
Without Butler we are doomed there is no way around it! We lost what 4 out 5 without him and Tennessee missed 50 3 pointers is the only reason we won. The freshman aren’t ready for prime SEC ball in the best the conference has ever been its extremely physical! They can hold there own on offense but even then its hard for them to get open! On defense they give it all they have there bodies just aren’t ready yet! This will definitely help them for next year is the only way we can look at this! I wouldn’t keep playing Butler having him hurt the same shoulder over and over! I wouldn’t play him until the game or 2 before the SEC tournament! Were in the NCAA tournament we are just playing for position and yes it helps but its not everything if your in your in. I would make sure Butler is 100% before I would risk losing him when losing matters the most! I don’t know how serious Robinsons injury is but I would sit him out the next couple games just to make sure he’s 100%. Kriisa won’t be back now or anytime soon so I think he’s going to try to het a medical redshirt and come back next year which will be a 50/50 move! Would you risk it? Even if he comes back before the sec tournament he could possibly only play 2-4 games! Say we lose in the second game of the sec tournament and the second game in the NCAA tournament. If we make it to the sweet 16 or better I will consider this year a good year! Make it to the elite 8 and we had a hell of a season! Anything better and this could go down as one of the greatest seasons in Kentucky’s history considering all the great teams we would have beaten this year to make it that far! So I can’t complain.. If we had a full roster I think we would be in the top 3 in the sec. Without 3 guys who play a ton of.minutes what do you expect? To win every game? We are right were we should be maybe even better without our 3 main ball handlers. I mean its the first second and third string point guards all out! Nobody could survive that and we are still compound winning some big games so I’m happy! Plus Perry and Noah have played even better than I thought they would at this point so its icing on the cake. Like I said this will be Popes worst year at Kentucky now think about that for a second! Every year will get better and more deep! We are one more point guard away from being a elite team. So ill take that in Popes first year! Its fun to watch and you can tell he actually cares about Kentucky! Rick P for coach of the year!
SEC THUG BALL with inconsistent AND crooked calls contribute to injuries and UK has been battered, slammed, run over, hacked and knocked down over and over with most fouls not being called.
No wonder UK has so many injuries and can’t recover if they even play limited minutes.
Playing thug ball will hurt all of the SEC teams in the Big Dance. They won’t let SEC officials call a game that has an SEC team in it. We will have refs from other conferences that call the game a lot closer. Kids used to playing Rock ’em Sock ’em football with hoops will get in foul trouble early. The SEC front office allows this to neutralize the talent that Kentucky normally has knowing they don’t like physical play. The SEC is determined to not let us dominate the league anymore thinking that will get more SEC teams in the tournament. It is all about money now. Education be damned, winning be damned. The SEC front office assholes still get nice bonuses.
I hope the Unpredictables can win a couple of the last scheduled games but they could easily lose them all and also a first round SEC tourney game? That might even keep them out of the big dance or even worse they get in and lose a first round game against another Oakland! Then reminding everyone of the bad taste Coach Cal left us behind with. I’m still Pissed because of the way He came in here and rubbed Hog Manure in all our faces! And from an old farm boy “Ain’t Nothing Smells Worse then the smell of Pig S – -T “! 👿
I don’t get the Unpredictables name. From Clemson and Ohio State, through Texas, if the opponent is ranked 3-20 or 101+ UK wins. Louisville was the exception. They win the games they get up for and lose the trap games. Very Predictable.
Larry I’ll let You give the answers to the ones who don’t understand the name You came up with for this team “The Unpredictables” which I agree with the name. Thanks.