Collin Chandler could never get the UK offense in sync against Georgetown. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky fans may want to hold off ordering those Final Four tickets. As good as the Cats looked against top-ranked Purdue in its exhibition opener, the opposite was true against Georgetown Thursday in an 84-70 loss in Rupp Arena.
The Cats, hampered by injuries to their top point guards, looked out of sync and unorganized against the Hoyas, who opened up a seven-point halftime lead and choked off any second-half comeback attempts by Kentucky which missed all 13 of its 3-point attempts after intermission.
UK coach Mark Pope may understand the assignment – hanging the ninth championship banner – but he no doubt also understands there is work to be done. Georgetown’s quickness presented problems all night against the shorthanded Cats’ backcourt which looked discombobulated without its leaders.
Now Kentucky fans – giddy after defeating Purdue – can overreact the other way.
Kentucky felt the loss of injured guards Jaland Lowe and Denzel Aberdeen, who is battling a leg injury that Pope said on the pregame radio show was not significant. Aberdeen started at point guard in place of Lowe, who is still out with a shoulder injury, against Purdue. Both are expected to be back soon.
The Cats were never close after falling behind 64-47 with 10:36 remaining. The 3-point line was also not their friend in the second half. After going 7-for-17 in the first half, Kentucky missed all 13 attempts from behind the arc in the second half and finished 7-for-30.
But their first-half performance showed how much they missed the experienced guard play. The Cats were sloppy and took a lot of quick shots against Georgetown, which stretched the lead to double figures several times in the first half.
Kentucky could not find an offensive rhythm, taking one-on-one opportunities on most possessions. Otega Oweh scored the first five points and finished with nine in the half and led the Cats with 17. Mo Dioubate collected 13 points and seven rebounds and sophomore Colin Chandler added 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
9 Responses
Honestly that ass whipping should scare them a little bit. Yes , its clear when you don’t have 2 starters its impact is evident. Probably a bit of a wake up calll and should be. Georgetown made us play hero ball. But thats what these games are for.. I dont think you learn from playing non competitive games .
Evidently, we needed that asswhooping. After soundly beating Purdue, it looks like we were convinced all we had to do was show up. Coach Pope may need to stop preaching so much love for each other and start instilling nail the guy you are guarding in the neck! Purdue played Casper ball and never really challenged us. Georgetown played jungle ball and we shrank away from it. Now, everybody will be talking about how soft we are. They will say march into Rupp Arena, smack them in the mouth, and watch them go hide behind Coach Pope. Coach Pope did not make any adjustments at half-time to fire us up and the beatdown was on. This is what happened last year. The Wildcats are Mildcats. They don't like to be face guarded. They don't like to get physical. Set a screen for the guy with the ball and he will get an uncontested layup. Put up your shot anytime…they won't try to block it…they don't want to pick up a foul. We have depth…if someone dares to shoot it, take their head off the first time and watch how quick they are to make a pass from then on!
The good news is this was just an exhibition game. The bad news is that we have been labeled as being soft and every team we play will bring out their hatchets…until we show that our hatchets are bigger and we are the meanest team in the country! We like a fight! You can be friends and love each other until you cross that white line; then you need to rip out the heart of the guy guarding you, make him cry, and send him running back home to his Momma.
We need a student seating section on the floor behind the benches and on each end with students yelling and screaming for the visiting team's blood. They have it at Duke and there are plenty of rich parents and grandparents that have to sit up in the higher seats there. Our crowd is too civilized, too sedate; they don't instill fear in the visiting team. We need every advantage we can muster.
Every game counts for the remainder of our schedule. We need to start leaving blood and bodies behind in every gym we walk into. We need to make other teams fear the name Kentucky; right now they are licking their chops when they see us come up on their schedule. Businesses and boosters who are putting out big money in the form of NIL are not going to accept anything less or the money spicket will get turned off. The season begins on Tuesday with Nichols. Let's fill Rupp Arena with blue clad fans screaming for Nicols blood; let's leave the floor colored red with that blood!
OUT-COACHED, OUT-PLAYED. What an embarrassment after playing so good last week. The ? is was this really a Exhibition or is it more? With the quality of players that we have and the quality of practices they must have, there is no excuse for this type of execution. Obviously the coach had no answers at halftime…reminiscent of few times last year. Chandler cannot have 5 turnovers in a game, and he and Noah combine for 3-14. It seems like everytime Noah takes 1 step forward he then takes 2 backward. Garrison is still my main concern…4 boards in 20 mins. He still seems reluctant to want to take advantage of his talent and size.
Already some people thinks the sky is falling and the season hasn't started yet. There's going to be some bumps along the ride .We just need get everybody healthy and go from there. It's a long season.
With you Cats79
When you go from beating the No. 1 team in the country to losing to a team picked to finish 6th in the Big East, it gives a reason to wonder which team will show up in the Yum Center on the 11th and against Michigan State on the 18th. We all don't have rose colored glasses to look through like some people do.
I said this summer that Kentucky needs a backup point guard. When we had 2 roster spots available and we bring in Potter and Hawthorne. 2 more bigs. We only have one point guard on this team. If Lowe gets injured or stays hurt our season is doomed. We have to keep Lowe healthy. Aberdeen isn't a very good point guard. He can run the point if he has too. I would have gotten a backup to Lowe that is a true distributor. Lowe is a shoot first point guard. We have 0 facilitators on the team. Chandler looked like he didn't know how to dribble or pass. He looked out of control. I dont see that much improvement from Garrison either. Noah is to slow on defense he's a liability but he's on the only true shooters on this team so we need him. As great as we are going to be at defense. I still think shooting is going to be this teams downfall. We have a bunch of great athletes and defensive specialist. We lack a true point guard and a pure shooter. With Lowe playing we will be one of the better teams in college basketball. Without Lowe we are a top 25 team but I dont think we are a top 15 team without him. For us to have success Lowe needs to be 100% I wouldn't play him until he is 100% or he will miss every other game like Butler did last year. I don't know what's up with Kentucky but ive never seen a team in both football and basketball that have so many injuries. It's embarrassing. Its almost like Kentucky is starting to create very soft athletes. Basketball half of our team was hurt last year. In football we have the most injuries in the SEC this year and last year. Whats crazy is we have 12 player ruled out in football the closest to us is Florida with 6 guys out. We double the team that's second in injuries. I think something weird is happening.
We had Acadian Lewis but he left because he was afraid of competition.
Gone are the days we had players like Jack Givens, Rick Robey, Kenny Walker to name a few that other opponents were scared to take a charge against or rebound with! And the “Mountain Momba” should be renamed “The Scared Kitty that can’t play Big City” ! He looks scared and doesn’t know how to give a hard foul while giving up 2 plus 1 several times before going out and riding the pine! Maybe after 4 years of being a practice player he may improve? And the days are gone we have a shooter that can be dependable from one game to the next and one that hits FREE throws too like Kyle Massey, Travis Ford, Richie Farmer, Patrick Sparks! Those were the good old days! None of those players were making $21 Million Dollars!
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