Call me crazy on this, but I have a theory, or maybe it is just wishful thinking, on why Coach G didn't change the gameplan midway through.

I have watched Gillispie coach, and frankly the guy is fantastic at it.  He knows just how to tweak his offense and defense to give himself the ever so slight advantage, when on some occasions, his team never should have had one.

My theory is this.  This game is VERY early on in the season.  I honestly believe that Gillispie changed nothing to see how his players would react.  Look at the lineup patterns at the end of the game.  Gillispie was trying to find a group of players that would hustle and scrap back.  He was putting it on their shoulders, that way he would know who were the tough ones, the ones that he could put in late in the game to either stave off a comeback or to begin one.  

Let's face the obvious.  Despite all our faults, we are a far more talented team than Gardner-Webb, and we are a much more deep team.  

But in the long run of things, this game does not truly mean much.  Yes, a loss is still tough to swallow, but it's only the second game of the season.  If the fans truly think that this is how this team will play for the rest of the season, then you may as well just turn the tv off for the rest of the year.  We will take our lumps, but then again we will probably win games we had no right to be in in the first place.

The two weeks off for practice is exactly what the doctor ordered.

The real culprit to me is dead legs, and that's all on Coach. How did so many backdoor cuts work? No spring. How did so many layups fall off the front of the rim? Dead legs.

I am not implying that Gillispie did anything wrong, or should have run his kids less. That's his call. But it's my call to say that when you're playing back-to-back nights, perhaps having a late evening film session and then a full practice on gameday of the second day isn't the best way to get prepared for the game, even if it is Gardner-Webb.

That said, I do agree that this team will see better days. But despite our wishful thinking, we may have to resign ourselves to the idea that we're going to be playing the underdog card all year. If we beat a UNC, Louisville or some such, it'll be a surprise, not a matchup of even teams.

One thing is abundantly clear, and that is that Ramel Bradley is the worst "good" player at UK in a decade. His decision-making skills are nearly non-existent, and his strengths manage to turn into weaknesses for his team. This despite a clear amount of talent.

The kid just kills his own team.

No one seems to want to talk about Jodie Meeks' miserable night, new hero Mark Coury's single-handed destruction of the first 5 minutes or the fact that Perry Stevenson can't catch the f*cking ball.

But hey, at least Billy can't bitch and moan about having to play more games. He's now got an extra week to run his kids ragged.

Billy G strikes me as a man with a plan and one who is building his team for the postseason. He seems unwilling to alter his plan in order to avoid one loss so as to better prepare his team for later in the season. Thats not a bad thing.
Ask the Pistons about it. They are introducing several young players this season and will probably have to sacrifice some regular season wins (which their vets could pull out) in order to get the young kids some court time so come playoff time they are an asset and not a liability. I hate this loss as much as everyone else but I think G is looking at the big picture and we may have to sacrifice some non conference wins in order to be better towards the end of the season.