Indiana @ Kentucky: Post mortem

We were up by 23 in the first half, and won by 18. And we were “damn lucky?”

Strange comment, GP. Very strange.

I do agree that UK needs to keep the intensity up, but really — “lucky?” :-)

Oh, well. A belated thanks to IU for trying, and in fact playing a respectable second half.

I got home late and was tired when I wrote the thing, and I guess I just forgot about it.

Porter played well, but not that well. 4 assists and 2 turnovers is a good game for him, even though he failed to score. He did do a good job on defense, as Indiana was a bit less athletic at the guard spot than I was lead to believe and none of their guards really sought to take advantage of Porter’s lack of quickness. Probably because we put them so far back on their heels in the first half, they forgot to.

… I don’t think I would characterize it as likely to be “rough.” Indiana may have been mediocre, but almost any team would have withered under the onslaught that UK brought in the first half.

Liggins had a freshman regression. Good grief, we see that stuff all the time. Remember Patterson’s game last year against Vanderbilt? No? Go back and check that box score.

This game showed nothing about Liggins we didn’t already know — he is stubborn, thinks he is better than he actually is and is trying to prove something to somebody. But he will get better, and he can be very good even when he is at his worst.
 
This game did show us something about what can happen when this team focuses with intensity. That’s the part I’m taking away.

Never.

I have given zero thought to our record right now. I think the OOC schedule is really a time to learn to play the game, and as long as we are winning 2-1 over losing, I don’t really care that much. I do care about particular games, but the record means little to me. Maybe I am just unique that way.

But when we get to conference, I care a lot. That’s where NCAA bids are won and lost. Of course, a lousy OOC record will negatively affect seeding, and ours does not hold much promise at the moment unless we beat Louisville, which looks a bit less like a long shot today than it did yesterday. That means we are going to have to make up some ground in conference by beating the teams we should beat and at least splitting with the top teams.

That’s a tall order, but perhaps not as tall this year as last.

did see the class little Ricky showed after their 20 point win..?

…usually will stick with the top 25 for their headlines (front page)… Unless there is a story….

When Harris went down, it was front page on ALL sports sites…

We’ll be back on the front page real soon, for how we’ve turn it around..! real soon…

I beg off due to fatigue. It was very late when I wrote it, just coming back from a Christmas party. It might have had something to do with the Four Roses single barrel I had, also … :-)

It isn’t just for quotes anymore. :-)

sorry about that… I just saw what ESPN was showing… Sorry if I offended any ’ville fans…

and it was scripted is what ESPN said

best part of the game evidently. While I don’t want to pile on Liggins, it’s a good thing I’m not in charge of that team or surely I would have jerked a knot in his tail for continuing to fling up threes and hotdogging. Agreed, he’s a freshman, and BCG gets paid the big bucks to handle this stuff, and right now I have complete confidence and faith that he can manage his team. Hopefully Liggins will mature (soon) and use the God-given talent to it’s potential.

I think Liggins tried, but I think he is having difficulty recognizing what the best thing to do is. In high school, coaches don’t care as much what kind of shots people take, and he isn’t taking an outrageous amount — the ones he are taking just aren’t good ones, and he is trying to get away with passes that he could make in high school, but can’t in college even against below average teams. Liggins is the kind of player who would rather make the wrong decision than no decision, and that is part of why he has such great potential. Gillispie calls them “errors of commission,” vs. “errors of omission.” Liggins is making the former almost 100%, and the coach is willing to forgive those. Michael Porter tends to make too many of the latter.

This situation right now appears much more like Joe Crawford than Rashad Carruth. In Carruth’s case, it was all over the state that the guy was poisonous to the team. Liggins doesn’t appear to be a bad teammate, but just refuses to believe that he can’t continue what he did in high school. Today’s game was a good lesson.

It may take time, but I expect him to get it. I damn sure hope so.

On another subject, I like what I see in Kevin Galloway. The light is beginning to come on for that young man.

So do I. Perry wants to turn down anything he can’t dunk.

… Miller played well. He made a three, shot more fearlessly and played solid defense. He fouled out, but he worked hard. I would have liked to see more than 3 rebounds out of him in 29 minutes, but I would say he had a solid if unspectacular game. He had a nice line, with only 1 turnover, an assist, two blocks and a steal.

I don’t like some of the things I have heard, but if he is here in the second semester, and able to play, we will know his academics are in order.

Assuming that, I think the rest will take care of itself. If he becomes academically DQ’d, I don’t expect him to be back next year. Gillispie is clearly trying to avoid another Alex Legion high-profile transfer or having to throw Liggins off the team. If Liggins can’t do the work, he won’t have to, and Gillispie can shrug his shoulders.

I want to see Liggins succeed, and I believe he will. But his history of academic difficulties and the lateness issue are cause for concern. I can only hope that Galloway continues his development, and if he does, we may be able to weather the storm if Liggins undergoes some kind of epic fail.

Going forward, I doubt that Gillispie will be as tolerant of Liggins’ misbehavior next year, when our point guard situation will be somewhat less critical. But for now, I am hoping, and somewhat confident, that it will all work out for the best and Liggins will come around. We’ll have to wait and see, though.

is the 19th.

and we always got our final semester grades before Christmas. If there’s any academic problems, they should probably become public knowledge as soon as the end of next week.

… and I join him in that positive outlook. I think the first 10 minutes made up for all the rest in his mind, and in mine as well.

I could sit and watch the first ten minutes of last night’s game over and over again for hours. It was just that good.

How can you not be optimistic? Sure Indiana is down but our struggle this year has been slow starts and we come out of the gate and bury them at one point 32-6. We watched some of the best defensive basketball of the decade and we played pretty good offensively as well. We won…I join BCG on this one. Sure we could have finished stronger but I would rather win early and coast home than get down early and have to fight just to get in it. Put this one in the books and bring on the next one!

in the Indiana @ Kentucky: “It’s 6:00 PM, suppertime in South Bend Indiana” post from a few hours before the game…the dust had kind of already settled since the Temple-UT game was over around 2:30.

… is good, but they are not that good. We are certainly closer to them this year than last, and at our best, we may be better.

… than last year. I expect their record to be better as well.

the link i put above still shows 23-8. 25-6 is what it should be (and what i hope it’ll be).

Read the fine print!

**Projected record is based on chances of winning, and therefore may not conform to the
cumulative game-by-game predictions. This accounts for the unexpected results that
will inevitably happen during the season.