Miami 73, Kentucky 67: Post Mortem

and especially this quote…

Patterson and Stevenson — Dunk the damn ball! Every time! If you bounce one off the rim and into the top row, consider yourself forgiven.

My GOD, I wish i was that tall and got the ball THAT close to the rim… I would try to break it EVERY time…! lol

I’d have to go back and watch the first half again to be sure, but I don’t remember Patterson posting up with any authority in the first half. It seems to me that playing Patterson in the high post is negating his strength. He’s an excellent passer, but to spend practically the entire first half there is unacceptable. I thought in the second half he did a better job of balancing the high/low post and it showed.

I think we really missed Ramon’s defense tonight. We’ll never know if having him on the floor would have changed the outcome of the game, but it would have been nice to have had him.

You will wake up in the morning and feel better.

Kentucky Basketball is not dead…just many inexperienced on the team at this point against a very experienced Miami team. I for one did not expect a win, even though Forty predicted. I am realistic for this year. Go Cats!

I know that is a big concept to grasp. Stats are historical and can only be used as one piece in the equation when making a current judgement. When the real world relies only on stats it is a quatrain for the foretelling of disaster.

What we are seeing is a giant who had really good stats a few years ago. The best? No. Bad? No. Was there a group of new guys doing it better and growing better and more solid with each passing day? Absolutely! Was the giant still respected as one of the giants? Yes but not as one of the “best” anymore. The stats showed no reason for alarm unless you happened to see them as reason for alarm.

There were people in charge as new ways to do the job were being introduced and learned by all those “new giants” that were simply not getting done and not implemented. The word was coming down from higher chairs to do these new things and the man in charge did not do them. More money was poured in with the understanding that things would be made better with the investment. The stats did not and do not show this. They showed a giant doing well in most regards in a time when “parity” was the buzz word and a false idea that “We created this. We are fine. We will always be a giant.”

Now all of the sudden, the lid falls off and those stats become fantastic “facts” and great talking points but reality “on the ground” is telling another story. The giant was in fact, outside of stats, falling slowly behind.

And that is why GM and the rest of the American auto industry is asking for a bailout.

Wait, this was supposed to be about UK. Or was it?

I understand your frustration. I truly truly do. But can you see the improvement? I can. In the measure of success of a program is how have we improved. Liggins has greatly improved as well as others. Porter needs to go though. I totally agree with you on that. I am so sick of mediocre Kentucky too. But an awesome Kentucky team will take longer to rebuild then we thought. But I do think we are on the way up not down.

Nice to see Tru be his clinical, even-keeled self. :) Just kidding, Tru. This was a big game, and the first half was a repeat of the lackluster defensive Kentucky effort we’ve seen in 1st halves for around 3 years now. I totally understand your despair.

I’m not really too pissed off about this game. I’m more worried about tomorrow’s game. We’re going to have one of two things: 1) a Kentucky team that comes out FIRED UP and torches poor Sean Wood’s charges, or 2) a Kentucky team that comes out flat and gets a scare or MORE.

Anyway, I see a few points that aren’t being talked about since everybody is gathering the verbal tar and feathers for Porter:

1) Yes, Virginia, Porter should see less playing time.

2) What we know, though, is that Billy Gillispie loves practice. I would even go as far to say that Billy thinks you can learn more from practice than from playing games. And if there is some sort of issue between Billy and Liggins about Liggins’ practice effort — I’m not saying there is, mind you — then it wouldn’t be far of a stretch to think Liggins stays on the bench for that.

3) Perry Stevenson missed a few bunnies. I wish he’d learn to love the dunk, like Jules Camara did. But, nobody should complain why Stevenson is playing significant minutes. He’s really understanding the defensive system, and he really impressed me with his individual defending. The guy he was on tonight had difficulty getting around Stevenson, and Stevenson made several good slaps at the ball. Combine that with his rebounding and his improving offense (which was, admittedly, off tonight), and he’s a solid contributor. Harrellson is still learning the defense, but is much better offensively. Its kinda a push, but don’t explicitly favor Harrellson just because he can score off the bench.

23) Meeks had a rough game. Meeks was trying to be Superman in the first half; guard McClinton, but also come down and try for strips/doubleteams/etc. You can’t slide off somebody like McClinton. Meeks couldn’t get his shot tonight on his own, which is also troubling. Of course, it doesn’t help when you’ve scored big and the Miami coaches’ gameplan involves stopping you.

4) Miller was a mixed bag. In the first half, he was just lost defensively. In almost the whole game, he was hesitant on the offense. I counted at least 3 times where the ball was swung to Miller, who was supposed to drive in and break down the defense, and he hesitated, allowing the defense to adjust. A few of Miller’s offensive decisions (shot selection, etc.) were troublesome as well. But, the kid is learning. He really stepped up his game in the second half, especially defensively. He had something like 4 assists and 3 turnovers sometime late in the second half, and 8 rebounds. That’s great for him; a little more scoring would have been awesome.

5) If its and buts were candy and nuts then we’d all have a very nice Christmas. BUT: how would have that game transpired with Ramon Harris sharing duty on McClinton and the guards? Ramon Harris experienced with the offense? Miller coming off the bench for offence and support?

wow thank you soooo much for saying porter shouldn’t start. he simply isnt a UK caliber point guard and it’s time for gillispie to realize that. I think us losing harris was a big factor in losing this game because while meeks did his best against mcclinton, harris is a much better defender and if he was in the game, guarding mcclinton then he couldve either limited him to less points or at least make him work harder for the ones he did get. and does anybody know who was in charge of scheduling back to back games? lol

what bothered almost as much was the last 3 or so minutes of the game. UK had gotten it down 5 and Miami kept shooting and missing free throws. they were trying to give us the game and we didn’t take advantage once. they missed at least 4 straight FTs and we never once came away with points on the other end. lots of missed ooportunities in this game.

BG is a wonderful coach in a lot of ways. But I can tell everybody one thing right now. If BG is going to start Porter over Liggens he will never survive at UK especially if he plans on starting Porter until he graduates. He is sacrificing wins and Uk fans will not tolerate it. Porter is back up at best. I don’t give a damn how hard he practices or plays. When BG had Porter and Liggens on the floor I was flabergasted and Harrelson on the bench. BG is a terrible, terrible bench coach and the head games need to stop now. Winning builds confidence, not losing.

I told my buddies going in that we were in for a tough game and likely a loss. Miami is ranked for a reason. Quick, mature and they play hard and tough. Anyone that thinks we should win this game more than 5 out of 10 times in Rupp needs to reexamine what we have here. We do have a young team with 3 plus players that just began playing together this year seeing major minutes. We have Porter, a shooting guard playing out of position. I think Billy should start Liggins also but then I don’t see what happens in practice everyday. Do I want to reward a guy who comes to practice and goofs off rather than work hard? Tough sell for me. But, I don’t see practice so I can’t make that judgment.

Meeks had an off night, likely due to getting schooled on the defensive end by McClinton. This is game more than any other where I think we missed Ramon Harris big time. Couple that with a hot shooting hand and our guys looking like we were running in molasses and I’m impressed we even made a run at them.

This feels like a repeat of last year, with Crawford on the bench and us losing early season games and the fans throwing fits. Let’s just hope we gel for the SEC as we did last year and make a run. Maybe we will get Miami in the NCAA and I would predict a much different outcome once we have a season under our belts for this inexperienced team.

If we can play a good first half, we will win. We come out so shaky and unmotivated. Billy G really needs to change the warmup/game start ritual somehow. We need some more focus, strength, and energy the first half.

My god, is it too much to ask to either
1) Dunk
2) Shoot a layup
What is this business with slinging the ball at the basket and hoping it will go in? Take a SHOT, don’t just throw it up there, Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Patterson.

Also, I like Jorts too, but Stevenson was playing some very good defense in the second half. So I can see playing him.

This game was a definite giant step back from WVU and K-St. I want to see improvement, not a decline. Even considering Harris was out and not considering injured Porter, we had a poor showing by the rest of the corps, especially Meeks, who was, well, meek. Liggins was the only one who looked on course that game.

I hate losing, and we absolutely should have won this game, even down one starter and another playing with his eye held open with a headband. However, if Billy G is playing Porter instead of Liggins in order to motivate Liggins to practice better and BE better, and if it works and we’re a final-4 caliber team in March, I’ll take the loss. But at this point, we really need to worry about MAKING the tournament. Still, I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt based on last year’s poor OOC play and very good SEC play. We’d better have a good postseason this year and next to justify the strange coaching decisions and the resulting performance.

I’m confident we’ll get better. But it really needs to be sooner rather than later if we want to go to the NCAA tournament. Let’s improve against the cupcake squad and beat UofL for a nice marquis upset.

Miami:
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 7-13 53.8 2nd Half: 1-6 16.7 Game: 42.1%

Kentucky:
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-13 15.4% 2nd Half: 0-10 0.0% Game: 8.7 %

Here’s why Kentucky lost. Miami was red hot in the first half on wide open threes, but Kentucky defended the three well in the second half and caught up. Kentucky didn’t run the offense, and shot a ton of defended threes. 2 of 23. Abyssmal.

couldn’t have said it better myself. This morning, I did something I rarely do—tried to reconcile the box score with what I saw on TV. Here it is:

Patterson: ‘Nother really good game. Despite some posters thinking he wasn’t working hard enough to get open, I saw him open lots in the high-mid post when he didn’t get the ball. When he did get it, he made things happen.
Meeks: Cold as ice, but reluctant to try to score any other way than from the perimeter. (Tru said it better). Exceptional work on D in the second half. Why not go to that in the first, Coach.
Miller: Got to shoot better. Very good work on the boards.
Liggins: Very nice game other than 3-pt shooting, particularly the one very late. If you ain’t hitting, get the rock to someone who is. Seven rebounds off your point guard is better than OK. And one of his turnovers, despite the speed of the pass, was Stevenson’s. This kid can play.
Stevenson: Got to be more aggressive with the ball and shoot better from the baseline. ABSOLUTELY great rebounds a couple of times reaching over others and tipping the ball to himself or a teammate. Tayshaun Prince isn’t bulky, either, so let’s quit giving Stevenson a pass because he’s relatively skinny. BE MORE AGGRESSIVE.
Harrelson: I vented some on this last night. Comes in, couple of baskets, defends against the high pick very well, becomes invisible man after he gets a shot blocked. Coach, WTFO?
Porter: No comment. Nice kid. Ain’t got it. Don’t blame him for starting. Last time I checked, the coach puts in the starting lineup.
Harris: Oh, yeah, couldn’t play. And neither could Lucas, Legion, or Rondo, so let’s get off it and stop what-iffing. You gotta dance with the one you brung, and we were waltzing to a pretty fast song in the first half.
Gillispie: Despite what I’ve said above, I am not ready to give up. He’s a stubborn dunderhead about things like Coury/Porter, but recruits pretty well. I wish he would adjust in-game a little better, and I sure as heck wish he could get his team motivated in the first half like they have been in the second. Jury is still out, but they’re asking questions of the judge.
Rupp: He wasn’t coaching, and the style has changed about 15 times since 1972. Hall, Sutton, Pitino, Smith weren’t coaching, either. And there’s no guarantee what would have happened if they had been. Gillispie was, and . . . Some basics remain, however: good outside shooting, picking both on and off the ball; quick ball movement, particularly in-and-out against an extended defense; positioning your body while the ball is in the air; good team defense to rely on when your shooting is off. Bottom line: Three things abide: shooting, passing, and defense, and the greatest of these is defense. (It’s Sunday, after all) At times, we had all except the shooting; too often we had none of them. We lost.

and I also can’t tell if you think top 15-20 is good or not. I personally would like to see Top Five AND better in-game coaching.

I will say this. Gillispie hasn’t been sitting idle in practice. UK did very well handing the 3/4 quart pressure. We did a lot of passing and I can’t remember us turning the ball over or getting trapped. It wasn’t as much pressure as we have seen, but 4 games ago, we would have had a lot more turnovers. We looked very prepared in that respect.

Jodie Meeks did a great job guarding McClinton in the second half. Why we have to wait until the second half to see it, I don’t know.

Gillispie certainly made effective adjustments at halftime. Again, you’d like to see it sooner, but he did a great job adjusting, specially on defense.

The big problems still are half court defense (specifically, at the perimeter) for half of the game and our offensive half-court set is stagnant and inconsistent. Our fast break play could be a lot better too. We finish much less than we should.

Turnovers are improving, at least. Probably a lot of that was because we were too timid to try anything on offense, so maybe that’s not good.

and some of that may have been Liggins getting lots of minutes. I also saw him and Patterson allowing two or three defenders to start toward them before passing. I particularly like Patterson’s 1/2 second delay after he faces the basket to allow the defense to start to collapse before he drives/passes. Sometimes the pass can be too quick; all too often with this team, it just hasn’t been there.

I agree with you on all points. At this point I think everyone better get used to Gillispie being VERY comfortable going “against the grain” with his coaching decisions and sticking to his guns even in the face of screaming evidence to the contrary. I think this will prove to provide some enduring frustration in the coach-fanbase relationship. Hell, I find it frustrating and I’m not even a ’Cat fan! Gillispie deserves the criticism.

I have had a part time job at Rupp Arena in Concessions just to make a little extra money and started it last year just after basketball season ended. It is some sort of policy there that you have to work all UK home games. Well, I lucked into tickets for the last two and called in, but I didnt get tickets for this game and wondered how it was going to work “working” during a UK game. IT SUCKED! At first it was ok. I chose a register where I was able to see the television and when I took my break I was able to go out into the arena and watch live for a bit, but toward the end of the game was when I had my fill. There was like five minutes or so to go and we were within winning distance and I am glued to the tv only to have the stand supervisor say, “I need you to go ahead and start wiping things down.” SERIOUSLY??? I went ahead and did my job, but at the end of the night I found the head supervisor and said, “I’m sorry, this just isnt going to work out for me,” and turned in my visor. I love the game too much to be dealing with that crap. If I cant be at the game, I HAVE to be in front of the game – with my UNDIVIDED attention on it!